A Marriage Plot

There was a rumor in S City that business upstart Mu Yunshen was keeping a mistress in a golden cage behind his fiancée’s back. They said the woman was mute, too. Later, the mute woman’s identity swept across the headlines of S City, and news that she was married stunned the entire city. Mu Yunshen twirled the newspaper in his fingers and sneered. “I spoil my wife. What the hell does that have to do with you?” Some people said Mu Yunshen doted on Lu Chu to an unhealthy degree. When the news reached Lu Chu, she smiled indifferently. “He married me only to atone for his sins.” That night, Mu Yunshen trapped her between his arms, his voice low and cool. “Mrs. Mu, there are countless kinds of sins in this world, each with its own sentence. When will your husband have served his time and be released?” * When Lu Chu was young, she loved someone. Later, Mu Yunshen destroyed that person. When they met again years later, she told Mu Yunshen, “Mu Yunshen, I will never love you.” Mu Yunshen always thought Lu Chu didn’t love him, never realizing that the woman who swore she didn’t love him had already fallen incurably ill with love.