A Mute Bride (Reborn)

Coming Soon: The Rugged General and the Delicate Flower, A Wife Can't Escape. Please add them to your reading list!

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Yu Yao was the little princess of the Southern Kingdom, solitary and quiet.

But her mother had once been the Northern Kingdom's empress. After losing the war, she had been sent to the palace as tribute. Her father doted on her mother's beauty but despised Yu Yao's half-Northern blood. The only reason Yu Yao was allowed to live was so they could lock her ankles and keep her in the palace, using her to control her mother if she ever rebelled.

The year Yu Yao turned fifteen, the Southern and Northern Kingdoms made peace.

The Northern Kingdom requested a Southern princess as a bride for its Grand Minister of War, Chu Chengji.

But everyone knew Chu Chengji's origins were unknown. Though he held one of the highest offices, he worked himself to the bone and was not expected to live past forty. Who would want to marry a man who could die at any moment?

After a round of scheming and intrigue, the matter fell to Yu Yao.

But Yu Yao... was happy to go!

Because in her previous life, she had once married this uncle of hers.

*

Yu Yao was quiet, but Nanny Fu coaxed her into calling him her husband.

After several attempts on their wedding night, she stammered, "H-husband!"

Chu Chengji stared at her for a long while. "There's no affection between us. I married you only because your mother once gave me a meal. Calling me your husband? Let's leave that out."

Hearing this, Yu Yao let go of the wedding lock of hair.

Later, when people insulted her at a palace banquet, she knew he was nearby but did not call him her husband.

Someone said of her, "She's mute and can't even report me. Even if I bully her, what can her husband, a man on death's door, do? Her father is a rebel and her mother was given away as a wife. What use are any of them?"

Chu Chengji was drinking tea behind them. At those words, he hurled his cup to the ground.

The celadon shattered. He emerged through the haze of smoke, his foxlike eyes smiling without warmth, frightening the other person into backing away again and again.

He grabbed them by the throat and shoved their upper body over the railing of the raised platform.

Snow fell relentlessly. Chu Chengji pressed a piece of broken porcelain against the person's cheek and smiled ominously. "Can they do anything?"

After everyone left, Chu Chengji dragged Yu Yao over to scold her.

"You fool! If you'd called me when they bullied you, even if this short-lived man had already breathed his last, I'd have broken through the gates of the underworld to protect you."

Yu Yao didn't call him that. She simply reminded him softly,

"You told me not to."

Little Scene:

Chu Chengji taught Yu Yao to read and saved gold and silver for her.

More importantly, he specially wrote a little book laying out every year of her future, afraid he might suddenly die and leave her to suffer.

Yu Yao read it and glared at him fiercely. "No! You didn't write enough."

"What's missing?" Chu Chengji asked.

Yu Yao pointed at him. "My husband!"

Chu Chengji had to admit it: He was done for. He'd fallen hard.

[See the author's note at the end of Chapter One for content warnings! Weibo: @XieShuyi]

Coming Soon: The Rugged General and the Delicate Flower

The woman Lu Qing'an was marrying today was Wen Lianshu.

Born into the Duke of Fuguo's household and stunningly beautiful, she had helped him attain the title of heir to the marquisate.

But unfortunately, the city had just fallen.

The Duke of Fuguo had led troops to resist the enemy, and his entire family had been captured.

The enemy general who barged in kept asking about Wen Lianshu.

His father also hinted that he could find another woman, but he only had one life.

So Lu Qing'an began to agonize over what mattered more: his wife or his life.

Wen Lianshu was only exhausted by the tedious wedding ceremony. But in her haze, someone had drugged her with a handkerchief. Her former fiancé's familiar voice was as gentle as a dream by her ear.

"Lianshu, don't blame me!"

"Just spend one night with him and we'll survive. Afterward, you'll still be my wife."

Wen Lianshu went cold all over...

Wrapped up and sent into Wei Changji's tent, she spent the night beneath red candles that never went out.

*

A month later, she met Wei Changji again at a flower banquet.

He leaned his head against one hand, one leg propped up, lounging in his seat without a shred of decorum.

Wen Lianshu had been raised to follow the rules from childhood. How could she like his brazen manner?

She disliked his face because it was too fierce. She disliked his temper because he was too cold. More than anything, she feared that if they shared a bed again, he'd be as rough and forceful as he had been that time.

But he was her only hope of getting away from Lu Qing'an!

Wen Lianshu pressed her lips together and decided she could endure it a little longer.

So when Wei Changji left, Wen Lianshu gathered up her skirts and followed him.

In an empty palace, Wei Changji finally stopped and looked at her with an inscrutable expression.

"General Wei, I've written a letter of divorce, but they won't let me leave. Could you help me?" Wen Lianshu reached out and tugged at the jade pendant on his belt. "I can marry you in return. Would that be enough?"

Wei Changji said nothing, only turned and walked away.

At the top of the stairs, he looked back at her. "Why aren't you coming in?"

Wen Lianshu froze. "W-what are we doing?"

Wei Changji closed the door and blocked her soft lips with his. "Collecting a little payment."

Later, the new emperor asked, "My honored subject, what reward do you want for your service?"

Wei Changji glanced toward the women and let his dark eyes fall on Wen Lianshu, who was still dozing.

"I want her."

The whole hall erupted in an uproar.

Theme: Learn to be strong in the face of difficulties.