Folding the Moon Among Idle Branches

This story will be added to the completed-book section on May 7, 2024. If you've already read it, please don't buy it again!

*The story is complete.*

Updates to earlier chapters were only to correct mistakes.

Next story: "The Aloof Heir Chases His Wife to the Crematorium" (now available). Blurb at the very bottom!

[Bold, Passionate Princess vs. Tragic, Beautiful, Mad Hostage Prince]

In her previous life,

Yue Shuqing, the fourth princess adored by the imperial family, once saved a young hostage prince who was being bullied and abused.

He was two years younger than her. On the surface, he acted submissive toward her, but in truth he had deliberately drawn close to her for a reason. He also secretly colluded with Nanliang's spies, plotting to invade Daliang.

But Yue Shuqing learned all this only after her kingdom fell.

She spent five years with him. On his birthday, she would make him a bowl of longevity noodles. For her birthday, he would spend everything he had to buy her a round silk fan as a gift.

-

Five years later, Nanliang breached Daliang's city gates. Her clothes and hair ornaments stained with blood, she stared in a daze at the hell before her eyes. Then she turned and saw him, clad in armor, his face utterly numb. She truly wanted to tear him limb from limb.

He gave her a cool glance and took her back to Nanliang.

She did not resist. Her gaze gradually turned cold.

-

Later, on their wedding night, she pulled the golden hairpin from her hair and was about to stab him when he grabbed her wrist.

He let the pin pierce his palm, laughing madly as if he felt no pain. His eyes were bloodshot as he gazed at her with obsessive love. "My wife, that's not very well-behaved."

"You secretly colluded with someone else and left the people of Daliang homeless. Did you ever think of me? And then, then you actually dared to think you could marry me? How ridiculous!"

She yanked out the hairpin and stabbed toward his heart again.

This time, he did not dodge. He raised his bloodstained hand and caressed her face, laughing even more wildly. "Even if I can't have A Qing's love, being hated by her is wonderful. That way, you'll remember only me for all eternity."

At last, he collapsed completely.

-

Reborn, she decided not to save him this time and tried every way she could to change her tragic fate.

But at a banquet, she ran into Song Zhixian again. She decided to pretend to be ill and slip away, but as she was leaving, she heard his sickly murmur behind her.

"My A Qing, it's been so long."

At that moment, she felt ice-cold all over.

Blurb written on 2023.10.28, revised on 2024.3.14. First published on Jinjiang Literature City.

1. The events in the blurb take place before her rebirth.

3. Everything is fictional, so don't scrutinize it for historical accuracy.

4. The plot is extremely melodramatic. Don't read if that's not your thing.

5. The tropes are rather old-fashioned, and the opening is very formulaic. Don't read if that's not your thing.

-

Blurb for "The Aloof Heir Chases His Wife to the Crematorium":

Jiang Guli, just like her name, was lonely and helpless, with no one to pity her.

She had once been the daughter of a wealthy family. When she was five, she got separated from her family at a temple fair and was kidnapped by a trafficker.

After that, she was sold five times.

She lost her name. All she had left were the old and new scars covering her body, constant reminders to stay alert and escape this living hell so she could find her parents.

That winter was bitterly cold. She slipped away while the trafficker was distracted. Her thin clothes did nothing to keep her warm, and the thick snow buried her frostbitten ankles, as if trying to stop her from moving forward.

Still, she kept walking without pausing for even a moment.

She knew that even if she froze to death, she would never go back.

In the end, she collapsed in the snow from exhaustion.

Back then, she thought she would either freeze to death in the snow or be reported missing, found by the trafficker, and beaten again. Those were the only two possible endings.

She only felt sorry that she had not managed to find her birth parents while she was still alive.

But when she awoke, she discovered that a young man had saved her.

The youth was handsome, with clear features and eyes as deep as an abyss.

He gave her a name and promised to find her parents. He also made her his personal maid at the Prince Yang's residence.

He taught her to read and practice martial arts, taught her how to conduct herself, and called her Ali, but his manner toward her was always cool and distant.

She had been at the heir's residence for months, yet there was still no news of her parents. She asked Jiang Xiyu, but he always brushed her off.

Gradually, she went from being wary to feeling grateful, and then to falling in love. In the end, she kept her feelings to herself and decided to take her leave and search for her parents alone.

Jiang Xiyu's gaze turned cold, and his voice was icy. "Remember, I saved you back then only because I pitied you. If you find your parents someday, I hope you won't keep pestering me and ruin my reputation."

Hearing this, Jiang Guli's wavering heart finally made its choice.

She bowed deeply to him and left.

But in a corner where no one could see, the heir, usually as cool and pristine as jade, quietly turned red-eyed.

-

A few months later,

Lin Nianqing, the legitimate daughter of Prince Shen of Luozhou, was found. Prince Shen, Lin Hai, held a special banquet to celebrate her return.

Jiang Xiyu saw Jiang Guli there, or rather, Lin Nianqing.

At the banquet, when Lord Lin announced that Lin Nianqing would soon marry Shen Tingsi, the son of the Shen family, he froze.

He watched her laughing and talking with Young Master Shen at the banquet, looking like a couple deeply in love. His usually calm expression tightened, and he clenched his fists as if holding something back.

In private, he stopped her and asked why.

She didn't even look at him. "Heir Jiang, who I marry has nothing to do with you."

1. Chasing the wife to the crematorium, a relationship that grows from childhood, one-on-one romance, both virgins.

2. Everything is fictional, so don't scrutinize it for historical accuracy.

3. The tropes are old-fashioned and melodramatic. Don't read if that's not your thing.

A beautiful, tragic, vengeful girl vs. a cold, aloof young man who never says what he means

Blurb written on 2023.12.8. First published on Jinjiang Literature City.

Theme: You can't judge someone's heart by their face.