Thunder warning! Major thunder warning! Extremely shocking!
Years after leaving the capital, Shen Zhuoyin returns, now a married woman.
Her husband is a minor local official with grand ambitions and hopes of making a career for himself. But he has no connections and keeps hitting dead ends. Worse, he's stubborn to a fault and won't turn back even when he runs into a wall.
Shen Zhuoyin can't talk him out of it, so she stays cooped up at home and rarely goes out, hoping to avoid old acquaintances she can't afford to offend.
Since arriving in the capital, she hasn't had many peaceful nights. Her husband is either dead drunk or gone all night, but in her dreams, or perhaps they aren't dreams, someone is clearly murmuring by her ear.
"Why are you crying? This is nothing!"
Disturbed until she grows thinner by the day, Shen Zhuoyin decides to leave her husband behind and go on her own.
Her husband finally comes around and agrees to return to their hometown with her.
Just then, an order summoning him to stay in the capital arrives out of nowhere.
Her maternal grandmother, who once thought she was too delicate and seductive to be respectable, personally comes to bring her back to the Marquis's residence and keeps her husband in the front courtyard to teach him how to conduct himself.
The couple can't see each other during the day, so they meet secretly after the lights go out at night.
Trembling like a fledgling swallow, Shen Zhuoyin is bewildered and slaps him.
"You brute. I told you not to bite, but you wouldn't listen."
In the darkness, there is complete silence.
The man bends down and licks her like a dog licking its master.
Reverent. Frenzied.
The new dynasty has just been founded, and every industry awaits revival. Several ministers argue themselves red in the face over whether to preserve the old system of sons inheriting their fathers' positions or break through class barriers and recruit the worthy, but they still can't reach a decision. In the end, they have no choice but to ask the silent man on the throne, who seems to be dozing, to decide.
The man lazily lifts his eyelids, looking rather troubled. "I raised a snow bunting in my garden. It seemed well-behaved and never wandered off, but one day it flew away and never came back. Years later, it appeared outside my courtyard wall, playing with an ugly wild sparrow behind my back. What do you think I should do with such an ungrateful pet?"
The ministers are taken aback, but for once they reach a consensus.
Of course, bind it, imprison it, train it, and make it submit.
A moment later, the man's lips curl into a faint sneer.
How old-fashioned.
#Forced love, but she turns the tables on him; love unreturned, and the more he hates, the more he loves
#No one is decent; a powerful man becomes a lovesick dog, while the heroine only loves herself
Second version, October 16, 2026. Screenshot saved.
Theme: Life is full of hardship, so try not to take it too seriously.
