The Sweet, Gentle Maid Conceived Twins; After Being Humiliated, She Faked Her Death, and He Went Mad

[Pure Historical Romance + Both Leads Are Chaste + He Pursues Her After the Breakup + Runaway Pregnancy + Instinctive Attraction] Yun Shang was Qi Yanxiu’s bedchamber maid. He was the heir to the Marquis of Dingyuan. Plump and alluring, she knew her place and kept to the small world of the west wing, never daring to hope for anything beyond her station. He was the capital’s most dazzling young man, aloof and refined, with the spring imperial exams ahead and a bright future awaiting him. Everyone said the heir treated her differently. She, too, had once believed him when he whispered in her ear, “I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.” It wasn’t until she unexpectedly discovered she was pregnant that she saw the truth: the inner courts of a great household were a place that devoured people. The maid who had stood by her died horribly in the snow, her life and the baby’s worth less than nothing. The old madam resorted to secret schemes, seeing the child in her womb as a bastard who might lead his master astray. With her heart turned to ash, Yun Shang took a drug that mimicked death and “died of illness” in the west wing after a blizzard. Half a year later, in a rainy Jiangnan town, she lay on a bed in obstructed labor, bleeding heavily and hovering between life and death. The new top scorer in the imperial exams, who should have been attending the Qionglin Banquet in the capital and setting out on a prestigious official career, burst into the birthing room, travel-worn. Qi Yanxiu turned down the chance to marry into the prime minister’s family. He gave up the easy road and raced a thousand li through the night to reach her. The entire court said the new top scorer had gone mad. Only he held her cold hand and repeated hoarsely, “Yun Shang, I’m here.” Everyone said Qi Yanxiu was a fool. He could have taken the easy path through the Hanlin Academy in the capital, but instead he volunteered for a post in the remote southeast, plunging into the murky waters of military and political affairs and choosing a thorny, perilous career with death at every turn. No one knew that the man who kept watch outside the birthing room all night had already made up his mind as he looked at the wrinkled twins in their swaddling clothes and the pale young woman on the bed. The protection of the marquis’s family, the support of high officials, and the prestige of being the top scorer meant nothing compared with the peace and safety of her and their children.