The Third Year of a Miserable Marriage

[The regretful husband begs for her back | The aloof beauty goes mad for love | Face-slapping and a change of heart | Main story complete]

[Cool, principled nobleman × honest heroine who treats marriage like a job | HE]

Pei Yu disliked his wife, Shen Qingyin. He hated her rigid adherence to convention, her cold and dull nature, and her perpetually expressionless face.

Even more, he resented her for plotting to drug him at the Qionglin Banquet, ruining his match with his cousin.

If the emperor hadn't intervened and granted their marriage with an irrevocable decree, he, the eldest legitimate son of a century-old noble family, would never have married the daughter of a disgraced general.

So even after three years of marriage, with their eldest daughter already over a year old, Pei Yu remained as cold to his wife as ever.

Day after day, he watched impassively as his mother and other members of the clan bullied and tormented Shen Qingyin. Night after night, he ignored her pleas and forced himself on her until the third watch.

Even when Shen Qingyin became pregnant with his second child, suffering increasingly severe symptoms and barely able to eat or sleep from one day to the next,

Pei Yu brought home his newly widowed cousin and announced that he intended to take her as his second wife, to make amends for what had happened years ago.

Shen Qingyin agreed at once, calmly making arrangements for his cousin.

Seeing how gracious and devoted Shen Qingyin was, Pei Yu felt comforted.

He thought that if she could always be so sensible, perhaps he could try to treat her a little better.

Then, at the end of their third year of marriage, the young general known as the “Jade-Faced Shura” suddenly cleared his name and rode back to the capital.

Snow fell thickly on the day he returned.

By imperial command, Pei Yu went outside the city to welcome him. There he suddenly saw a pregnant woman climbing to a high vantage point to look into the distance. In the falling snow, she gazed at the general at the head of the procession, tears streaming down her face as she called weakly, “My beloved.”

The moment Pei Yu recognized her, he froze.

Only then did he learn that his wife and the young general had once shared a love that had cut deep into their hearts.

Only then did he realize that his wife was neither a proper, boring woman nor cold by nature.

It was simply that all her passion and all the love of her life had been given to someone else long ago. She had never loved him.

Shen Qingyin's heart had died long ago, the moment she had to agree to marry Pei Yu to protect her family, despite already loving someone else.

She just couldn't understand why the man who had looked down on her most was also the one who refused to let her go.

She never imagined that a proud, noble young master like Pei Yu would one day kneel before her and ask like a man begging for mercy, “Qingyin, was I not good enough to you last night? Why is he still in your heart?!”

[In the third year of my loveless marriage, my first love returned. But my aloof, high-and-mighty husband suddenly went mad, forcing me to love him.]

Love after marriage, the male lead pursues his wife after mistreating her, family drama, inner-courtyard intrigue, both leads have no prior sexual partners, one-on-one romance, HE, alternate world. The more domineering the male lead is at first, the more pathetic he'll be later.

P.S. Pei Yu is the male lead, and he will not be replaced. If that's not for you, proceed with caution, and please be civil. If you've read the blurb and free chapters and like them, keep reading. If you don't, just click [Exit]. Nobody is forcing you to read. What's the difference between people who read one blurb and start cursing and idiots who sniff the air outside a restaurant and insult the chef? Whether the story is misogynistic or misandrist, you should at least read it before criticizing it. Those who read a couple of free chapters and start ranting are just bitter and jealous.

Coming soon: Regret After Hitting the Wall. If you're interested, please add it to your reading list!

[Love and hatred | A bad man with a sincere heart | Love grows wild in a heartless soul | The regretful lover begs for her back]

[Bright, naive, hopeless romantic sunshine girl × heartless, deranged, gloomy villain]

Jing Fu was the daughter of Prince Jin and a court official, yet she fell hopelessly in love with the long-lost true-born son of the Yan family, who had only been found after many years.

She took a blade for him and swallowed poison for him. She risked her life to beg the emperor for his favor. And to cure the poison eating away at his heart, she willingly slept with him without marriage.

Every time afterward, he tenderly wiped the tears from her face and said, “It's all right, A-Fu. I promise I'll take responsibility for you.”

Jing Fu believed him without question, until she overheard Yan Heng talking with a friend and learned that he'd returned to the capital to avenge a blood debt.

She was nothing more than a dispensable pawn in his revenge.

Heartbroken, Jing Fu followed her father's arrangement and married her childhood companion, her cousin.

But on her wedding day, the man who had risen to the highest ranks of government sent troops to surround her husband's home.

The man who had always remained unruffled even when Mount Tai crumbled before him actually held her tightly in his arms in front of her husband, eyes bloodshot and looking like a madman. “A-Fu, please. Please take responsibility for me.”

Yan Heng was a demon who had crawled out of hell.

After returning to the capital, he saw everyone as stepping stones for his revenge, including the laughably naive young princess.

He treated her as an ingredient for his antidote, a plaything to amuse himself when bored.

But when there was no love left in her eyes whenever she looked at him, he panicked.

The poison in his heart had been cured, yet Yan Heng was suffering a pain deeper than ever before.

[He treated her love like trash. But when she stopped loving him, he foolishly imagined she could love him as before. That was never going to happen. So even when Jing Fu heard that he had turned gray overnight, she didn't even furrow her brow. She decided she would never stupidly love Yan Heng again, even if he spent every day wagging his tail and begging at her feet.]

[Reader's Notes]

1. Naive innocent girl versus born bad seed. Both leads have no prior sexual partners, one-on-one romance. The heroine is extremely, extremely lovestruck at first, but later she becomes utterly resolute. The male lead is awful to her at first and only uses her. Later, this terrible man grows a heart and turns into her dog.

2. From the heroine's perspective, a lovesick puppy rises to the top; from the male lead's perspective, a casual hookup becomes a real relationship. The bastard breaks down and launches into a full-on campaign to win her back.

3. The second female lead is the crown princess, the heroine's cousin. She has a harem of many men and will eventually ascend the throne.

4. Set in an alternate Tang dynasty.

5. I can't write normal romance, so this one will be as melodramatic and full of twists and turns as ever. It should be a delicious story about a bad man with a sincere heart.

Theme: Clear up misunderstandings and reconcile.