I paid for my fiancé’s journey to the capital to sit the imperial examinations.
He came back with a reward far greater than first place.
During the palace examination, His Majesty saw a face identical to his own.
He confirmed that my fiancé was his long-lost eldest son.
Restored to the imperial family, he was named crown prince.
Naturally, his engagement to me—a mere concubine-born daughter of a seventh-rank county magistrate—could no longer stand.
But he remembered what he owed me.
He took me as his sister.
He even found me another husband: a marquis’s heir.
He himself became engaged to the chief minister’s legitimate daughter, who would be his crown princess.
Everything had worked out for both of us.
Thanks to his protection, I spent five blissful years in my husband’s household.
My mother-in-law dared not subject me to her rules.
My husband dared not entertain other women.
Everyone treated me with respect.
Until, on an afternoon as ordinary as any other, he was deposed.
