2026

When the marquis’s family brought me home as their lost daughter, I asked for three things: no comparisons, no taking from one daughter to give to the other, and the freedom to choose my own marriage.

They agreed, until my sister’s betrothed decided he wanted me instead.

Xun Yang thought marrying a country girl would free him from his family’s rules, but three years later, the defiance he once admired had become my greatest fault.

When he asked for a divorce, I agreed.

I had spent those years learning how to stand on my own, and I was ready to build a life that belonged to me.

I was the CEO’s white moonlight, but I had gone dark.

“So you can fly overseas for business, but you can’t come overseas to see me? Is it that you can’t afford a ticket, or that you can’t make the time?”

“You keep saying I’m your white moonlight, then turn around and find a substitute. If your feelings are that cheap, don’t ever tell anyone you liked me.”

“I don’t want a man who’s been tainted. Don’t come looking for me again.”

The princess had set a trap for me.

I had been drugged.

The man on the bed had a face as flawless as jade, his eyes clouded by the drug.

I recognized him as one of her favorite male companions.

Clearly, she was determined to ruin me.

But what did she know?

I had worked on a pleasure boat and slept with countless men.

This was hardly enough to frighten me.

I leaned close and murmured in his ear, “The princess has never treated you as a person.

Don’t you want revenge?”

The man’s eyes turned abruptly cold.

At the age when palace maids are meant to leave, Ah Li asks the imperial guard she loves to marry her—only to discover that he is the emperor, and that she is merely a substitute for his cherished Consort Rong.

After he keeps her trapped in the palace and sacrifices her to protect his favorite, Ah Li quietly accepts a marriage arranged as an act of spite.

Her new husband, General Wei Yuan, can see the floating comments that have distorted everyone’s story, and he offers her something the emperor never did: honesty and protection.

When the emperor tries to steal her back, Wei Yuan defies the throne, forcing every supposed lead in this romance to face the truth.

The first wife said that a concubine’s daughter ought to become a concubine herself.

She used my mother’s life to force my obedience.

A little sedan carried me into the prince’s household, where I was to help my elder sister secure his favor.

I schemed and plotted, watching every step, until my hands were steeped in blood.

My sister, meanwhile, remained pure and unsullied, radiant as the moon.

In that life, I harmed far too many people.

And others harmed me in return.

On the day I died, Mother told me she was not my birth mother.

The first wife had poisoned my real mother the very day she gave birth to me.

The woman who raised me was merely a pawn the first wife used to keep me in her power.

Given a second life, I turned my schemes upon my sister instead.

Have you ever seen the moon fall into the mud?

It must be a lovely sight.

I was a virtuous woman, particularly skilled at repaying malice with kindness.

After years of marriage, I had little to complain of.

Except for one thing.

Whenever my husband and I retired a little early, my mother-in-law would bring her maids and serving women to pound on our courtyard gate.

Sometimes it was, “My boy, it’s cold tonight.

Be careful you don’t catch a chill in bed.”

Other times, “Son, you ate rather well at supper.

Your food hasn’t settled yet.

Don’t let it sit in your stomach and make you ill.”

After a while, I understood.

We were both women.

It wouldn’t do for me to be the only one getting her fill.

The thought was keeping Mother awake, tossing and turning all night.

So while my husband was away on business, I took three husbands for her in one go.

On a family reality show, superstar Lu Ling was the pampered heiress from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, and award-winning actress Shen Fan was the Northeast’s eldest daughter.

Unremarkable me?

I was there to make them look good.

My family wasn’t helping.

In the trailer, their elders showered them with money or love.

My grandma kept telling me to quit showbiz.

“Girls should stay home.

They shouldn’t work.”

The internet tore into her.

[Another old relic.]

Then the full episode aired.

What Grandma had actually said was: “Why not just spend my pension?”

“By the time I’m gone, your dad should be retired.

You can spend his next.”

“I’ve been paying your social insurance at the highest contribution level.”

“By the time your parents are both gone, you’ll be collecting your own pension.”

The internet changed its tune instantly.

[People like this terrify me.]

[Don’t they say whatever you fear comes your way?]

When the people from the marquis’s household came looking for me, I was lying on the ground, spitting up chicken blood, trying to swindle ten copper coins out of my brother.

My brother was terrified.

He shook me frantically.

“Guagua, don’t die!

I hid the money in a jar under the peach tree this time.

Boo-hoo…

You can have it all!”

I shot to my feet and raced off to dig up the money.

Nanny Feng stared, openmouthed.

“Perhaps we’ve found the wrong girl.”

Mother gave an awkward smile.

“There’s no mistake!

Her Ladyship and I gave birth together in that ruined temple.

This child has always been a little… lively.”

She came over, pinched my arm, and glared at me.

I had no time for her.

Dig, dig, dig!

Mother snatched up a feather duster and said through clenched teeth, “I’m counting to three…”

I dropped to my knees and clung to her leg, confessing at once.

“Mother!

I was wrong!

I shouldn’t have swindled my brother for the hundred and twenty-third time.

But he’s so easy to fool!

I can’t help myself!

Are you sure you didn’t bring home the wrong baby?

Why am I the only one who inherited your brains?”

My best friend pinned me against the windowsill when my heat struck without warning.

My whole body went weak, my breaths burning, like a fish dragged onto shore and left gasping for air.

He held my restless body down, a dangerously enticing smile curling at his lips.

“Beg me, and maybe I’ll consider sneaking in a little bite.”

I gazed at him through misty, tear-bright eyes.

“Please~”

I booked an appointment with a specialist for pain during sex, only to discover that the intern sitting behind the kindly old doctor was my longtime crush.

The professor turned around to quiz him.

“He, what usually causes pain during intercourse?”

He Shiyu looked past his silver-haired mentor and stared straight at me.

After a long silence, he answered in a voice cold enough to splinter ice, each word striking like a blow.

“Rough movements.”

“A lack of restraint.”

“Excessive frequency.”

“Mechanical injury.”

The professor nodded in satisfaction and continued, “And what information should we ask this patient for now?”

He Shiyu thought for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice slipped out of control, trembling with accusation.

“Meng Yin, these past two months… who exactly have you been with?”