A delicate, tender-hearted concubine-born daughter x a traditional, tight-lipped, cold-hearted marquis
Six-year age gap | He pursues her after losing her | Physical and emotional anguish | Powerful man, vulnerable woman
Mei Fengyun spent her whole life yielding to others just to survive. Weak-willed and timid, she was someone anyone could bully.
At seventeen, she went to the residence of Song Ji, a newly risen noble and the promising scion of a once-declining aristocratic family, and begged him to marry her.
Since ancient times, marriages had been arranged by parents and matchmakers. The woman betrothed to the nobleman was her legitimate elder sister, who had died of illness. Her father told her she could either marry Song Ji or become the concubine of a wealthy merchant nearing seventy.
She had heard that the merchant had already killed six or seven concubines.
She truly had nowhere else to turn for help.
Song Ji leisurely sipped his tea, now and then fiddling with the huanghuali prayer beads in his hand. He did not even raise his eyes, as if Mei Fengyun kneeling before him did not matter at all. He paid no heed to her earnest, pleading words.
Mei Fengyun struggled to keep her trembling body steady. Cold sweat seeped down her back, yet the man before her still pressed in like dense, relentless rain, squeezing away the space she had to breathe.
Without saying a word, he had someone send her back home.
Just as Mei Fengyun resigned herself to her fate, the Song family's marriage contract arrived at the Mei residence along with the betrothal gifts.
After they married, Song Ji treated her with proper courtesy, like a creature without desire. No matter how she tried to keep him, he never consummated the marriage with her. Sometimes he would simply stare at her in a daze, as though looking through her face at someone from his past. Mei Fengyun had her suspicions, but did not dare ask.
A cousin who had loved Song Ji since childhood already disliked Mei Fengyun. Once she realized Mei Fengyun had no favor in his eyes, she shamelessly bullied and persecuted her both openly and behind her back, causing her to lose the child she carried.
Mei Fengyun went to Song Ji and asked him for a letter of divorce. This time, Song Ji glanced at her coolly and said, “I, Song Changxi, will only ever be a widower. I will never divorce my wife.”
That night, towering flames burst from Zhushan Courtyard, where Mei Fengyun lived. Song Ji's study was also reduced to ashes.
Everyone thought Song Ji had rushed into the fire to retrieve his precious books. When he finally stumbled out empty-handed, only he knew he had committed a sin that would be impossible to atone for.
A few months later, the “vanished” Zhushan Courtyard was rebuilt just as it had been before. The only difference was that Song Ji was the sole person trapped inside.
Content warnings: 1. The male lead is a relic of the old patriarchal order, concerned only with his own affairs. At first, he treats the female lead as a substitute, hating her while also hating himself for being unable to control his feelings. In truth, she is the one he cherished as a child.
2. The female lead is a soft and genuinely weak woman. At first, she keeps hoping someone will save her. Even after she marries the male lead, she is still bullied. Once she comes to her senses, she tries to escape.
3. Both leads have no prior sexual partners. The male lead's approach to love is like a wolf's: once he chooses someone, he clings to that person to the bitter end. The female lead's attitude changes from wanting a love in which they understand each other to asking what good love is if it costs her everything. She decides to make money instead.
Theme: Love can overcome every obstacle, and Yun can find fortune in Ji.
