[Female lead: noblewoman | model widow | the very definition of a couch potato | genius storyteller | crybaby]
[Male lead: Marquis of Dingbei | sworn younger brother of her late husband | secretly in love for six years | cold-faced, jealous man]
Gu Zhenshu, nicknamed Yuanbao, is the capital's model widow, officially hailed by the emperor as a “chaste and virtuous widow.”
For three years, she has stayed indoors, never venturing beyond her gates. She has turned the title “Lady of Chastity” into a golden brand,
then hidden behind it to read romance stories, eat osmanthus cakes, and count her silver. Her life couldn't be better.
Until one day, Huo LInchuan, sworn younger brother of her late husband Zhang Mang and the Marquis of Dingbei, renowned across the northern tribes, returns in triumph.
He looks straight at her through the crowd, still clad in his dark armor, his black eyes fixed on her. The first thing he asks is, “Have you been well?”
Gu Zhenshu: “???!"
From then on, her couch-potato life falls apart.
He insists she attend banquets, wants her to lend her support to reforms, and even requires her approval before anyone can marry.
Everyone in the capital praises her as “a woman of great understanding.” Only she knows she's being forced into it by that “Devil Huo.”
Until one night, she runs into Huo Linchuan, drunk.
With his robe half open, the man corners her and asks in a low, hoarse voice, “Yuanbao, in all these three years... did you truly never think of remarrying?”
Before he finishes speaking, he leans down and kisses her.
Gu Zhenshu's mind goes blank.
Her monument to chastity has fallen.
