[Amnesia trope + adorable child + unexpected arrival + male lead angst]
Bai Jingheng is the youngest prime minister of the Great Yin Kingdom of Jing. Handsome and exceptionally talented, decisive in his dealings and efficient in solving cases, he commands great respect at court. Everyone fears him, and the people praise him. His one blemish is that he took as a concubine the daughter of a disgraced official accused of treason.
The night before, Jiang Ran had been telling her childhood sweetheart that they would go to the battlefield together and defend the frontier side by side for the rest of their lives.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself the daughter of a disgraced official, and had been a concubine for six years!
And her husband was her old nemesis?
Three children in six years?
Everyone said he loved her, but she didn't believe it! Her children died one by one, and instead of avenging them, he used their deaths to win people's favor. She had to escape this madman!
She was already his concubine. She couldn't understand why he insisted on marrying her as his principal wife after the children died. Was it supposed to make up for things? She didn't want it!
She watched him marry the daughters of officials and a princess sent for a political marriage, placing that princess on a pedestal. By day, he was proper and courteous to other people; by night, he imprisoned Jiang Ran in the mud and tormented her. She had to leave!
At last, she found her chance. On the day of the wedding, the entire manor was ablaze. Standing atop the bridal chamber as flames roared around him, Bai Jingheng watched Jiang Ran, dressed in a principal wife's wedding gown, flee down an empty street. Countless lanterns rose into the sky, lighting up the dark streets throughout the city. Firecrackers roared across the city, drowning out the clang of blades and the sounds of fighting inside the manor...
Jiang Ran thought she'd made a clean escape. Bai Jingheng became emperor, and everyone knew his principal wife had died in that fire.
She decided she needed to find her children a father. Her childhood sweetheart treated her and the children sincerely, so she accepted his proposal. A month before their wedding, she heard that the emperor would be taking a new empress, and that their wedding dates were the same. But by then, she didn't care.
Then the red veil was lifted, and Bai Jingheng appeared before her!
The madman wore an elaborate, magnificent wedding robe, and her own wedding clothes had changed, too. The husband she had yet to consummate her marriage with was bound in the outer room, separated by a screen. In the inner chamber, Bai Jingheng pinned her to the bed and wantonly abused her, cruelly forcing out the sobs she could barely stifle.
"Ranran, let's continue our wedding."
Content warnings:
1. A torturous love story of love and hate, a relationship of mutual destruction, an old unsolved case, and love that can't be spoken aloud. The male lead loves no one but the female lead, not even himself. [Important: when he goes mad, he even kills himself.]
2. Coercive pursuit. The male lead never realizes she's an unexpected arrival, and always thinks she loves her childhood sweetheart. Many melodramatic tropes. Please don't read if that's not your thing.
3. She runs, he chases, and she can't escape. The children aren't dead; it's all a misunderstanding. Please don't read if that's not your thing.
4. Fictional setting with a hodgepodge of customs and systems. Male lead angst. Please don't read if that's not your thing.
5. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. The male lead never sleeps with other women. Please don't read if that's not your thing.
Theme: Free love comes first.
