The Noble Wife Left in the Snow

Ji Han'yi was married into the Xie family while still very young. For three years her husband Xie Yuheng barely looked at her, giving everything he had to his cousin Li Mingruo, who was working her own angles the whole time. One night in heavy snow Ji Han'yi is left alone out in the wilderness. Whatever she still felt for him ends there, and she asks to be released from the marriage. Only then does Xie Yuheng decide he wants her, and he starts chasing, pleading, using every method available to keep her. Shen Si grew up beside her and now holds real power at court, and he has loved her quietly for years, clearing obstacles out of her path without letting her see him do it. Li Mingruo has been poisoning her by degrees and setting up situations meant to discredit her, and the scheme comes apart in public and takes her prospects with it. Ji Han'yi sees plainly what her husband is, sets the past down, and accepts Shen Si. The difference in their rank draws criticism and the palace applies pressure of its own.