After the Heir's Wife Left

Yao Liurong had spent five years climbing into the good graces of the Marquis of Changning's heir, but he treated her indifferently. In public, they seemed like a married couple; in private, they had nothing to say to each other. The people he doted on most were his two unmarried younger sisters.

He took his sisters along to choose a gift, but brought Yao Liurong back only a crudely made hairpin.

On his birthday, he sent his sisters back to bed, then turned around and got angry that his wife hadn't stayed up late to cook him longevity noodles.

Perhaps he didn't understand hairpins, couldn't see how his family mocked Yao Liurong, or grasp why she was always staring at his face, lost in thought.

*

He had told her so many times that he didn't like peach and plum fragrances, yet Yao Liurong would occasionally prepare those scents for him.

The Marquis of Changning's heir found it strange and absurd, but never considered leaving Yao Liurong. She was the wife he had chosen himself, and he would always remember how bright and passionate her eyes had been back then.

It seemed the endless household chores had worn her down, so he paid even closer attention to his wife.

Then he suddenly learned that she had left.

What?

*

In this life, Yao Liurong couldn't take an interest in anything. She believed she was cold by nature.

The only person who had ever moved her was a young apricot seller passing by. He carried a basket of apricots on a shoulder pole and smiled shyly at Yao Liurong beneath the setting sun, as if bathed in divine light.

Years later, Yao Liurong found traces of the apricot seller in the Marquis of Changning's heir. She was briefly infatuated with him, but the heir's stutter was soon cured, and he became less and less shy.

Utterly disappointed, one night she left by boat, taking the Marquis of Changning's heir's concubine with her.

Theme: Follow your heart