When I Heard You Had Two Minds

Synopsis:

[Brotherly Rivalry / Forced Love / Regret Arc]

Ning Zherou was an orphaned girl from a border town. She married Lu Chen when he was at his lowest, having just fallen from a pampered noble to a mud-splattered, broken-legged lowly soldier. For three years of their marriage, she braved wind and snow for late-night house calls, just to earn money to treat his leg. When the city fell and danger struck, she dragged him out from a pile of corpses, using her slender shoulders to single-handedly save his life.

Zherou believed they were a young couple deeply in love, but it wasn't until she followed Lu Chen to the capital that she realized everything had changed. The Lu Chen who once had eyes only for her one day impatiently told her not to be jealous, all for the sake of another woman. The Lu Chen who once promised never to forsake her in this life went to accompany another woman on a lake excursion, picking lotus flowers and watching fireworks, on the very day she was pregnant and secretly harmed.

It turned out she was merely Lu Chen's "coarse wife" from his hard times, while that noble lady was his perfect match, a bright moon equal in status. Her perceived youthful deep affection was, in the end, nothing but a joke. With a heart turned to ashes, Zherou drank a bowl of safflower, aborting the child she had painstakingly tried to protect, and left the capital. She no longer wanted to be "Madam Lu"; she only wanted to be herself.

***

Lu Chen never imagined Zherou would leave. Even if they argued, she would surely be the soft-hearted one to come back first. But she truly ran away. The day he finally learned of her whereabouts, Lu Chen, despite his severe injuries, galloped a hundred miles through the rain to her medical clinic. Yet, when the door opened, the person who emerged was not her.

Instead, it was his sworn brother, his cousin and young prince Xie Yunzhou. Lu Chen felt his blood instantly rush backward, his eyes reddening as he questioned in a deep voice, "Why are you here? Where is Zhaozhao?!" Xie Yunzhou, wearing only an inner garment with a loose collar, his eyes and brows still carrying a hint of spring, smiled at him. "She doesn't want to see you."

***

From that day on, Lu Chen completely lost his mind. She was his wife; even if they couldn't share the same bed in life, then in death, they must share the same grave.

***

Revised reading tips based on feedback:

1. The female lead is not a virgin (女非), the male lead is a virgin (男C). The second male lead eventually wins. It's a stage-by-stage 1v1, a melodramatic love-hate story. The female lead is not love-struck but also not cold-hearted. The plot is melodramatic, and the emotions are bitter-sweet, not a typical revenge story where the female lead "slaps faces" (gets revenge). Those who prefer a cold-hearted, vengeful female lead should be warned.

2. The male lead is an obsessive mad dog. The main plot is about forced possession. The second male lead has less screen time but ultimately becomes the endgame.

3. Slow-burn. The early pace is slow. The male lead is pure in body and mind, only loves the female lead, and there's a hidden reason for his involvement with the supporting female character, with no intimate contact. Their total on-screen interaction is no more than five or six hundred characters throughout the entire novel.