Lu Ranqing, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Ning'an's household, had grown into a beauty of unparalleled charm by the time she came of age. Young noblemen all over the city vied for her hand, but she took the tonsure and spent three years in religious retreat under the pretext of praying for her mother, until the Empress Dowager arranged her marriage to Wei Xiao, the Marquis of Zhongyong.
Earl Lu feared his legitimate daughter, who had once threatened to die rather than marry, would refuse the match. He tried both persuasion and pressure, and was finally relieved to hear her agree.
"All right."
Who could have known that a young man had been hidden in Lu Ranqing's heart for ten years? Every month, she made a page of paintings for him; every year, she carved a wooden figurine of him, imagining what he would look like grown up.
The day he returned to the capital on a tall warhorse, clad in armor and standing proud, she watched from a teahouse window, tears streaming down her face.
You've finally returned safely!
How lucky I am to be able to marry you!
But on their wedding night, not only did she spend the night alone, she also had a strange dream. In it, she had been married for five years and still had no children. Wei Xiao had taken no concubines either, and had only brought home an orphan for her to raise as their legitimate son. As she basked in the sweetness of her love, she heard him tell his sick mother:
"Back then, I put an infertility incense in the Lu family's bedroom to avenge my father. Now she's running the marquis's household perfectly. If I have a son with a mistress later, we can just bring him home to raise."
It hit her like a bolt from the blue!
Lu Ranqing woke in a cold sweat. The marriage was already settled, but she wanted to live a different kind of life...
.
Wei Xiao was sent with his father to the borderlands at fourteen. Ten years later, he earned a marquisate through military merit. He was the emperor's weapon for curbing the power of the maternal relatives, while the Empress Dowager used marriage as its scabbard. Earl Lu had played no small part in framing Wei Xiao's father back then.
The imperial decree could not be refused, so he figured he would marry her and leave her to her own devices. On their wedding night, he casually lifted his bride's red veil, then went off on official business.
Half a month later, he returned to find a roomful of gorgeously dressed maids and concubines waiting for him, while his new wife had been sent by his mother to kneel in the small ancestral shrine as punishment.
Bullying a weak woman like this was too much.
That night, he planned to stay over and consummate the marriage as well. "I'll make sure you have all the dignity due the marquis's wife from now on. Just be patient with my mother."
He had no idea this young wife was even more understanding than he'd imagined...
But Wei Xiao didn't yet know that, later on, her thoughtfulness would stick in his throat, prick at his back, and cut him to the bone!
Reader's Guide:
1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.
2. Set in an alternate history.
Theme: Life is short. Don't force yourself to put up with too much.
