How Did My Ex-Husband Become So Obsessive?

I'm a merchant's daughter. When I was six, my parents brought home nine-year-old Jiang Keyu and told me that his parents had died, and from then on he would live with us.

Jiang Keyu was exceptionally gifted and diligent. A few years later, with my parents' support and his mentor's recommendation, he entered the civil service and quickly rose to prominence.

That same year, my father fell seriously ill and entrusted me to him. He watched us exchange our wedding vows with his own eyes, and only closed his eyes in peace after Jiang Keyu promised that I would be the only woman in his life.

From then on, Jiang Keyu and I were husband and wife, treating each other with respect.

Just like that, six years passed.

For all those six years, my husband kept his promise. I was the only woman in his household. I also managed the household and bore him a son and a daughter.

We were always polite to each other, and our days were peaceful and warm.

I thought he was simply born that way: reserved, unsmiling, rigid, and restrained. So even though I often felt there was a distance between us as husband and wife, I could reassure myself that things were fine.

Until one day, I took our children to the river to set floating lanterns adrift. A flower boat drifted slowly past, and I looked up to see a talented young man and a beautiful young woman aboard, talking happily.

It was my husband and his mentor's daughter.

I had never known that a man as cold as Jiang Keyu could smile so freely.

That scene fell into my heart like a seed, taking root and sprouting, growing thicker by the day until it took over my heart and pressed the breath from my lungs.

Even my children became careful around me because I was so unhappy.

I couldn't go on like that, so that night, I took the initiative and asked for a divorce.

He was surprised, but he didn't refuse, so our separation went smoothly.

He said that even if we were no longer husband and wife, he would still be my elder brother, given that my parents had raised him. If I ever needed anything, I could come to him.

I nodded and agreed.

Back at my old home, with time on my hands, I opened a teahouse on Dongqiao Street, the busiest street in town. I welcomed customers all day, and yet I was happier than I had ever been.

The fair-faced scholar next door would blush at a few words from me. Two handsome shop assistants ran about doing my bidding. The musician from the Yao Pavilion was a regular at my teahouse, always coming by to chat and cheer me up...

Only then did I realize how many joys life had to offer. I felt so free.

The only problem was that Jiang Keyu had promised to bring our children to see me every half month, since he was afraid they would miss me. But he came more and more often.

First every half month, then every ten days, five days, three days... Sometimes, when he had a day off, he even wanted to stay at my place.

I understood what he meant, but I didn't want my old life back. So I told him:

I've fallen for a scholar. I'm going to marry again.

/

From the male lead's perspective:

I married A Yuan to repay her kindness. I had no particular feelings for her.

We lived under the same roof for nine years, but my adoptive parents always told her not to disturb me while I studied. She was very obedient, always hiding in a corner to sneak a glance at me, never saying more than a few words.

To me, her greatest virtues were that she was beautiful and well-behaved.

She might not inspire passionate love in me, but I could accept spending my life with her.

But then my once-obedient A Yuan actually took the initiative and asked me for a divorce.

If that was what she wanted, then so be it. I wouldn't be breaking my promise.

I thought her leaving wouldn't affect me, but at home I was always irritable, with an empty feeling inside.

Our children were still there, and they were well-behaved, just like A Yuan, who used to sneak glances at me and never dare speak up.

As if possessed, I went to secretly watch her too.

I watched her laughing and chatting with the fair-faced scholar next door, joking around with the shop assistants she'd hired, and drinking with the handsome musician...

She seemed so full of life, like a different person.

The children missed their mother, so I took them to see A Yuan again and again. They never wanted to leave.

Neither did I.

But then one day, A Yuan told me she had fallen for the fair-faced scholar next door and wanted to marry him. She had no family left, she said, and hoped I would see her off as her elder brother.

She even asked, "Brother, are you happy for me?"

Happy, of course I'm happy.

I'd rather die right now than watch her marry someone else.

Of course I'm happy.

#The character perspectives in the blurb differ, and some details don't match what really happened.

#Rivalry between women in the first half, rivalry between men in the second half. If that's not your thing, don't read.

#The two children are important characters, and the story includes childcare. If that's not your thing, don't read.

------- Coming Soon: Reborn Before Fulfilling the Betrothal

When Sheng Mingyi was twenty, the Qi family moved to the capital. That was when she finally met her fiancé, Qi Wuju, the Qi family's youngest son, who was three years younger than her.

He was in the prime of his youth, full of spirit, galloping across the hills on horseback, his crimson robes flying in the wind.

He was handsome and cheerful, able to chat happily with anyone. He was carefree and uninhibited.

After their wedding, he loved to wrap his arms around her from behind, gently bite her ear, and whisper, "Big sister." He also liked to ask, "Once everything here is settled, shall we roam the world together?"

Sheng Mingyi always said yes.

But she was a proper, well-bred young lady from a prominent family, and the eldest child in her family, whose mother had died when she was young.

After she repeatedly persuaded him, Qi Wuju finally entered the civil service.

Year after year, for the sake of her honor and standing, he plotted every step carefully, rising through the ranks. To protect her younger brother, who repeatedly landed in prison for being too upright, he had no choice but to ingratiate himself with people on all sides. To save her younger sister, who fought for love, he stood against the Prince's household...

He never left the capital again.

Qi Wuju was bedridden with illness before he turned forty. As he lay dying, his wife stayed by his side without moving. Suddenly, he remembered the first time he had seen her from afar on horseback, many years earlier.

Quiet and gentle, elegant and beautiful, like a lily blooming in a mountain valley. She had captured his heart.

But she had also become the shackles of his life.

So he said, "In our next life, let's not meet again."

*

When Qi Wuju realized he had returned to his youth, the first thing he did was end his betrothal to the Sheng family.

It went surprisingly smoothly.

He felt as though he had put down a heavy burden, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But just as he was leading his horse out of the capital, he happened to hear that the Sheng family was about to arrange a marriage with the Su family.

In that moment, his curiosity and concern about what kind of man she would marry in this life outweighed the obsession he had carried with him for twenty years in his previous life.

*

Sheng Mingyi, who had cried herself to sleep after her husband died at forty, opened her eyes again and found herself back in the days when she was still confined to her family's quarters.

Through a screen, she heard her father and younger brother curse the Qi family for breaking off the engagement, and complain about Qi Wuju.

Her first thought was, of course, of her husband's final words.

She could no longer remember when her husband's face had stopped showing much of a smile. Nor could she remember when he had stopped embracing her behind the bedroom door as soon as he came home from a long day of work.

She thought, Let it be as he wished.

May he have a new life, and continue to be the carefree wind in the mountains and forests.

"The first time I met him was at Qushui Manor outside the capital. He didn't know that it was the farthest place I had ever been in my life."

*

Qi Wuju wondered countless times whether his wife had returned to her youth just as he had.

But every time he was about to ask, he would meet her eyes, which held neither a smile nor any hope when she looked at him.

*

Sheng Mingyi knew she was a worldly person. She didn't believe her younger brother's unwavering sense of justice would lead anywhere, and couldn't understand the value of her younger sister's pursuit of love.

She also couldn't understand why someone who had said to her face that they never wanted to meet again would still cling to her so desperately.

/

Theme: Live life on your own terms