After Marrying My Cool, Aloof Brother-in-Law in a Substitute Marriage

[Updates every night at ten]

When her older sister eloped, Li Jinxu was forced to marry her brother-in-law, Shen Jianyuan.

Shen Jianyuan was a promising young man: elegant and handsome, and outstanding in every way except for his naturally cold temperament.

The Shen and Li families had been close for years. Li Jinxu had always been most afraid of her aloof brother-in-law. After they married, she was extremely cautious. Knowing her husband liked peace and quiet, she restrained her own nature. Even though his family disliked her, she carefully tried to get along with them.

She silently hoped to keep their marriage intact. But a little over a year after she married into the family, her mother-in-law said Shen Jianyuan should take another wife on equal footing with her.

Li Jinxu had endured for an entire year. Today, she finally decided she couldn't go on like this.

She was done. She wasn't going to stay with him anymore!

When Shen Jianyuan said he wanted to take another wife, she calmly agreed, then left a divorce agreement behind, packed her belongings, and ran away from home.

*

Shen Jianyuan's marriage to the Li family had been arranged by their elders. He simply hadn't expected that, though they had originally agreed on the eldest Li daughter, it would be Li Jinxu who married him.

He had met her at the Li residence before.

He remembered her as lively and uninhibited. After they married, however, she changed considerably. Shen Jianyuan didn't think much of his young wife's transformation. Since she was obedient and compliant, he thought they might as well let this marriage, arranged by mistake, carry on.

Then one day, after an argument, he returned home to find his wife gone and a divorce agreement on the table…

Shen Jianyuan hurried to find his runaway wife, only to discover her in the arms of her childhood sweetheart, crying her heart out.

“Ah Heng, I don't want to be with him anymore. I'll go with you. I'll follow you anywhere!”

Shen Jianyuan knew that before marrying him, his wife had been in love with someone else.

His wife was crying in another man's arms.

And he had never seen her this spoiled and willful since they married…

The arrogant, favored son of heaven clenched his knuckles. Only now did he realize that his wife had never loved him.

*Both leads are virgins

Coming soon on my homepage: An Adopted Bride Wants to Leave. Blurb below

Please add it to your collections if you like it, darlings~

Blurb: Chen Lianyang was the Zhou family's adopted bride.

But after Zhou Huaizhao passed the examinations, became famous throughout the court, and rose swiftly through the ranks, she knew she wasn't worthy of that noble, radiant young man.

Then he was drugged, and the two of them spent one passionate night together. In the end, she married him just as she had hoped.

Married life wasn't easy. Her mother-in-law was harsh, and her husband was cold. But as Chen Lianyang watched Zhou Huaizhao grow more powerful by the day, she thought that once she bore his child, her own life would improve too.

Then one day, after she quarreled with another woman, he comforted the other woman gently, then turned to Chen Lianyang with a cold stare. “Have you had enough?”

Chen Lianyang almost choked with frustration. Looking back on everything that had happened, she realized it had all been wishful thinking on her part.

Why should she keep putting up with this?

Her husband was steadily rising in rank, and his friends were all rich or powerful. She was young and beautiful, with no children. Why couldn't she divorce and marry again?

*

Zhou Huaizhao had lived with Chen Lianyang for years. At first, he thought she was gentle and obedient. Then one night, she clung to his neck, calling him “Zhou Lang” again and again in a voice so sweet it seemed to drip with honey.

Only after that night did Zhou Huaizhao realize how wrong he had been about her.

They were married. Though he disliked her, he had no intention of easily giving her up. Chen Lianyang was useless, with nothing to offer but her beauty. Where could she go without him?

But at some point, Chen Lianyang began to grow distant. She had once wanted a child so badly that she could hardly bear to spend a day apart from him. Now she was even annoyed when he came close to her in bed.

Later, on a rainy day, Zhou Huaizhao came across Chen Lianyang, drenched from the rain, taking shelter under the eaves with a friend who had come to visit.

She showed that man the smile Zhou Huaizhao hadn't seen in ages. They chatted happily, clearly enjoying themselves.

Zhou Huaizhao clenched his knuckles until they creaked and demanded an explanation. Chen Lianyang replied without a trace of emotion, “We were just talking. Have you had enough?”

The day Chen Lianyang brought up divorce, Zhou Huaizhao finally realized that she wasn't the stubborn one. He was. He would do anything to keep her from leaving.

Theme: When one road ends, another opens.