Prelude at the Orchid Pavilion

[Please add my upcoming stories to your collection!, Reborn General's Wife, An Idiot's Dream, Years of Peace ~Bows and offers flowers~]

[The story as a whole is a slow burn, so please be patient. I hope you lovely readers will stick with it. Please add it to your collection! Thank you!]

Blurb, revised countless times:

Liang Qinghe was born the most honored little princess of Western Wei, and the Emperor of Great Zhou personally chose her to be his grandson's bride.

In the spring of the twenty-sixth year of Yucheng, little Liang Qinghe, still barely old enough to wear her hair in tufts, set out for Great Zhou at her mother's earnest urging.

That early spring, by the Orchid Pavilion, among a gathering of children, Liang Qinghe recognized the boy bound to her by fate at a single glance. Amid the lavishly dressed royal children, he wore nothing but a plain white robe, its hem fluttering fiercely in the wind. His first words to her were anything but gentlemanly: "Ladies first."

Liang Qinghe thought she ought to hate him...

But however clever Liang Qinghe was, she never imagined that he would become her nominal senior fellow apprentice. At first, she tried all sorts of ways to avoid him, but he seemed as ever-present as the air, at her side day after day.

Once Liang Qinghe had grown used to his presence, an imperial decree came out of nowhere and sent him to lead troops on the border.

When they met again, he had become the illustrious eldest grandson of the emperor, famed for his military achievements, while Liang Qinghe had become the princess sent by Western Wei to Great Zhou to cement an alliance through marriage...

On the wall, on horseback, they gaze at each other from afar; one glance is enough to break the heart.

Reading guide:

1. The leads are strictly monogamous, with absolutely no third party.

2. The story begins in childhood. It's long and slow-paced.

3. Aside from the male lead's extraordinary talent, everyone else has their own journey of growth.

4. The ending is not a conventional happy ending. In the author's view, it is the best possible resolution given the era. [It leans more toward a tragic ending.]

Upcoming story blurb: [Below, I'm saying it loudly!]

Reborn General's Wife, [A beautiful little schemer who uses her looks to get her way VS a young general with grand plans]

Wen Lingzheng hanged herself in Shengjing in her previous life.

Because of a letter.

And it was signed by her late husband.

Pei Lin, Marquis of Dingbei, was the most brilliant and dazzling young man in Shengjing.

Wen Lingzheng's marriage to him came about because of an accident.

So she always believed he married her out of a sense of responsibility.

She played the part of a dignified wife for six years, until he brought another woman home.

He tried to explain, but she was too angry to listen.

Just then, war broke out again on the northern frontier, and he had to leave in haste.

She refused to see him off.

She never imagined that he would never come back.

Later, the throne of Great Zhou changed hands. She killed the person who had leaked military intelligence years ago, believing she had avenged him.

Only on the eve of the new emperor's coronation did she receive a letter sent from a prison town.

How laughable that she had unknowingly become a blade in her enemy's hand; how hateful that, in her stubbornness, she had refused to let him finish speaking; how pitiful that he had died believing she didn't love him, and that he ought to set her free.

Wen Lingzheng was reborn on the first day she entered the capital with her father, at a time when the Marquis of Dingbei's household was on the brink of ruin.

Hearing people slander the Pei family, she couldn't help speaking up in their defense.

The young aristocratic rakes were so angry they wanted to beat her.

She had never learned martial arts as a girl, and thought there was no escaping a beating.

But when she looked up, the rakes were already sprawled across the ground.

"I'm here. I won't let you get hurt."

On a winter day, the sun rarely broke through the clouds.

At the Yuqing Temple that day, clear snow reflected the boy's defiant smile, and when Wen Lingzheng happened to turn around, it entered her sight.

She hadn't meant to cry, but at that moment, her eyes still reddened.

[Epilogue]

Pei Lin, Marquis of Dingbei, was known throughout Shengjing as a henpecked husband.

People asked him, "How can a great man fear his wife?"

Holding a box of steaming hot sweet cakes, he smiled faintly and headed home. "It's not fear. It's simply that I want to."

Theme: What weighs heavier than love is the responsibility on your shoulders.