I Leave, You Regret It

Cui Ying had once suffered a serious illness. Her family was too poor to afford treatment, and ever since then, her reactions had been slower than other people's, and she had lost most of her hearing.

By chance, she saved a handsome, injured man, and the two married in the mountains.

He treated her extremely well, with boundless care and patience.

He never minded her illness, the thing she felt most ashamed of. He told her that no matter how many times it took, he would repeat himself until A Ying could hear and understand.

Yet this husband, who cherished her so dearly, left her with fifty taels and a divorce letter when war broke out.

She tracked him down in the army, only to learn that he was the great general who had supposedly died three years earlier.

The first time they met again, he asked, "You think the money isn't enough?"

The next time she managed to make out his words, he said, "I'll recognize you as my cousin. That's all the kindness I owe you."

The last time she heard his voice was on the day the city fell.

She dragged her impaired leg to the city gate. He was leading Zheng A'Wang's daughter away. His words drifted through the smoke and dust, chilling her to the bone: "She can't ride a horse. Bringing her along would be a burden."

After rolling beneath the hooves of warhorses, Cui Ying realized she had gone completely deaf.

Once she sank into silence, she thought back on the past. No one had ever been patient with her; she had long been no different from a deaf person.

She left the old city with the refugees and decided to act as if she had never known him.

Huo Mingyuan had once been saved by a mountain girl, and had no choice but to be her husband for three years.

She was low-born and disabled. It took her three or five repetitions to understand a sentence, and she was timid and cowardly besides.

He was certain that those three years had been nothing but an act, and wanted no part of looking back.

It was for the best that she left of her own accord.

But the severe headaches that had not struck in three years came rushing back, tormenting him day and night. It had to be her fault. So ungrateful, daring to run away.

His deputy general had just married. He blushed whenever he mentioned his wife, and when she brought him a meal, the whole camp erupted in teasing.

The petite woman had fair skin and a delicate, graceful beauty. She took the deputy general's hand without hesitation, smiling brightly. She looked exactly like the woman he knew.

His temple throbbed, and agony consumed him.

She had loved him so much. How could she marry someone else? How could she smile at another man like that?

It was impossible.

He had conquered territory and made himself king. Getting whoever he wanted was easy.

He would make her his most cherished queen. He would be even more patient than before, and would never let anyone slight her because of her illness.

Yet as he reverently kissed her fingertips and made his promises, one word at a time, she simply pointed at her ears and shook her head, repeating a sign he couldn't understand.

A frightened onlooker told him what it meant: Let her husband go.

Happy ending, both leads are each other's only partner.

Blurb written on May 29, 2026.

Check out the upcoming novel in my author profile, Abandoning You, My Heart.

When Ren Yu was fifteen, the eldest son of the Huan family, Huan Lingyuan, rescued her from a brothel and made her his concubine. He doted on her for four years without end, so she assumed their feelings ran deep.

Perhaps the lanterns of the Lantern Festival had dazzled her. In the heat of their passion, she daringly bit the ends of his hair and murmured shyly, "I heard a poem, 'Our hair tied together, our hearts as one.' I like it very much."

"Mind your place." He pinched her chin and looked down at her. "Remember who you are."

A bucket of cold water poured over her head, and Ren Yu came to her senses at once.

She was nothing more than a plaything, not even a proper concubine. To dream of sharing a life with him was ridiculous.

After that night, he treated her more coldly, and she learned to behave, keeping strictly to her place.

When his marriage was settled, she swallowed her bitterness and prepared to serve two masters.

Until she saw the happy couple by a pond full of flower lanterns.

The young woman tied the ends of their hair together and smiled with innocent joy. He smiled indulgently and let her do as she pleased.

"If she's bothering you, I'll have someone take care of her."

With just a few words, Ren Yu's fate was sealed. She knew exactly how he would deal with her, given his ruthlessness.

Ren Yu was most afraid of the cold, yet she resolutely jumped into the icy river in winter. Her heart was already frozen through, so what did it matter if the water was cold?

In Huan Lingyuan's mind, everyone had a clearly defined place, and no one was allowed to make an exception.

But Ren Yu thought she was the exception, spoiled by his favor and unable to recognize when she had gone too far.

He suppressed her nature and taught her to be obedient.

He trained her into a gentle, compliant woman, like a vine forever nestled in his palm.

He never imagined she would leave him.

When her body was pulled ashore, he refused to believe it was her. Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he smiled with chilling madness. "That can't be her. Search every inch of the land and find her."

Two years later, on a spring day, Huan Lingyuan traveled south in search of a doctor to treat his worsening mania.

Passing a cosmetics shop, he heard a clear, bright laugh.

A flower adorned the woman's hair. Radiant and lovely, she laughed and chatted with the man beside her.

The woman who occupied his fevered dreams glanced over with a calm expression. "We're closed, sir."

As if he were a stranger.

That night, Huan Lingyuan knocked on her door and threw her fiance's right hand onto the floor. He met her eyes, full of fear and loathing, his face deathly pale, like a demon from hell. "If Yu'er wants a fiance, then it can only be me."

Message: Cherish the good things you have right now.