Dreams of the Past

Shen Yuan mistook the person who had saved her life.

The mountain road was muddy. At the foot of the mountain, she happened upon a seriously injured man.

He was covered in wounds. Shen Yuan did not recognize him, but she recognized the red mole on his hand.

That was her savior.

A drop of kindness should be repaid with a spring of gratitude.

Because he had once mentioned that he liked cherry pastries, Shen Yuan secretly returned to the city and braved the snow and wind, searching all over Bianjing just to bring Xie Qinghe a bite of cherry pastry.

What she did not know was that the moment she turned away, Xie Qinghe tossed the pastry in his hand to the wild dog in the courtyard and let it tear the treat apart.

On New Year's Eve, Shen Yuan boldly took Xie Qinghe's hand, her cheeks flushed. "When you pass the imperial examinations, let's get married, all right?"

She thought Xie Qinghe was just an ordinary scholar.

That was until her family forced her to return home and marry into the Minister of Works' family to bring good fortune to a sickly groom. Shen Yuan risked her life to flee.

She stumbled along the road, nearly crashing into someone.

The man was no longer weak and gentle. Xie Qinghe wore a moon-white brocade robe with a round collar, surrounded by attendants.

Sitting high atop his horse, he looked down impassively at Shen Yuan, who had nearly been trampled to death.

Shen Yuan heard everyone acclaim Xie Qinghe as the "Crown Prince."

No matter how desperately Shen Yuan cried and begged, Xie Qinghe remained unmoved.

He watched as the Shen family's servants took her away and forced her into the bridal sedan.

Gongs and drums sounded, and ceremonial cannons boomed.

Xie Qinghe thought he would never have anything more to do with Shen Yuan.

Until one day, beneath a clear and cloudless sky,

Xie Qinghe saw Shen Yuan standing before a man, smiling radiantly.

The man bent down to place a flower in Shen Yuan's hair.

He had a red mole on his hand, too.

Please add my next novel, My Beloved Has Returned After My Proxy Marriage, to your reading list!

[Chasing the Wife to the Crematorium] [Both Have Stand-Ins]

After her twin sister died unexpectedly, Ruan Yan took her elder sister's place and married into the Song family.

She knew Song Mingyu loved her elder sister deeply. They had been childhood sweethearts, bound together by an unbreakable love.

On their wedding night, Song Mingyu did not even lift Ruan Yan's red bridal veil. He left the city alone and sat all night at her sister's grave, leaving Ruan Yan to spend the night alone in their bridal chamber.

"The only woman I'll ever marry is your elder sister."

Song Mingyu thought he had made himself perfectly clear, but whenever his eyes met Ruan Yan's, he could still keenly detect the deep affection and admiration in her gaze.

Ruan Yan liked him.

That was an undeniable fact.

She would kneel for hours in the Buddhist hall, day and night, praying for Song Mingyu's safety.

She would even brave snow and wind to go out of the city and meet him.

Only later did Song Mingyu learn that Ruan Yan's prayers in the Buddhist hall had not been for him, but for the face that resembled his younger brother's.

His younger brother had "died" on the battlefield three years ago.

Three months after Song Mingyu's wedding, he returned to the capital.

Please add my new novel, The Pearl Curtain Rises, to your reading list!

Halfway through a palace banquet, the Crown Prince used changing clothes as an excuse to step outside for some air.

Amid the drifting rain and mist, a person stood in the waterside pavilion, soaked through and in a miserable state.

The palace attendants said she was Wen Sui, the new top scholar's wife. She should have been living in splendor, but the scholar had someone else in his heart. He had abandoned his newlywed wife for his beloved, leaving her alone in the pavilion, covering her face as she wept.

How pitiful.

The Crown Prince sneered.

He had someone bring her an oil-paper umbrella.

-

Wen Sui was the daughter of the Crown Prince's tutor. Gentle and meek since childhood, she had diligently served her parents-in-law for six months after her marriage, only to receive her husband's verdict: "Pedantic and dull."

She knew her personality was not endearing, and she knew her husband loved someone else.

But Wen Sui had no choice.

From childhood, she had studied the Virtues and Lessons for Women, learning the Three Obediences and Four Virtues: obey your father before marriage, your husband after marriage, and your son after your husband's death.

At the palace banquet that day, her husband suspected her of harming his beloved. In a fit of rage, he shoved her out into the rain and walked away.

At her most wretched moment, someone brought her an oil-paper umbrella.

Wen Sui thought she had met a good person.

Only later did she learn that he was truly a beast in a Buddha's guise.

Another palace banquet.

Rain poured down as the new top scholar knelt before the Eastern Palace, shivering with cold.

Inside the hall, the hibiscus curtains were warm, and the storm had passed.

The Crown Prince wore a gentle expression as he asked, though he already knew the answer,

"...Sui Sui, should we let him come in out of the rain?"

Wen Sui hugged her slightly rounded belly and could only sob.

Theme: Strive to live