On the day Shen Qingci married into the Marquis of Zhenbei’s household to bring good fortune, what she carried in her arms was not a dowry inventory, but a divorce agreement. Her stepmother had used her younger brother’s future to force her into the marriage, so she climbed into the bridal sedan with poison and silver needles in hand. On their wedding night, she placed the divorce agreement and a life-saving prescription before Lu Heng, the ailing heir, and laid out her terms: they would each get what they needed, then go their separate ways a year later.
Lu Heng agreed, coughing up blood. He was the capital’s most famous invalid, panting every few steps and coughing every few more. The whole city was betting he wouldn’t live through the winter. But Shen Qingci soon discovered that beneath her sickly husband’s pulse lay a suppressed current of inner strength. At least half of his illness was an act.
The two began putting on a show together in the marquis’s household. By day, she was the devoted, attentive wife, while he played the frail but loving heir, moving the maids and matrons in the courtyard to tears. At night, once the bedroom door was shut, they slept separately and kept out of each other’s way. She searched the entire estate for clues about the poison that had killed her birth mother, while he secretly maneuvered against the factions at court.
Their fragile balance broke one day when Shen Qingci went into the mountains to gather herbs and was ambushed. At the critical moment, the sickly heir who supposedly panted every few steps appeared in the moonlight with a bloodied sword in hand and pulled her out of harm’s way. Their disguises fell away, and they finally laid their cards on the table: he had feigned illness for ten years to avoid the emperor’s suspicions and investigate the truth behind his father’s death in battle; she had married into the marquis’s household to trace the poison that had killed her mother.
From then on, the “sickly couple” of the Marquis of Zhenbei’s household kept up their act by day and joined forces by night. She used poison to break through obstacles, while he cleared the way with his sword. Together, they fought from the inner courtyard all the way to the imperial court. When Lu Heng marched on the capital in armor and Shen Qingci shot down the enemy’s standard with an arrow
It's good to read. You can read it if you are in a book shortage.