The Runaway Wife (The Chase to Win Her Back)

(Full text pending replacement. Do not read the main story.)

Novel blurb:

Lu Jiu'an lost her mother when she was young. As the saying goes, once you have a stepmother, you get a stepfather too. Her maternal family took pity on her and brought her to Jiangnan, where she lived for ten years. When she returned to the capital, her rustic, carefree ways made her completely unlike the refined young ladies of the city.

Lu Jiu'an had no great ambitions and wanted no nobleman for a husband. All she wanted was someone who understood her. But somehow, she was caught spending the night in the same room as the esteemed heir of Prince Su's estate. Her reputation was ruined, and after weighing her options, Lu Jiu'an married into Prince Su's estate and became the heir's wife.

Neither spouse had wanted the marriage, but Lu Jiu'an thought that now she was married, there was no undoing it. So she devoted herself to being a proper heir's wife: respecting her mother-in-law and obeying her husband, never refusing anything asked of her. Her husband was a little cold, but she thought that perhaps the prince's household could look after her maternal family, and that life was still bearable.

That changed during a hunting trip, when she and Sui Yunjing's first love were captured together. When the kidnappers said they could release only one person, Sui Yunjing chose his first love without hesitation. Lu Jiu'an finally understood that this marriage had been a mistake from beginning to end. No matter how hard she worked on top of a mistake, all she could get was another mistake.

Lu Jiu'an never expected to survive. When her cousin told her through tears that her maternal grandfather had become Jiangnan's leading salt merchant and would certainly stand up for her, she blurted out, "I want a divorce!"

-

Sui Yunjing, the heir of Prince Su's estate, was noble and aloof, with extraordinary talent. Few people could catch his eye. His life had always gone smoothly, and everything came easily to him, until a vain woman who had sacrificed her own reputation just to attach herself to him wouldn't leave him alone.

According to the course of his life, he would marry a capital young lady skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, perhaps someone like his respected teacher's daughter, Song Mianru, rather than a coarse, scheming country woman who could not even write properly. Sui Yunjing thought that sooner or later, he would be unable to stand her.

The one thing he never expected was that the woman who had become his wife had such a way with people. Every time he saw her, his dislike for her faded a little. He could not say when it happened, but when she smiled, she seemed more beautiful than all the flowers blooming in spring, leaving him restless and distracted.

At last, Sui Yunjing began to give in, accepting that he was being drawn to her against his will. He thought that it did not matter if her handwriting was poor; he would teach her. It did not matter if she disliked reading; he would read to her.

Just as his heart softened and he decided to treat her well, the wife who came to him was not happy. Instead, she coldly said, "I want a divorce."

It took Sui Yunjing a long time to understand that the hardest thing in the world to win back is someone's heart.

Later, he climbed the 1,088 steps at Putuo Temple on his knees, begging for just one person to look back.

The husband wins her back after hurting her | An aloof beauty bows his head for love | The hero doesn't realize he is in love | Both leads are each other's first

Theme: Be self-reliant and bravely fight for what you want