A Mistake in the Orchid Season

Blurb:

Lanshi made a deal with Fu Hengzhi, who had wandered into the countryside, gravely wounded and near death.

She would take him home and nurse him back to health in exchange for half a gold ingot, which she needed to bury her late husband.

Lanshi never imagined that the man she saved would have such an exalted identity.

The day Fu Hengzhi recovered, a large force of soldiers surrounded the place.

He lifted his chin and pointed at her haughtily with his riding crop.

"This country girl may be coarse and unrefined, and newly widowed, but she did save my life. Take her back with us. She'll do as a concubine."

Lanshi only wanted to remain faithful to her late husband and refused, but he forcibly seized her and took her to the capital.

Through countless nights of bitter entanglement, she ground her teeth in hatred while he kissed her neck again and again, whispering in her ear:

"You may hate me all you like. That man is dead. In the end, you can only be mine."

He kept her imprisoned. She tried to escape several times, but never succeeded. In the end, unwilling to remain a bird in a golden cage, she drove a dagger into his heart.

Fu Hengzhi had always known that she hated him to the bone. But things had gone too far: he could neither turn back nor let her go.

He thought that knife would be enough to end the tangled half-life of love and hate between them, but he never expected to be reborn on the day she found him.

Fu Hengzhi thought, This time, I have to treat her more gently.

He lay still in the damp mountain woods at summer's end, letting his blood gush out as the rain drained the warmth from his body.

But even as he lost consciousness for good, that familiar figure never appeared.

He summoned the last of his strength and crawled down the mountain like a dying dog, reaching the wooden house where she lived.

In the warm, golden candlelight, she sat by the window, her face calm and serene.

Another man, slender and refined, held her close and tenderly kissed the crown of her head.

It was her late husband from her previous life, the man she had loved so deeply.

Both leads are reborn, with a time gap.

Over-the-top angst, completely unrestrained. The only thing I can guarantee is that there are no scumbag men.

Blurb dated 25/8/27

Theme: Love requires honesty