Claiming the Bright Moon for Myself

Ye Wangshu was sent by her family to marry Xiao Cheng, heir to the Prince of Zhenbei, as a bride to bring him good luck while he was gravely ill.

The heir, Xiao Cheng, was as gentle as jade. Everyone in the residence laughed at her for being unruly and ignorant of proper etiquette. Only the pale man on the sickbed would tell her, “I, Xiao, am the one who's brought you trouble, miss.”

As they spent time together, he became the only person who truly understood her.

Gradually, she let down her guard and told him everything: that she came from another world and longed to go home. She even told him about inspirational movies to lift his spirits.

He took her hand and promised, “Don't be afraid, Wangshu. If I recover, I'll help you find your way home.”

But clues to the way home kept mysteriously disappearing, as if an unseen hand were interfering.

Then, one day, she was injured while saving Xiao Cheng from danger. Before she lost consciousness, she saw another “Xiao Cheng” standing with a sword in hand, its tip piercing Xiao Cheng's chest.

When she woke, she hurried to find out what had happened, only to see her husband sitting by the bed, perfectly unharmed, gently wiping away her tears.

“Wangshu, you've been worrying too much. You had a nightmare.”

She believed him, until...

She hummed the song they'd sung together beneath the moon, and he didn't react.

She mentioned the agreed-upon distress signal, and his gaze wavered.

In a hidden compartment in his study, she found the jade pendant he never took off, still stained with blood.

A low, husky voice sounded behind her, infused with a possessiveness she'd never heard from him before.

“Can you tell the difference between him and me now?”

They say twins are ill-omened, and that the younger one is a demon in human form. Xiao Zhu was born “ill-omened,” destined to live in his older brother's shadow as his substitute.

He coldly imitated everything Xiao Cheng did: the same way of holding a brush, the same curve of a smile, until the woman he was supposed to call sister-in-law appeared.

He watched her teach his brother to make a V sign, watched them draw strange symbols in the snow, watched his brother smile at her even as he coughed up blood.

Disgusting.

But she was like a ray of light, shining into his damp, dark world. He watched her wipe the sweat from his brother's brow and worry over him, and listened as she told stories he'd never heard before...

Why wasn't he the one she encouraged? Why wasn't he the one who got to see her smile?

Jealousy gnawed at his heart. This man who'd spent his life hidden from the light grew greedy. When she rushed toward his brother, he even instinctively opened his arms to her.

He listened as she told “Xiao Cheng” how homesick she was, and the wicked thoughts in his heart grew like weeds.

If Xiao Cheng didn't exist in this world, if she could never return to that so-called home...

Would that bright moon then belong to him alone?

He killed his brother with his own hands, then whispered gently to her, “Don't be afraid. I'll help you find your way home from now on.”

Then he personally cut off every path that might lead her home.

Content warnings:

The male lead is Xiao Zhu: a genuinely deranged, genuinely evil villain who kills his brother and takes his place, forcibly claims the heroine, has a dark and twisted mind, no limits in his actions, and very little sense of morality.

His personality has its reasons: he was treated as a demon and grew up despised, but that's no excuse for whitewashing him.

Even after falling in love with the heroine, he still lies to her, confines her, and psychologically manipulates her. His nature won't change.

She thought she was saving the light, but instead warmed the shadow, only to be swallowed by it in the end.

2025.11.27

Theme: Live life with optimism