[Rekindled Romance, Sharp-Tongued but Soft-Hearted Beauty vs. Grudge-Holding, Scheming Ex-Husband]
Zhou Shuran, daughter of a small-time merchant, had a pretty face but could barely read and write. She had a brash, streetwise temperament.
Hoping to attach herself to a powerful family, she tore up her marriage contract with the poor scholar Zheng Lan herself.
Not only did she break off the engagement, she went to his home to mock him.
Later, she failed to win the favor of any powerful family, while the poor scholar went to the capital to sit the imperial examinations and vanished without a trace.
Her brother jeered that she was too vulgar to ever marry a nobleman.
Zhou Shuran didn't believe him. She would marry, and she would marry someone everyone envied.
She heard that the newly appointed Deputy Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Zheng Mingqian, was the son of the current Chief Councillor. He was handsome, a top scorer in the imperial examinations, and the ideal husband in the eyes of the capital's powerful families.
With confidence in her looks, Zhou Shuran packed her bags and headed for the capital.
But on her very first day there, she ran into the scholar whose engagement she had broken off.
He was dressed in plain clothes and still looked as poor as ever.
Zhou Shuran breathed a sigh of relief. Good, he hadn't made it big.
She pretended not to know him and hurried into the crowd, not hearing someone behind her respectfully call out, "Lord Zheng."
She had meant to keep her distance from that scholar, but through a twist of fate, she ended up in bed with him.
Afterward, she nestled in his arms, crying pitifully. "It's all your fault. How am I supposed to seduce Zheng Mingqian now?"
The scholar leisurely helped her tie her underclothes, a faint smile on his face.
"Then you'd better think of a good solution, Miss Zhou."
"After all, a poor scholar like me can't be much help."
All of the capital was gossiping that Zheng Mingqian kept a mistress. The woman couldn't read and was terribly vulgar, yet Lord Zheng stayed the night with her every day and spoiled her rotten.
Only the so-called mistress herself still hadn't figured out who she was sleeping with.
**
Zheng Mingqian hated Zhou Shuran.
He hated her for being vain and mercenary back then, and for being so cold and heartless.
But what he hated most was that even after seeing her again, he still couldn't let her go.
Zhou Shuran, since you've come to tempt me again, don't think you can leave.
If you want to marry someone everyone envies, then marry me.
You're only allowed to marry me.
One-on-one romance, both leads' first relationship, happy ending. The heroine grows over the course of the story.
Theme: Stay true to yourself.
