The Farmer’s Daughter Who Married into the General’s Household

[Household intrigue + tragic romance + unfaithful heroine + bad ending + the male lead loves the heroine, but loves the second female lead more, with a slight groveling arc] A farmer’s daughter, Zhan Qingyu, is chosen one day to marry into the prestigious General’s Manor as the general’s son’s principal wife. Full of hope, she only wants to live a peaceful life with her husband. But his heart has always belonged to his first love, and he treats Qingyu with cold indifference. Hoping to become worthy of him, Zhan Qingyu works hard to learn how to be a proper mistress of a noble household, wishing to earn even a little of his affection. Then she accidentally discovers that the woman’s family has committed an appalling crime, and that the woman herself is using her husband for personal gain. Unable to bear seeing him deceived, Zhan Qingyu gathers her courage and tells her parents-in-law the truth. To her surprise, her actions lead to the first love’s family being convicted and having their estate confiscated. Her husband decides that Zhan Qingyu is vicious and deliberately set out to harm them, and from then on he hates her with all his heart. Not long afterward, he brings home a woman who looks exactly like his first love and takes her as a concubine. To avenge the woman he loves, he pretends to care for Zhan Qingyu and treats her tenderly. Once she has fallen completely for him, he cruelly takes their child away. In the end, their young child dies after being secretly harmed by the concubine. The grief of losing her child crushes the last of Zhan Qingyu’s hopes, and all her love turns into a bitter, bone-deep hatred. But through their day-after-day life together, her husband has unknowingly come to truly love his principal wife. In the love and hatred entwined within the inner quarters, the two are ultimately trapped in an inescapable deadlock.