The Golden Bough in Captivity

A spoiled noblewoman x a distant, aloof man

Bad temper x perpetually grumpy

Lin Zhuohua and Wei Zixu had known each other since childhood, but they couldn't stand one another.

Lin Zhuohua hated his arrogance, stiffness, and dullness. Wei Zixu found her spoiled and willful, too talkative, and a constant nuisance.

Their feud ended on the day she married.

After that, they never saw each other again.

But fate had other plans. The Lin family and her husband's family were implicated in a crime. All the women of her husband's clan were made slaves, and all the men were exiled.

Overnight, a pampered noblewoman fell from her gilded life into the mud, at the mercy of anyone who wanted to torment her.

Lin Zhuohua escaped. She was going to seek justice.

The once-spoiled, proud noblewoman, now in ragged clothes and as frail as a willow, knelt in the courtroom and pleaded for her husband.

A red robe swept past. Lin Zhuohua gazed up through tear-filled eyes, her body suddenly going rigid.

Meeting that long-unseen, cool gaze, Lin Zhuohua lowered her eyes and sighed. She'd come seeking justice only to run into her sworn enemy. Would it do any good to swallow her pride now?

*

Wei Zixu had always been irritated by arrogant, overbearing people. But Lin Zhuohua was the very embodiment of everything that got on his nerves, and she had played tricks on him time and again.

Wei Zixu had had more than enough of her.

Yet rumors were spreading through the capital that he and she were a perfect match, a handsome man and a beautiful woman destined for each other.

That very night, the person who started the rumor was arrested and taken to the Court of Judicial Review.

When his friends teased him, Wei Zixu remained calm and proper as he replied, “The third young lady of the Lin family comes from a distinguished household. She and the Wei family are not a suitable match.”

He had assumed she would keep loathing and fighting him for the rest of their lives. He never expected that after a single trip away, he'd return to hear that she had married and moved to Yongzhou.

Wei Zixu never saw her again.

*

He remembered her again at court. By then, the Lin family had fallen, and her husband's family was under investigation after their property was confiscated. No one wanted to get involved, so Wei Zixu volunteered.

The night before he left for Yongzhou, he spent an unusual night without sleep.

They met again in Qingzhou. The woman he hadn't seen in so long knelt before him, frail and forlorn, and Wei Zixu's hard heart softened a little.

But then he saw her pleading tearfully for the husband who had committed a crime. Wei Zixu's dark eyes grew heavy, his expression turning even colder as he remained unmoved.

She begged, “Please see justice done, my lord. I will work like an ox or horse to repay you.”

Wei Zixu gave a mocking laugh. His gaze roamed over her thin, ragged clothes, and his tone was flippant. “Is this how you beg for help?”

Lin Zhuohua looked up in alarm, but he pinned her down and lifted her chin.

“Third Lady, if you're asking for help, you ought to act like it...”

“...”

*The most pampered golden branch in Chang'an was plucked by him. He built her a gilded palace, but in the end, he drew a prison around himself and locked himself inside.

*The female lead has never been with anyone; the male lead has.

*Blurb written on 2023.10.12.

Theme: Pluck the golden branch, build a gilded palace, imprison Zixu.