Five years after divorcing Zhao Jue, Wen Junhe traveled all the way to Yanzhou.
While resting at a teahouse, she overheard people talking about Zhao Jue, praising him as a brilliant investigator, a man of both letters and arms, and as handsome as Pan An.
Some said he had never remarried since the divorce, and that countless young ladies in the capital were eager to win his favor. Others said he and his former wife had been an ill-matched couple, trapped in a bitter relationship for years before finally breaking free.
“If they were so ill-matched, why hasn’t he remarried since the divorce?”
Someone asked. The crowd exchanged glances, then said only that the former Mrs. Zhao had been plain-looking and no match for Lord Zhao.
Seated by the window, Wen Junhe listened to all the gossip and merely smiled.
·
Years later, whenever Wen Junhe thought of the lantern festival she had missed as a child, Zhao Jue’s face would always appear before her eyes.
The rain had soaked the young man’s features. His black hair clung to his brow, and his eyes still shone brightly in the darkness.
He rushed into the covered walkway, dripping with rain, a silk palace lantern held protectively against his chest, its candle still flickering faintly.
Amid the thunder and pounding rain, she heard someone say:
“Wen Junhe, I brought your lantern back!”
Later, that same person said:
“Wen Junhe, I have someone I love.”
“She’s nothing like you. She’s the most beautiful and talented girl in all of Yongzhou.”
“Wen Junhe, it was my parents who wanted me to ask for your hand.”
“Three years. We’ll divorce in three years.”
“A-He...”
Theme: Choose your own life
This Empress Dowager Chang is a pest. If she wants to hide it, she can hide it for the rest of her life. After the male protagonist dies, she will tell the female protagonist the truth... OK, I imagined that she would suffer a stroke immediately, become paralyzed, her mouth would be crooked, and her eyes would be slanted, and she would be left lying in bed for twenty years. Her son died early in the second year after he ascended the throne and had no heirs. She had to adopt the clan, but she was adopted under the name of the late emperor. Her adoptive son later removed her from the ancestral temple and no longer worshiped her. During the change of dynasties, her tomb was robbed by tomb robbers, and no bones were left.