After I Toyed with the Cool and Aloof Heir and Cast Him Aside

In the first year of Xian Chan's marriage, her husband's family is confronted by creditors.

Her younger brother-in-law sells off everything they own, then takes her to the Duke's estate to become the heir's personal maid, otherwise known as his bedchamber woman.

The old matron who shows her around says the cousin staying at the estate will one day be the heir's wife.

She also says the cousin is in poor health and unlikely to have children, so she'll need to borrow Xian Chan's womb.

Once the cousin is married, she can take the child and raise it herself.

Before the wedding, Xian Chan's parents told her that her husband's family had once saved their lives.

One must repay a kindness. With her husband away, her brother-in-law's word is the law.

Xian Chan meekly agrees.

*

Xian Chan is one of the prettiest women in town. From the age of fourteen, matchmakers have been beating a path to her door.

But her beauty doesn't impress the heir.

The Duke's household holds her family hostage, and her brother-in-law begs her desperately, so Xian Chan has no choice but to go along with it.

She makes wontons and waits at the courtyard gate for the heir to come home late at night and eat them. He barely gives her a glance.

She secretly sews her name inside the heir's sash so he'll remember her, only to see him change into a new one the next moment.

She asks around and tries to imitate the women the heir favors, but she's not used to wearing upturned shoes and accidentally knocks over his inkstone. As punishment, she kneels in the ancestral hall in the depths of winter and copies the household rules a hundred times. Her knees are trembling by the time she's finally allowed to go to bed.

He is proper and courteous to everyone else, like an immortal as still as a deep pool and majestic as a mountain. In front of her, though, he's rarely even civil.

She makes no headway for a long time, and the cousin keeps pressing her. One rainy night, she has no choice but to accept the “lamb soup” the old matron brings her.

The next day, she learns that the heir has gone south to suppress bandits.

She's done everything she was supposed to, but months pass and there's still no sign of a child.

Xian Chan knows that if she stays any longer, she'll be taking her allowance for nothing and facing people's cold stares.

The year-end holidays are approaching, and her husband is due to return as well.

While the man is away on another journey, Xian Chan packs her things, bids farewell to the cousin, and returns home early.

*

Han Yan has only been away for a short while. When he returns, he discovers that the woman in his rooms is gone.

He has never liked that woman, who is uneducated and awkward with words, unable to say a single flattering thing even when she tries.

He hears her contract is up and she's left the estate for her hometown. He ought to be happy.

But when he sees that she hasn't taken a single one of the things he gave her, his gaze turns cold.

She is his bedchamber woman.

Who gave her the nerve to leave without asking him?

In the dim light of day, Xian Chan is held behind a folding screen, her peach-colored cheeks damp with sweat and her gold hairpin fallen to the ground.

Outside the screen, her honest, tenant-farmer husband stands with his head bowed in the hall, answering the steward's questions, completely unaware of the secret unfolding here.

Xian Chan looks back in resentment, trying to break free, but the man suddenly makes his move. Hearing her gasp with a furrowed brow, he says, “If that peasant sees you and me here, A Chan, do you think he'll still want you?”

Reading guide:

◆ Both leads are virgins; bittersweet romance. A timid, honest, sweet girl x an heir who is aloof in public but a sinister devil behind closed doors.

◆ The male lead and the cousin have a verbal engagement, but they never marry. He only loves the female lead from beginning to end.

◆ The female lead's surname is Lin. She was matched with her former husband by a matchmaker; they never met before the wedding and had no feelings for each other. He left right after the wedding ceremony. She only loves the male lead from beginning to end. She has no children, and they adopt one in the end. Blurb written and screenshot on 2026/06/03.

Theme: You have to fight for your own happiness.