My Enemy's Wife

[Angsty fake death!]

When Pei Ji led his cavalry to storm his enemy's home, the sprawling estate was swallowed by flames, and countless servants ran for their lives.

He reined in his horse and used his icy spear to pry open the collapsed remains of a thatched shed. "Who's there?"

A woman lay prostrate on the ground, delicate and tearful, looking at him as if she had a thousand things to say.

After a long silence, the old woman kneeling on the ground answered with a tremble.

"This is Madam Cao. She's, she's mute."

He raised an eyebrow and looked away. "Take her back."

He had avenged his family's murder. Now he would take his enemy's wife as a slave and keep her by his side, serving him day and night. What could be more satisfying?

-

Jiang Ruo's family fell into ruin, and Cao Li forced her to marry him.

The day Cao Li's household fell, a man on a horse with jade fittings and a carved saddle rode through the chaos, his icy spear stained with blood, his expression proud. Amid the clamor and flames, she saw his face.

It was him.

Five years ago, at an ancient temple, she had watched over him for two days, wiping the blood from his chest again and again.

At last, the young man awoke, pale and handsome. When they parted, his gaze was gentle and sincere. "Wait for me."

The young man she had dreamed of night after night had come to save her.

But life at the Pei estate was far from easy. Pei Ji suspected and tormented her. Even when they tangled together after drinking, he looked at her with hatred.

Then, when he woke, he flew into a rage, scolded her, and locked her in the woodshed.

At last, Jiang Ruo understood.

Pei Ji had not come to save her. He had come to hate her.

He had long forgotten how they had stayed together at the ancient temple, and how she had saved his life.

-

The Pei family had been slaughtered by their enemy, and he had fallen in love with that enemy's wife.

Pei Ji despised himself.

That drunken night of recklessness had betrayed his entire family, and the noblewoman from the ancient temple, who had worn a light veil and spoken in a lilting voice as she promised to wait for him.

"Jiang Ruo has taken her own life!"

Pei Ji kicked open the woodshed door in a panic. In his arms, Jiang Ruo coughed up blood, tears glistening in her eyes. "Since we parted at the ancient temple, you have been faithless and cruel, Pei Lang. I want nothing more to do with you."

Her voice was mournful and lilting, every word soaked in blood.

The moon he had thought forever out of reach had been beating in his chest all along.

With her gone, her blood-red image burned into his eyes, and from then on Pei Ji suffered unbearable heartbreak, day and night.

- The heroine was not born mute. After a sudden calamity struck her family, she developed a sudden speech disorder and will gradually recover.

- Both leads have only ever been with each other. Happy ending.

- The heroine fakes her death!

Theme: Facing everything together