Three Years as a Substitute Bride: The Day He Stood Up, I Was Already Buried

[Substitute Bride + Tragic Romance + Princess Consort + Love Given to the Wrong Person + Both Pure + BE]

Su Yun is the least remarkable of the Su family's concubine-born daughters.

Her legitimate elder sister refuses to marry Prince Jing, Xiao Jue, because he is crippled, so the Su family stuffs the red bridal sash into Su Yun's hands and forces her into the bridal sedan through the side gate.

On their wedding night, Xiao Jue lifts her veil and sneers, "The Su family sent a concubine-born daughter to fob me off?"

He has always remembered the woman in white who saved him at a temple when he was young, and is convinced she was his legitimate elder sister, Su Yao.

So Su Yun is made to live in the coldest side courtyard, where she endures contempt and has to boil even a bowl of hot porridge herself.

Still, she wants to heal his legs.

She studies medical books, visits towns and villages, and begs herbalists for medicine. Day after day, she boils tonic and learns massage, for three whole years. She pawns her jewelry for medicinal herbs and delivers medicine through torrential rain, refusing to stop even when her arm is injured.

The day Xiao Jue finally manages to walk on his own, the whole manor celebrates.

The first person he wants to tell is still Su Yao.

Meanwhile, Su Yun has been secretly poisoned by her elder sister. After coughing up blood for days, she is at death's door.

Only after the truth comes to light does Xiao Jue learn that the person who searched for medicine and brewed tonic for him for three years was the princess consort he had always neglected.

He rushes back to the side courtyard, only to find her clutching a pair of shoes she never got to give him, her eyes closed forever.

Later, he finally travels every road she took, sees the sights she never got to see, and spends the rest of his life repenting as he keeps watch over her silver hairpin.

It took him three years to stand again, but a whole lifetime was not enough to make her turn back.