The Cool and Aloof Heir's Daily Pursuit of His Wife (Reborn)

Please add my upcoming novels Bewitching Heart and The Lazy Little Empress to your reading list~ See my author page for their blurbs.

--- My new novel next door, I Think of Yingying, is now open. The blurb is below. Please give it a read~

Sweet, gentle beauty from a scholarly family x aloof young general

Blurb One:

In her previous life, Meng Qingci was the envy of everyone. She married from an ordinary scholarly family into a family of aristocratic nobility. Her husband was handsome, an exceptional young hero, and devoted only to her. Yet only she knew what her ten years of marriage to Xiao Heng were really like, as one knows whether the water one drinks is warm or cold.

Meng Qingci had two regrets in life. First, she loved deeply but could not have the love she wanted. Her husband was a good man, but his heart belonged to someone else. Her devotion left her alone on a distant road. Second, her dear friend died young, her beauty fading in the bloom of youth. After that, it was hard to find another kindred spirit in the world.

Life is like a dream, with only a few cold autumns passing by.

After being reborn,

Meng Qingci looks at the handsome man beside her and smiles faintly. "A best friend is like a limb, but a man is like a piece of clothing."

Blurb Two:

In his previous life, Xiao Heng had two wishes. First, to fight a hundred battles, crush the Northern Rong, and secure the border. Second, for his daughter Xiao Yuan to marry a good man and live a happy, worry-free life.

In his twilight years, the general had fulfilled his wishes. But the deepest regret in his heart was that he had not grown old together with her.

In this life, he once thought that though their marriage had been arranged by their parents and matchmakers, his new bride was learned, sensible, gentle, and virtuous. He assumed that this was how married couples were everywhere, and that treating each other with respect was already a happy ending.

But one day, Xiao Heng wakes up to find that his wife has changed...

After that, Xiao Heng asks himself three questions every day. Why is my wife growing more distant from me? Why does she only have eyes for her friend, and never for me? What can I do to make my wife look at me?

Xiao Heng thinks he has an iron will and would never change himself for anyone. Much, much later, when he looks back, he realizes that without even noticing, he has changed because of her.

It turns out that when you love someone deeply, they become your principles.

Someone once said that life has three stages. Marriage does too:

First stage: A mountain is a mountain, and water is water.

Second stage: A mountain is no longer a mountain, and water is no longer water.

Third stage: A mountain is still a mountain, and water is still water.

This is a story about love and growth, and also about love and friendship.

Content Warnings:

1. A monogamous couple who are each other's first and only love, with emotional angst. This is not a purely sweet story, but it has a happy ending.

2. There are secondary couples, and their storylines take up a significant portion.

3. The historical setting is fictional.

--------------------Upcoming Novel

I Think of Yingying

Everyone in the aristocratic families of Shengjing knows that Crown Prince Li Chen has someone in his heart. Because of her, the position of Crown Princess has remained empty to this day.

She is his childhood sweetheart. One night, with the moon hanging over the willow branches and the whole city aglow with lights, Li Chen, still a prince then, holds her hand and confesses, "Yingying, I'll tell Father and ask him to betroth you to me. We'll be the only ones in each other's lives, forever, and never part."

But then someone makes a long-planned attempt on his life. She takes an arrow for him and is seriously wounded. Though a miraculous healer saves her life at the last moment, she remains weak and must travel south with the healer for further treatment.

Three years later.

With spring flowers blooming, Xue Ciying, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Wei's household, returns to the capital from Jiangnan. The crown prince comes in person to welcome her.

The joy of their reunion has barely begun when she notices the dim look in the eyes of another girl beside him. The girl is as pitiful as a pear blossom drenched by the spring rain.

Xue Ciying: I came all this way, only to find myself in the middle of a tragic love story?

What happens next seems to confirm her suspicions.

With the wedding drawing near, the girl disappears without a word, and Li Chen is left distraught.

Xue Ciying wants to step aside and let them be together, but her family won't give up the honor of the match, and Li Chen refuses to let her go. "Yingying, if you don't marry me, who in the world would dare marry you?"

*

At the spring banquet, cups clink and people mingle. Beneath the emperor, a man wearing a jade crown drinks alone.

Though the weather is warm and sunny, he wears a fox-fur cloak, his face as pale as snow.

Xue Ciying gets an idea.

During the war against Western Liang, Prince Li Yi was struck by a deadly poison. Though he returned to the capital victorious, the delayed treatment left him increasingly frail. The Imperial Medical Academy fears it may shorten his life, so the guilty emperor sends rare medicinal ingredients to his manor in a steady stream.

Li Yi is lost in melancholy and can barely handle a single cup of Pear Blossom Wine. He leaves for the side hall to nap, and while half-drunk and half-asleep, a delicate fragrance drifts toward him.

A slender hand lifts the bead curtain. The dignified and graceful future Crown Princess seems to have nowhere else to turn as she falls into his arms and softly pleads, "Your Highness, please help me."

Li Yi lowers his eyes. Her lovely face is filled with alarm, and her breathing is ragged, yet the calm composure in her eyes is unmistakably the same as ever.

He considers this for a moment, then wraps an arm around her slender waist just as footsteps sound outside the hall.

On their wedding night, the candles glow red. Xue Ciying tells him the truth, asking only that they remain husband and wife in name for one year. The man across from her, as beautiful as an immortal, smiles faintly and agrees in an unhurried voice.

*

Xue Ciying knows Li Yi loves someone else. She married him to escape Li Chen's entanglements, making the best of a bad situation. But as time passes, she learns that he is a gentleman of upright character and admires his heroic nobility, gradually falling for him. To avoid ruining someone else's marriage, she makes a clean break, leaves a letter of divorce, and slips away.

Li Yi knows Xue Ciying has no feelings for him and only used him to escape. He saved and protected her simply to repay the kindness she showed him when they were young. Once things settled down, he would have let her go. But when she leaves a letter of divorce and boards a government boat bound for Jiangnan, he follows without hesitation and stops her. "Yingying, you are my wife. Where do you think you're going without my permission?"

"Reading Guide"

1. A story of the male lead desperately winning back his wife, with the second male lead taking the top spot.

2. The novel also features secondary storylines alongside the main couple's romance, though they don't take up much space.

3. The historical setting is fictional. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy. I haven't written in a while and can't think of all the content warnings right now, so I'll add more as I go.

4. Please keep comments friendly. Discussion of the plot is very welcome, and I hope you'll point out where I can improve. I hope you enjoy reading.

Theme: Marriage is a relationship between two people, and also a form of self-cultivation.