My Cultured Ex-Husband Goes Against the Grain

[After Becoming His Nominal Concubine, I... Has Started Posting! The blurb is at the very bottom, so come save it to your library, everyone!]

Blurb:

In her previous life, Wang Xiaoxiao and Song Wenru were forced together and made husband and wife. After they married, she often heard people whispering behind their backs that, aside from their looks, they were mismatched in every way.

And it was true. She had lost her father as a child, and her uncle was only a fifth-rank official. Song Wenru, meanwhile, was the second young master of a first-rank duke's household, the most celebrated third-place palace graduate of his year, and a man of outstanding looks and bearing. Without a hitch, he would have married a princess.

Wang Xiaoxiao also felt Song Wenru had drawn the short straw, so after their marriage she did everything she could to make it up to him. Then, six months later, her husband, who had always treated her with courteous distance, wanted to consummate their marriage.

Who could have known it was all a scheme, meant to let the princess who had grown up with him kill her with her own hands?

In this life, she returned to the moment before they were forced together. She not only knew she had to do everything possible to escape this “good husband,” she also understood clearly that only power could keep her safe.

When Song Wenru opened his eyes again, he swore to protect Xiaoxiao and give her a peaceful life. Then one day, his wife from his previous life came to ask to marry him. He understood that, after two lifetimes apart, she was not “her.” As he hesitated over whether to turn her down, she suddenly changed her attitude, speaking coldly to him and withdrawing her earlier marriage proposal with the words, “I won't bother you anymore.”

So Song Wenru watched his wife from his previous life flourish and rise through the ranks. Then he watched helplessly as she married a young general, and they lived happily together, raising children.

He wanted to marry her again, but she refused to say yes. She would only give him the status of “lover on the side.”

Young General: Awooo, I'm the female supporting character...

1. An alternate world. Please don't scrutinize the details.

2. Both leads are each other's one and only. Happy ending.

3. The male lead is reborn before the female lead.

4. Some modernized elements are included for the sake of the plot.

My next novel is After Becoming His Nominal Concubine, I... Please add it to your library!

Su Nian is set up by her father and stepmother to become the concubine of the Ye family's second master. By a twist of fate, however, she gets involved with another man in the Ye family: Ye Minghe, Duke of Chu.

Everyone knows Ye Minghe. Not only is he exceptionally handsome, with an elegant and radiant bearing, he is also a fearsome enforcer who roots out corrupt officials and a battle-hardened guardian of the northwest. But he is always proud and cold. Any young lady who provokes him becomes a target for his punishment.

Su Nian loses her virtue and has no choice but to kneel before Ye Minghe with tears in her eyes. “You haven't exactly suffered a loss either. Please, Your Grace, let me go...”

Ye Minghe despises Su Nian's behavior

getting entangled with his grandnephew,

getting involved with the Ye family's second master,

being ambiguously involved with her childhood sweetheart,

and... getting involved with him, too.

But because he promised his gravely ill maternal grandmother that he would let her arrange a match, he has no choice but to force Su Nian to become his concubine. Of course, he knows she is only a concubine in name. He would never fall in love with a woman who attracts men wherever she goes. Once his grandmother passes away in six months, he will return the concubinage papers without hesitation and let Su Nian leave.

Until one day, he sees Su Nian walking out of another man's residence, leaning against him and complaining about her troubles...

Su Nian is looking forward to the six-month mark, too.

But Ye Minghe seems to have gone mad for some reason. He goes from locking her in a ruined garden and ignoring her to flying into a rage whenever she says one extra word to another man.

He goes from deliberately making her eat cilantro, which she hates, to taking her to the best restaurant in Chang'an and watching carefully as she takes a few bites.

He helps her take down her rotten grandnephew, forcing the man's head down until he calls her “Aunt.”

He openly takes sides against the Ye family's second master for her.

He gets into a street fight with her childhood sweetheart, throwing punch after punch.

Most surprising of all, there was a time when she touched him once and he scrubbed his skin nearly raw with a handkerchief. Now he is gravely wounded, barely clinging to life, yet still thinking about doing... that with her.

Before the six-month deadline is up, Ye Minghe publicly tears up their agreement and insists on marrying her.

With a fortune at her disposal and a handsome duke providing full-service attention from every angle, Su Nian thinks marrying Ye Minghe might not be so bad.

Just as she is about to agree, Ye Minghe says, “But you have to get rid of the child in your womb.”

You bastard. Hmph!

One day, while inspecting the northwestern frontier, Ye Minghe unexpectedly discovers that the physician treating the soldiers with acupuncture is the concubine he has searched for in a frenzy for five years.

What he can't bear is that his concubine has had a child with another man. Seeing her cherish the little one like a treasure leaves him with a lump in his throat.

But if he wants her to marry him, he has to endure not strangling the little brat. The brat's father, however, must die...

Also known as I Want to Kill Myself

Theme: Even the smallest stage can have its moment in the spotlight