After Marrying the Man Who Once Betrayed Me

When Ling Shu was young and naive, she got involved with a handsome, aloof scholar. He treated her wonderfully, was strikingly handsome and exceptionally learned, though a little poor. He promised to ask for her hand once he passed the highest imperial examination.

She waited with eager anticipation, only to be humiliated after he placed first in the exam. He said, "Everything between us was a game. I never meant any of it."

As if that weren't enough, her mother wanted to force her to marry her maternal cousin. She conspired with her sister-in-law and set a trap, pushing Ling Shu into a lake in front of everyone at the Qionglin Banquet.

The good news: her mother and aunt's plan failed.

The bad news: she was pulled from the lake by her former lover, the newly crowned top scholar!

Rumors spread at once, and public opinion ran wild. The estranged former lovers were forced to marry and head south together.

Cheng Chao spent ten years lying low, determined to uncover the truth behind his father's death.

Then, at a spring banquet, he crossed paths with a young woman whose bright, almond-shaped eyes shimmered. Though she was arguing with someone, she seemed as vivid as a flame burning in his eyes.

He thought fate had sent her to save him, never realizing she was the sharpest blade poised at his throat.

Later, beneath the glow of red wedding candles, she became his wife.

He kept his distance, cold and detached, while she insisted on pressing closer at every turn.

He knew he ought to hate her, but he couldn't.

At first, when they arrived in Mingzhou, Cheng Chao was distant and cold. He calmly told Ling Shu they would sleep in separate rooms.

Later, the once aloof and self-possessed top scholar pinned her against the door, eyes reddened:

"I'm not leaving. I'd rather die than leave."

Ling Shu turned back in surprise and lightly tapped his chest.

"Then... go ahead and die?"

[Reader's Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads have no prior sexual experience, happy ending.

2. Includes a groveling-chase arc.

3. The heroine is not all-powerful. No transmigration or rebirth, just a pure historical romance.

4. This story is fictional and set in an imagined dynasty.

My new novel, How to Become the Big Bad of the Cultivation World, is now underway. If you like it, please add it to your favorites!

The Fusan Continent has thirteen provinces, where cultivators seeking the Way live alongside demons, monsters, and ghosts.

Zeling is an ordinary mortal, low in status and treated as no more than an insect. Orphaned and adrift for half her life, she was fortunate enough to be taken in by an immortal and accepted as a disciple at Lingshan. For a brief time, she finally found peace.

But good times never last. The sects of the cultivation world were locked in endless struggles, and even secluded Lingshan was destroyed in the fighting.

The immortal perished, leaving only three young disciples behind.

The eldest disciple was born with a sword bone, the second had innate spirit eyes, and only the youngest was an ordinary mortal. So they took the other two away, leaving the youngest to be pierced through the heart by a sword.

Unfortunately, Zeling was that unlucky youngest disciple.

She died, but not completely.

By a stroke of luck, she survived. Her damaged spiritual meridians were repaired and reshaped, turning disaster into fortune.

Her life, once as insignificant as an ant's, was rewritten in that moment.

Yan Youshi suddenly found himself with a gifted junior sister who had appeared out of nowhere.

The junior sister was sweet and well-behaved, smiling warmly at everyone with bright, crescent-shaped eyes. All the senior brothers and sisters in the sect adored her.

She was talented and diligent in her cultivation, but because she had started late, she suffered plenty of grievances in the sect.

Still, she never cried or complained. She only looked at people with misty eyes, inspiring their sympathy.

Only Yan Youshi knew what kind of heart was hidden beneath her innocent, harmless exterior.

Yan Youshi thought his junior sister had a boundless future. Everyone knew she would become one of the youngest Sages. It didn't matter if her temperament was a little off. The cultivation world was ruled by the strong, and the truly innocent and kind rarely met with a good end.

But no one expected that this prodigy, so full of promise to everyone in the righteous sects,

would later betray her sect, kill her master, slaughter her fellow disciples, and ally herself with demons, monsters, and ghosts, becoming the feared Big Bad of the thirteen provinces.

She would even attempt to overthrow the imperial throne and establish a new order.

[Sweet-faced, ruthless junior sister VS cold on the outside, warm on the inside senior brother]

Content warnings:

A cultivation novel with a touch of ensemble cast, a coming-of-age story, and equal parts plot and romance. Very long.

The heroine is not a good person and has few moral scruples. She is single-mindedly committed to achieving her goals, always takes revenge, and shows no mercy to her enemies. She has a golden finger, but no System. It's a magical artifact in a fantasy setting, and it doesn't do much.

My take on fantasy, written as practice. The prose is plain throughout, so please don't force yourself to read it if that's not your thing.

Please note: One-on-one romance, both leads have no prior sexual experience. The setting is entirely my own, so please don't nitpick. This is a story I wrote for myself.

Cultivation levels:

Qi Induction, Perception, Qi Condensation, Star Gathering, Core Formation, Divine Illumination, Sage.

Theme: Supporting each other