The Substitute Bride's Maxed-Out Combat Power

Mu Yingxue first met his “husband,” Zhou Fuzhen, on the very day they got married.

He had heard that the president of the Zhou Group was once a spirited, ambitious man. But after being disabled in a car accident, his personality changed drastically. Anyone who displeased him met a miserable end, and even his own father dared not come near him.

So Mu Yixing, the younger brother originally meant to marry into the Zhou family, fled the wedding, leaving Mu Yingxue, who desperately needed money, with no other choice.

Fortunately, Zhou Fuzhen didn't care that the bride had been switched. He only needed a wife as a temporary tool. The first time they met, he handed Mu Yingxue a prenuptial agreement and said coldly, “I'll give you a sum of money. In three years, the marriage will automatically end.” There was no wedding ceremony. They signed the agreement, registered their marriage, and that was that. It was remarkably convenient.

The second time Mu Yingxue saw Zhou Fuzhen was at a Zhou family banquet three months later.

The small social circle in Yunhai City had been talking about Zhou Fuzhen's “wife” for quite some time. They had heard that he was the son of the madwoman who had been the Mu family's first wife before they made their fortune, and that he had been raised in the countryside. The Mu family didn't like to mention him. They had also heard he was dull and unsuited to show off in public.

But when Mu Yingxue appeared, everyone who had been waiting for a laugh fell silent.

The young man, supposedly “unsuited to show off,” simply stood there, stunningly handsome and tall. He had an open, graceful air and stood straight as a bamboo stalk, a peerless beauty.

At the banquet, one of Zhou Fuzhen's business rivals deliberately picked a fight. Thinking he was just a pretty face, the man asked Mu Yingxue what he was good at, given that he had spent so many years living in the countryside.

Mu Yingxue thought for a moment and said, “Martial arts.”

“You can dance?” the man laughed. “Why not show us on the dance floor? Too bad President Zhou can't accompany you.”

Whether he went or not, everyone there was hoping to make fun of Zhou Fuzhen, who could only sit in a wheelchair.

Mu Yingxue went out alone and put on an astonishing display of skill.

Using playing cards, he performed a trick known as “plucking leaves and sending flowers flying,” smashing a row of liquor bottles one after another. Glass shards flew everywhere, and one card skimmed past the man's neck. Terrified, the man forgot all dignity and scrambled to hide on the floor, becoming the joke of the evening after all.

What the others didn't know was that Mu Yingxue had studied under a reclusive Taoist master while living in the countryside. He had trained in martial arts since childhood. His master had said he possessed exceptional natural talent. Now he had mastered an authentic Bagua palm technique, and there wasn't a single one of the eighteen traditional weapons he couldn't use. No one could bully him to his face.

Later, Zhou Fuzhen came home more and more often, and Mu Yingxue kept seeing him.

Three years later, while Zhou Fuzhen was undergoing leg surgery, Mu Yingxue thought that once he recovered, their agreement would expire and this would be their last time together. So he took meticulous care of him. But whenever Mu Yingxue brought up divorce, Zhou Fuzhen would lie pale-faced in his hospital bed and say he was a useless man whom nobody wanted.

Years later, Mu Yingxue won a Best Actor award for a hit martial arts film, then rushed straight into a historical drama directed by a renowned filmmaker. The remote filming location had poor reception, and he didn't get a chance to check his phone all day. After wrapping for the night, he turned it on and was bombarded with dozens of voice messages, calls, and texts from Zhou Fuzhen. The last message said, “I'm at the entrance.”

Mu Yingxue: “...”

As expected, the man's promise a few days earlier to be less controlling and give him more freedom had come to absolutely nothing.

Marriage first, love later. A ten-year age gap between an older husband and younger wife. Mutual salvation and healing. A resilient, aloof beauty who has mastered traditional martial arts, paired with a brooding, possessive CEO who lives to dote on his wife.

Theme: Chivalry endures