Mistakenly Stained by Spring Begonias

Lin Shutong first met Shen Jun when she was sixteen, accompanying her father on a trading journey. They encountered him beneath the walls of a border town in Yizhou.

At the time, smoke filled the sky. The boy was covered in blood, his face pale, but his eyes were so dark and bright they were unsettling as he warily watched the newcomers.

Without a word, Lin Shutong tossed the boy, who was barely clinging to life, into the donkey cart carrying their goods and took him away.

There was no other reason. A person with such a noble and refined bearing could not be left there, or he might suffer the humiliation of being forced beneath someone.

Lin Shutong never imagined that barely half a year later, when she saw Shen Jun again, he would be leading an army clad in black iron armor to surround her wedding.

Scarlet blood swallowed the red silk, pooling into a sea of blood.

With bloodshot eyes, Shen Jun pulled her into his arms. He looked like an evil spirit as he said, "I owe you my life, so naturally I should repay you with myself. Ah Tang married someone else. What am I supposed to do?"

-

In the third year after Lin Shutong was forced to marry Shen Jun, he made her give birth to their child.

He thought the child might improve their relationship, but instead, the baby became the final straw that broke Lin Shutong.

In the dark forest at night, flames blazed across the sky.

Shen Jun caught Lin Shutong as she tried to escape.

Blood ran from the corner of his forehead and into his unblinking eyes as he stared at her. "Ah Tang, do you not want me and our child anymore?"

Lin Shutong was so terrified she felt her soul leave her body. Fighting to keep her fear in check, she said each word clearly. "Shen Jun, I don't like you."

So... she didn't like him.

He nodded as if he understood. The next day, he brought her childhood sweetheart's eyes and laid them before her...

Whatever you like, I'll give it to you.

Next door, I'm serializing "Forcing a Good Woman to Become a Concubine."

Chen Qianhui transmigrated to another world and became the most insignificant cleaning maid in the Duke's manor.

She worked hard to save enough money, planning to leave the manor one day and start a small business in Jiangnan.

But because she was always respectful and never caused trouble, the old madam took a liking to her and decided to give her to the eldest young master as a bedchamber attendant.

Chen Qianhui did not want to serve the eldest young master.

She bought her freedom, rented an ox cart, and left the manor.

Halfway along the road, the usually aloof and refined eldest young master blocked her way. "Since Yunshuang doesn't want to be my bedchamber attendant, would you rather be my mistress?"

-

Pei Huaizhen returned from the northern frontier, covered in honors, and needed someone close to him to attend to his needs.

He remembered Yunshuang, who had worked as a cleaning maid in the old madam's courtyard years ago, and was willing to grant her this opportunity.

But the lowly maid ran away from him again and again, even going so far as to drug him.

Furious, Pei Huaizhen brought her back. "Now that Yunshuang is my concubine, how dare she think about being with other men?"

He used force to break her spirit, teaching her how a servant should behave and how to please a man.

But in the end, Pei Huaizhen broke down, swallowing his pride and begging her to become his wife.

The lowly woman he had once looked down on walked away without a backward glance, vanishing from his world forever...

*

At first, he saw her beauty and wanted her as his bedchamber attendant.

Later, he saw her gentleness and wanted to take her as a concubine.

In the end, he knelt on the ground and begged her to be his wife.

//

(An extra scene)

After Chen Qianhui passed away, Pei Huaizhen raised their child alone. He never remarried or took another woman, living quietly as a widower.

One day, his young son went missing. Distraught, Pei Huaizhen sent people everywhere to search for him. At last, they found the boy outside the Princess Royal's residence.

The young master was perfectly clean, his belly round from a hearty meal. He showed none of the disheveled distress of a child who had gone missing. Instead, he beamed with an innocent smile. "Father, I saw Mother."

Pei Huaizhen felt a tightness in his chest and assumed the child was making it up.

After all, over the years, the various noble houses had sent plenty of women who looked like Chen Qianhui to win the boy over and curry favor with him.

Pei Huaizhen loathed such tactics.

Then one day, the emperor held a banquet for his ministers to formally celebrate the return of his long-lost daughter.

Pei Huaizhen stood among the ministers and bowed respectfully.

A clear, melodious voice from the seat of honor said, "You may rise." Its sound was soothing to the ear.

Pei Huaizhen's heart jolted. He looked up before he knew what he was doing and met the gaze of the face that had haunted his dreams, bringing him both pain and hatred.

The child beside him tugged at his hand. "Father, it's her. She looks exactly like the portrait."

The person he had searched for year after year, never managing to find, had become the high and mighty Princess Royal.

# A sharp-witted, resilient, optimistic woman who transmigrated vs. an authoritarian, patriarchal minister

# A melodramatic mix of favorite tropes

[Angst, extreme angst, for both the man and the woman. Everyone is unhinged; no one is good.]

Theme: Stay true to yourself