After My Husband Was Won Over by a Reborn Woman

Everyone in Dayue knew that Luo Jinghang loved me, loved me so much he couldn't bear to be apart from me for even a moment.

When we were young, all the noble sons preferred talented and beautiful young ladies. He was the only one who spent all day following me around.

I loved sleeping in and often missed breakfast, so he would keep my favorite flatbread warm against his chest while waiting for me to get up. Grinning foolishly, he would hand me the steaming bread, never mind that his own chest had been scalded red.

I was afraid of mosquitoes, so he sewed me a mosquito-repellent sachet by hand. If I accidentally fell asleep outside, he would carefully fan the mosquitoes away for me.

Everyone knew he loved me, and I knew it too.

So on the day I came of age, I couldn't wait to marry him.

After that, he became the fan that stirred the air on summer nights and the warm chest that kept my feet cozy in winter.

Even when he went on campaign in the northern deserts, he took me with him.

For the next three years, snow and wind blotted out the sky beyond the frontier, yet he kept me safe and comfortable day and night.

But that same man, who had promised me a lifetime together, fell in love with someone else the year he returned to the capital in triumph.

She knew his past and his future, and understood all his joys and sorrows.

She seemed able to predict his every move, every frown and smile.

The capital's official circles were treacherous and unpredictable, yet time and again she foresaw what was coming, helping him rise higher and higher until he stood at the pinnacle of power.

At last, on a winter night that year, Luo Jinghang told me he didn't want to wrong her by making her his concubine.

So the next day, while he was out bringing her to our residence, I wrote the divorce agreement I had once thought I would never write in this lifetime.

From now on, the road is long and the mountains are high. We will never meet again.

He loved me without reservation when he was at his most sincere.

As for whom he will love for the rest of his life...

That has nothing to do with me anymore.

*

On a snowy night years later, the renowned general Luo Jinghang suddenly awoke from a dream.

There was no one beside him.

He seemed to have dreamed again of the woman with whom he had wanted to spend his whole life,

but they had lost each other long, long ago.

[Cover to be updated. I wrote the blurb on a whim. The story is what it is: a taste of old-school melodrama for some cathartic fun. There are several possible endings, so pick the one you like. Short story.]

Theme: Judge a lover by their actions, not their thoughts.