(Pleading on my knees with starry eyes 🤩 for a follow and a save ❤️)
Character setup: A beautiful, tearful widow sister-in-law x a cold, noble yet unhinged powerful official | A man obsessed to the bone, plotting for a long time; the male lead is a substitute for the deceased elder brother
Blurb:
Lu Lanyi has been a widow in the Shen household for nearly three years. Young and radiant, she is like a delicate flower reflected in water.
Her younger brother-in-law, Shen Cong, is cold and noble, like solitary snow atop a cloud-kissed peak. Nothing ever troubles him, and he has always treated her, his sister-in-law, with distant indifference.
Yet when he learns that she plans to marry again, Shen Cong suddenly becomes attentive, personally choosing a husband for her and preparing a generous dowry.
But on the day of her wedding, he hijacks her bridal sedan and secretly hides her away in his secluded estate, ordering her to stay quietly there and continue keeping watch over his elder brother on his behalf.
Only then does Lu Lanyi suddenly remember how Shen Cong had repeatedly warned her that, if she truly felt such deep devotion to his elder brother, she had better remain his sister-in-law for the rest of her life.
That's right. Though Shen Cong is proud and aloof, he respects and protects his elder brother, Shen Zhang, above all else. She is his second brother's widow. How could he possibly let her remarry and bring dishonor to his brother's name?
But later, Shen Cong repeatedly made her pay a debt on behalf of his deceased elder brother.
At first, he only took small liberties with his words. Lu Lanyi couldn't help thinking that Shen Cong was spiteful, not as open and easygoing as he seemed, and that she mustn't offend him.
But gradually, Shen Cong demanded more and more, growing increasingly unreasonable and overstepping every boundary. Having her grind ink and make fair copies, brew tea, and cook soup wasn't enough. He even wanted her to straighten his robes and comb his hair and put on his crown, things only a wife would do for her husband.
Perhaps because Shen Cong's face bore such a strong resemblance to her late husband, and because Lu Lanyi often softened toward him, she always found herself unable to refuse in those moments of confusion.
Shen Cong gradually began to resent the presence of his late elder brother, but he never expected that she would be the first to want to escape.
His eyes turned cold as ice and snow, yet his palm burned as he gripped her waist. He resolutely tore off the mask of cold nobility, pinning her to the bed as his scorching lips pressed against her ear.
[Lu Lanyi, if you can't be my sister-in-law, then be my wife instead.]
[Even if you only see me as your brother's substitute, that's enough.]
Notes:
1. The setting is fictional, modeled on the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties.
2. The heroine has a tendency to cry uncontrollably.
3. Younger man, with an age gap of two to three years. She is 21 to 22, he is 18 to 19. Younger man. The heroine is not a virgin; the hero is. One-on-one romance.
4. Includes rival suitors and a substitute romance where the man is treated as a stand-in for the deceased brother.
5. The heroine's former husband is already dead when the story begins, and her husband's family has written a document allowing her to remarry and return to her family. There is no legal issue.
Theme: Hold tightly to the happiness within your grasp!
