[Poor, beautiful, honest girl × ruthless, domineering feudal patriarch]
[Forced pursuit / regret and groveling / age gap / powerful man humbled]
Jiang Qingwan was carried into the chancellor’s residence in a humble sedan chair.
The chancellor, Lu Jingxun, sought out a woman from a poor family to serve as his concubine because his proper wife was frail and unable to bear children.
They agreed that she would bear him a child within three years, after which they would settle their accounts and go their separate ways.
After a night together, she lay sprawled on the bed, aching all over, and watched Lu Jingxun get dressed and stand up.
Standing beside the bed, he pinched her chin and studied her. His voice dripped with undisguised scorn. “You’re so coy and affected. You seem like the sort who’s used to seducing men.”
The next day, she was left at the residence and assigned the most menial work. As she scrubbed clothes in the bone-chilling well water each day, she prayed she would get pregnant soon.
With the money, she could pay for treatment for her gravely ill father and marry the fiancé who was waiting for her in a manner befitting a bride.
*
After Jiang Qingwan entered the residence, Lu Jingxun ignored her during the day, but every night he would send for her to come to his bedroom.
When they were alone, he pinned her against the writing desk and let the ink stain her thin clothes. When others were around, he hid her beneath the desk, where she had to stifle her sobs.
He loved to grip her slender waist in the flickering candlelight and whisper, “Be good and bear it. Then you can go home sooner.”
Every time she served him, she felt utterly debased. But thinking of the fiancé she loved, she could only swallow her tears and let him do as he pleased.
Month after month, she showed no sign of becoming pregnant.
With no other choice, Jiang Qingwan asked to see Madam, only to learn that Lu Jingxun had already rejected the proposal to send her home.
Jiang Qingwan trembled from head to toe, frozen in place.
She had endured humiliation day after day, holding on only to the hope that she would one day go home.
Now even that last hope had been cruelly snuffed out...
*
At first, Lu Jingxun saw her only as a seductive woman who would stop at nothing for money. But little by little, he realized that he had developed an unspeakable desire for this lowly concubine.
Perhaps keeping her as a plaything wouldn’t be so bad.
With that thought, he ordered his servants to replace the fertility medicine with birth control.
But she refused to behave, trying to escape several times.
He guessed she was probably missing her useless fiancé.
Lu Jingxun simply had a thousand taels of silver sent to the man’s family and paid them to leave the capital for good.
“Your man doesn’t want you anymore.” He held her captive in his arms, his fingertips stroking her lips. “From now on, just stay by my side and be content.”
The trick worked.
Jiang Qingwan gradually learned to be compliant and serve him. She leaned softly into his embrace and gently returned his kisses.
He thought she had finally accepted her fate. Pleased with himself, he even began planning to make her his concubine.
*
During the Lantern Festival three years later, Lu Jingxun turned down a dinner invitation from his friends and took her to see the lanterns. The street stretched for ten li, bright as day. She gazed up at the fireworks filling the sky, their dazzling colors reflected in her eyes.
But while he turned away to buy a sugar figurine, she ran.
(The male lead is faithful in body and heart. His marriage is an arrangement between families, with no love involved. He’s a real jerk early on, and has a full ten-level groveling arc later. Please beware if that’s not your thing!)
Reader’s Guide:
1. Poor, beautiful, honest girl × ruthless, domineering feudal patriarch. The heroine is 18, and the age gap is eight years.
2. Happy ending, single-couple romance. His marriage is an arrangement between families, with no love involved. The heroine has a fiancé.
3. The dynasty is fictional, so please don’t nitpick the historical details.
Theme: Grow toward the light.
