A sunny, spirited husband x a gloomy, supremely calculating power broker
Luo Zhou was engaged to Xie Shuyang, the heir to a marquis's estate. The two families had originally agreed that he would marry at eighteen, so he could spend two more years serving his fathers. But when he was only sixteen and a half, the Xie family brought up the idea of having him marry sooner, once, twice, then three times...
So he married.
But on their wedding night, before the newlyweds could consummate their marriage, his groom, Xie Shuyang, turned deathly pale and coughed up blood!
Forget consummating the marriage. First he had to make sure he didn't end up a widower!
*
Xie Wuying was the marquis's illegitimate son, but his face bore a nine-tenths resemblance to that of his eldest legitimate brother, Xie Shuyang.
Because of that face, his stepmother believed he sullied the noble bloodline of her eldest son. She tormented and humiliated him in public and in private, wishing he'd take the hint, hang himself with a white sash, and disappear from the world.
But one day, his stepmother's father called him over. "Your eldest brother has always treated you generously. Now it's time for you to help him out..."
Only then did Xie Yuan learn that they planned to use Luo Zhou, the legitimate son of a duke, to bring good fortune to his eldest brother, who had been injured for over a month and still hadn't woken up. Afraid the Duke's family would catch on and become furious, they planned to have him impersonate his eldest brother and marry Luo Zhou. He would avoid consummating the marriage until his eldest brother recovered, woke up, and regained his strength. Then they could switch places again.
With his secret plans still unfinished and a year left before he could escape the marquis's estate, Xie Wuying donned the wedding robes, mounted a fine steed, and welcomed his eldest brother's new husband, his own sister-in-law, into the house with great ceremony.
Xie Wuying had seen plenty of spoiled, arrogant noble sons, so he had no interest in this sister-in-law of his, who came from a ducal family and was among the most exalted of noble sons.
But at night, when he slept lightly, his "sister-in-law" had someone bring him a soothing drink. When he went to work at the Hanlin Academy, his "sister-in-law" sent someone with an umbrella. When the seasons changed and everyone forgot that this fake young master still needed new clothes, his "sister-in-law" asked, "What colors and patterns does my husband like?"
(Luo Zhou, looking after his frail husband because he was afraid the poor man might actually die: Is he going to die? He is, isn't he? Please don't die. Getting married again would be such a hassle!)
He refused to believe someone could be so flawless. But when he saw him happen upon his concubine mother and help her out without the slightest hint of scorn or contempt, something suddenly broke open in his heart.
He had bound his hands, his feet, his torso, and even his neck. But the one who made him willingly accept those bonds was the one his eldest legitimate brother, Xie Shuyang...
had never even known existed.
Theme: Endless romance.
