Cui Ruyin, a commoner girl from a merchant family, weathered the ridicule of her contemporaries and married well, becoming the wife of the handsome, refined heir to the Dingping Marquisate.
After the wedding, she swallowed her grievances, used her dowry to cover the marquisate's debts, honored her elders, served her husband, and kept the vast estate running smoothly.
Yet her cold husband's eyes held not a trace of warmth for her, only scorn and contempt.
Even on the day she miscarried, he remained in his study, handling official business.
Cui Ruyin had once hated him with all her heart. But lately, she had found her husband strangely pleasing to the eye and couldn't help wanting to get closer to him.
*
The Xiao family of the Dingping Marquisate had been a family of scholars for generations, with strict rules and traditions.
Xiao Yan had been proper and courteous from childhood, disciplined and self-restrained. Although he disliked his wife's vulgar ignorance and the reek of money about her, he still deigned to treat her with respect and harmony as husband and wife.
He believed he was the one person his wife could rely on in the vast marquisate. Whenever he saw her rise before dawn to help him dress and wash, Xiao Yan was sure that he occupied all her thoughts.
Especially lately, his wife had become unusually dependent on him.
So Xiao Yan decided to tell her that he was gradually growing accustomed to her presence, and no longer minded sharing a harmonious marriage and deep affection with her.
Then the witchcraft disaster erupted, and a kind of parasite called the Heart of Calamity ran rampant.
Once ingested, it instantly reversed a person's emotions: love became hate, and hate became love.
His trusted subordinate investigated the innocent people in the city who had fallen victim to the parasites. Xiao Yan casually scanned the register, only to find his wife's name at the very end.
Just then, his wife, Cui Ruyin, swayed into his arms with a graceful, curvaceous figure and clung to him as she declared her love: "Husband, I adore you..."
Only then did the heir, a man at the very pinnacle of power, realize just how much his wife hated him.
Theme: Love is in the hands of fate.
After Marrying My Powerful Uncle
Spring Mountain Sends Word [Marriage Before Love]
One and Only
Good Kitty, Bad Dog [Marriage Before Love]
Hard to Cross [Sponsorship]
I Became a Master of the Occult After Seeing the Future
I Rule the Cultivation World with Gacha
Not Close [A Long-Game Scheme]
Snowfall Tonight [Marriage Before Love]
Daily Life of Hoarding Supplies and Thriving Through Disasters [Farming]
The Noblewoman Who Married a Rough-Hewn Man