Aren’t I the Primary Husband?

*The title is told from the male lead's perspective. Xin He was born into poverty. As a girl, she had someone she secretly adored. Wei Yue, the third son of the Duke's household, was of noble birth, as distant and bright as the moon in the sky. She had spent only a few years working as a lowly maid in his household, and Wei Yue didn't even know who she was. All she dared do was hide in a dark corner and secretly watch him. That is, until Wei Yue found out. The pampered third young master gave her a sidelong glance and ordered his attendant, “Throw her out.” Xin He was driven from the household, thinking she would never see him again. But who could have guessed... Many years later, Wei Yue lost his family and became a convict slave. Xin He bought him back for one tael of silver. * After buying Wei Yue, Xin He kept him in a dark cellar. She knew he looked down on her, yet insisted on possessing him, defiling him, and marking his body all over. If he ever failed to obey her wishes, she humiliated him in every way she could. But after their moments of tenderness, she would kiss his lips with longing, spend her last savings on him, and carefully nurse him back to health. Wei Yue had never been treated like this before, like a dog someone kept as a pet. He knew Xin He loved him, but he despised her lowly status and hated that she did whatever she pleased with him. So he took advantage of her love, using and hurting her as he pleased, and saying the cruelest things he could think of. Until one day, he realized that Xin He might not love him anymore. She came home less and less often, and when she did, she carried another man's sachet. * Not long after buying Wei Yue, Xin He found her birth parents. In an instant, she became the only daughter of a marquis's household, one of the most illustrious young ladies in the capital, and became betrothed to Prince Qi, Li Cixiu. Li Cixiu did not care for his fiancée. She had been lost as a child and raised among common folk. She couldn't even read. Fortunately, she seemed honest enough, and her family had considerable influence. He reluctantly accepted her. However, on the day news of their engagement spread, a man came to find him. Wei Yue revealed the kiss marks on his neck. Calmly, he asked in a feverish tone, “Your Highness, take a guess. Who left these marks?” Only then did Li Cixiu learn that his seemingly meek fiancée was keeping a lover on the side! #Who is the kept lover? The unloved one, of course! *Purely romance-focused. All male characters are sexually inexperienced, and the ending is open. *Written purely to satisfy personal tastes, with a tempestuous love-hate atmosphere. At its heart, this is a story of three people who love and hurt one another. All the main characters have flaws. This is melodramatic fiction, so please don't read too much into its values. Readers with strict preferences or many triggers should proceed with caution. *Set in a fictional world, with a background inspired by the Jin dynasties. To make it easier to follow, the title system is based on the Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties, and the currency system on the Ming and Qing dynasties. The story includes fantasy elements such as witchcraft, occult arts, talismans, formations, and supernatural phenomena, so please don't overanalyze the historical details. *When the heroine became engaged to Prince Qi, she had no written agreement or marital relationship with Wei Yue, so there is no moral issue. Blurb written on 2025.03.15 A related upcoming novel, Please Collect: Humiliated the Ice-Cold Beauty Before I Died. Blurb below: Wu Rao was a musician kept by the Zhang household. She knew her status was lowly. Even though she loved the household's eldest son, Zhang Xuezhong, she never dared to dream of being with him. Then one day, she suddenly became aware that she was a supporting female character in a novel, whose only purpose was to highlight how unattainable the male lead, Zhang Xuezhong, was. According to the original plot, she would die of illness in less than six months. While she was alive, Zhang Xuezhong didn't even know who she was. As she lay dying, she finally couldn't resist secretly keeping a portrait of him, hoping to take it into her coffin and rest beside him. But the news got out. When Zhang Xuezhong learned of her feelings, the refined young master of an aristocratic family looked at her without a trace of emotion and burned the portrait. His voice was cool and indifferent: “Know your place. This is a delusion.” From then on, Wu Rao became a laughingstock throughout the capital. Even after she died, people said she was a toad reaching for a swan, with no idea of her own worth. Now. Wu Rao was frail and sickly. She had only just hidden his portrait away. Thinking of the plot made her angrier and angrier. At last, she tore up the portrait and decided to do something about it. Zhang Xuezhong never imagined that on an ordinary day, a lowly musician would stop him, claim she had leverage over him, and use it to force him to do as she said. He assumed she wanted money or jewelry. But when he leaned in with a frown to hear her request, the next moment he heard her say, “Kiss me.” Wu Rao was going to die, but she couldn't accept it. Why should her love be dismissed as a delusion? She knew the story's plot, so she used his weakness to threaten and toy with him. She made the noble, illustrious heir bend down to kiss her, call her “dear” in front of everyone, and even defy the whole world by marrying her, a musician of slave status. Watching him struggle to endure it yet still obey, Wu Rao was satisfied. At last, on her wedding day, she died content. When he lifted the bridal veil, she left him with a cold corpse. * Everyone knew Zhang Xuezhong was as bright and pure as the moon, yet blackmailed into marrying a lowly musician. She was like a speck of mud clinging to him. Zhang Xuezhong didn't love her, but he had no choice but to endure her. On their wedding day, the musician died alone before she could even complete the wedding rites with him. Everyone thought he would be glad. But that night, the wedding went ahead as planned. The man, eyes red, held a corpse and performed the rites to Heaven and Earth and his ancestors as if she were still alive. Afterward, he shut himself away. The servants tending the windows could always hear him murmuring softly, as though speaking to his new wife. After Wu Rao died, she could not be reincarnated. She had thought that the absurd six months would end with her death, but instead her spirit was dragged back to her corpse. Only then did she discover that Zhang Xuezhong had never buried her. He grew dark and deranged, spending every day sleeping beside her remains and feeding her his own blood. His eyes bloodshot, he asked, “You really won't come back to life?” Holding her corpse, he kissed her neck. “Then I'll die with you. I lived only to die for love with you.” Theme: What goes around comes around.