Twin Red Beans

On the second day after she married into the Lu family, her newlywed husband wanted to annul their marriage.

Pingyi lowered her eyes and stared blankly at the tips of her shoes, listening as the young top scholar she had admired from afar for so long said to the old madam in a cold voice, "I knew nothing about this marriage. I cannot accept it. Have someone send her back to the Zhao family today."

As Lu Jiayu stepped out, she hadn't had time to hide, and he saw the tears on her face.

Summoning all her courage, she lifted her face and called him softly, "Husband."

She had practiced saying that word hundreds of times in her maiden home.

He lowered his lashes and gave her an indifferent glance. Then he furrowed his brow and walked past her without a word.

Things took an unexpected turn. Before he could send her away, he received an imperial decree: the southern lands were flooded, and he was ordered to head south at once to manage the flood control, without delay.

They met again a year later.

Pingyi wore a married woman's clothes, her figure frail. Her kite had flown over the courtyard wall, so she lifted her skirt and ran after it, only to crash into someone.

It was Lu Jiayu.

He was travel-worn but still elegant and tall, clearly unprepared to see her in the Lu residence.

Lu Jiayu froze. So she really had waited for him for a year.

He lowered his eyes, his voice cool, determined to behave like a gentleman to the very end.

"I never meant to keep you waiting for a year. I wronged you. If you wish, I can acknowledge you as my sworn younger sister and find you a good husband, so you can remarry in style and no one will dare look down on you..."

But she called him, "Elder Brother."

Lu Jiayu looked up.

She was frowning slightly, respectful but distant. "You're back."

*

Zhao Pingyi was still a daughter-in-law of the Lu family, but she was no longer Lu Jiayu's wife.

On the night he left to manage the floods, the Lu family, feeling they owed her, arranged a divorce. Then they made sure she could marry Lu Jiayu's younger brother in grand style.

That year, they were a loving couple.

Everyone in the Lu residence cherished her.

It would have been even better if the man who should have been part of her past hadn't suddenly returned.

That day, passing beneath the window, he heard her murmuring softly with his younger brother: "No, even if he comes back, I only love you. Ah, what a misunderstanding it all was. If I'd known back then that you were the one who saved me, I wouldn't have..."

Lu Jiayu's steps slowly rooted him to the spot. His hands clasped behind his back clenched until his knuckles turned white.

*

Zhao Pingyi x Lu Jiayu (older brother)

The heroine has no prior relationship experience; the male lead goes crazy, and this is a groveling-after-the-breakup story

Theme: Those who betray a sincere heart should swallow a thousand silver needles