He Returned with a Broken Vow; I Left with My Children to Find Spring

About the story

Shen Qingruo and Gu Yan have been married for ten years. Before their wedding, he swore at her mother's grave never to take a concubine and registered the vow with the capital authorities. Yet after five years serving away from home, he returns with concubine Song Suxue and a son and daughter. Shen Qingruo neither cries nor protests; she quietly puts away his written promise. On the day of the ancestral genealogy ceremony, she willingly endures ten lashes under the family rules and establishes proof that he has broken his vow, then leaves the Gu residence overnight with her children. Gu Yan follows her to Quzhou to repent, with Song Suxue close behind. But when everyone confronts one another, Shen Qingruo discovers that the supposed son and daughter have a different bloodline.