[Glamorous Beauty X Blackened Aloof Nobleman]
Liu Ying'er was stunningly beautiful. At fifteen, she fled famine and came to the capital, where a handsome young scholar who had come to sit the imperial examinations took her in.
But while the scholar was away, she stole his money and ran back to her hometown, using it to save the family of the uncle who had raised her.
Three years later, Liu Que'er was cruelly sold by her uncle to the powerful He family, to bring good fortune to their gravely ill eldest son.
Only after she was carried into the household in a bridal sedan did Liu Que'er learn that the He family's second young master had placed first in the imperial examinations three years earlier and was now rising swiftly through the official ranks. He was the very scholar she had wronged back then.
He Cheng was the illegitimate son of a duke. Brilliant by nature, he was nonetheless disliked by his father and grandmother. At seventeen, he used all his savings to travel to the capital and sit the imperial examinations, renting a secluded courtyard where he could focus on his studies.
One day, in a torrential downpour, a young woman in tattered clothes knocked on his courtyard gate. "Young master, please save me. Let me come in and take shelter."
She had a graceful figure and lovely features, her eyes glistening like spring water. Her wet hair hung over her shoulders, and her shabby clothes clung to her, soaked through by the rain. She looked utterly pitiful.
He had always been hardhearted, but this time, through the misty rain, he felt a pang of compassion.
The woman hid in his courtyard and was deeply grateful to him. Even though he treated her coldly, she insisted on lighting the fire and cooking for him. On the eve of his metropolitan examination, she was especially tender and sweet, leaning against his legs and saying she wanted to marry him and bear him children.
By the time he returned from the examination hall, the woman had already taken his money and vanished without a trace.
Liu Que'er's husband was gravely ill and unconscious. Since she entered the household, the gates to her courtyard were shut every night. Yet on the gauze window of her bedroom, two entwined shadows were unmistakably visible. The plants in the courtyard looked bleak and forlorn, while spring seemed to stir inside her room.
"Sister-in-law, do you remember me?"
Premise: You may be shallow and ignorant, but I still love you.
