Back to the Day I Divorced My Cold-Faced Husband

Coming soon next door: My Husband Had Actually Loved Me All Along (My Wife Seems to Love Me More After Losing Her Memory)

A sickly beauty and a rough man nobody values, a sweet face-slapping story: Rebels Take Over. Please add to your collection!

The final chapter is best read with the human-ghost romance and the extras that follow. It is both an ending and a beginning. Anti-piracy threshold: 70%

* Proud, alluring noblewoman who knows how to bait a hook X fake aloof, secretly cunning general

* Two lifetimes of unrequited love finally fulfilled | Black-bellied husband gets exposed | Married first, love later

On New Year's Eve in the thirteenth year of Yongding, Lin Shuyu plunged a gold hairpin into her heart right in front of Crown Prince Su Chi. As she watched the man she had once loved weep, the face that appeared in her mind belonged to her former husband, whose expression had always been cold.

The emperor granted her a marriage decree, ordering her to wed Gu Ruxu, a general from humble beginnings.

She found him crude and uncouth, incapable of sharing her love of music, chess, calligraphy, painting, wine, and tea.

For three years of marriage, she kept him at arm's length and treated him with icy indifference.

He was just as cold toward her. When she asked for a divorce, he could hardly wait to send her away with jewels and fine wares, never to see her again.

After their divorce, she threw herself into the Eastern Palace, only to be betrayed and imprisoned, while her family was destroyed.

On the verge of death, she learned by chance that the general she had always despised had led troops into the capital and drawn his sword before the emperor, all to take her away...

She awoke to find herself back on the day she had asked Gu Ruxu for a divorce. She tore up the divorce agreement and looked at her cold-looking husband with a bright smile. "Where are you sending me? To my Songting Residence, or to your study?"

*

When she had just been reborn:

She lightly hooked a finger around his, smiling at him. The man remained expressionless and silent.

Then she brushed a kiss over his lips and sent him a flirtatious glance. The man stared blankly ahead, as if he hadn't heard a thing.

After they made love, the man turned his solid, muscular back to her. Lin Shuyu could take no more: this man was a block of wood who simply didn't get it.

She comforted herself: Mending their relationship would take time. She couldn't rush it.

But as the days passed, she noticed her cold-faced husband spending more and more time alone in his study, until one day...

She heard a muffled groan from inside. When she opened the door, the room was covered in portraits of her:

There she was, reading with her eyelashes lowered, napping with her eyes closed, pausing to watch the rain, drawing a bow on horseback...

*

Gu Ruxu was a country bumpkin, a rough-hewn general in the eyes of the world. Yet this very man, still young, had reclaimed five border regions and seventeen cities, striking fear into Northern Liang and the Western Tribes.

But when the late emperor asked what reward he wanted, he requested a marriage decree. The woman he sought was the pampered young lady of the Lin Duke's residence, Lin Shuyu.

She did not love him.

She loved the Prince of Ning, her childhood companion, a celebrated, gentle young gentleman of Bianjing, not a rustic soldier who had fought his way up from the countryside.

But he married her anyway.

Just when his heart had turned cold and he thought the two of them were destined to divorce, she tore the divorce agreement to shreds in front of him, a proud smile on her face.

"Gu Ruxu, I don't want a divorce anymore."

He tried his best to play the refined, courteous gentleman she liked, just so she would stay by his side one more day.

If he could, he would hide that secret for the rest of his life.

He was no gentleman. He was a man who had coveted her for years, a thief hoping to win her affection.

*

Later, the young lady pressed against his strong, burning chest, kissed until she could no longer tell up from down, her face flushed and lips parted.

"You scoundrel! You scoundrel! You weren't like this before!" Her head buried in his chest in shame and fury, she pinched crescent-shaped marks into his arm.

Gu Ruxu stopped, his obsidian eyes fixed on her for a long moment. His Adam's apple bobbed silently, and an amused smile touched his lips.

"A Yu, you said that husband and wife should act like husband and wife." The man leaned against her shoulder, panting. His broad, rough hand once again toyed with her rosy lower lip, just as...

He had imagined doing to her portrait countless times.

Reader's guide:

* The male lead has had no one in either of his two lives

* Sweet HE, with some angst from the male lead's perspective

* A long-planned love finally finds its happy ending

* He thought he was lighting a firecracker against a stone, only to find it was all dry grass. The old house is going up in flames

* Jealous, self-deluding, black-bellied powerful official X well-read, gentle yet strong-willed and easygoing woman

* Her husband's mortal enemy appears in her dreams, and her husband loses it

Recently, Shen Huaiyu had been jolting awake from her dreams at night. In them, she saw the face of a strange man. They held hands and embraced intimately, even sharing a bed. The man smiled as he drew her into his arms and tenderly called her "dearest."

But that man... wasn't her husband.

Then one day, she saw the man from her dreams. He was a newly appointed top scholar in the court, serving as Censor-in-Chief and constantly impeaching her husband, Xie Yunyao, for monopolizing power and misleading the young ruler.

They were enemies known throughout the land.

*

Shen Huaiyu was a daughter born to a concubine in the Yong'an Marquis's household. Her birth mother had died young. Though her status was low, the principal wife treated her well, and she had never wanted for food or clothing. The match her family found for her was Xie Yunyao, the powerful Prince Regent.

The dynasty had only just changed, and marrying the Prince Regent was a match into a powerful household. If he could keep her safe, that was all she could ask for.

In the three years since their marriage, she had lived a leisurely, comfortable life in the Xie residence. She grew flowers, fed birds, played music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and occasionally slipped out to work extra shifts at a small clinic. Her life was easy and prosperous.

Most importantly, she was free to take things easy and didn't have to deal with the troublesome man of the household. Xie Yunyao never made trouble for her.

Every other day, he would visit her courtyard and sit quietly, watching her burn incense and paint, grind ink, and drink tea.

Sometimes she was a little afraid of him. His gaze felt heavy, and his deep eyes seemed cold and distant, as if coated in frost and snow. Fortunately, his temperament was fairly gentle.

Even when untying her dress, Xie Yunyao remained restrained and proper, as if he were merely going through the motions.

Everyone said Xie Yunyao was a refined and gentle gentleman, and it was true.

Aside from his cold nature and rigid ways, there was nothing wrong with him.

One day, she accidentally overheard an argument outside. Hiding behind a wall, she saw Xie Yunyao press a blade to the Censor-in-Chief's throat. He looked at the man like an enemy, veins standing out on the back of his hand. She had never seen him so vicious.

*

One night, Shen Huaiyu woke from a dream feeling unwell. Xie Yunyao was above her, his face dark and cold, his eyes full of desire and a chilling murderous intent.

The man nearly forced her lips apart with his, his rough palm gripping her slender waist. He leaned over her chest and panted heavily, his voice low and hoarse.

"A Yu, who were you calling just now? I'm your husband. Your husband can only be me..."

*

To the court officials, Xie Yunyao was a loyal minister who upheld the righteous path and protected the young ruler. To the people, he was a gentleman of noble character.

But no one else knew that when a former court official, now serving as Censor-in-Chief, fell on hard times, Xie Yunyao had forcibly taken his betrothed.

After taking her for himself, he forced her to marry him, making her miserable until she fell gravely ill and nearly died.

Shen Huaiyu realized she seemed to have reached a crossroads. But when she looked back and tried to flee, she found nothing behind her but a cliff.

There was no way back.

Theme: Cherish the person by your side