The news that the eldest son of the Wang family and the eldest daughter of the Yun family were seeking a divorce spread quickly throughout the Capital.
Less than twenty years had passed since the edict allowing divorce was issued; prior to that, Great Zhou only permitted the "casting off" of a wife, with no option for a mutual separation. It was the Eldest Princess who, upon returning from the battlefields, had proposed the change to the Emperor. Grateful for her service in protecting the realm, the Emperor had agreed, amending the law to allow wives to initiate divorce and for couples to part ways by mutual consent. Since the amendment, the status of women had risen; legally, they now held a degree of agency and a path of retreat. Following the law's inception, while instances of divorce were occasionally heard of among the common folk, such a thing had never once occurred among the noble and prominent families.
Now that the Wang and Yun families had set a precedent, the matter quickly became the most discussed topic in the Capital. The gossip-hungry searched high and low for information, and the Yun family made their stance clear: they were indeed in discussions regarding a divorce. The Wang family, however, remained tight-lipped, offering no news. Only rumors from the first-branch Madame suggested that the Wang family acknowledged their mistakes and understood the Yun family's desire for divorce, though they hoped to cherish the bond for the sake of the two children—an i…
Chapter 58