He Yuzhu knew Pei Yuanqing didn't like her.
She was the daughter of a minor official, the woman the Pei family had been forced to marry to dispel the emperor's suspicions. Her husband, a man of noble bearing and famed throughout the capital, had already given his heart to someone else.
She thought that since she was his lawful wife, if she treated him with sincerity, she could eventually warm his heart, hard as stone.
He Yuzhu learned to be a proper wife in a prominent family. She dutifully cared for her parents-in-law, looked after her younger siblings-in-law, and did her best to fulfill her responsibilities.
But her affection was never worth a thing to him. He casually gave the soup she'd made, burning her hand in the process, to the servants. He left the sleeping clothes she'd sewn by hand abandoned at the bottom of a chest. Even the jade hairpin she'd painstakingly made with the help of a master craftsman was smashed to pieces when he hurried off to see the woman he loved.
At last, her heart grew cold, and she decided to stop getting in his way. She would stay in her own courtyard and live out her days in peace.
Then, on the night of his birthday, he stumbled into her room, dead drunk, and forced himself on her without a word. But the name spilling from his lips was someone else's.
He Yuzhu gave up on him completely. Stroking her still-flat belly, she left behind a letter of separation and ran away.
*
As the second son of the distinguished Pei clan, Pei Yuanqing had always been disciplined and self-possessed. The only two times he ever lost his composure in his life were both because of He Yuzhu, the daughter of a minor official. The first was when he had to give up the woman he had chosen for himself and marry her for the sake of his family.
On their wedding night, he saw the woman's expectant, bashful gaze and coldly left her with a single command: "Be a proper young mistress of the Pei family." Then he swept out of the room.
He disliked her because her very existence constantly reminded him that even someone as capable as he was could not escape the fate of compromising for his family.
So he deliberately ignored her. No matter how carefully she tried to please him, he met her efforts with coldness and indifference.
Then, one day, he was set up and drugged, and the two of them accidentally spent a night together. He thought it was another one of her schemes. His disgust for her only grew, and he resolved to end things with her once and for all.
He went to her courtyard to find her, only to learn that she had left the city to pray for blessings. He sat alone all day in the courtyard he rarely visited. He never saw He Yuzhu again. Instead, he received the terrible news that her carriage had plunged off a cliff and she was nowhere to be found.
Pei Yuanqing crumpled the letter of separation and fell gravely ill.
Later, someone spotted the Pei family's noble, aloof second son at the foot of a cliff behind a Buddhist temple outside the capital. His fingers were bloody, and he looked like a madman as he kept clawing through the rubble, rasping over and over, "He Yuzhu, come out. I don't care if you're alive or dead... I want to see your body."
Later still, the Jade Pearl Lady, whose jade business had made her famous throughout Jiangnan, was gracious to everyone.
Except for the head of the Pei family, Pei Yuanqing.
[Reading Guide]
1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.
3. Both characters grow, especially the heroine.
Theme: Know when to cut your losses in love.
