Breaking Off the Highest Branch

(Prepublication, please add to your collection: The Second Year After Divorcing the Powerful Minister. Blurb at the very bottom.)

Yun Shu, the Duke's legitimate daughter, was graceful, charming, and talented, a highly sought-after match whom everyone wanted to marry into their family.

But she had been betrothed long ago to the heir of the Prince of Boling, and their wedding was now imminent.

At this crucial moment, disaster struck Yun Shu. Someone drugged her with a powerful aphrodisiac, and by a twist of fate, she spent a night with Lu Xiao, her future brother-in-law.

She thought the accident would lead to nothing more. But the heir seized the opportunity to flee the wedding, and the Prince of Boling's family came to apologize, intending to break off the engagement.

Yun Shu glanced over the people at the banquet, a thought coming to her. "I think the prince's second son is a fine, handsome gentleman. He would make a perfect husband for me."

**

Lu Xiao, the Prince of Boling's second son, had a notorious reputation. He loved frequenting the pleasure quarters, had no ambition, and cared nothing for fame or official rank. He was a celebrated playboy in the capital.

No one expected him to make a match with the Yun family.

**

At first, Lu Xiao was confident that he would never get caught up in romantic entanglements. Yun Shu was merely a pawn in his hand, and not worth falling for.

But one day, he stood in the dim shadows and saw Yun Shu beneath a blaze of peach blossoms, facing a man. The man reached out to gently pluck a fallen flower from her hair, and the two smiled at each other, looking more like a married couple than anything else.

Lu Xiao lowered his eyes and smiled faintly, seeming to casually toy with the petal in his palm.

But under the pressure of his fingers, the soft petal was crushed to pulp, and bright red juice stained his fingertips.

From that day on, he changed his mind.

He would eliminate, one by one, everyone who coveted his wife.

**

A little scene

Late at night, Lu Xiao looked at the closed door before him and couldn't help sighing, his voice ingratiating.

"Dear wife, please let me in."

Yun Shu's voice came from inside. She replied lazily:

"Didn't you say yourself that you would never get caught up in love? You'd better get back to your work and continue making plans."

Lu Xiao, outside the door: ...Ow. That really stung.

Reader's guide:

1. The heroine is somewhat of a heartthrob, with old-school Mary Sue elements. Several characters have one-sided crushes on her, including but not limited to her adoptive brother and the hero's younger brother.

2. Marriage first, love later, with a bit of groveling and a rivalry-filled romantic battlefield. The hero and heroine are devoted only to each other in body and heart.

3. The hero did not give her the drug. The details involve spoilers, so I won't explain further.

4. Dear readers, please click the cover to see a larger image and admire the stunning heroine.

Prepublication: The Second Year After Divorcing the Powerful Minister

When Wen Qingtan was sixteen, she fell in love at first sight with Pei Yun, then a penniless scholar, and insisted on marrying him despite being the legitimate daughter of a marquis.

On their wedding night, Wen Qingtan was immersed in the joy of marrying the man she loved. She never saw the flash of disgust in Pei Yun's eyes.

Over the next eight years, Wen Qingtan stood by Pei Yun as he rose from a poor family to become a young chief councilor with immense power. Everyone said she had a keen eye and had chosen an excellent husband.

Only Wen Qingtan knew that over the years, she had gone from a pampered young lady who never lifted a finger to an ordinary woman in coarse clothes. Everything she did was to let Pei Yun focus on his career. Even when the effort made her sick with exhaustion, she never regretted it.

**

On the day the decree of promotion arrived at the Pei residence, Wen Qingtan thought that at last they could live happily as husband and wife, free of hardship. Pei Yun put away the imperial decree and calmly said:

"There is someone I love. I want to bring her into the household as my principal wife."

Wen Qingtan was struck as if by lightning, frozen in place.

It turned out she had been nothing but a pawn on his road to success, to be discarded once she was no longer useful.

With her heart turned to ash, Wen Qingtan left a letter of divorce and watched as Pei Yun welcomed his new bride in an eight-bearer bridal sedan. The couple were loving and devoted, and their story even became the talk of the town.

**

In the second year after the divorce, Wen Qingtan went with her family to their country estate outside the capital to escape the summer heat. There, she unexpectedly ran into Pei Yun, who had come alone.

The young chief councilor's eyes were red as he clutched her sleeve, begging in a tone she had never heard from him before. "Qingtan, please don't leave me."

He had thought Wen Qingtan still had feelings for him. Instead, she coolly stepped back, her expression distant in a way he had never seen before. "Lord Pei, please mind your manners."

Pei Yun regretted it. He regretted failing to understand his own heart, and spent the rest of his life with nothing but remorse.

Theme: Hardship and adversity bring out the best in a person.