A Friend's Wife

[The full manuscript is complete. I'll start posting once it's all saved.]

When Li Tanzhen arrived in the capital, she thought she and Cui Jun were the stuff of a beautiful love story.

She traveled three thousand li to find her husband, and found Cui Jun just after he had placed first in the imperial examinations. At the Chang'an banquet, while everyone else sought to marry noblewomen, Cui Jun declared that he would never cast aside the wife who had stood by him in hardship.

The emperor was moved by their devotion. Cui Jun became a Secretariat Drafter, and she was honored for her chastity.

Her husband's success brought her honor, and she rose to the top overnight.

But Li Tanzhen learned later that Cui Jun had already chosen a powerful father-in-law. She had simply arrived at the wrong time, ruining his dream of marrying into a prominent family.

The new emperor ascended the throne, and the father of the noblewoman Cui Jun once wanted to marry became the most powerful official in the court.

Li Tanzhen lost all hope.

*

There is always a way out. While Li Tanzhen was being ground down by the Cui household, she met Fu Chang.

She knew him as a famous, righteous young man in the capital, kind as a bodhisattva. But he was also the