Zhiyu
By imperial decree, I was forced to marry into the Xiaoshan Earl’s Estate as the heir’s second wife.
I had heard that my future mother-in-law was cruel, my sisters-in-law were impossible, and my husband kept a pampered concubine so vicious and overbearing that she had driven his first wife to her death.
Every respectable family in the capital avoided the place like the plague.
Before I climbed into the bridal sedan, Mother clasped my hands with tears in her eyes.
“My daughter, you must be careful.”
“Don’t kill anyone in your husband’s family. Your father will have a hard time explaining it to His Majesty.”
Zhu Yuan
Shen Qi had secretly loved my elder sister for years.
When she and I fell into the river together, he mistook me for her and pulled me out first.
My sister was swept away and drowned.
Knowing none of this, I fell hopelessly in love with him.
I made such a scene about marrying him that he gladly agreed.
After the wedding, however, he alternated between warmth and coldness.
At times he treated me tenderly.
At others, he looked at me as if he hated me to the bone.
Once bright and willful, I withered day by day and lived in misery.
Only as I lay dying did I discover the truth…
He was kind whenever I reminded him of my sister.
He was cruel whenever he remembered that he blamed me for her death.
After I was reborn, I climbed onto the bank by myself and watched him rejoice at having my sister back.
Then I turned and walked toward the most exalted man in the realm.