The Bride-to-Be's Trial

After five years of treading on thin ice in the princess's household, Zhao Jiuyuan thought she would never get another chance to turn her life around. Then, by a twist of fate, she was chosen as a trial-marriage maid.

Fate had a cruel sense of humor: the man she was to trial-marry was Xie Chenming, the enemy who had destroyed her family all those years ago.

The boy she once knew was gone. He had become the powerful General of the North, a man who held the court in his grasp.

On the night of the trial marriage, red candles flickered as the man looked down at her with icy eyes. He did not recognize the face he had once personally cast into the abyss.

Powerless to take revenge, Zhao Jiuyuan could only grit her teeth and swallow her hatred, hoping the trial marriage would end soon so she would never have to see him again.

She dared not fall for him. All she wanted was to use him, then get away from him.

But Xie Chenming refused to let her go.

He thought this trial-marriage maid was nothing but a fickle woman who would betray anyone for profit.

But when he saw her willing to give her life for her younger brother, he realized she had a heart, too.

She avoided him like the plague at every turn, but he kept closing in.

Until, on a rainy night, he gripped her wrist, an unfathomable obsession surging in his eyes.

"Zhao Jiuyuan, did you really think... I wouldn't recognize you?"

At last, he remembered that she had once saved him.

But what greeted him was a sword thrust from her, filled with hatred.