[The male lead's storyline goes completely off the rails later on. It's painful to read, so proceed with caution.]
*
[Delicate, cool beauty x refined scoundrel and ruthless minister]
At eighteen, Lu Songjie passed the imperial examinations.
Handsome and refined, with a gentle manner, he became the talk of Shengjing.
He had planned to hurry home and share the good news, but the noblewoman Bai Wan seized the opportunity to choose him as her husband after the results were posted.
Dressed in fine silks and adorned with delicate jade ornaments, she lightly brushed a fingertip over the tiny red beauty mark by his eye, gazing at him with such deep affection.
Under pressure from the powerful Bai family, Lu Songjie had no choice but to break off his betrothal to the childhood sweetheart back home and become a son-in-law of the Bai family.
But everyone in the capital knew that the person Lu Songjie loved most was the childhood friend who had once sewn shoe soles to help pay his travel expenses.
After they married, no matter how tenderly and thoughtfully Bai Wan cared for him, he always treated her with cold indifference.
An unexpected miscarriage further damaged Bai Wan's delicate health.
Yet while Bai Wan tossed and turned on her sickbed, he went so far as to frame the Bai family, using the affair to climb the ranks until he became a first-rank official.
On the eve of the Bai family's confiscation and the exile of the entire clan, Lu Songjie gave a sinister smile, took Bai Wan's hand, and pressed her thumb onto the divorce agreement.
Bai Wan looked up at him, her expression stricken.
"Lu Lang, did you never have even the slightest genuine affection for me all these years?"
"Of course not."
Her lips trembled, but for a long while she said nothing. At last, her skirt swept across the ground as she silently disappeared into the night.
*
In the third month of spring, the Empress Dowager held a birthday banquet.
Amid the crowds, Lu Songjie suddenly spotted Bai Wan in splendid silks, leaning against a tall, handsome man.
He heard someone say the man was General Xiao Yuhu, who had just put down a rebellion in the south.
Bai Wan held his hand, their fingers entwined, laughing and chatting together. She looked brighter than Lu Songjie had ever seen her.
Xiao Yuhu also had a tiny red beauty mark by his eye.
So he was the one who had never been loved.
The day she chose him as her husband after the examination results were posted, her eyes had been fixed on him with affection, but her heart had belonged to someone else.
Lu Songjie's face darkened. He crushed the glass cup in his hand.
What a joke. He... How could he possibly be someone else's substitute?
Content warnings:
1. The male lead frames the Bai family and supposedly loves his childhood sweetheart. That's only how it looks to outsiders; there's more to the story. Later, he'll pursue his wife so desperately his boots will smoke.
(The male lead is sexually inexperienced, not a scumbag.)
2. The leads act this way in the early story: a well-dressed scoundrel x a pampered beauty.
3. The angst from the heroine's perspective may not be the truth. The male lead lies to everyone, so don't believe everything he says.
Theme: Don't look down on someone just because they're poor when they're young.
In order to protect myself and myself and my family, I can give up my wife and my father-in-law's family. As long as my own interests are involved, I will abandon my wife and family. He and his parents are part of a big family, and his wife is an outsider. If necessary, you can sacrifice your wife and try to do it slowly. But I don't have the shame to ask for forgiveness anymore. Once it's hurt, it's hurt. No matter how round it is, there will always be cracks. Once you make a choice, you make a choice. I would rather pity a dog than pity this kind of trash man, and look forward to Niu Hulu's arrival.
The author's writing is good. So far, I haven't seen whether the male protagonist likes the female protagonist. I feel that he treats the female protagonist as a pet. When he likes the heroine, he teases her and throws it aside when she doesn't. Bai Wan is good-looking and has a good background and is easy to handle. She can be brought out with dignity. Smart, ambitious and unscrupulous, scheming and good at acting, he talks nonsense to others and puts his own interests first in everything. Lu Songjie's people are able to set up things, which is quite interesting.
If I had to choose, I would choose to save myself and separate from my wife. Everyone is the same. When it comes to their own interests, they will choose their own interests. The author can write more about the female protagonist's perspective later. I feel like I have read the article from the male protagonist's perspective (face covering)
[Ding Ding Dear Reader Station] You have pre-received articles "The Daily Life of the Paranoid Lord Chasing His Wife" and "Hexing with His Ex-Boyfriend After Breaking Up". They have arrived at the column of Zhang Bu Shangshu, the author who can't stop eating Xuanmai code words. The pickup code is 27-6666. Just stretch out your little hand and click to pre-accept and the pickup will be successful. Thank you for your support!
Are you so angry that you say that there is a high rate of abuse of men? This kind of dog should be punished with a wifeless prison sentence. He is a fake star and is possessive of the heroine. He is essentially a selfish dog. The most annoying thing about this kind of man who thinks so highly of himself is that he is speechless after being convinced. They all say that it is the formality that forces him. Yes, he is like this, but his attitude makes people uncomfortable. The female protagonist also has a good temper. How can she tolerate him? Is it true that the male protagonist cannot be replaced? Hurry up and torture him back!
You can write it down, just be
You can torture the male protagonist to death, and I won't accept it if you don't torture him until he ascends to heaven! (Smoke is coming from the top of my head!
I don't know whether Lu Gouzi likes Wanwan or not. But it's true that Lu Gouzi doesn't respect his wife. He makes the decision on everything. As long as Wanwan disagrees, he will use violence to force Wanwan to agree, and he is so arbitrary that he reaches the stage of cancer. Let's go to the crematorium one by one, at least the character must pass the test first. It seems that Lu Gouzi was a gentle scum in the early stage. I think the character design so far is quite flattering, but he is a scum.
Lord Lu, please remember to return the jade pendant after leaving.
What? I just saw Zuo Hua when I modified some settings of the male protagonist. What should I modify? It can still be the same as before. It's harmful.