After Being Reborn, the Marquis's Wife Starts Cutting Her Losses

My new novel, The Cultured County Magistrate and His Crude Concubine, is now underway. Please add it to your library. Thank you!

In her previous life, Lu Yiran was lowborn, yet she married the noble young master of a prestigious clan, the Empress's maternal uncle.

One was the niece of a favored consort, the other the Empress's younger brother. Their status was worlds apart, and they belonged to opposing factions.

After they married, she devoted herself to serving her husband and tirelessly tending to her sharp-tongued mother-in-law, never daring to voice a single complaint.

Naively, she thought she could warm her husband's frozen heart through her own efforts, and overcome the hostility and contempt the people in his household felt toward her.

Later, after her aunt, the Noble Consort, lost favor at court, Lu Yiran had no one left to rely on. In her panic, she thought she still had her husband to help save her family.

By then, he held great power. Not only did he refuse to save her family, he also wanted to divorce her and marry the woman he loved.

The child she had carried for ten months would call someone else Mother.

Her world came crashing down. Despairing and heartbroken, she jumped from a cliff and died.

Reborn, she found herself in the second year of her marriage to Xie Ci'an. She sneered inwardly. Since she had another chance at life, there was still time to cut her losses. She would take revenge on those who deserved it, and never yield to anyone she ought to stand up to. If her husband wasn't worth loving, then she simply wouldn't love him.

With a clear head and a firm resolve, she set out to change the fate of herself and her family in this life.

*

Xie Ci'an was the eldest son of the second branch of a century-old aristocratic clan, born noble and exceptionally handsome. He passed the imperial examinations at sixteen, but after his father died in battle, he abandoned the literary path to inherit his father's legacy, following his grandfather onto the battlefield and rising through the ranks on his military achievements.

At a young age, he attained the rank of second grade and successfully inherited his title, becoming the most sought-after bachelor among the noble ladies of Shangjing.

He had been forced into marrying Lu Yiran and having a child with her.

For that reason, he believed he would never fall for her.

Their bedroom life was so frequent that he convinced himself he was merely silencing the censors. He simply refused to admit that he craved Lu Yiran's tenderness and warmth.

Every day, he watched Lu Yiran cautiously draw closer to him, her clear, bright almond eyes filled with dependence, as if he were her entire world. He couldn't help softening toward her. Afraid he would fall too deeply, he deliberately neglected his wife. He had no idea that he quietly took note of every change in her.

Then, one day, Lu Yiran changed. As she grew more independent and accomplished, became increasingly cold toward him, and kept more and more secrets, he finally couldn't suppress his unease. He began to reflect on himself and search for what had gone wrong.

One day, during an argument, Lu Yiran took the initiative and asked him for a divorce.

He agreed in a fit of anger, then regretted it almost immediately.

A short scene

Lu Yiran insisted on divorcing Xie Ci'an and returned to her maiden home in Qingyang, where she stayed for two whole months. When Xie Ci'an arrived in Qingyang, he happened to hear that Lu Yiran was planning to marry someone else.

Xie Ci'an lost his composure and went to find her, but she refused to let him in.

He waited outside the door, letting the rain pour over him without moving an inch.

At last, Lu Yiran had no choice but to open the door. Soaked through, he wrapped his arms tightly around her from behind and, choking back tears, asked, "Ranran, can you add one more thing to your dowry?"

Lu Yiran struggled in vain and cried out, "Add what?"

Xie Ci'an replied humbly, "Add an ex-husband. You and Xun'er are leaving. What am I supposed to do?"

Coming soon: The Concubine the Heir Apparent Picked Up

(Face-slapping, a groveling chase for his wife, one-on-one romance)

Wen Xiaojiu was one of the candidates the steward picked to become the heir apparent's concubine. Of all the women, she was the least remarkable.

She was naive and plain, had never seen much of the world, and didn't like to talk. Her status was also the lowest.

The other candidates were at least daughters born to concubines in merchant families.

She alone had been picked up by the heir apparent from a ruined temple.

From the other women, Wen Xiaojiu learned that the heir apparent had suffered from an old illness for years without improving. His mother wanted him to have an heir.

To secure a place in his favor, the women did everything they could.

But the heir apparent was difficult to get along with. Though he seemed gentle, he kept people at a distance.

He didn't like them approaching him. Every time the women reached his door, he had them thrown out.

Seeing how difficult it would be, Wen Xiaojiu gave up on her own and became a maid responsible for cleaning.

Yet in the end, she was the only one who successfully became his concubine.

Later, when the heir apparent had recovered and was returning to Nandu, she felt reluctant to part with him. Gathering her courage, she asked, "Could I go back to Nandu with you? I want to see you every day."

The heir apparent froze. After a moment's thought, he coldly refused. "You should understand your place."

In that moment, Wen Xiaojiu felt her heart pierced with pain. At last, she understood that she was the only one who had fallen for him during all their intimacy.

Half a year later, when the heir apparent returned and heard that Wen Xiaojiu had eloped with a servant, his chest tightened until he could hardly breathe.

He couldn't help wondering if Wen Xiaojiu's devotion to him had all been a lie.

How could her heart change so quickly?

Currently serializing

The Cultured County Magistrate and His Crude Concubine

(First married, then fall in love; love grows over time; a groveling chase for his love)

(A boisterous, crude concubine and a refined, scheming man bicker and spar every day. The heroine will gradually grow!)

Ruan Jiaojiao was a courtesan at the Mingyue Pavilion and one of the madam's candidates for the title of top courtesan. The madam had spent a fortune training her.

Yet years passed, and she had not a single talent she could show off.

Instead, she secretly learned martial arts at the academy next door. Any guest who dared approach her would end up bruised at best, or missing an arm or a leg at worst.

After she caused one too many mishaps, even the madam couldn't take it anymore and gave up on her, sending her away.

By a twist of fate, Ruan Jiaojiao became a prospective concubine in the household of Qi Siyuan, the newly appointed prefect, as well as his bodyguard.

Qi Siyuan used her, but showed her no affection.

Later, Ruan Jiaojiao was injured and lost her memory. When she saw that Qi Siyuan had been promoted and was returning to Shengjing without her, she wept bitterly and called him "Husband" again and again. Her tears and cries left Qi Siyuan so unsettled that he could only change his plans and take her along.

Who would have thought that when she found another man to turn to and was about to leave, she would tell Qi Siyuan so casually, "You've used me enough, right? This tool of yours should be leaving now."

Qi Siyuan was so furious he nearly stopped breathing.

*

As the illegitimate son of his family, Qi Siyuan had survived his stepmother's schemes. Though he appeared refined and mild-mannered, he was ruthless beneath the surface.

Yet he never expected that the person more ruthless than him would be the only woman he had ever fallen for: Ruan Jiaojiao.

She was impossible to tame. He only saw her true nature when someone else started stealing her away from under his nose.

He had painstakingly raised that fruit and only just gotten to taste its sweetness. How could he let someone else take it from him?

While Ruan Jiaojiao and her new man were celebrating their wedding night,

he knocked out the groom, took her away, and ruined their wedding.

Reading note: The male and female leads have no past relationships.

Theme: Only by becoming independent and strong can you protect the people you want to protect.