After I Broke Off My Engagement to the Marquis

[Please add my upcoming novel, My Wife Is Too Coldhearted, to your reading list. The blurb is at the bottom!] Blurb: Nie Rong was born beautiful. Her father was determined to find her a match in a powerful family so she could rise to prominence. Eventually, he set his sights on Yan Ci, heir to the Anyang Marquis's title. People in the capital laughed. “Yan Ci, the heir to the Anyang Marquis, is as refined as an orchid and as cool and dignified as jade. What kind of man is he? Why would he marry a mere sixth-rank official's daughter just because she's pretty?” Then the marriage was arranged, and everyone was baffled. Nie Rong was baffled too. She thought the marquis's heir was neither aloof nor dignified, but rather a lecher. Before the wedding, the marquis's family fell from power. Yan Ci's father died, and their title was stripped away. Nie Rong's father wasted no time kicking them while they were down. Before the funeral was even over, he broke off the engagement and found her a new husband. A year later, with her wedding date approaching, the court underwent another upheaval. Yan Ci inherited the title of Anyang Marquis and took a position in the Censorate, where he held the power to ruin the careers of court officials. Reborn from the ashes, Yan Ci was no longer the modest young heir he had once been. Ruthless in his methods, he launched a wave of prosecutions and became a true “King of Hell.” The whole court lived in fear, dreading that he would settle old scores. The Nie family stayed behind closed doors, in constant terror. Yet Yan Ci still came to the Nie household and said calmly from his seat in the hall, “I may be unworthy, but I ask for your daughter's hand.” Everyone understood. He meant to marry her so he could slowly torment her and avenge his humiliation. Nie Rong knew she didn't have long to live, so before her wedding she carefully put all her affairs in order. But after their wedding night, he did torment her, and yet she was alive. A month passed. Yan Ci had never smiled at her, but she was alive. Three months passed. Yan Ci often spoke to her with cutting sarcasm, but she was alive. Half a year passed. She learned she had a cold womb and might not be able to conceive. To stay alive, she hurried to find Yan Ci some beautiful concubines. After searching half the capital, she finally found two beauties of exceptional appearance and personally brought them to him as a gift. Yan Ci's normally unreadable face darkened. His eyes flashed with anger as he pinched her chin. “Nie Rong, do you think I'm easygoing? That I have endless patience?” Nie Rong stammered, “I... I... I wouldn't dare, my lord. What don't you like about them? Tell me, and I'll find someone else right away!” P.S. The story opens with the hero proposing, then goes straight to married life. Upcoming: The Virtuous Wife Xue Yining was born into a distinguished family. Beautiful and graceful, she was gentle and refined in her manners. When she came of age to marry, her parents arranged for her to wed the great general Luo Jinyun. As a wife, she strictly observed her duties and cared for Luo Jinyun with tender devotion. When he led his troops to war, she stayed home to honor her parents-in-law, look after her husband's younger siblings, and manage the household flawlessly. Every elder in the family praised her. More than a year later, Luo Jinyun returned victorious, bringing home a beautiful woman. He explained that his deputy general had died in battle and had asked him to look after his younger sister. He had decided to take the woman as a concubine and protect her for the rest of her life. Xue Yining didn't make a scene. After a moment's silence, she agreed and made proper arrangements for the woman. Luo Jinyun felt his wife was indeed virtuous and considerate, and was deeply pleased. Later, however, he discovered that she had been secretly taking medicine to prevent pregnancy. Before he could ask her about it, he was ordered that very night to kill his father-in-law's old friend's son on a stormy night. She rode hard to catch up and stood in front of the man in the cold rain. Pulling a hairpin from her hair, she held it to her own throat and declared, “If you want to kill him, you'll have to step over my corpse!” Only then did he realize she wasn't gentle and virtuous, free of jealousy. She had simply given all the tender feelings of her youth to someone else, living like a corpse in his household and merely enduring each day. Luo Jinyun had always believed a wife was there to forge alliances, manage the household, and produce heirs. Love was just a silly girl's fancy, something he scorned. Only when he became consumed by love for someone who didn't love him did he learn that love could kill. A groveling wastrel's road to redemption. One couple, one-to-one romance, both leads' first relationship, happy ending. The heroine has a first love she can never forget. Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way.