Stealing a Friend’s Wife

Synopsis: All the world knows that Yun Cheng is the eldest legitimate son of the Yun family, the foremost among the great clans—an unattainable peak of pristine snow. Yet this flawless white jade has recently been stained with an indelible blemish, for he is to wed a widow. The masses are equally curious about Shao Zhen, the one who plucked the lofty flower, privately speculating how a twice-married woman could win Yun Cheng’s favor. While the affair spreads like wildfire through the city, Shao Zhen, clad in bright red wedding robes, is locked away in a high pavilion by Yun Cheng, unable to leave. Tearfully, she pounds on the door and pleads: “Let me out! Tao Lang has returned, hasn’t he? I want to see him!” Through the crack in the door, Yun Cheng coldly watches her cry until her makeup runs, then tosses out a single line: “Do not forget whose wife you are now.” Hearing this, Shao Zhen sinks helplessly to her knees, realizing he is determined to defy all moral decency to force her into marriage. It was all her fault for being deceived by his saintly facade, and so she had sunk deeper and deeper. * At first, Yun Cheng deigned to spare Shao Zhen a few glances only to fulfill a friend’s request. That woman came from a humble background, with a troublesome, greedy stepmother and younger brother—hardly meeting the standards of a great clan’s matriarch. Yet his friend had lost his head, disregarding his family’s objections to bring her through the gates. For a woman, he had nearly severed ties with his own clan. Yun Cheng neither approved nor understood. Until, before his friend departed for the battlefield, he brought her to seek an audience: “Zhenniang has a gentle temperament. If misfortune should befall me, I beg you, Brother Yun, to look after her.” The woman hid silently behind her husband, head bowed, her snow-white pearl earrings making the faint blush at her earlobes all the more striking. Yun Cheng’s cool gaze fell upon their tightly clasped hands, and he nodded in agreement. Then, blades are blind, and his friend fell at Lucheng. He watched Shao Zhen clutch her handkerchief and weep in silence, and the wild thoughts buried somewhere in his heart screamed madly: If she wants someone to lean on, why can it not be him? So long as he nodded, who in the clan would dare say a word against her? He schemed relentlessly until the cornered Shao Zhen had no choice but to seek his protection, coaxing her as he wished to wrap her arms around his neck and offer a kiss, gradually covering every trace left by her late husband. Yet on their wedding day, the friend who had vanished for months suddenly reappeared… Yun Cheng should have been glad the man had returned alive, but instead he snapped the brush in his hand, his face dark as water. So what if it was a twist of fate? So what if he bore the infamy? They had already bowed before the heavens, done all manner of intimate things—she could only be his wife. He would let the mistake stand and keep her firmly in his grasp. Content Tags: Perfect Match, Twist of Fate, Inspirational Growth, Melodrama, Lofty Flower — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Stealing a Friend’s Wife — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠