This is a side character's story from A Dream on a Floating Boat. There is no designated male lead. This is a short story, and I'll update it after finishing the original novel. The heroine is a peerlessly beautiful woman whom everyone adores, and the entire story unfolds on that premise.
Before Jiaojiao leaves for the capital to seek help from her relatives at the Earl's residence, her mother tells her that she must find a good husband.
But her mother doesn't explain what makes a husband good.
--
The first time Jiaojiao marries, her husband doesn't look down on her low birth, and he treats her with care.
But before she married him, they had met only once. She can't understand why that one meeting was enough for him to insist that his parents arrange a proposal, when they are so far apart in status, one in heaven and the other on earth.
But he really is good to her, and she learns to love him, too.
Just as she starts to develop feelings for him, he gives her divorce papers and a sum of money, telling her to leave the capital at once. That is the last time she sees him.
The second time Jiaojiao marries, if it can even be called a marriage, she spends six years as his mistress before he gives her a title.
He treats her reasonably well, never depriving her of anything even while she lives in his country estate.
But she is very afraid of him. He is not what he seems, his moods are unpredictable, and she feels she has never seen through him.
And yet he gently asks how she has been lately. He gives her a high position, though she has never asked for anything.
He turns a blind eye to her little schemes and lets her overstep her bounds. He doesn't care that she still thinks about her former marriage, and when she clumsily tries to hide her feelings, he pretends not to notice.
He toys with her for amusement, enjoying how weak she is in his presence.
--
In the end, Jiaojiao still doesn't know whether her mother would be satisfied with the life she's led. Would her mother think she found a good husband?
She has no one to ask. Her mother died long ago, just as Jiaojiao arrived in the capital.
Content warnings:
The first marriage is arranged without the couple knowing each other, and both are inexperienced. The second involves a degree of coercion, and neither is inexperienced.
Because of her upbringing, the heroine is submissive and rarely fights back.
I wrote this because the side character's story in A Dream on a Floating Boat became too long to fit into an extra chapter, so I'm publishing it as a separate book. I don't support viewing the heroine's two marriages as romantic pairings, so there is no designated male lead.
Theme: Cherish life
