*First the heroine suffers, then the hero suffers. The scumbag husband chases his wife to win her back.
When Ruan Yingxue married Li San, he was a cripple, bedridden with serious injuries.
For three years, she cared for him day and night, doing everything she could to hold their family together and help him stand again. He returned to the battlefield and won great honor.
Li San was appointed to an official post in the capital, and Ruan Yingxue went with him amid the envy of everyone around them.
Only when their carriage stopped in front of a grand mansion did Ruan Yingxue learn that Li San's real name was Li Zhao, the third young lord of the Duke of Xu's residence, born to wealth and privilege.
The Duke of Xu's household was one of riches and refinement. Li Zhao took it all in stride, but Ruan Yingxue could only blush and hide her hands, chapped with chilblains, behind her back.
Day after day, she studied etiquette and rules, carefully offered opinions on tea she couldn't taste, and stayed up by lamplight learning to read and write. She thought that one day she might finally be worthy of him, but instead she saw the duke's residence decked out for a wedding, red silk spread everywhere.
Li Zhao was getting married.
His bride was the childhood sweetheart he had always cherished. Graceful and refined, she was his equal in status, and she had refused other marriage proposals for years because of him.
Grateful for their old affection, Li Zhao was soon to marry her and start a family.
As for Ruan Yingxue...
The marriage contract had made it perfectly clear: the man she married was Li San, a villager, not Li Zhao of the Duke of Xu's residence.
All the matchmakers and formalities were in place, and the bride was due to arrive any day. Ruan Yingxue packed her belongings, took one last look at the plaque above the duke's gates, then turned and left without looking back.
That's right. Her husband was Li San, a commoner and soldier from a military household. He had nothing to do with Li Zhao of the Duke of Xu's residence.
Ruan Yingxue decided to consider him dead. Dressed in plain clothes, she wandered among mountains and rivers, and before long, found new love.
The man was gentle by nature. He didn't mind her rough ways or that she was a widow, and the two soon set a wedding date.
But on their wedding night, the person who lifted her veil was none other than her persistent "dead husband."
Theme: Live life on your own terms
