His Bride

(The Crematorium)

In the second year of their marriage, and the eighth year since she fell in love with Shen Yanzhi, he brought a woman back to the Eastern Palace.

Her father was the Left Chancellor, a powerful man who held sway over the court and a key minister Shen needed to win over.

With red-rimmed eyes, she knelt before Shen Yanzhi. He lowered his head, a trace of sympathy in his eyes, yet kept three paces between them.

"A Ying, I am the Crown Prince, the heir to the Great Yao. I cannot be the husband of you alone."

He wanted power, the support of his ministers, and to stand at the summit of imperial authority.

On the night he married the Chen family’s daughter, gongs and drums thundered throughout the Eastern Palace.

She, too, wore crimson. Beneath her clothes were wounds inflicted by Lady Chen, but at the Crown Prince’s frown, she stepped forward gracefully to offer him a toast.

That was their first quarrel in ten years.

The wine soaked her clothes. With her eyes closed, Jiang Zeying swallowed the harsh wedding wine and spoke in a despairing voice. "Shen Yanzhi, I don’t want the child anymore. Divorce me."

The day she left the Eastern Palace, a light rain pattered on the palace steps.

From Yaohua Hall to the palace gate, there were exactly 362 blue bricks. She counted them one by one and looked back 72 times.

Shen Yanzhi stood on the palace steps beneath an umbrella, his expression blurred by the drizzle, his figure cool and noble.

He never said a word.

Shen Yanzhi had thought she was only leaving the Eastern Palace in a fit of pique.

They had loved each other for more than three thousand days. Even with a divorce decree between them, they were still childhood sweethearts, a young couple.

Until the day he saw Jiang Zeying again. He was the new emperor, supreme ruler of the realm. She was already another man’s wife.

In the depths of the palace, inside Eternal Light Hall, he took off his imperial robes and finally yielded.

"A Ying, whether you let me be your husband or your lover, I don’t mind."

"Stay and keep me company for a while, will you?"

Qin Lian’s story:

When he first met Jiang Zeying, she was covered in wounds and numb and indifferent toward love.

He spent three years and poured all his heart into slowly nursing her back to life, like a flower that had been trampled.

Later...

He risked his life once more to save her from Shen Yanzhi and from the man-eating imperial palace.

**

Childhood sweethearts turn into a story of coercive possession. The male lead gets his comeuppance and chases his ex-wife but fails to win her back. The second male lead takes his place, and the story opens with their separation.

The male lead and second male lead have both only been with the heroine, though she has been with both of them.

Theme: Live your own life.