Chapter 1
My words plunged the room into silence.
My mother-in-law slammed a hand on the table.
“Have you lost your mind? What man in this world doesn’t take concubines?”
“Your husband is only taking one. Must you make such a fuss?”
Kneeling before the assembled Cui relatives, I muttered,
“So he can stray, but I deserve to die for keeping a lover?”
My mother-in-law pressed a hand to her forehead in fury.
“Son, what do you have to say?”
Under everyone’s gaze, Cui Shiyu drew a deep breath and said evenly,
“When did I ever say I was taking a concubine?”
My sobbing stopped dead.
My mother-in-law stared at him in shock.
Cui Shiyu rubbed his temple.
“Mother, whose daughter am I supposed to be taking?”
“And where did you hear about this, my dear?”
My mother-in-law gave a little cough.
I looked away.
I could hardly tell him his mother and I had hired a spy to investigate him.
Cui Shiyu had been away on official business for months.
My mother-in-law had hired someone to look into his movements.
What a discovery that had been.
The man found that Cui Shiyu had spent the night in a woman’s room. The next day, his personal steward had called at the door to arrange a marriage.
The spy himself had said Cui Shiyu intended to take a concubine.
My mother-in-law and I had very different opinions on the matter.
Naturally, she took her son’s side.
As long as they could give the Cui family more descendants,
the more women at his side, the better.
I promptly acquired a kept lover of my own.
He was gentle, young, and vigorous.
Very charming, too.
Then, three months later, Cui Shiyu returned to the capital.
He went back to our room that night, discovered I’d stayed out till dawn, and the whole affair came to light.
In my previous life, the misunderstanding had been cleared up that very night.
The “woman” he’d been seeing was merely an effeminate-looking colleague.
The spy was no more reliable. He’d embellished the story, spun a pack of lies, and cheated my mother-in-law out of a great deal of silver.
Out of guilt, I’d chosen Cui Shiyu.
How was I to know he was a lunatic?
As the years passed, he began doing terrifying things, like climbing into bed in the middle of the night and tearing back my covers.
He would demand hysterically to know whether I was hiding a man.
On the lower level of his study, he even kept a set of specially made shackles, exactly the size of my ankles.
I heard he intended to chain me up with them.
Born with a heart condition, I moved to a convent for a while in the hope of living a little longer.
But Cui Shiyu still couldn’t let his resentment go.
He personally delivered me to the Eastern Palace to serve the crown prince.
This time, I wasn’t choosing him, no matter what.
Cui Shiyu asked,
“Why have you gone quiet, my dear? If an investigation proves I took no concubine, what will you do then?”
Knowing I was in the wrong, I said,
“Oh… what’s done is done. There’s no point talking about it. J-just sign the divorce agreement.”
Cui Shiyu advanced on me.
“Even an arrest requires proper evidence. Yet you’re determined to leave without so much as asking me a question.”
“You ought to know that mutual respect is the proper foundation of marriage.”
“How can you let some roadside flower turn your head?”
He crouched, caught my chin, and looked straight into my eyes.
“My dear, I cannot give you that divorce.”
I was astonished.
In the past, Cui Shiyu had scarcely touched me.
What had come over him in this life?
Had his madness begun this early?
I tried to reason with him.
“We’ve been married three years, but we haven’t spent much time together.”
“No, we haven’t.”
“You also said you didn’t like women who thought of nothing but romance. You’re so occupied with affairs of state, I imagine you have little affection for me.”
“Indeed.”
“Then why not let me go, and we can part on good terms? I’ve already drawn up the agreement. All you need to do is sign—”
Cui Shiyu laughed. “No.”