The First Year After the Divorce

It's complete! Thank you all for the five-star reviews~ My new novel, After Marrying Up, is now available. Give it a try~ Both leads are virgins | Powerful man bows his head | Strong male lead, weaker female lead Plainspoken country girl wife x deranged, wicked young nobleman The year Yun Ni met Shen Tinglan, she was of marriageable age but still knew nothing about romance. Shen Tinglan didn't mind that his wife was lame, and Yun Ni didn't mind that her husband was poor. So they married. A year into their marriage, they were deeply in love, living together in harmony. It wasn't until Shen Tinglan's cold sword pressed against Yun Ni's neck that she understood: all the affection he'd shown her had been an illusion. Shen Tinglan was suffering from a love curse. Only sleeping with her could ease the pain in his heart. Every kind thing he did for Yun Ni was just a bit of amusement to fill his spare time. She was only a lame orphan girl. How could he possibly care about her? Yun Ni accepted the truth. She stopped clinging to Shen Tinglan's tenderness and made an agreement with him. “In six months, the mother parasite inside me will die, and you'll no longer suffer from the love curse. Then you can be the lord of your noble house, and I'll go back to my hometown in Xuzhou. Let's call it even.” - Shen Tinglan was a regent lord, high above everyone else and never deigning to look down on the common people. If not for the love curse, why would he ever care about a country girl? She was no more than a filthy speck of mud on his clothes. He only had to wipe her away. - Six months later, Shen Tinglan was cured of the love curse, and Yun Ni left him behind to make her escape. A few times, he looked back at the empty bed and lost himself in thought... As if he had lost something. - After leaving Shen Tinglan, Yun Ni's life gradually improved. Leading a pony and carrying a bow, she surveyed the mountain cottage that had long stood abandoned. She could fence off one spot for a chicken coop, build a sheep pen over there, and, best of all, raise a little watchdog. She had so many plans, but none of those futures included Shen Tinglan. Yun Ni had barely begun to enjoy her good life when one day Shen Tinglan, the man she was never supposed to see again, suddenly showed up at her door. He still held his cold sword. His icy eyes lifted slightly as he gently stroked Yun Ni's cheek. Meeting his wife's terrified gaze, he coaxed her in a low voice. “Yun Ni, this heart ailment is hard to cure... A few more nights together are needed to ease the pain.” 【Reader's Guide】 1. Plainspoken country girl x deranged, wicked young nobleman. Both leads are virgins. The male lead is 26 and the female lead is 18, an eight-year age gap. 2. Inspired by the 2005 Taiwanese idol drama Prince Turns to Frog: an amnesiac man is taken in and turns out to be a highborn nobleman. The love-curse concept in this story is based on the Miao people's love curse. Here is some background: a gu is created by putting a hundred kinds of poisonous creatures together to fight each other. The one that survives becomes the gu. The most toxic gu is called a love gu. When someone afflicted with it thinks of the person they love, the gu gnaws at their heart and causes pain. The pain stops only when they see their beloved. Legend has it that the love gu can keep two people together for life, never to part. (Quoted from Baidu.) The love-curse concept in this story draws on Miao traditions, but also includes elements invented by the author. The curse comes in a male-female pair and doesn't create feelings. It only makes the two people feel pain in their hearts when they are far apart. 3. All place names in the novel are fictional and have no connection to real life. Xuzhou isn't the real Xuzhou, so please don't nitpick. 4. Comments that spread rumors, abuse, or personally attack anyone will be screenshotted and kept as evidence for legal action. Please be kind and respectful when discussing the story. Thank you. Please add The Former Lover's Uncle's Spoiled Concubine to your collection~ Female lead isn't a virgin, male lead is | Uncle takes over | An old flame reignites Long-neglected chamber maid x aloof, deranged lord The seventh son of the Xiao family, Xiao Ming, passed the imperial examinations as a young man and had a bright future in government. Before he was even twenty, he had already risen to the third rank as a vice minister of revenue. Xiao Ming was handsome and refined, a fine figure of a man. He had it all, except that people criticized his conduct in the private affairs of his household. Three years ago, Xiao Ming had tried to elevate a lowborn chamber maid. He lost his head and insisted on breaking off the prestigious match his family had arranged for him. The Dowager Lady Xiao was so worried she got a cold sore. Leaning on her cane, she scolded him: “That kind of homewrecker must never be allowed into the main household. At most, give her a side courtyard and send her far away.” - The chamber maid Jiang Lian was the homewrecker the Dowager Lady Xiao had been talking about. But rumors misled people. It wasn't that she had deliberately seduced Xiao Ming and driven him to favor a concubine over his wife. Rather, Xiao Ming had fallen deeply in love with her. He used every means at his disposal, taking her by force and refusing to let her buy her freedom and leave the estate. Three years had passed, and Jiang Lian had long since fallen out of favor. Xiao Ming had cast her aside like a worn-out shoe. From a pearl he once treasured in his palm, Jiang Lian had become a worthless fish eye. Xiao Ming no longer stayed in Jiang Lian's courtyard. Even the servants who fawned on the powerful and trampled the weak now dared to cut back on her provisions and bully her at every turn, openly and behind her back. One day, a beauty newly taken as Xiao Ming's concubine heard about Jiang Lian's past. Seeing that her own face bore some resemblance to Jiang Lian's, she felt jealous and began plotting to harm her. Just then, Marquis Jingnan Xiao Huaiyu returned in triumph and came back to the ancestral home to visit his family. The beauty deliberately drugged Jiang Lian and sent her to Xiao Huaiyu's courtyard. She planned to frame this “faded old chamber maid,” accusing her of being unable to endure loneliness and trying to commit adultery! The beauty waited outside with a servant, ready to catch them in the act. She was just waiting for Xiao Huaiyu to fly into a rage and throw Jiang Lian out. But the night passed, and all was quiet in Xiao Huaiyu's courtyard. - In the luxurious bedchamber, incense drifted through the air, and the bed was damp and rumpled. Jiang Lian had been exhausted all night. When she woke, the sun was already high in the sky. She looked at the red marks covering her neck. Then she glanced at Marquis Jingnan Xiao Huaiyu, lying beside her, coldly handsome and noble, and felt utterly hopeless. Could someone please tell her... what was the punishment for accidentally sleeping with her master's uncle? 【Reader Advisory】 1. The female lead Jiang Lian is not a virgin, the second male lead Xiao Ming is not a virgin, and the male lead Xiao Huaiyu is a virgin. Jiang Lian and the second male lead have no husband-and-wife or concubine relationship. She is a chamber maid, and they are only master and servant. 2. Jiang Lian is 19, Xiao Ming is 21, and Xiao Huaiyu is 27. 3. This novel leans sweet, with elements of coercive possession. Theme: Become strong and self-reliant