No Mistress, Only a Commander's Wife

Bai Shuyin was the top performer at Bailemen, selling her art and nothing else. She spent everything she earned putting her fiancé Lu Mingxuan through the military academy. He graduated at the top of his class, then married her half-sister Bai Xuening with the Bai family's backing and offered to keep Shuyin as a concubine. She tore up the engagement contract and cut ties with the Bai family. On a night of heavy snow she saved the grandmother of Huo Tingchen, the governor, and refused the money offered in return. The old woman liked her nerve and arranged a marriage between her and Huo Tingchen, agreed to as a contract. On the wedding day the Bai family and Lu Mingxuan came to humiliate her in front of the guests and broke her bracelet, and Lu Mingxuan raised his hand to strike her. Huo Tingchen arrived with his soldiers, drew his gun, and told everyone present that she was his wife.