She Decided to Leave

[When I ascend the throne one day, I will offer you my kingdom as your bride-price, so I won't fail your devotion, Qingqing.]

When the Eastern Palace was abolished overnight, he fell into disgrace. Everyone avoided him, but she cast everything aside and stayed with him in seclusion at a cold temple for five years.

When he fell ill with an epidemic, she stayed by his side and cared for him.

When he fought for the throne, she willingly became a pawn.

When he was assassinated, she took an arrow for him to keep him safe.

But on the day the new emperor was crowned, what awaited her was not a phoenix coronet and wedding robes, but an imperial edict naming her elder half-sister empress.

She watched the emperor place the coronet on her sister's head with his own hands, and at last her heart turned cold.

So it seemed that even years of devotion could not compare to the dazzling sight of a first love.

[This humble concubine asks to trade five years of hardship for Your Majesty's grace.] She smiled, swallowing the metallic sweetness in her throat, and knelt in plain robes to beg leave to leave the palace.

But he did not know that after she left, the new emperor became almost mad with longing for the past.

On a night surrounded by heavy snow, he searched a thousand miles for her, crawled on his knees to her, took her hand, and pressed the sword's point to his own heart.

[Everything I owed you before, I'll repay today.] Her eyes held neither sorrow nor joy as the blade pierced flesh without hesitation.

[Does that settle our debts? Qingqing, let's start over.]

But she only coldly pulled the sword back, letting him stumble and fall to his knees in the snow.

[Get out of my way. I don't know you.]

The emperor grovels to win his wife back / The elder sister is not an evil supporting female character

Theme: If there is a flower to pluck, pluck it now. Don't wait until the flowers are gone and only then regret it.