After the Substitute's Heart Dies, Her Ex-Husband's Regret Burns Like a Funeral Pyre

Everyone in A City's upper circles knew the beautiful young oil painter was madly in love with Jiang Yichen.

The beauty did everything Jiang Yichen asked, giving up the chance to study in Florence to accept his proposal and devote himself to being the so-called Mrs. Jiang.

Because Jiang Yichen treasured it, he jumped into a lake in the dead of winter to retrieve a necklace left behind by his unrequited love. He came down with a high fever that lasted a week and was left with chronic headaches and a lingering fear of the cold.

He put up with all of Jiang Yichen's mood swings, arrogance, cold indifference, mockery, and contempt. He even willingly became a stand-in for the man Jiang Yichen could never forget, a pretty plaything for him to use when he was bored and wanted to vent his desires.

Everyone thought Jiang He would give everything to him without expecting anything in return.

Jiang Yichen thought so too.

But on their fourth wedding anniversary, after waiting all night in front of a carefully prepared candlelit dinner, Jiang He got up at dawn and threw away the gift he'd chosen so carefully for Jiang Yichen. When he heard the smart lock open, he turned around and saw Jiang Yichen, dead drunk and reeking of perfume, being supported by Lin Jin, his returned unrequited love. Jiang He said softly,

"Mr. Jiang."

"I don't love you anymore... Let's get divorced."

Jiang Yichen cornered him against the wall, his gaze dark and dangerous.

"Jiang He, you wouldn't dare!"

After four years of love given without asking for anything in return, Jiang Yichen thought he was merely jealous and throwing a little tantrum. He believed nothing and no one could escape his control. If he refused to let Jiang He leave, then Jiang He would never get out of the Jiang family home. As the eldest son of the Jiang family and heir to the group, he could never fall for a pretty ornament, much less lose himself in one.

But Jiang Yichen was wrong. When he saw Jiang He standing at the bow of a ship, a gun pressed to him by a kidnapper, he shoved Lin Jin aside and plunged into the sea himself. As crimson spread through the water, Jiang Yichen lost his mind.

*

That night, a forbidden zone appeared in the Jiang family home, a place no one was allowed to touch.

Though he had just won a major contract, Jiang Yichen, usually so calm, composed, and decisive, flew into a rage at the company. No one dared bring up anything connected to that name again. But at home, his pain only grew worse. Every room in the villa still held Jiang He's presence. It seemed he could hear that tender, shy voice, as if Jiang He were still by his side.

He used to look down on Jiang He's profession. Now he opened the little studio filled with his presence. Every oil painting was masterfully done, and somehow, every one of them was about him.

Three years later.

At the largest art exhibition China had ever held, a familiar style stopped him in his tracks. When he saw the neat, elegant signature he knew so well, Jiang Yichen's furrowed, gloomy brow relaxed for the first time in three years.

When they met again at the gallery, he saw the person he had longed for over three years with another man's arm around him, smiling in a way he had never once smiled at Jiang Yichen. The man who had always controlled everything learned what heartbreak felt like for the first time.

Later, he knelt before him and reverently kissed the back of his hand.

He had once used love as an excuse to keep him captive. Now he was willing to lose himself at his feet.

*

Dark, domineering man in power x kindhearted beauty with low self-esteem

The beauty trains the dog; the man in power bows his head

[The one on the receiving end is a genuine little angel, beautiful and kind. The one on the pursuing end really is a terrible, unhinged dog.]

[The pursuer and the "unrequited love" aren't involved. The pursuit is the focus >>> the one on the receiving end doesn't get abused. Later on, there's a dramatic love-rival showdown, with all the men competing for him at full force.]

[Don't ask how they can get back together after all that. It's a groveling-pursuit story, okay? Just some nonsense. If it's not your thing, feel free to click away. Let's all get along, kisses.]

Theme: Loving yourself is the beginning of a lifelong romance