He Went Back on Our Agreement to Divorce

Second Young Miss Xue Ying of the Changning Marquis's household was lazy, spoiled, and idle. More than anything, she despised stiff, taciturn people who were obsessed with fame and success.

Especially Lu Zan.

Yet the Empress Dowager issued an edict betrothing her to him.

Lu Zan came from an illustrious family of refined scholars. He had placed third in the palace examination at a young age and was renowned for his brilliance. He often attended the emperor's side, and had never imagined marrying a woman as uncultivated as Xue Ying. He was displeased, but an imperial edict was an imperial edict.

On their wedding night, he laid down three rules and set a date for their divorce. Once that date arrived, they would part ways.

Fortunately, his new wife was agreeable enough. She accepted each rule without fuss and didn't cling to him.

After they married, she was every bit as ill-behaved as expected, playing blind man's buff with the maids.

Lu Zan furrowed his brow, only for her to stumble straight into his arms.

Her little hands pressed against his chest, soft and warm. A fine, tingling numbness silently crept into his heart...

He thought that although his wife had no regard for propriety, she was charming and adorable. He could live with her until they were old and gray.

Until the day he learned that the jade hairpin she always wore had been given to her by her childhood sweetheart.

The third-place laureate, always the epitome of grace and refinement in public, finally tore away that gentle facade and trapped her in the narrow space between them.

His thin lips brushed her delicate earlobe. His breath was scorching, but his voice was chillingly cold. "Has he ever been this close to you, or touched you like this?"

Xue Ying trembled, with nowhere left to retreat.

Between ice and fire, she finally realized that the man she'd married was far from as cool and self-possessed as he seemed.

-

The date for their divorce arrived, and Xue Ying ran away.

She planned her escape flawlessly, right under the third-place laureate's nose.

Lu Zan interrogated everyone at the farmstead where she'd disappeared through the night, but by dawn, every lead had gone cold.

The morning light fell on the bloodshot veins in his eyes. The man who had spent half his life proud and aloof fell from his horse into the mud, and didn't even feel the pain.

He followed in her footsteps, watching her become famous beyond the capital for her painting and earn countless admirers, watching her create compassionate murals for a Buddhist temple that would be passed down through the ages. He had no choice but to admit that he knew scarcely a fraction of who she was.

At last, on the day he found her, sunlight flooded the world. She walked out from beneath the trees alongside another man, her beautiful face alight with a carefree smile, directed at the childhood sweetheart from years ago.

Dark circles shadowed Lu Zan's eyes, and fury seemed to split them apart.

The pain of wanting what he could not have lodged in his throat.

* Historical fantasy, one-on-one romance, happy ending.

* The male lead is intensely possessive, cool and aloof at first, then obsessive.

* The female lead is carefree and clear-headed, and builds a career of her own.

Theme: I love you, and you are free.