A Delicate Nest

[New book: The Noble Consort Returns to Her True Heiress Life and Becomes a Star, please add it to your collection] Shen Rou had the most perfect fiance in the world. He was peerlessly handsome, the most talented man in the capital, noble in character, and as graceful as a jade tree. He was the man she'd loved since she was fourteen. After the Shen family fell into ruin, he sheltered her. She obediently became his mistress, waiting day after day at his country estate for the day he would marry her. But then she heard him say with her own ears that he was going to marry the most exalted princess in Great Qi. A marriage contract, and a betrothal gift worth ten thousand gold pieces. A wife is married, a concubine is taken, a courtesan is kept for pleasure. So what was she, his mistress? At that moment, she was utterly despairing. Wei Jingchao thought Shen Rou loved him more than anything. The daughter of a marquis's household had been willing to remain in a small corner of the world for him, and willing to follow him a thousand miles. He thought Shen Rou would never leave him. But later, Shen Rou jumped into the Qujiang River to escape him, without even looking back. The Qujiang stretched a thousand feet into the distance, its waters a pale blue-green, its depths unfathomable. The army searched the river for three days and three nights. The guards reported in trembling voices that the winter waters were too swift, and there was no chance Miss Shen could have survived. In that instant, all of Wei Jingchao's reason, schemes, ethics, and morals sank beneath the tide and vanished. All he could remember was that the Shen family had a daughter whose given name was Rou. Preorder recommendation: "A Betrothal Gift of Mountains and Rivers" 1. Shen Ying married Crown Prince Song Wang at sixteen and devoted herself heart and soul to managing the Eastern Palace. Two years later, Song Wang ascended the throne, made Cui Mingyi of the Qinghe Cui clan his empress, abolished the entire harem with his own hands, and cast aside his first wife. He thought he would never regret it. Cui Mingyi was the unattainable moonlight of his life, the moon in the sky. Shen Ying was the daughter of a military family, nothing like Cui Mingyi, an exalted daughter of a great clan. Until the day he saw Shen Ying walking alongside Xie Du, her eyes tender and her laughter warm as she spoke with another man. The eyes that had once belonged to him alone now held someone else's image. His usually icy heart suddenly felt hollow. * 2. Xie Du was the eldest legitimate son of the Chenjun Xie clan, the most outstanding young gentleman of the great clans. Graceful as jade and orchid, peerless in his time, he carried the moonlight on his shoulders and the breeze in his heart. He had the bearing of an immortal and was renowned throughout the land. Countless people admired him. No one had ever imagined that this much-admired young nobleman, the Xie clan's precious scion who kept himself apart from the corrupt world, would ask Shen Ying to be his wife. Who was Shen Ying? The vulgar daughter of a military family, a discarded wife of the emperor. Though as beautiful as a goddess, she was lowborn, disgraced, and mired in trouble. How could a woman like that be worthy of the most outstanding gentleman of the Xie clan? Only Xie Du knew. From the moment he saw her years ago, she had become the beautiful dream he longed for. On countless nights, he lay awake regretting that he had missed his chance and watched her marry someone else. When he heard that she had divorced, Xie Du could no longer sit still. If he had known she had entrusted herself to the wrong man, he should have taken her for himself long ago. Why wait until now? If she feared trouble, then he would seize a realm of mountains and rivers and offer it as her betrothal gift. For her, he was willing to descend into the mortal world, stain his hands with ink, and shroud himself in filth. Reader's guide: Male lead: Xie Du. 1v1, both leads' first relationship. Theme: The strong must not bully the weak, and the many must not oppress the few. Do not shrink from the powerful.