Back Then, I Refused to Marry the Spring Breeze

[Series: Moth, Snow, and Willow] Xun Ye, Crown Prince of the new dynasty, has been divorced by his Crown Princess. Crown Princess Hang Jinshu was born to a noble family. She was elegant and poised, precious as golden willow, fragrant as orchid and angelica, and delicate as pre-rain tea. Everyone said that when she married into the Xun family, she married beneath her station. Who could have known that the northern territories would later form an alliance and rebel against the court? In just three years, the realm changed hands, and the Xun family took the throne. But before the Xun family could even secure its hold on the realm, a sensational scandal broke. The Crown Princess, always known for her propriety and virtue, presented the new dynasty's Crown Prince with a divorce letter and left immediately afterward. * Xun Ye had always known that his Crown Princess didn't love him. Her heart belonged to someone who had once dazzled her and stayed in her memory through the years. Once the realm was pacified, that person would return. So the Crown Princess no longer wanted him. The affection everyone had seen, the three years of his one-sided devotion, finally lost their last scrap of cover. As she left, his eyes reddened. The founding Crown Prince, a general who had reaped lives on the battlefield like wheat, broke his proud spirit and begged her desperately to stay. She left anyway and never looked back. * Hang Jinshu finally escaped the marriage alliance she'd been forced into, and secretly congratulated herself. The childhood sweetheart was just an excuse. She had always despised Xun Ye. She despised his crude manners, and she despised how he sometimes had no restraint. But from then on, no one warmed her cold, chilblain-ridden feet through the long winter nights. No one shielded her with his own body when swords threatened her life. Knowing how delicate she was, he would eat chaff and weeds on campaign rather than let her suffer the slightest hardship. It turned out that, in those long, painful three years, he hadn't been without his good points. And it turned out she hadn't been entirely without feelings for him. Hang Jinshu loved Xun Ye. At the time, she simply thought it was ordinary. Reading notes: 1. This is a first-time couple: a rough man who doesn't sweat the details and a pampered noblewoman. The hero is a love-brained fool. 2. Both leads have strengths and flaws. The hero loves her and gives everything to her one-sidedly at first. Later, the heroine eats her words and returns to him. Once their feelings are mutual, the sweetness never lets up. 3. The hero has no harem. This is a second-chance romance. Coming soon, Moth, Snow, and Willow, opening next: Hang Chenyin, a noblewoman from a declining family, is married off to Shen Zhi, a general newly risen from humble beginnings. In the second year, Hang Chenyin's husband goes mad. He ties himself and Chen Lansi to the edge of a cliff and makes her choose. The one she doesn't choose will die. One is the husband she sees every day; the other is the love she admired in her youth. Hang Chenyin chooses the latter. Shen Zhi had known all along that it would end this way. His smile is filled with self-mockery and self-loathing. "A Yin, if I die, can you stop hating me?" Hang Chenyin doesn't realize it's all real. She panics and rushes forward, but she's too late. She watches helplessly as he cuts the rope binding him and falls into the abyss. * Hang Chenyin had always hated Shen Zhi, until he suddenly died. * The first month after his death, it feels as though a piece of her heart has suddenly gone missing. The second month after his death, winter in Chang'an is bitterly cold, and snow blankets the ground before his grave. The third month after his death, the court welcomes back the Fourth Prince, lost abroad for many years. Reading guide: 1. A series novel in the When I Wouldn't Marry for Spring Breeze series. The leads are descendants of the protagonists from an earlier installment. 2. The hero was lost from home as a child and raised by wolves. He's a mad, love-brained fool. 3. First-time couple, with a little of the heroine pursuing the hero. The hero suffers physically and emotionally. Once their feelings are mutual, it's incredibly sweet. You can trust this sweet-romance author. There may also be some male rivalry. Theme: The sea of suffering has no shore. Turn back and look.