After Breaking Off My Engagement to the General

[Main Story Complete, Extra Chapters Updated Alongside the Rankings] [Coming soon: The blurb for After Separating from My Husband, and my friend Yun Tingyi's similar upcoming novel, Longing for Summer, are below. Please add them to your reading list!] When Xie Xingyu brought that country girl back from Qinchuan City, Jiang Fengrong didn't think much of it. She and Xie Xingyu had known each other since childhood. When she was young, Jiang Fengrong was raised in the palace. In that stifling imperial palace, where people could devour you alive, she lived cautiously, carefully currying favor with everyone. Only when she was with Xie Xingyu could she breathe a little easier. He had made her a kite with his own hands and carved her a hairpin from agarwood. He had even clumsily picked up a needle and thread for her. Later, when Jiang Fengrong came of age, Xie Xingyu knelt before the emperor for several days to ask for her hand in marriage. That country girl, on the other hand, had merely happened to save Xie Xingyu once. She said she had never been to the capital and wanted to see its sights, so Xie Xingyu brought her back. The Madam of the Xie household was grateful that she had saved Xie Xingyu and took her in as her goddaughter. At first, Xie Xingyu was always talking to Jiang Fengrong about the country girl. He said she knew nothing of poetry or etiquette, couldn't even write a character straight, and was always asking him to teach her. No matter how many times he taught her, she never seemed to get it. Back then, Jiang Fengrong only urged him to be more patient, never noticing the smile on his lips. At the time, Jiang Fengrong couldn't imagine that Xie Xingyu would openly defend the country girl at a gathering of noblewomen, regardless of the humiliation it caused her. Nor could she imagine that he would blame her for the marriage the Madam of the Xie household had arranged for the girl. On the day the girl was to be married, he even stopped her bridal sedan in public, turning Jiang Fengrong, his betrothed, into a laughingstock throughout the capital. She watched helplessly as Xie Xingyu fell more and more in love with the country girl, and watched the boy who had once clumsily picked up a needle and thread for her grow farther and farther away. The day he received the letter ending their engagement, Xie Xingyu was leaning by the window, reading. He listened as his servant reported that Jiang Fengrong had knelt in the snow for three whole days, fainting several times before she finally managed to obtain the letter ending their engagement. As he ran his fingers over the letter, he suddenly remembered that many years ago, he too had knelt before the emperor for several days to win her hand. After Separating from My Husband In the third year of Ji Luo's marriage to Zhao Chengjia, the cousin who had always been his cold-hearted unattainable love suddenly changed her ways. Without hesitation, she divorced the husband she had only just married, then brazenly moved into their home and devoted all her attention to Zhao Chengjia. She could stay up all night making him chicken soup, go without sleep to embroider handkerchiefs and sell them for silver so she could buy him the birthday gift he wanted, and even take a fatal blow meant for him, nearly losing her life. She laid her passionate love before him without holding anything back. At first, Zhao Chengjia scorned her advances. Whenever he had to choose, he stood firmly by Ji Luo without hesitation, and Ji Luo believed that he had truly lost all feelings for his cousin. But when his cousin finally lost hope and agreed to marry someone else, he stopped her bridal sedan in the street and pulled her into his arms, heedless of all social norms and propriety. Only then did Ji Luo realize that his feelings for her had never changed. On the day they divorced, Zhao Chengjia stared at the divorce agreement in his hands for a long time. For some reason, he always felt that they should have grown old together. Longing for Summer Floodwaters ravaged Pan Xia's hometown, forcing her to take her younger brother and flee. The road was full of danger: displaced people ran rampant, and wolves prowled everywhere. To protect her brother, Pan Xia picked up a man and brought him along, naming him Ping An, meaning a safe journey. The man was mute and never spoke to her, but with him around, no thugs dared come near them on the road. They had met in humble circumstances and faced hardship together. As they traveled, Pan Xia fell in love with him. She thought it wouldn't be so bad to take him in and keep him by her side. He couldn't speak, so she would work more to support him and her brother. After a long and arduous journey, they finally reached the prosperous capital. Pan Xia was full of anticipation, but the man disappeared the night before. Pan Xia pulled herself together and entered the capital with her brother. After failing to find her relatives, she chanced upon a job as a cook at Prince Ling's residence. There she met Prince Ling, whom the servants revered as a god. Standing beside him was the Princess Consort of Ling, a woman of noble beauty and graceful warmth. Suddenly, everything from the journey seemed like a dream. Pan Xia knew the two of them came from entirely different worlds, so she stopped asking about him and never thought she would see him again. Until one rainy night, while she was sleeping on a small couch and dreaming that she was returning home hand in hand with Ping An, Prince Ling's men dragged her away by force and threw her onto his bed. Afterward, Prince Ling said, "She's just a lowborn country girl. If she pesters me, give her some silver to send her away. She loves money more than anything." Theme: Treasure yourself.