Forced to Marry a Cold and Powerful Minister

[Sorry, I left the original premise untouched for too long and lost interest, so I've changed it.]

Yining was an orphan. Fleeing famine, she wandered to Jiangnan and nearly fell into the hands of traffickers who wanted to sell her.

It was Xu Ren'an who rescued her and gave her a place to stay.

Xu Ren'an was refined and handsome, literate, and the youngest provincial graduate in the county.

Yining wasn't the only one he looked after. Old Madam Wang, a widowed woman on the street, and Old Chen, a childless man who lived nearby, had also received his care.

Yining had never met anyone as good as Xu Ren'an.

So when people teased her and asked if she'd be willing to marry him, she would only blush and never deny it.

But later, Xu Ren'an went to the capital to sit the imperial exams and died there.

It turned out that powerful men at court had been playing a game of chess.

In the treacherous political storm, the powerful men sat high above, calmly placing their pieces. The ones who died were all insignificant people.

Xu Ren'an was just another expendable pawn.

Yining refused to accept it. She went to the capital alone.

In the capital, Yining met the powerful minister Zhang Hui, the man moving the pieces. He was just as ruthless, cold-blooded, and merciless as the rumors said.

He casually turned a page. Between the lines of ink lay a dense tally of blood and lives.

To him, it was all so trivial.

Yining put everything she had into an impossible struggle against him.

Later, when the truth came to light, all her allies were wiped out, and she herself was thrown into prison.

Only then did Yining realize she had once again become one of Zhang Hui's pawns.

Yining missed Xu Ren'an a little.

On New Year's, amid the crackle of firecrackers, the one who came through the heavy snow to see her was the powerful minister Zhang Hui, the man who lived in wealth and privilege.

Without changing expression, he untied the noose hanging there.

Melted snow slipped from his temples and fell between her brows. His voice was as cold and haughty as ever. "You think you can die just like that?"

Before long, Yining was forced to marry Zhang Hui.

On the night he lifted her veil, moonlight flooded the courtyard and shone on the snow. Perhaps it was the wine clouding her mind, but in her memory Xu Ren'an looked astonishingly like Zhang Hui.

-

From a heart full of innocence to one of stone, Zhang Hui had given up many things.

He had betrayed every kindness and lost his teachers and friends, both living and dead. Now he lived alone, waiting for the day that fate would swallow him whole.

Until the day the snow fell thick and fast.

A young woman stumbled toward him, the tip of her nose red as she softly called him by the name he used to have.

"You think you can die just like that?"

"At the very least... you have to spend a whole lifetime with me, until our hair turns white."

20250519

Theme: Acceptance and love can bring hope