The Heartless Man Has Someone He Loves

[Both leads are reborn] [Groveling arc] [Updated daily at noon]

Resilient, sun-loving poor girl x proud, unruly crown prince

Wei Shiyu and Fu Changge came from entirely different worlds.

She was a poor girl of humble birth, while Fu Changge was the legitimate son of a ducal household, a heaven-blessed favorite.

Back then, Shiyu didn’t understand. She thought water could wear away stone.

She pursued Fu Changge relentlessly, following him every day, tending to his needs with warmth and tenderness, convinced that she could win his heart.

She finally gathered the courage to confess her feelings. His only reply was:

“Don’t say it.”

When the ducal family fell into ruin, Fu Changge left for the battlefield. Shiyu saw him off at the pavilion ten miles outside the city.

She promised to wait for him, even if the seas ran dry and the stones crumbled.

But he “died in battle” and never came back.

Ten years later, they met again.

She was a wealthy merchant, and he was a noble lord.

She saw him standing on a bridge,

draped in a luxurious black fox-fur cloak and accompanied by his fiancée.

Shiyu was reborn fifteen years earlier.

The young man had eyes like stars and was peerlessly handsome. As he practiced his sword beneath the peach trees, petals fell all over her head.

His looks and the spring scenery were just as beautiful as before, but this time Shiyu’s heart was still.

Her love had worn away over the long years. She could no longer remember what it had felt like to love him.

-

Ever since the fleeting sight of Wei Shiyu beneath the peach trees, she had become Fu Changge’s nightmare.

In his dreams at midnight, a girl would follow him relentlessly, chattering away. But when he woke, she would keep him at arm’s length.

At their first meeting, Fu Changge despised the girl who had come to mooch off his family, and wished he could throw her out at once. Later, however, he found himself unable to stop looking for her.

He wanted her but could not have her, felt trapped on all sides, and could not make sense of it.

Until at last, he remembered everything.

Given another chance, Fu Changge experienced the feelings Wei Shiyu had once endured and finally understood why she always seemed to look down on him.

But what could he do?

He would have to chase her relentlessly and refuse to give up if he wanted a happy ending.

This time, he was determined to get one.

Shi (shí): a vigorous, thriving plant, suggesting wild growth.

Yu (yú): symbolizes intelligence, beauty, and every other fine quality.

(You can just remember it as “ten fish” too.)

Reading Guide:

** A slow-burn groveling arc, with a steady, painful build.

** Both of them had their reasons back then. The hero will keep remembering things in his dreams. The first part of the blurb is from the heroine’s perspective, so it is limited by what she knows. This is not a trash-man-and-doormat story.

** There are secrets about their past life, but I won’t spoil them. The chapters before the story goes premium explain enough to show why the heroine was reborn. If you don’t want to read it, feel free to leave, but please don’t make false accusations without reading the story first. (Bows.)

** Do not insult the heroine. Discussion is welcome, but no abusive language. If you insult her, the author will pout and ask for your comment to be deleted.

** Set in an imaginary world.

Coming next: I Heard My Powerful Official Husband Has a White Moonlight. Please add it to your collection!

Chu Liancheng was promised in marriage as a child.

Her fiancé came from an eminent family with an upright reputation, a man as pure and refreshing as moonlight and a breeze.

They had grown up together, close as childhood sweethearts, and everyone in the capital said they were a match made in heaven.

People said that the second son of the Fan family was both handsome and talented, and that having such a fine husband was a blessing from heaven.

Liancheng once thought so too.

Until the Chu family was confiscated and her fiancé disappeared without a trace.

That day, rain poured down in torrents. Liancheng stood on the steps of the Fan residence, clutching the dampened letter breaking off their engagement until her fingers turned white.

She wiped away her tears, lifted her face, and turned around.

“Sheng Heting.”

“I’ll marry you.”

Raindrops pattered against the umbrella.

The young man’s expression remained calm. His gaze passed over the girl’s soiled skirt, and he answered with a quiet, “All right.”

*

Sheng Heting was born to a poor family. Liancheng’s father had rescued him, a scholar, while returning to the capital.

He was taciturn, stiff, and solemn, utterly dull.

Liancheng did not like him.

But when the Chu family fell into ruin, Sheng Heting was the only one who stayed.

He gave Liancheng a place to live and got her father out of prison. Though she couldn’t cook or do laundry and their life together was chaotic, Sheng Heting never once complained.

But Liancheng knew that Sheng Heting was as cold and pure as snow, without desire or ambition. He had married her only to protect her from trouble and repay her father for saving his life.

Liancheng counted the days until their divorce, counting until Sheng Heting passed the imperial examinations, until he became the most sought-after rising star at court, until people once again said behind her back, “Third Miss Chu is so lucky! She had the foresight to recognize Sheng when he was still a nobody and won herself such a fine husband!”

…She counted until she nearly forgot that they were supposed to divorce.

Then one day, among the books Sheng Heting read every day, Liancheng found a portrait of a woman.

She suddenly understood that even repaying a debt of gratitude had to have its limits.

She thought she was being generous and magnanimous. She even wrote a rather polished divorce agreement.

But that night, the normally unflappable young man looked at her, and his composure cracked.

*

In the third year of the Zhanghe era, Sheng Heting first entered the marquis’s residence,

where he happened upon a young woman playing in the water.

From then on, he walked a long road just to keep her by his side.

Theme: Even the small and insignificant can move the heart