Has the Chancellor Been Cremated Yet?

[A recommendation for my next novel: After the Young Lady Fails to Win His Heart] [Some plot details have been revised. The pirated and official versions differ greatly, and I take responsibility only for the official version. Thank you to everyone who supports authors by reading the official version~] ----Novel Blurb---- As the illegitimate daughter of a marquis's household, the boldest thing Jiang Hua ever did was offer herself to Xie Yuwan, her brother's friend, when someone set him up. Xie Yuwan was the youngest chancellor in the dynasty, a man of noble bearing and great power. Had fate not intervened, he would have been someone Jiang Hua could never have reached in her entire life. After one reckless night, with all eyes upon them, Jiang Hua got her wish and became the chancellor's wife. Knowing she had wronged Xie Yuwan, Jiang Hua went out of her way to indulge him. She was his most virtuous and dignified wife, and his most faithful lover. She had thought that after ten years, even if Xie Yuwan did not love her, he would at least respect and cherish her. Until one winter day, when she brought him warm soup in his study and heard him speak in a cool, icy voice from outside the door: "Ruining one's own reputation is a petty person's way of doing things." The snow that year was bitterly cold. Distracted for a moment, Jiang Hua accidentally fell into a lake. When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the year she was fifteen. Her brother was just bringing Xie Yuwan through the door. She looked at the husband she had lived with day and night for decades and gave him a quiet, unfamiliar bow. Jiang Hua thought, she never wanted to marry Xie Yuwan again. * After being reborn, Xie Yuwan kept waiting for Jiang Hua to scheme against him. Just as he thought everything would unfold as it had before, he watched her smile and offer the cup of wine laced with aphrodisiac to the scholar at the next table. 1. 1v1, HE, fictional setting. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy; everything serves the story~ 2. First, this is a female-oriented novel. Second, it's a groveling romance. Please respect one another. Don't ask why the male lead is groveling in a female-oriented groveling romance, and don't make things up in the comments based on your own assumptions. If you don't like it or it makes you uncomfortable, you can leave. There are 70,000 words of free chapters for you to decide whether to continue reading. I'll delete rule-breaking comments to preserve the reading experience for everyone else. 3. The writing style is that of a light romance, and everyone has their own tastes. There's no need to announce that you're dropping the novel. Also, I only take responsibility for readers who support the official version. If you read pirated copies, don't comment. 4. Weibo: Yi Zhi Xiao Tian Yuan~ 5. Blurb written on 2022.7.14, screenshot saved. [Prepublication novel: Snow on the Branches. Please add it to your collection~] ----Blurb---- At six, Jiang Ciying was sold by a child trafficker to the Xie household, where she became the personal maid prepared by the Xie family's second wife for her daughter. When the young lady suddenly fell ill and died at fourteen, the stepmother was so stricken with grief that she fell sick herself and mistook Jiang Ciying for her daughter. A fake young lady appeared in the grand Xie residence. The head of the Xie family waved a hand, and Jiang Ciying was allowed to attend school alongside the Xie children and study poetry and literature. Everyone in the Xie household, apart from Madam Xie, treated her with cool indifference, but her awkward position in the household was still far better than her former life as a servant. That is, if Jiang Ciying had not foolishly fallen in love with the Xie family's eldest legitimate son, Xie Huaijin. One day, an accident exposed the feelings she had written in a letter. As Madam Xie lay gravely ill, she used the threat of death to force a marriage between Jiang Ciying and Xie Huaijin. And so the refined, dignified, noble young man with a limitless future became her husband. After they married, the two treated each other with polite respect. Jiang Ciying could not find a single fault with Xie Huaijin, yet she could not feel even a trace of affection from him. One day, she watched from afar as Xie Huaijin laughed and talked with Miss Su. Only then did she remember the rumors that had circulated in the capital all these years. Whenever people looked at her with contempt, they said that Xie Huaijin and Su Xuerou were the ones made for each other. And she was the villain who had broken them up and forced her way between them under the pretext of filial duty. She didn't want to be the villain anymore. The next day, she left behind a letter of separation and went to Jiangnan, where the young lady had once said spring lasted all year. * Xie Huaijin was the eldest son of a family with a century of history, refined and noble, cool and dignified, a flawless white jade all his life, except for one blemish in his marriage. Others told him time and again that his stepmother was gone and this absurd marriage could be annulled. He would merely glance at them coolly. When a friend asked in surprise if he had truly fallen for that servant, he replied indifferently, "It's only a marriage, arranged by our parents and matchmakers." Until he saw the letter of separation on the table. His friend picked it up and flicked it with a laugh. "At least she knows her place." He failed to notice Xie Huaijin behind him, staring fixedly at the letter of separation. His knuckles were pale, his whole body cold and dark, like snow falling softly from a branch. Later, the eldest young master of the Xie family, whose restraint and propriety were praised by all, caught his wife as she fled to Jiangnan. In a cramped room dimly lit by the faint light, he slowly clasped his wife's trembling hand and spoke in a cool voice: "My lady, it's time to come home." ----Other completed novels of the same type---- Has the Heir Apparent Gone to Hell Yet? A sweet and gentle princess with a black heart VS an heir apparent Has the Crown Prince Gone to Hell Yet? A noble crown prince VS a beauty with amnesia See my author page~ Theme: Cherish yourself