Stealing Springtime's Joy

Powerful minister steals his rival's wife + possessive, sweet romance + powerful man humbles himself

[Lower your eyes to call him Uncle, raise them to see your husband]

The night before Xu Suining was to marry into the Pei household, her playboy fiance died in a maid's bed.

That very night, Pei Zhiheng, the Pei family's refined, upright elder son, came to see her. His voice was calm and cool. "Now that my younger brother is gone, the engagement cannot be annulled. I'll fulfill it in his place."

For two years of marriage, she thought they treated each other with respect and lived in harmony. Until one day, she heard him tell his advisors, "The position of head wife of the Pei family cannot go to an ignorant woman like her. But the engagement is already set. If I don't marry her, the Pei family will lose face."

It turned out that, in his eyes, she was nothing more than an embarrassing obligation he had to see through.

On a snowy night, he abandons her on the street. There, she meets the imperial preceptor, a powerful elder whom her husband reveres like a god.

He gives her his carriage and makes her husband ride through half the city in the freezing cold.

Later, outside the ancestral hall, she serves tea and water, lowering her eyes to call him "Uncle."

He looks down at her, his voice clear and cool. "He treats you badly, doesn't he?"

She bites her lip and says nothing, but her eyes turn red first.

He doesn't ask again. He simply makes the decision for her.

A divorce letter is delivered to the Pei household, and his seal is stamped over Pei Zhiheng's name.

Later, as he teaches her to write, he reaches around from behind and guides her hand holding the brush, stroke by stroke, as she writes the characters for "husband":

"Feifei, this is what you should call me."

Xu Suining doesn't know that the imperial preceptor, Ji Changling, had cherished her in his heart ever since she was a child.

Her former husband regrets everything and begs her to come back.

Xu Suining sits upright in the main hall, holding a cup of tea to warm her hands. She doesn't even raise her eyes. "Young Master Pei, watch your words. By our family relationship, you should call me Aunt."