After Crushing My Scumbag Ex, I Fell for the Scheming Prince

Traditional historical romance and household intrigue + taking down scumbag men and women + no getting back together after a breakup (Clever, cool-headed noblewoman & a restrained, patient, scheming prince) Shen Qingxu is the legitimate daughter of a marquis’s household. Orphaned young, she and her younger brother depend on each other. Her uncle finds her a “fine husband” by snatching up a promising candidate after the imperial examinations. On the second day after their wedding, her husband leaves to take up a post in Jiangzhou. He does not return for three years. During those three years, Qingxu finds places for the Lin family’s poor relatives, fends off their gossipy aunts and matrons, and helps her sister-in-law see through a scoundrel. She is worn to the bone, only to be met with her mother-in-law’s disdain and her sister-in-law’s resentment. Still, she never loses heart, waiting eagerly for her husband to return. Instead, he brings a whole crowd of relatives to pressure her into accepting the woman he has already been carrying on with. After that, he not only carries on with her maid behind her back, but also conspires to slowly poison her food. Only as she is dying does she learn that her family killed her younger brother, joining forces with her husband to secure the marquis title. Reborn into a new life, she saves her brother, takes on her uncle and aunt, and deals with the scoundrels... /// After severing ties with her husband, Shen Qingxu returns to her family home. A matchmaker comes calling with a proposal from a noble family, but the man has the intelligence of a seven-year-old child. Just as her uncle is about to push her into another pit of misery, an imperial decree arrives from the palace, summoning Shen Qingxu to an audience...