The Third Year After the Divorce

Yue Rongrong was sixteen when she married Shen Jichen. She thought they would love each other until old age and stay together for life.

But she never knew he had never intended to take her back to the capital. She had no idea his status was so exalted that she couldn't hope to reach him even by climbing a ladder to the clouds. And she never imagined their marriage certificate was fake.

She tore it to pieces, crumbling under his cold gaze.

Yue Rongrong saw Shen Jichen again three years after their divorce. He had risen to the highest ranks of the court, while she was just an embroiderer at a shop in the capital.

That day, he brought his new love with him, while she stood there in a wretched state.

The shopkeeper hurried forward with a bow and asked what he wanted.

He took the hand of the beautiful woman beside him. His voice was cool and clear. "Have a wedding dress made." His chilly gaze swept over Yue Rongrong. "Let her do it."

Yue Rongrong looked at the young lady whose family was a match for his and gritted her teeth inwardly. So they're finally getting married! Then she looked up and smiled sweetly. "My work doesn't come cheap."

The shopkeeper turned pale with fright. Shen Jichen's face turned livid.

At a banquet, a friend sounded him out. "You haven't forgotten that delicate ex-wife of yours, have you?"

Shen Jichen sneered. "As if she deserves that."

A frivolous laugh came from a young nobleman nearby. "There's an embroiderer at Jinxiu House named Yue Rongrong. She's quite the beauty. Want me to bring her over for some fun?"

A splash of icy wine suddenly drenched him. Everyone sucked in a breath and froze.

The young nobleman leaped up in a rage, only to meet Shen Jichen's glacial stare.

Shen Jichen had never thought he would run into her again. He held his fiancée's hand and showered her with affection in public, yet Yue Rongrong managed to infuriate him to the point of near death time and again.

At a banquet that evening, he watched the young master of the Xue family declare his love for her in front of everyone and propose. Shen Jichen stood like an ice sculpture, watching coldly. But the wine cup hidden in his sleeve shattered in his grasp, cutting his hand, and he didn't even notice.

In an empty courtyard, that injured hand gripped her chin with force. Ignoring her struggles, he kissed her until she was dizzy, the taste of blood on his lips.

His breathing ragged, he bit her lip and spoke with painful difficulty. "Come back, Rongrong."

Before you read:

Yue Rongrong's name also means "the moonlight is soft and luminous."

A fictional Ming-Song setting. Entirely fictional.

One-on-one romance. The leads are each other's only partners, emotionally and physically. The fiancée is fake.

The male lead both hates and loves her. He goes mad with jealousy and resorts to coercive romance.

: :

The upcoming novel Lord Gu, Stop Getting in the Way of My Matchmaking is now open for follows. Please add it to your collection! ^O^

The beloved little princess Qingning was peerlessly graceful and stunningly beautiful. Everything had gone her way since childhood. The only hardship she ever faced was falling in love with Gu Que.

She cooked for him, defended him at every turn, and wanted to give him the very best.

When she prayed for his safety, caught a fever after standing in the rain all night, he only lowered his voice and said, "Superstition."

Whenever she made a tender confession, silence was all she ever got in return.

She never gave up or lost heart, always offering him her blazing, radiant heart.

But that heart shattered on the night of her coming-of-age banquet. She watched Gu Que place a hairpin in the hair of her close friend Lian Yi, and couldn't believe how intimate they had become.

She also had no idea that all those times Gu Que had stood her up were for Lian Yi...

She argued and fought, desperately trying to prove her love, but it finally died in a heart-wrenching moment of choice: faced with life and death, he chose Lian Yi.

Through tear-blurred eyes, she saw him stride toward her, still every inch the gentleman. He lowered his eyes, his expression dark. "Princess, she is different from you."

She had fought with all her might, to the point of destroying them both, and all she had proved was how much he cared for Lian Yi and how much he loved her.

Qingning was devastated and wept until she fainted in the winter sunshine.

When they met again, he had become a rising star at court and the emperor's most trusted minister.

Surrounded by admirers, with people practically breaking down his door to propose, he turned them all down with impeccable courtesy. His colleagues teased him for his abstinence, and he smiled faintly. But then he saw Qingning laughing and chatting with another young man. He watched her coolly for a long time before looking away, only to spill wine all over his hand.

He repressed his feelings as much as he could, convincing himself that the past had long since faded away and that now he was merely following the emperor's orders to look after her. But one day, as he passed by, he heard Qingning say in a sweet, playful voice, "Young Master Cui is handsome and talented. If I married him, I'd even let him win our arguments now and then."

The twin-lotus hairpin in his hand snapped cleanly in two.

Qingning thought Gu Que was acting strangely. He had obstructed her marriage plans again and again. As she listened to him coolly criticizing the young men, she stared at him in surprise.

"Lord Gu, do you actually think you're the best choice?"

Gu Que gazed at her in silence for a long moment. His voice was cool, earnest, and steady. "Why not?"

Qingning's lips lifted in a faint smile, though no warmth reached her eyes. "It's not that you aren't an option. I just don't like men like you, Lord Gu."

Theme: Sincerity is the ultimate weapon