[Dotes on his concubine and neglects his wife + regret and repentance + absolutely no forgiveness] Shen Zhaoning fell from the exalted status of a commandery princess to a commoner. She married into the Lu family, thinking she had found a man she could entrust her life to. But her husband doted on his concubine and neglected his wife, crushing her pride and grinding her face into the dirt. She humbly tried to please him, only to be humiliated and beaten, then sent to a country estate to serve as a slave and fend for herself.
Three years later, she returned to the household and refused to take any more abuse. She cleared her name of poisoning her stepson, reclaimed her dowry, and turned the Lu family upside down. But after their divorce, her former husband prostrated himself before her, bleeding from his many bows. "Zhaoning, I was blind and lost you. Give me one more chance to love you properly, please?"
The old madam wept, her sickly body so repulsive it made people gag. "It's all my fault. I'll work like an ox or a horse to serve you. Please forgive me." Even Second Miss Lu Qingxue, who was vain about her beauty and sharp-tongued, knelt and begged through her tears. "Sister-in-law, you will always be the mistress of the Lu family, and my sister-in-law."
Forgive them? She wouldn't forgive them if they died and were reduced to ashes!
The man who cherished her above all else drew her into his arms and said nonchalantly, "My lady, shall I help you scatter their ashes?"
The Lu family fled in terror, huddling far away and trembling as they cried...
