After the Powerful Minister's Wife Left Him a Divorce Decree

Clearheaded, sunny daughter of a military family vs. proud, aloof nobleman [Female Martial, Male Literary Setting]

The Pei family was a venerable clan of distinguished officials, and had supported the imperial court for a century.

To preserve the family legacy, Pei Xu shouldered its honor and disgrace by setting an example himself. At just twenty, he had already risen to the highest halls of government and taken a seat among the court’s senior officials.

He was refined and exceptionally handsome, with the grace of a fine jade, unmatched in all the world.

Following an engagement arranged by their ancestors, Pei Xu married the daughter of a military family, a woman he had never even met.

He did not care about her looks or her family background. He only expected her to manage the household for his mother and sister-in-law.

Who could have guessed that after the wedding, he would discover his wife was nothing but a bundle of mischief?

Bored by the ladies of the inner residence admiring flowers, she squared up in the courtyard and practiced a set of military boxing moves, startling birds across the garden and disrupting everyone’s gathering.

She climbed over the wall in the middle of the night to watch soldiers drill at the training grounds outside the city, only to be mistaken for a thief by the city patrol and thrown in jail.

She knew he was a neat freak, yet still never showed restraint, provoking him in bed time and again by crossing his boundaries.

Even when he punished her, she never learned her lesson and did the same thing again next time.

Pei Xu thought that if she remained incorrigible and proved unfit to be the mistress of his household, then divorcing her and marrying someone else would be his only option.

The Pei family had never kept idlers, and he would have no qualms about being the bad guy.

*

Yang Qiao had been pining for Pei Xu for years, but unfortunately, married life between them was far from harmonious.

She had grown up around military camps and knew nothing about how to run an inner household.

To win Pei Xu’s favor, even when he casually mentioned how delicious winter fish was, she braved the bitter cold and the chilblains left over from years ago, wading into the river with her bare hands to catch him a perch.

But perch were hard to come by, and genuine affection was even rarer.

He never once gave her a second glance.

She always thought they had simply spent too little time together, and that things would get better if they had more time.

Until one day, she heard someone speaking to Pei Xu outside his door:

“Yang Qiao is unfit to be a wife. Divorcing her and marrying someone else would be the best choice.”

Pei Xu replied coldly, “Divorce papers cost money, and she can’t even read or write. She’s as wild as a thornbush, and will never be suited to the ink and paper on my desk.”

The world was vast. Why force something that would not work?

Just as he wished, Yang Qiao left him a divorce agreement and ran away.

When the usually composed man saw the divorce agreement his wife had left behind, written in neat characters and full of heartfelt words, he began to panic.

It was only a small mistake. What harm was there in teaching her a few more times? He could simply take responsibility for her.

*

Later, Yang Qiao picked up a handsome mute man from the roadside. He clung to her shamelessly all day long.

He climbed an icy cliff with his bare hands, tearing back his fingernails until his hands were a bloody mess, all to find a medicinal ingredient that could cure her chilblains.

Her saddle chafed her skin, so he secretly mended it for her in the middle of the night. Even when a thick needle left his hand red and swollen, he said nothing when she asked him about it the next day.

...No matter how much she scolded him, he would not leave. She could not shake him off.

It was only when the mask came off that Yang Qiao realized she had been tricked!

“Pei Xu, didn’t we agree we’d have nothing to do with each other anymore!?”

The man stared at her, looking utterly certain that she belonged to him.

“I haven’t signed the divorce papers, so I’m still your husband.”

Content warnings: 1. The leads have a five-year age gap. One-on-one, both leads are sexually inexperienced. This is not a power fantasy featuring an exceptionally capable female lead.

2. The male lead has no first love. His martial skills are only enough for basic self-defense, while the female lead is highly skilled in combat.

3. The female lead simply dislikes studying, but she can read and write. The synopsis is told from one character’s perspective, so some details differ from the actual story. Although she loves the male lead, she never puts herself down. She loves going off to fight battles and does not think there is anything wrong with her.

4. Neither lead is perfect. The court-politics plot is very basic and serves mainly to set up the romance. Please do not read if that bothers you.

[The author may change the synopsis from time to time, but the story itself will remain the same. Please enjoy the novel without worrying about it.]

Theme: I am who I am, a firework unlike any other.