The Wife I Forced Myself to Marry

Blurb:

Wang Song sometimes thinks back to his first meeting with Li Tang.

It was the dead of winter. He was gravely injured and on the verge of death, collapsed outside the gate of a dilapidated little courtyard. Just as the snow was about to bury him, a girl carrying a basket of firewood crunched toward him through the snow.

He struggled to lift a hand and grabbed the hem of her skirt. "Save me, please..."

Li Tang saved him, and he married her to repay her kindness.

Wang Song was handsome as a painting, while Li Tang was plain-looking.

Everyone in the village lamented the mismatch, but Wang Song didn't mind.

Wang Song loved Li Tang. Li Tang... Li Tang never said anything, but that didn't stop him from believing she loved him.

Until one day he discovered that her appearance was fake, and so was her love.

Li Tang remembered the winter day she and Wang Song parted. Snow fell like goose feathers, silvering the earth for miles. On the mountaintop, they stood in silence, gazing at each other. They were close enough to embrace, but the merciless blade arrived before an embrace could.

Li Tang watched the long sword in Wang Song's hand drip with blood and thought, How petty. So what if I deceived him into giving me his body? I never deceived his heart.

He was the one who insisted on giving it to me. Why blame me for not wanting it?

Li Tang didn't understand. She raised her hand and tore up the marriage contract they had once signed. Scraps of red paper drifted away in the wind. She turned and left, never seeing the young man's face turn ashen behind her.

He knelt in the snow, his hands frozen red, desperately trying to piece together the marriage contract, soaked and chilled by the snow. He pressed it against his chest as if preserving a treasure.

Wang Song was always thinking: How can Li Tang's heart be so cold?

When he hears that Li Tang is getting married a second time, Wang Song decides to steal her away from the wedding.

She was once his wife, and she can only ever be his wife.

The red bridal veil falls away, but Li Tang's eyes remain calm. She says mildly, "I am already married."

Wang Song grips her wrist hard, his eyes red as he replies coldly, "Yes. And aren't I your husband?"

Li Tang falls silent. An ex-husband probably still counts as a husband?

Amid the flickering red candles, Wang Song recalls their tender moments. She would lift her face, eyes half closed, and say brightly, "A Song, there's sand in my eye. Blow it out for me, quick."

And if he leaned down, Li Tang would kiss him on the lips.

But this time, Wang Song waits a long while and receives only

one tear.

Set in a fictionalized Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties.

An important supporting character has transmigrated.

A terrible person with a sincere heart / a sea of hatred and impossible love / not a sweet romance / a little dark

Theme: The story has begun; I'm writing it