Drunk on Jade Branches

Chu Linlang never imagined that she would divorce her husband. After all, in many people’s eyes, she was born to a lowly family and had little worldly experience. She was a sparrow that had climbed to a high branch, unworthy of a dashing, rising star of a court official. Having managed to reach such heights after so much hardship, she was naturally expected to cling tightly to that branch. Now, after eight years in the Zhou household, she had supported her husband through years of study, making her a model of a woman’s perseverance. Her husband was young and promising, and they treated each other with respect. His future was bright. They had a seven-year-old daughter, sweet and lively. Her mother-in-law was a kind, gracious elder, and even the concubines in the household honored her as the principal wife. The entire family seemed to live in harmony. But Chu Linlang herself knew best that all of that was complete nonsense! On the day of her twenty-fourth birthday, as heavy snow fell, Chu Linlang held a letter of divorce. Ignoring her husband’s mocking words, “Don’t come crawling back to me in tears,” she left the Zhou household, which she had devoted eight years to building, alone beneath the endless white snow. As she sat silently shaking a tortoiseshell divination shell in the carriage to ask about her future, someone lifted the curtain. There was Situ Sheng, the overbearing “treacherous minister” who held power at court, her bitter enemy and a man as cold as ice, riding alongside her through the swirling snow, his sharp brows raised. Chu Linlang took a deep breath. Just how vindictive was this man? Had he come all this way in a snowstorm to laugh at her? She had no idea that Situ Sheng had been waiting for this day for a very long time... (The gorgeous original cover is from Weibo user @TunSheRiYue.) Theme: Follow your heart and live as your true self