Three Years as a Substitute, and Now the Marquis Begs Me to Come Home

(The sweetness later on is all the more satisfying after the angst at the beginning.)

Three years as a stand-in. A pregnancy lost in miscarriage. The pain in her heart outweighed the bitterness of the contraceptive medicine.

After weathering countless trials, the Marquis wrote in his own hand:

To my wife, Xianzhi. May these words find you well.

In our three years of marriage, I treated you like dirt. The cold looks you endured in the Marquis’s residence, the bitter medicine you drank, the tears and blood you shed: from this day forward, I will bear it all alone. I do not ask for your forgiveness. I have but one request: in the name of the Marquis of Yongning, let me ask for your hand in marriage once more, as the wife of Shen Heng, head of the Shen family. If you refuse, I will never marry in this life.

Written in tears of blood, I bow,

Xie Yuheng

Shen Xianzhi read the marriage proposal from beginning to end three times, then set it back on the table and pushed it toward her younger brother, Shen Qingyan.

“Sis,” Shen Qingyan’s voice came from behind her. “You absolutely can’t trust words from someone who broke his vows!”