My Brother's Wife: A Love Taken by Force

I'm sick with COVID today, and too ill to get out of bed. Taking the day off.

Seeking favorites for my new novel: The Third Year After Being Driven Out of the Eastern Palace

Jiang Yi was once the legitimate daughter and real heiress the Feng family, an Assistant Minister of Revenue's household, had found and brought home. After spending seventeen years wandering outside, she finally reclaimed her place in the family, only to lose that identity as well after being driven out of the Eastern Palace.

She had never even seen the Crown Prince. Yet because the Crown Prince's beloved made a joke, he decided that Jiang Yi, who wore a peony hairpin, was frivolous and immodest, and drove her out of the Eastern Palace.

Afraid of offending the Crown Prince, the Feng family had no affection for her despite their blood ties. They immediately disowned her, claiming she had no connection to their family and was a lowborn impostor who had stolen a keepsake to claim kinship. She became a target of public scorn and was left with nowhere to turn in the capital.

She left the capital and wandered from place to place. She married a gentle and considerate man who respected and cherished her and never denied her anything. Jiang Yi's life was simple but peaceful. While staying at a villa after going out to pray, she met the Crown Prince, who was traveling incognito. To her astonishment, he fell in love with her at first sight and insisted on taking her into the Eastern Palace.

When Crown Prince Xiao Lin was young, a woman saved his life. To repay her, he brought her into the palace and made her Crown Princess. When that woman remarked that a peony hairpin suggested great ambition, he dismissed the unruly Feng girl from his household. He had never even seen the Feng girl's face and did not give the matter much thought. The Feng family's daughter had only recently been reclaimed as kin. She was a country girl with no manners, and since the Feng family didn't want to make their daughter, whom they had raised for seventeen years, a secondary consort, they pushed their biological daughter forward to take the blame.

She was merely the daughter of a court official. He could send her away whenever he wished. She was nothing special.

Five years later, while investigating a case on behalf of his father, the Emperor, he passed through Jiangnan and encountered a beauty while sightseeing. He fell in love at first sight, then deeper still the second time around. From then on, he could neither eat nor sleep, tossing and turning night after night. After much hesitation, he finally gave in to his lovesickness and decided to take her as a consort, personally going to her home to propose.

The beauty called herself Jiang Yi and said she already had a husband. Learning that he was the Crown Prince, she neither panicked nor bowed in submission. She declined his proposal and the position of Crown Princess he offered her.

“Your Highness and I do have some history. I am the Feng daughter you drove out of the Eastern Palace three years ago for being flirtatious and behaving improperly.”

“Thank you for not marrying me back then. I have a husband now, and I am very happy.” Jiang Yi spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly, her gaze calm and open.

Xiao Lin could not meet her eyes. As if facing judgment, he fled in disgrace. But when he saw how loving she was with her husband, jealousy drove him mad, and so did regret.

She should have been his wife.

[Winning her back after rejecting her, possessive love, age gap, size difference. The heroine is reborn, and the hero retains some memories.]

Yuan Yi, the Emperor of the Xia Dynasty, overthrew the previous dynasty at the age of thirty and ascended the throne. He had been Emperor for five years, yet had never taken an Empress and had not a single consort in his harem. Worried that the throne would have no heir, Xia Dynasty officials submitted memorial after memorial urging him to choose an Empress, hold a selection, fill the harem, and continue the imperial line. Rumors spread that this reincarnated War God was all show and no substance. Others speculated that the Emperor preferred men to women, which was why he had no women by his side.

No one knew that since the age of fifteen, Yuan Yi had been dreaming an intimate, passionate dream. In it, a peerlessly beautiful woman loved him as he loved her, they were a devoted couple, and every night they shared tender intimacy. As a result, he could not sleep at night and could not bring himself to touch any other woman.

At a palace banquet, his younger brother brought his newlywed princess consort into the palace. Her round fan lowered, revealing a pair of limpid eyes. Her lashes drooped, her lovely face wore a faint smile, and her cherry-red lips appeared and disappeared behind the fan. Yuan Yi was struck as if by lightning. His younger brother's wife looked exactly like the woman who was his wife in his dreams!

Lu Shao had a secret that no one could ever know: she was reborn. In her previous life, she was Yuan Yi's concubine, imprisoned by him in his inner residence. She died miserably, consumed by sorrow, before the age of thirty.

Content warning: In his previous life, the hero was extremely awful. There is national enmity and personal revenge. The heroine had many children in her previous life and is meek, not a strong, independent heroine. The heroine and hero only begin a relationship after she is no longer the hero's younger brother's wife. Before that, the hero only watches her secretly.

Theme: Pursue a better life.