The Golden Branch Above

After six years of marriage, Grand Princess Qi Ruyang and her consort have grown to treat each other like "ice."

Over fragrant wine, she has a dream.

In the dream, she is living inside a melodramatic romance novel called Pampered Darling.

Her cold husband is the story's male lead.

There is also a childhood sweetheart in their household, fair-skinned and beautiful, with a lovely singing voice.

She is the one he truly cherishes, his darling girl.

And she is nothing but a background character in the story,

soon to die in the capital and make way for that childhood sweetheart.

When she wakes from her dream, she kicks her husband out of the house.

After divorcing him, she spends her days drinking and admiring flowers, carefree and content.

One night, beneath a clear breeze and bright moon, she falls asleep in the garden after drinking too much.

When she wakes, she finds herself tied up in a secret chamber...

Her long-unseen husband is pale,

kneeling on the ground as he kisses her fingertips in a daze.

He looks up at her, his reddened eyes like those of a wounded beast:

"That day, Your Highness chose me as your consort and swore you would grow old with me. Now that you're tired of me, you cast me aside... Where in this world can you find such a good bargain?"

----------Content warnings--------------

1. This is a fictional world with many original details. Please don't nitpick the history.

2. It has an old-school wish-fulfillment style. It is not a political scheming story about a powerful heroine, and neither lead is perfect.

3. A second-chance romance! The dream was a misunderstanding. The male lead did not cheat, and this is not a revenge story about punishing scumbags.

4. The leads were married for six years before divorcing, and are nearing thirty. If that's not for you, please move along.

5. There is a reader's guide at the end of Chapter 1. It contains the most important content warnings for the whole story. To save you unnecessary time and money, please read it before starting.

6. The whole story has undergone major revisions, including name changes for the leads. The latest version on Jinjiang is the definitive one. Readers who saved the story in the app before the revisions may need to clear the cache in their account settings to see the latest version.

My new Girls' Love story, Saving the Villain's Pitiful One (Quick Transmigration), is currently updating.

My next planned story is Mistaking the Demon Lord for My Junior Sister. Please add it to your reading list!

Mingzhu is the young lady of Wanxian Sect. Her father is the sect master of the cultivation world's foremost sect, and her mother is a descendant of Nuwa. Born with profound cultivation, a distinguished family, and a life that goes her way, she is known as the "Lady of Good Fortune."

But on the night of her sixteenth birthday, she has a dream. In it, she is the fake heiress in a story about a real and fake heiress. The true bloodline of Wanxian Sect is actually the new junior sister who has just joined the sect. In the story, afraid her identity will be exposed, Mingzhu does many terrible things to suppress her junior sister. When the truth finally comes out, she is driven from Wanxian Sect and dies on the streets, fighting wild dogs for scraps.

When Mingzhu wakes, she investigates and discovers that everything in her dream is true. She tells the sect master and his wife everything. The couple recognizes the junior sister as their daughter, while Mingzhu is allowed to remain in Wanxian Sect.

The sect master and his wife continue to treat Mingzhu as affectionately as ever. Yet whenever Mingzhu looks at her junior sister's breathtakingly beautiful but somewhat gaunt face, she feels she owes her dearly.

So, at the apprenticeship ceremony, when her junior sister says she likes Mingzhu's jade pendant, Mingzhu gives it to her without hesitation. At the gathering of the ten thousand sects, when someone slanders her junior sister, Mingzhu steps forward and shields her. In the Verdant Secret Realm, when her junior sister is gravely injured and falls unconscious, Mingzhu applies medicine to her wounds and stays by her side all night.

The longer Mingzhu spends with her junior sister, the more adorable she finds her.

She's beautiful, skilled in cultivation, and very clingy. She especially loves tugging at Mingzhu's sleeve and calling her "Big Sister."

Then one day, when all the cultivation world turns against Wanxian Sect and Mingzhu sees no hope anywhere, her junior sister appears in red, a golden blade in hand, and shields her.

In the bleak sunlight, the golden blade flashes like a bolt of lightning. Seeing the proud, untamed figure holding it, Mingzhu finally understands two things.

Her junior sister is actually a young man.

And that young man is the legendary Red-Robed Demon Lord, a man who kills without batting an eye.

*

The Demon Lord Rong Mu was switched at birth and suffered through countless hardships as a child, leaving him twisted and weary of the world.

At first, Rong Mu stayed by Mingzhu's side simply because he wanted to see how amusing it would be if the "Lady of Good Fortune" who had stolen his identity lost every bit of her good fortune.

He never expected that he would eventually willingly lay every good thing in the world at her feet, wishing only for her to live long and prosper, year after year.

A gentle, resilient little sun * a twisted, world-weary demon king

A story of healing

Theme: Have the courage to pursue the one you love