[Strong heroine + both reborn + hero's long road to winning her back + raising children + faked death + amnesia + no perfectly happy ending] (The emperor steals his love, and the marquis pursues his wife.)
In a nutshell: The marquis's wife, widowed for six years, is killed by her own son. As she dies, she discovers that her husband, who was said to have fallen in battle long ago, is still alive and holding another woman in his arms.
The brave and battle-hardened Marquis of Zhongyong and his eldest son died on the battlefield. Tang Hui, the marquis's wife, was widowed for six years, shouldered the burden of the marquis's household and her husband's entire family, served her mother-in-law, and raised their children. Everyone praised Madam Xie as a virtuous and capable matriarch.
Unfortunately, her second son had no conscience. To curry favor with the daughter of the traitor who had killed his father and brother, he reported the Xie family to the imperial court for treason.
The emperor, once her childhood sweetheart, flew into a rage and executed the entire Xie family. He had the remains of the Marquis of Zhongyong and his eldest son dug up and left exposed in the wilderness.
At the execution ground, Tang Hui watched her carefully raised younger son tenderly cover the eyes of the woman in his arms.
She shifted her gaze and saw her husband, who was supposed to be dead, watching the execution among the crowd, with a woman in his arms peering curiously toward the platform.
He wasn't dead after all?!
The instant her head fell, she returned to the day after her husband's supposed death in battle.
Reborn for another life, she would face her cruel-hearted child, the suspicious emperor, and her husband who had faked his death.
But… why has the emperor suddenly started acting so strangely?
What? You want me to bear your child? Absolutely not!
A 15-year-old young master is in love with a 24-year-old young woman?