The Fruit of a Forced Match Is So Sweet

Many years later, Bai Chuchu still clearly remembered the night she first met Qi Cheng.

The golden glow of the palace lanterns fell across the boy's snowy-white face. She stared at him without blinking, and he felt the heat of her gaze.

She fell for him at that very first glance. Unfortunately, the boy looked at her as if she were a plague.

She did everything she could to force this sweet melon to ripen.

She gave him power, status, and all the riches others wouldn't even dare look at directly. She even nearly lost half her life for him.

At last, Qi Cheng was willing to give her his love. He kissed her eyes and returned her feelings, until the Imperial Guard surrounded them.

With nowhere left to turn, Bai Chuchu cut off her own escape and knelt beneath the Golden Scale Terrace, offering up everything she had in exchange for Qi Cheng's life.

As he watched her in such a wretched state, the voice of the man in power reached her, laced with familiar mockery.

"I told you that one day you'd kneel before me and beg for my forgiveness."

The wind and snow were fierce that day. Through her blurred vision, she saw Qi Cheng seated in the judge's place and belatedly realized she had been manipulated all along.

The man she had won with everything she had, and with her very life, had been scheming against her from the beginning.

After relentlessly pursuing him, she had suffered enough from love's bitterness. She wanted to call it even and leave it all behind. But the one who now refused to let go was Qi Cheng.

Bai Chuchu boarded a merchant ship, heartbroken, to leave this land. Qi Cheng, however, went mad and led troops to block her way. His eyes reddened as he looked at the new love by her side, and all his strength and composure crumbled in an instant.

The young man wept uncontrollably. Always proud, he bowed his head to her for the first time, kneeling before her and clutching the hem of her skirt so she couldn't leave.

"Chuchu, don't leave me..."

Content warning: The male lead pursues his wife after losing her; the official pairing stays together; happy ending.

I've really been craving stories where the male lead regrets everything, sobs, and begs for forgiveness, so I wrote one myself.

Thanks to Bishui Gugu for the cover image.

Theme: Live in the present and cherish the people by your side