Huo Zhi scolded Su Su, saying that though she was the empress and enjoyed every luxury, she spent every day demanding his love to an extreme degree. He was the ruler of a nation, busy with state affairs from dawn till dusk, and couldn't spare so much as a shred of energy for romance. It was best for them to part ways.
Su Su loved him and didn't want to separate, so she wanted to change. But as she tried to understand his cold indifference, she saw Huo Zhi ask the icy beauty who had just entered the palace, full of hope, "Call me husband, and I won't go to the empress anymore. How about it?"
The beauty refused. The emperor was so angry he bristled, yet could do nothing about it. He felt too sorry for her to scold her, and his eyes even turned red.
So he could beg someone to call him husband, and lose himself in romance after all.
So even the supreme ruler could have his heart stirred.
Su Su thought Huo Zhi was a good man. He had given her the greatest honor a man could give a woman, making her mistake it for love. Only after seeing how he truly loved someone did Su Su understand that he had never lied when he said he didn't love her.
Her obsession finally faded. She granted Huo Zhi's wish, left the palace full of shame, and stopped clinging to him.
Years passed. Huo Zhi's realm flourished under his wise and benevolent rule, and he and his new empress were the picture of marital harmony, earning the praise of the world. It was nothing like his days with Su Su, when they fought bitterly over every little thing.
Su Su found a husband who truly cherished and loved her, and lived a long, happy life without a care. Now and then, she would remember how cautiously she used to guess at other people's feelings, and shake her head at how ridiculous it all seemed.
Huo Zhi was every bit the emperor, able to see the long game. Just as he had said, the two of them weren't suited to each other. No matter how hard they tried to make it work, it was never going to. Their lives only got better once she agreed to separate.
Six years later, they called each other friends and each had a loving spouse. But on the day she left with her husband for his new post, beneath the swirling snow, Huo Zhi took her hand of his own accord for the first time in his life, and for the first time, his heart stirred for her.
"I don't want you to leave. Even if trying to make things work with you is painful, I'll accept it."
"I can admit it. I admire you."
*
After twenty years as emperor, Huo Zhi finally learned what it meant to love someone he could never have.
[They do not get back together]
Theme: What a man looks like when he truly loves someone
