A Letter from Song, the Junior Preceptor, to His Wife

Zhang Yunzhi finds an old book titled "Letters Between Grand Preceptor Song and His Wife" on a bookshelf in her ancestral home.

The book records: Song Weiqing served as an official for twenty years, rising to the position of Grand Secretary and being granted the title of Junior Preceptor to the Crown Prince. He died on the last snowy night of the twenty-first year of the Xihe era.

Before his death, he was plagued by illness and quietly passed away. His name was listed in "The History of Zhao: Biographies of Treacherous Ministers".

After Zhang Yunzhi finishes the first half of the book, a picture falls out: “Portrait of Grand Preceptor Song and His Wife.”

Song Weiqing in the painting is elegant and refined. Wait, why does his wife, Madam Zhang, have a face exactly like hers?

She continues reading the second half. This notorious chancellor of Great Zhao is sinister and cunning, obsessed with power and wealth, yet devoted in love. He takes only one wife in his lifetime, and he and Madam Zhang remain together until death.

Tired from reading, she drifts off to sleep...

When she opens her eyes, she has transmigrated to Great Zhao and become the “wife” in "Letters Between Grand Preceptor Song and His Wife".

At this point, she is an unmarried official's daughter. By a twist of fate, she marries Song Weiqing, who has yet to enter public service, in the hope that the marriage will bring him good fortune.

After their wedding, he often coughs up blood. The legendary physician of history diagnoses him as near death.

The time remaining until his death, as recorded in the book, is slowly shrinking. It turns out she can influence the course of his life.

Zhang Yunzhi never thought of interfering with Song Weiqing's historical fate.

She fulfills her duty as his wife, sharing hardship with him for ten years, in life and in death.

They share a bed in life and a grave in death.

Song Weiqing: “My dear wife, A Yun, with this letter I bid you farewell forever. I hope that in the years ahead, someone will ask if your porridge is warm, and someone will stand with you at dusk.”

Zhang Yunzhi takes out her little cheat sheet and recites with great feeling: “I don't want your farewell letter. Call me cold and ungrateful. Next year, when your bones lie in the earth and you stand alone by your grave, I'll offer three sticks of incense and weep all night, repaying the ten years we spent as husband and wife.”

Song Weiqing's inner thoughts: This is what I like most about her. She'll share the good times, but not the bad.

Zhang Yunzhi's inner thoughts: The act is convincing, but my feelings for him are even more real.

This is the story of a dramatic beauty determined to save her own ancestor, who by an unlucky twist of fate saves and heals a pedantic minister who only wants to be reincarnated.

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, happy ending, and both leads are virgins. (The heroine makes a huge blunder and mistakes someone for her ancestor, nearly getting herself killed.) The bonus chapters include a very small amount of a historical character traveling to the modern day.

2. Set in a fictional world, with government institutions modeled on the Ming Dynasty. Some original inventions may be included.

3. The hero is gentle, the heroine is no fool, and the male antagonist is vicious. The tone shifts between serious and silly, and is generally a little irreverent. There's not much focus on court intrigue; this is simply a love story about Song and Zhang.

Theme: The pure and the corrupt are distinct, and the spirits judge all.