I Raised the Little White Flower into a Brooding Beauty

Jiang Yu is a worldly, smooth-talking charlatan who makes a living telling fortunes and prides himself on being a brilliant actor.

Then a young lady swindles him out of ten taels of silver, and somehow he ends up taking her place as a bride in the imperial palace.

The good news: The emperor is getting on in years. Not only does he fail to realize Jiang Yu is a man, he dotes on him.

The bad news: The emperor is close to death, and consorts without children will be buried alive with him.

Just as Jiang Yu is anxiously fearing for his life, the old emperor can't bear to see her buried alive, so he helps him adopt an unwanted prince named Lin Yuanzhi.

The boy is of low birth, timid as a mouse, and always puts on the look of a delicate little flower, making him an easy target for bullies.

Jiang Yu plans to raise him with little effort, then follow him to his fief and live out his days in peace.

But his bargain-bin son is just too pitiful. Even someone like him, who has always believed in keeping his head down and looking out for himself, can't stand to watch.

A eunuch skimps on his allowance? Jiang Yu kicks the eunuch in the head.

Someone calls him a bringer of bad luck? Jiang Yu's temper flares, and he curses right back.

Other princes bully him? Jiang Yu slaps them too.

To protect Lin Yuanzhi, Jiang Yu makes enemies all over the palace. Strangely, though, every person who crosses him later meets a bizarre downfall.

The eunuch dies a grisly death, a prince breaks his leg, and even the consort who insulted her is sent to the cold palace.

After this happens so many times, Jiang Yu finally gets suspicious.

His delicate-flower son smiles sweetly. "Mother Consort is blessed. Even Heaven is on your side."

Later, when the emperor dies, Jiang Yu finally gets the chance to fake his death and escape.

He flees the palace in high spirits, leaving Lin Yuanzhi alone to go to a bitterly cold fief.

Four years later, a new emperor takes the throne.

The new emperor is Lin Yuanzhi.

He finds Jiang Yu at his fortune-telling stall, smiles gently, and invites him back to the palace to enjoy a life of comfort, holding no grudge.

Jiang Yu returns, delighted, only to find the palace full of red silk and wedding candles.

"You're getting married? Where's the bride?"

Lin Yuanzhi feigns confusion. "Mother, don't you know the Xianbei wedding custom?"

Jiang Yu turns around. "What... wedding custom?"

Lin Yuanzhi's expression is no longer gentle. At last, his eyes reveal the resentment he feels toward Jiang Yu for abandoning him. He says ominously, "When a father dies, his son inherits his stepmother."

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Su Xin is an ordinary person in a cultivation world. His husband died before their wedding, leaving him alone and helpless, at the mercy of others.

If his husband were alive, life wouldn't be so hard.

Thinking this, Su Xin often goes to his husband's grave to cry and tell him all his troubles.

One night, a voice in his dream tells Su Xin that Heaven pities him and will return his husband to him.

The next day, his husband really does come back, gentle and kind, taking care of the household.

Su Xin believes he and his husband will grow old together.

Until someone points to another grave and tells Su Xin that this is his husband's real grave.

The grave Su Xin used to cry at... belonged to Pei Qichuan.

Su Xin staggers.

Three hundred years ago, Pei Qichuan appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered his way through the cultivation world. Countless powerful cultivators gave their lives just to suppress the demon.

Su Xin gets home at dusk. His husband has made a table full of steaming hot dishes and even brought Su Xin some sweets from town.

Chewing on a pastry, Su Xin thinks that his husband has never even gotten into an argument with anyone, so surely he has nothing to do with that demon... right?

Until corpses begin shambling through the village. Su Xin wakes in the middle of the night and sees his husband twist off a corpse's head, saying regretfully, "I told you you'd wake him up. Why can't you learn to be quiet?"

Su Xin can no longer keep pretending and runs for his life.

Years later, the Demon Lord is getting married. Two demon attendants chat.

"I heard the bride isn't willing."

"Stop talking. The bride left without a word while he and the Demon Lord were married in the mortal world, and was going to marry the head of an immortal sect. The Demon Lord brought him back and punished him severely."

"Then... he's in for it."

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