The Trial of Fallen Love

After Liang Qingyue’s mother died when she was ten,

she suddenly lost her voice and was sent back to her hometown.

Fortunately, her mother had arranged a marriage for her before she died:

He Zhi, the young nobleman of the Prince’s household.

They had been childhood sweethearts and once promised to grow old together.

Though they hadn’t seen each other in eight years,

her childhood sweetheart often wrote to her,

saying he was making a name for himself,

and that once he obtained an imperial decree approving their marriage, he would welcome her into his home in grand style.

Every word in his letters was tender.

There was no need to doubt him.

She knew he must be a gentle, refined gentleman.

Qingyue held his letter, her heart full of joy.

They had agreed to wait three years, but after only one year,

a marriage proposal arrived at her door.

Qingyue stared in astonishment at the red gift boxes spread across the courtyard.

Her wet nurse told her that her betrothed had come in person.

She looked up in a daze and saw the man dismounting.

He resembled the boy she remembered, though only by a third.

He was noble and elegant, with a commanding air and strikingly handsome features.

He spoke with grace, but his words were forceful and overbearing.

Qingyue thought to herself:

He was nothing like the modest gentleman who sent warm greetings every month.

Still, the betrothal gifts were lavish, and he was considerate and attentive toward her,

always measured and deferential, yielding to her in all things.

She thought that the marriage her mother had carefully arranged before her death

must be the right one.

She didn’t know this man was not He Zhi,

but He Zhi’s elder brother, He Guang.

He Guang knew

that He Zhi, the son of his father’s second wife, had a betrothal arrangement,

and that the two had been childhood sweethearts.

For eight years, He Zhi had written to her every month.

He had fought on distant battlefields,

hoping only to obtain an imperial decree approving their marriage and bring her home in a grand wedding.

How amusing. Truly amusing.

If he married that woman and made a show of being a loving husband in front of his younger brother day and night,

what expression would his brother wear? Wouldn’t it be delightful?

So He Guang got ahead of him, laying his plans carefully

and securing the imperial marriage decree first.

The woman was beautiful, but unfortunately, she was mute.

At first, he only wanted to torment the pair of star-crossed lovers.

He would make his brother watch the woman he loved become his sister-in-law,

watch them gaze at each other across a divide, unable to speak,

and watch the woman he loved bear He Guang’s children,

while his heart broke day and night.

But later,

whenever he saw Liang Qingyue and He Zhi look at one another,

he would grit his teeth with jealousy and lie awake all night.

At first, he wanted to destroy their promise.

Then he wanted to destroy everyone who looked at her.

He thought that with his methods, status, and looks, plus a little feigned tenderness, winning over a sheltered young woman like her would be easy.

He would use a little sincerity and a lot of tenderness to bring her completely around, and make them a loving couple.

Then, little by little, he would crush her heart, along with that good-for-nothing younger brother of his.

He never expected that the snare of love he had woven with his own hands would catch him instead, leaving him unable to break free.

Once he fell into love, there was no escape.

[Reader advisory]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads inexperienced. The male lead is ruthless and vicious. At first, he toys with her feelings and treats it all like a show; later, he falls for her and grows wildly jealous, behaving like a bitter, lovesick husband. He forces her to marry him to the end. He is not a good person. The male lead is not a good person. Read carefully: this is a coercive-marriage story.

2. The heroine is mute at first, but recovers later.

3. CEO-style fiction, set in a vacuum. Everything is completely detached from reality, so don’t nitpick. This is pulp fiction and writing practice, in plain, accessible language. The prose is still rough as I’m finding my footing. Pregnancy and running away, slow-burn push and pull, typos corrected regularly.

4. A little political intrigue, but the story mainly focuses on the couple’s relationship.

5. A 30% early-access buffer is in place. It’s best not to subscribe to everything right away; read first and decide. You can’t please everyone. This is a coercive-marriage story, and coercive marriage is the point. If it’s not for you, quietly click away.

Theme: To see without cause, to strive though striving is in vain.