The Third-Place Scholar Doesn't Want a Divorce

A poised, virtuous woman x an upright gentleman: a marriage-first, love-later story about two people putting on an act

Xue Dongyi did many foolish things to marry Yan Yuan, the top third-place graduate in the imperial examinations.

The most foolish was drugging him and scheming to consummate their marriage, then marrying into the Yan family while pregnant.

On their wedding night, she met her husband's cool gaze and thought there was plenty of time. If she tried hard enough to please him, he would eventually be moved by her.

He would eventually love her.

So she cleared out all her brightly colored dresses, began dressing elegantly, and changed her spoiled temperament, becoming gentle and endearing. She devoted herself to serving the elders, raising their daughter, and managing every part of the household, turning herself into a proper, virtuous wife from a distinguished family.

Three years passed. She had won the elders' affection and the servants' respect.

At last, the "plenty of time" she had been hoping for arrived.

But Xue Dongyi discovered something troubling.

Before her husband could fall in love with her,

she seemed to have stopped loving him first.

Yan Yuan came from a prestigious family and had studied hard from childhood. At seventeen, he placed third in the imperial examinations and entered the Eastern Palace to teach the Crown Prince. He was at the height of his glory, with a boundless future ahead of him.

The only blemish in his life was having his marriage manipulated and being forced to wed a wife he did not want.

Fortunately, after they married, his wife restrained her temper and kept to her duties. Though the distance between them remained, they managed to maintain the appearance of a married couple and live in peace.

If nothing unexpected happened, they would have children, spend their lives together, and be buried in the same tomb.

He would treat her well.

He simply couldn't love her.

But he had never imagined that one day the wife who had ruined her own reputation just to marry him would sit before him and calmly say, "What happened back then was my fault. I let my selfish desires ruin your life, and I have since repented."

"Yan Yuan, let's divorce."

Theme: I forgive myself for the mistakes of my youth, and I allow myself to begin again.