My Wife Is Hard to Find

Ever since Cui Zhiying returned to Jiangnan for another study tour and stayed with the Cui clan, Xie Shuwei had found it harder and harder to keep up her widowhood. Sure enough, a month later, Cui Zhiying sailed back to the capital, accompanied by Xie Shuwei and her daughter, who was not yet a year old.

Cui Zhiying was born into a century-old aristocratic clan. Handsome and refined, he was privileged and domineering. His father was a high-ranking court official, and his mother a princess who was beloved by the Empress Dowager. Everything came easily to him, including his imperial examination degree.

From childhood, he had studied the classics, calligraphy, poetry, and the six arts of a gentleman, and observed the formalities of court. He had never pursued romance or love.

Yet the moment he laid eyes on Xie Shuwei, he resolved to keep his kinswoman by marriage at his side. She was merely a widow from a declining household, struggling to get by. If he wanted her, his relatives would readily send her to him.

Xie Shuwei lost her mother at a young age and was fortunate to meet a good man who rescued her from hardship. But when everything fell apart, she had no choice but to take a desperate risk. Afterward, she thought she would spend the rest of her life in peace as a widow.

But Cui Zhiying came calling a second time, and this time, she couldn't avoid him.

After Xie Shuwei remarried him, Cui Zhiying was triumphant. To him, she was like a painting he loved hanging before his desk: he was content as long as he could look up and see her. He didn't care what she thought.

But as time passed and they continued to treat each other with courteous distance, Xie Shuwei remained cool and detached around him. For some inexplicable reason, he grew more and more irritated, until that spark of anger became a wildfire.

A little scene:

Xie Shuwei stood beneath the covered walkway, feeding the sparrows. A strand of dark hair fell against her snowy neck. Though she wore no makeup, she outshone the spring blossoms filling half the courtyard.

Cui Zhiying casually wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"Xie Shuwei, what is it you want?"

Xie Shuwei lowered her eyes and said nothing.

"Xie Shuwei, now that you've married me, you'll be Cui Xie for the rest of your life."

She smiled faintly, thinking, "Cui Zhiying, I was Cui Xie before, too."

I thought my wife was timid and shallow, but she has a heart of stone.

I had meant to remain a widow for life, but he dragged me back into the world of passion.

Cool, perceptive beauty from humble beginnings vs. proud, unruly nobleman

Both virgins, possessive marriage, love after marriage.

The heroine is no pushover.

Theme: Misfortune may be the wellspring of fortune, and fortune may conceal the seeds of misfortune.