[Delicate yet resilient beauty × obsessive, unhinged, tragic beauty]
Shen Siyun and Lu Shiyu met as children and grew up together.
Lu Shiyu promised that when Shen Siyun’s birthday came, he would send a matchmaker to ask for her hand.
But when the day arrived, Shen Siyun and her father waited at home all day, and Lu Shiyu never showed.
Only later did Shen Siyun learn that Lu Shiyu had quietly left.
Before leaving, he had sent her a letter, saying that after a night of deep reflection, he had finally understood his own feelings.
He had no romantic feelings for her and did not want to give his heart to someone who did not return it.
He also hoped she would conduct herself properly from then on and stop being as frivolous and wanton as before.
Shen Siyun was furious when she read the letter.
In his eyes, the affection they had shared since childhood was nothing but her deliberately clinging to him.
Very well, then. She would marry someone else and let him know that she had never cared for him either.
Wei Tingxu, the Grand Tutor’s eldest son, was gentle by nature and pure and noble.
He knew he had a betrothal, to a daughter of the Shen family of Jiangzhe.
Yet even though he was already twenty-two, he had never thought to bring up the marriage himself.
There was only one reason: he had been in poor health since childhood and needed to take medicine year-round. He might not even live to see twenty-five.
So Wei Tingxu thought that if the other family didn’t mention it, he would pretend the betrothal didn’t exist. He must never take the initiative and ruin the young woman’s life.
But just as he thought the marriage would quietly come to nothing, a servant suddenly reported that a young lady named Shen was waiting outside the residence, bringing the marriage contract and tokens, ready to marry him.
After Lu Shiyu hurt her, Shen Siyun made up her mind: she would forget the man of her past, marry into the Wei household, and be a good Madam Wei.
So even though the eldest son of the Wei family tried several times to dissuade her, she insisted on honoring their engagement and becoming a wife of the Wei family.
She would share a room with him, read by his side, and grow old with him.
At last she managed to persuade her fiancé to agree. But on their wedding day, his long-lost younger brother suddenly returned home.
It should have been a joyous occasion, doubly blessed, but when Shen Siyun lifted her veil, she discovered that her newly returned brother-in-law looked exactly like that scoundrel, Lu Shiyu.
A little scene:
On their wedding night, Lu Shiyu, drunk out of his mind, watched basin after basin of water used to wash his brother being carried out of his room by the maids. His long-fingered hand clenched tighter and tighter, and his lifeless eyes gradually reddened.
After his brother had taken his medicine and fallen asleep, Lu Shiyu crept into the bridal chamber. His eyes red, he pinned Shen Siyun deep into the bed. “My brother is frail. How could he ever satisfy your longing, sister-in-law?”
Theme: Pursue what is good and stay true to yourself.
