After My Husband's Death, the Lady Remarried by Imperial Decree

(Complete.)

[Beautiful, Cunning Concubine-Born Lady x Devoted, Obsessive Prince]

Yu Qinglu spent her life calculating.

Her first calculation was how to secure a place for herself in the eyes of the First Madam.

In the depths of winter, the pond water was icy. When her elder half-sister accidentally fell in, she leaped in without hesitation to save her. Her sister returned home safe and sound, while Yu Qinglu was left with a chronic chill. But at last, she had earned a sliver of her stepmother's pity and carved out a tiny place for herself in the inner household.

Her second calculation was her marriage.

Born a frail concubine's daughter, she maneuvered carefully at every turn and finally married a promising new jinshi. The wedding candles had yet to burn out, and she thought a peaceful life lay ahead. But at daybreak the next morning, the wedding hall still stood, and funeral banners had already been hung. In everyone's eyes, she was a woman so ill-fated she had brought about her husband's death.

Her third calculation was a shortcut to the top.

She ingratiated herself with the Grand Princess and entered the lavish flower-viewing banquet. But beneath the flower shadows, she came across a man. He stood with his hands behind his back amid brilliant peach and plum blossoms. His looks were peerless, but his gaze was so deep it made her heart pound with fear. As a newly widowed woman, how could she risk entanglement with another man? Her face turned deathly pale, and she fled in a panic.

Yu Qinglu thought this was nothing more than another insignificant twist of fate.

Until an imperial decree of marriage came crashing down.

Forced to marry again, she found herself wed to the very man who had made her flee beneath the flowering trees: His Highness Prince Chengzhao, the Emperor's younger brother and the Grand Princess's own brother.

The capital was in an uproar.

Everyone scoffed at her cleverness. How had a concubine-born woman who had supposedly brought death to her husband managed to climb so high and make a prince refuse to marry anyone but her?

No one knew that within the layers of brocade curtains, the prince rumored to have been bewitched by her would always gather her into his arms late at night, twining her hair around his fingers and murmuring almost like a sigh beside her ear:

"Qing'er..."

"I can't have anyone but you. You calculate how to survive, whom to marry, and how to gain wealth. When will you ever calculate... what to do with my heart?"

Reading Guide and Content Warnings:

1. One-on-one romance, happy ending, mutually devoted.

2. The heroine is no saint. She schemes to survive, and is neither self-sacrificing nor morally upright. She is clever and resourceful, with little regard for conventional morality.

3. The hero is domineering and intensely possessive of the heroine. He is no perfect gentleman.

---- Upcoming novel: Dumped My Fiance and Married the Regent

[Sweet, Delicate, High-Maintenance Beauty x Aloof, Taciturn Regent]

Chu Yuwan is the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Chu's family, a beauty of breathtaking appearance with a delicately lovely figure.

She is a cherished jewel known throughout the capital, and infamous for being difficult to please. A glance of her eyes or a slight pout of her red lips, and no one can bring themselves to reproach her, no matter how serious her mistake.

Since childhood, she has been promised to Yan Xiao, the Regent's adopted son.

Everyone says she is lucky. Only Yuwan is unhappy, for her future husband seems far too... dull and boring.

Until the day the Regent personally came to propose the match. She was hiding behind a screen, peeking at the legendary man.

Black robes and dark hair, a jade belt at his waist, and an air of icy austerity, yet his face could bewitch all who saw it.

The moment their eyes met across the room, Yuwan's fingertips trembled and her heart burned.

A reckless, audacious thought took root:

If she has no choice but to marry...

why not marry the one who stands highest above all, and is the most handsome?

Regent Yan Zhun holds power over the realm. Cold-hearted and desireless, he is an icy mountain whom everyone in the capital both reveres and longs for.

He arranged a match between his adopted son and the jewel of the Duke of Chu's family, believing he had fulfilled his duty.

He did not know that one glimpse from behind the screen had already changed the spoiled beauty's mind.

Later, she gathered up her skirts, blocked his way, and asked in a voice as sweet as honey, bold beyond all reason:

"Your Highness... are you looking for a wife?"

The capital was in an uproar.

No one had expected the most pampered flower of the Chu family to miss her intended greenhouse and boldly charge onto the peak of the coldest, most forbidding mountain instead.

Everyone sighed: What a pity. That delicate flower will freeze to death on the icy mountain sooner or later.

Only Yan Zhun knew

that the delicate greenhouse flower he had thought he would need to cherish and protect carefully had already taken root in his heart, growing wildly and quietly tightening around his lifeline.

And he was more than happy to let it.

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Theme: Your life is in your own hands.