A Springtime Marriage in Her Place

Jiangniang’s first time was sold to Shen Yuan. She was carried into the Shen residence as a trial-marriage maid, and after a night of humiliation, she was paid thirteen taels of silver. Shen Yuan had someone he loved and didn’t want this marriage. He didn’t like her either. He slept with her but despised her for being lowborn, not even allowing her onto his bed. It didn’t matter. She had someone she loved, too. When he wanted her to serve him, she served him. When he wanted her to bear his children, she became pregnant with his child without a name or status. After all, how could a bedchamber maid like her refuse?

Night would fall, and he would pull her into his arms and press her down on the couch, sometimes revealing a faint, fleeting tenderness without meaning to. By sunrise, it would be gone without a trace. Once they stepped out of the bedroom, they were practically strangers. But sometime along the way, she began catching Shen Yuan glancing at her when he thought she wouldn’t notice. She assumed she was imagining it, until that stormy night, when the candles had all gone out and the passion had just faded. The man knelt before her, cupped her cheeks, and coaxed her gently. “I don’t care about your past with him anymore. I’ll give you my heart. Will you give me yours?”

[Late at night, the bed curtains hang low. The man holds the young woman tightly in his arms, grinding his back teeth in jealousy. “You want to see him that badly? When your belly starts to show, I’ll personally arrange for you to meet.”]

...Angst-filled romance, wife-chasing after the divorce, possessive love, confinement, household intrigue, a naturally seductive heroine, a maid brought as part of a bride’s dowry, a gentleman in public and a deranged, brooding authority figure in private, the heroine suffers first, then the hero, devoted to her alone in the later chapters, the heroine grows over time.