Lost in the Phoenix Tent (The Minister's Wife)

Blurb:

When Lord Pei falls gravely ill, his wife Ming Yi enters the palace to ask her elder sister, the esteemed Consort Shu, for medicine. But she is drugged for no apparent reason and sent unnoticed to Crown Prince Zhao Xun's bed.

Ming Yi does not return home that night.

The next day, when Lord Pei weakly asks about her trip to the palace, she avoids her husband's gaze and only shakes her head.

Several months later, Lord Pei dies of his illness.

That night, an unexplained fire breaks out in the Pei family mourning hall.

Meanwhile, celebratory candles burn brightly in the Eastern Palace.

Beneath layer upon layer of red bed curtains, Zhao Xun grips Ming Yi's face, his smile sinister and cruel.

"Today, I have two reasons to celebrate."

Old-school melodrama / heroine is not a virgin, male lead is / coercive possession / the emperor takes his subject's wife / the male lead chases his wife after losing her

Theme: Sincerity can only be repaid with sincerity