After Becoming a Substitute Bride, I Became the Grand Secretary's Darling

[Cold, Obsessive Chief Councilor × Clear-Eyed, Vengeful True Heiress: All-Consuming Devotion, Mutual Healing, Reunion After Years Apart, Fierce Protection, Historical Romance]

Everyone in the Yongning Marquis’s household says I, Liu Zhaozhao, was born worthless and ought to take my legitimate younger sister’s place in marrying Shen Yanzhi, the Chief Councilor who slaughters without mercy, a living King of Hell. They’re waiting to see me skinned alive and hear my screams, so they can trade my death for riches and glory for the entire marquis’s household.

Until someone said, “I finally… found you.”

…

From then on, the Chief Councilor, who held the court in the palm of his hand, became the sharpest blade in mine.

Poisonous schemes in the inner household? He crushed them for me, personally sending my legitimate younger sister into the very trap she had prepared for me.

Murderous plots at court? He drew his sword for me, defying the entire rotten imperial regime.

When the dormant Vermilion Bird Mark on my body awakened, turning my blood into blades and letting me foresee danger, a prophecy capable of shaking the world reappeared: “Whoever restores the Vermilion Bird to its rightful place will rule the world.”

The emperor sees me as a monster that must be eliminated, while the great clans see me as a treasure to be seized.

But on the day all the officials bowed before me, he simply brushed off his robes and knelt beside my skirt, kissing the blazing Vermilion Bird Mark on my wrist and offering me both the empire and all the tenderness in his heart:

“Zhaozhao, the world is yours.”

“And so am I.”