After I Used and Dumped the Noble Young Master

Engagement first, love later | The ex-husband's long road to winning her back

Clever, calculating merchant's daughter x (seemingly) gentle nobleman

The Gu family of Gusu had been renowned cloth makers for generations. Gu Qiushui, the family's sixteen-year-old daughter, was gifted in business despite being a girl, and everyone who met her praised her talents.

But fate had other plans. The head of the Gu family and his wife died in a boating accident. Overnight, their sycophantic relatives and the childhood sweetheart who hid a dagger behind his sweet words all showed their true colors.

With the family about to be stripped of everything, Gu Qiushui gritted her teeth and found a jade bangle among her parents' belongings.

After much careful planning, she finally found a chance to travel by boat to Jinling. With the token in hand, she knocked on the Chen family's door.

She wanted to be a free bird, not a sparrow embroidered on a screen.

*

In the Chen residence, Chen Xian looked coldly at the woman seated below him.

He was the newly appointed second-place winner of the imperial examination and an Imperial Inspector of Jiangnan, appointed by the emperor himself. Why should he marry a merchant's daughter?

Using her period of mourning as an excuse, he proposed a three-year agreement, intending to make her give up.

To his surprise, Gu Qiushui lowered her eyes and quietly agreed.

*

For three years, Gu Qiushui endured everything in silence, concealing her sharp edges.

She devoted herself to caring for Chen Xian, accompanying him from Jiangnan all the way to the capital. She never abandoned him, not even when he was falsely accused and thrown in prison.

Even Chen Xian believed that she loved him deeply.

When the three years were up, Chen Xian thought it over again and again, then decided to go to the authorities and have their marriage contract officially stamped.

He finished work early that day and returned home to retrieve the contract, only to find the house empty. The contract had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind nothing but a letter of farewell: "Let's go our separate ways. Never meet again."

*

The day she received her imperial decree as an officially appointed merchant, Gu Qiushui was already planning her escape.

The plan went even more smoothly than she had expected.

Just as she returned to Gusu and was about to open the door to the home she had been away from for so long, the door opened from the inside.

It was none other than Chen Xian.

The man gripped her lower face in his large hand, fury and bitterness in his voice. "Gu Qiushui, how dare you..."

"What gives you the right to tell me never to meet you again?"

[Reading Guide]

1. Set in an imagined historical world. The setting blends elements from different periods, so please don't overanalyze the details.

2. The male lead is sexually and emotionally inexperienced. The female lead had a childhood sweetheart, but they never had a physical relationship.

3. This is not a strong-female-lead power fantasy.

Jotted down in the early hours of November 23, 2025

My upcoming books: After My Childhood Friend Became Emperor and After My Sickly Husband Became a Powerful Official. Please add them to your collection!

Theme: Love goes both ways.