Su Jiyuan looked back on her past life, when she had been meek and walked on eggshells. She was an obscure, sickly daughter of the Prime Minister who married the Fourth Prince and became Princess Ding. Everyone in Yujing said she was lucky.
But only she knew that she had merely jumped from a fire pit into an icy cellar where no spring breeze could reach.
She devoted herself to managing the manor, and did everything she could in the palace to help her husband, a prince accomplished in both letters and arms. In return, she got a cold-hearted man who shared her bed.
She struggled to gather kindling and tend the flames in their icy little home, hoping to win even a shred of his affection. Then he brought back his childhood sweetheart, who had been sent away for a political marriage and later divorced.
At last, she understood why he had married her: she and the woman he had brought back looked eight parts alike.
In the freezing snow, Su Jiyuan's husband's childhood sweetheart pushed her into an icy lake.
After a bone-deep chill, she opened her eyes and found herself back at the Prime Minister's residence, before it fell into ruin. This time, she would cut the invisible strings binding her and become the freest kite in the sky, looking down on the splendid realm she had a hand in shaping.
*
After another day spent dealing with matters at the military camp, Prince Ding returned to his manor only to find his wife nowhere in sight. Li Fuyun went back to his study to wait for her, but all he found on his desk was a letter granting him his freedom as her husband.
“We part here, each free to find happiness.”
He found her outside the city, riding beside a peony garden with abandon. A newly appointed top scholar rode to her left, and a burly young khan from the Turkic envoys followed behind her on the right.
The spring breeze stirred, and Li Fuyun could see just how happy she was.
He held the letter carefully, unwilling to damage the delicate handwriting his wife had penned. He watched her smiling face, fixing his eyes on it inch by inch, and softly called her childhood nickname. “A-Yuan, there is no such thing as a divorce between us.”
- The male lead is an icy mountain who turns into a madman; the female lead is not a substitute.
- Married first, love later; a groveling redemption arc.
- “We part here, each free to find happiness.” From the Dunhuang unearthed Letter of Divorce.
Theme: Keep moving forward with resolve, and the clouds will part to reveal the moon.
