[Possessive Pursuit] Beautiful, resilient cousin x Cultured scoundrel
Xue Xuechong was a favorite courtier of the emperor, a young man whose star was rising, and he spent most of his time away from home.
On one visit home, he caught his cousin, who had only recently come to stay with the family, meeting his elder brother in secret. Tears glistened in her eyes, and his usually stern brother looked at her tenderly, holding her in his arms.
His sister-in-law was on her deathbed, and she was already eager to take her place as the second wife.
This cousin was beautiful and aloof, and had caught the attention of the Duke's household. She was surely trying to ensnare a fine husband.
Xue Xuechong humiliated her several times, but she always met him with gentle composure. To him, she was pretending to be innocent, yet he gradually came to enjoy it. Why seek out a widower when seducing him would be even better?
Then he discovered she had her eye on another man.
So Chu Yuzhi could be shy and bashful, too. They exchanged letters, and the young girl had fallen in love for the first time.
In that moment, wicked thoughts sprang up in his heart.
*
Following her late mother's dying wish, Chu Yuzhi went to live with her maternal uncle's family, hoping to make something of herself and leave this nest of vice as soon as possible.
Fortunately, she met a good man. She was able to rent a house and prepare for her wedding, and she never saw that sinister cousin of hers again.
But after a banquet, she woke in a warm bedchamber.
Unable to suppress her desire, she remembered the wine her fiancé had handed her himself. A shadow shifted outside the bed curtains, revealing a handsome, dashing face.
“The man you chose so carefully is nothing but this.”
In despair, she angrily slapped him.
Xue Xuechong looked at her with a lustful, possessive gaze, certain she would be his.
“I already know my sister-in-law forced you to become her replacement. Sometimes the letters you exchanged were from him, and sometimes they were from me. My dear girl, the man who supposedly got my father's approval for your marriage and shared your feelings... who was he, really?”
Her fiancé died under mysterious circumstances, and a sedan chair brought her back to the Duke's estate.
Lush flowers and trees screened her boudoir from view. Within its secluded curtains, sweat glistened as spring turned to autumn, and he took what he wanted without restraint.
She refused to marry him and fled to the countryside.
A simple life of coarse tea and plain rice was better than being haunted by a demon.
One quiet evening, Chu Yuzhi lit an oil lamp. The man sat in the shadows and said softly, “You have no idea how hard you've been to find.”
Note: Both leads are sexually inexperienced.
Theme: Bound together as husband and wife, may our love never waver
