Returning Before My Husband Took a Second Wife

When Lu Ruowan married Murong Xie, she wholeheartedly believed that they would grow old together as an ordinary couple, like everyone else in the world.

But before long, Murong Xie's uncle had no heir, so Murong Xie had to carry on both branches of the family.

Lu Ruowan had considered that Murong Xie might take concubines someday, but she had never imagined that the woman who should have been his cousin's wife would become his other wife, standing on equal footing with her.

The uncle's branch was powerful, and the woman's maternal family was influential, so she constantly held Lu Ruowan down.

Even Murong Xie's own parents did not dare say much.

Though Lu Ruowan had been the principal wife Murong Xie married first, she could only lower herself and submit. She was not a concubine, yet was treated worse than one.

At the time, Murong Xie was always away fighting alongside his uncle, unable to attend to matters at home.

To spare him worry and keep peace in the household, Lu Ruowan could only swallow her grievances in silence.

It was only after she miscarried and lost her child, and received four brief words from Murong Xie, that she truly lost all hope:

"Take care of yourself."

She shut herself away completely.

She spent her days hidden in her own room, no longer caring about anything outside.

Even on the few occasions Murong Xie returned home, she was cold and distant, as if he had nothing to do with her.

She no longer wanted to share a bed with him, either.

They drifted further and further apart, growing so estranged that they seemed like strangers.

Later, once the realm had been pacified, Murong Xie's uncle became the founding emperor, and Lu Ruowan moved into the palace with Murong Xie.

Even as undercurrents swirled through the palace, she continued to live quietly, just as she always had.

She had kept out of worldly affairs for years and had no children. Naively, Lu Ruowan thought they would spare her in the end.

But she could not escape her fate. She died on the eve of Murong Xie's enthronement.

Who could have known that when she opened her eyes again, Lu Ruowan would be reborn to the time before Murong Xie was made to carry on both family branches?

She could not stop many things from happening, but she would no longer let others manipulate her.

The day after his wedding, Murong Xie left home to join his uncle's army.

Though he did not know his wife at home very well, whenever he remembered the tenderness and passion beneath the red bridal curtains that night, he would lie awake thinking of her for hours before he could fall asleep.

At last, when he could finally return home, Murong Xie could not hold back. He secretly slipped home a day early.

At midnight, as Murong Xie quietly crossed the secluded bamboo grove on his family's property, he happened to glimpse someone meeting in secret.

Eager to reunite with his wife, he had planned to ignore them. But then the woman's voice drifted to his ears on the breeze.

Her soft, sweet tone sounded so familiar to Murong Xie that he could not help wondering where he had heard it before.

Unable to resist, Murong Xie crept closer for a look.

Beneath the moonlight, he saw a woman with a slender figure and cloudlike hair, her skin as fair as jade and her bearing as lovely as a celestial maiden from a palace in heaven.

He recognized her at a glance. Who else could it be but his newlywed wife, Lu Ruowan?

And that was not all. At that moment, she was holding the unfamiliar man's hand and speaking softly: "Five days from now, at this same hour, wait for me here again."

Murong Xie's blood rushed to his head, and he felt it swell with anger.

He had felt the tenderness in her voice once on their wedding night, but had not yet had the chance to experience it a second time. How could she so easily show it to another man?

Theme: Grow together and leave no regrets