[They Have All Been Plotting Against Me for a Long Time] Draft in progress...
After You Hua returned to the capital following her divorce, the noble young ladies from prominent families who had once envied her marriage to the Marquis of Anbei all came to mock her. Every one of them wanted to see how this discarded wife would manage to survive in the capital.
Before she married, people only ever described her as naive, breathtakingly beautiful, and gifted in both looks and talent. After the divorce, those once lavish compliments became a sharp blade, striking You Hua all over again.
What good is being beautiful and delicate if you can't keep a man? Now you've become a discarded wife all the same, forced to slink back to the capital. You've brought shame on the entire You family.
In the sixteenth year of the Mingde era, You Hua married the Marquis of Anbei. Xie Xun was only fifteen then, a prince who had yet to earn the emperor's favor.
That year, when Xie Xun learned that You Hua had agreed to marry the Marquis of Anbei, he barged into the You residence with eyes bloodshot. The guards at the Left Chancellor's residence nearly mistook him for an assassin and cut him down on the spot.
It was only when You Hua appeared that she stopped the commotion. Xie Xun called to her softly, "Elder Sister."
"Xie Xun, hurry back to the palace. If your Imperial Uncle finds out, you'll be punished again."
"Are you really going to marry Xiao Jingtong? He's so old. Can't you just not marry him? Don't go with him to Jingzhou..."
In the nineteenth year of the Mingde era, You Hua divorced the Marquis of Anbei. Xie Xun was eighteen. The prince who had once had no say in the palace was no longer the pitiful little boy he had been. He was now the Crown Prince, the most powerful figure at court.
This time, no one could stop him.
Xiao Jingtong had assumed You Hua was merely throwing a tantrum, just as she had in the past, and that they would make up as soon as she had finished. As for the divorce, he had never agreed to it, not once.
By the time he learned about the divorce, You Hua had already returned to the capital. In Jingzhou, he gripped the imperial edict the emperor had sent by fast horse, furious. He decided he ought to leave his young, naive wife waiting for a while. There had to be a limit to her unreasonable tantrums.
This time, he would not be the first to give in. He would wait for his wife to apologize to him first.
As far as You Hua was concerned, apologizing was out of the question, but the men were worth taking a closer look at. She had been away from the capital for three years, and plenty of unfamiliar faces had appeared in the city.
Rong Heng, the newly appointed top scholar from a humble family...
Jiang Yiming, the wealthy merchant who had traveled from Jiangnan to the capital doing business...
Fang Jinyu, a retainer in her father's household...
Reader's Guide:
1. A universally adored heroine, with a whole assortment of male leads.
2. All male leads involved with the heroine are virgins; the heroine is not.
3. Writing advice is welcome, but do not insist that the author make changes.
4. If you curse at characters in the story, please don't curse at the author.
5. The fictional characters' values do not represent the author's values.
Core theme: Living however you please.
