The Beauty of a Marquis's Household

An ancient-era second-chance romance, The New Widow, is now serializing.

Plain, beautiful country girl x refined scoundrel and villainous powerful minister

After his elder brother dies young, Marquis of Jingwu Huo Yanshi wields immense power at court and devotes himself to his family.

He carefully raises his nephew Huo Yun, teaching him both literary and martial skills and arranging his engagement to the daughter of Chancellor Cui, his childhood sweetheart.

But then his nephew brings a country girl back to the capital, saying she saved his life and that they became husband and wife in the countryside. He insists on marrying her properly and bringing her into the family.

Huo Yanshi looks at the country girl kneeling beside him. Her clothes are rustic, and her eyes are timid and downcast. She is worlds apart from the noble daughters of the capital.

Her only redeeming quality is her full, beautiful figure, and she has no shame about clinging to his nephew.

Huo Yanshi absolutely refuses to let his nephew, a heaven-blessed prodigy in whom he has invested such high hopes, marry a woman like her.

To bring his nephew to his senses, he pretends to be tender toward the girl and tempts her in every way, finally driving a wedge between her and his nephew.

But just as the country girl finally takes the hint and decides to leave the marquis's estate, he suddenly wants to know why such an ordinary country girl could so completely captivate a nephew raised in comfort and luxury...

Ye Zhen grew up working the fields in the countryside. After returning to the capital with her new husband, the grand and powerful family constantly reminds her that she is no match for the noble, handsome heir of the marquis's household.

When she sees her husband rekindle his old relationship with the noble daughter of the Cui family, she finally gives up. She leaves a divorce agreement and prepares to return to the countryside in Zhongzhou.

Before leaving, she goes to bid farewell to her husband's uncle, Marquis Huo, wanting to thank him in person for looking after her all this time.

Huo Yanshi is wiping a kind-faced Buddhist statue. When he turns around, he sees Ye Zhen bend her graceful neck, a timid softness in her expression as she calls him "Uncle."

He remembers passing his nephew's room at night and hearing the country girl use that same voice to call out to her husband again and again, begging him to go easy on her.

Huo Yanshi's smile remains gentle, but he turns the statue in his hands to face away from them.

That night, Ye Zhen learns what kind of dark, unchecked desire hides beneath the spotless exterior of the uncle she has always looked up to...

At first, Huo Yanshi thinks a lowborn country girl is of no importance.

Later, he resents her cold heart. No matter how sincerely he pleads and how much of his heart he offers, she refuses to spare him another glance.

Huo Yun has admired his uncle Huo Yanshi since childhood, honoring him like the father he lost early and obeying his every word.

But after his beloved is taken from him through a scheme and he is consumed by regret, his uncle appears before him, holding his former wife by the hand.

At that moment, he swears to reclaim the title of Marquis of Jing'an and take her back from his uncle.

Blurb written on December 19, 2025

Reader's Guide:

1. The heroine isn't perfect or strong. She's an honest country girl with limited experience, but she has her own shining qualities and will grow.

2. The heroine has had sex before, while the male lead has not. He is nine years older. The heroine and the second male lead only held a wedding ceremony in the countryside; they never formally married, and she only gets involved with the male lead after separating from the second male lead.

3. A fictional setting and a melodramatic story about a nephew and uncle vying for the same woman. Written for a taste for melodrama. Please don't judge the author morally.

Coming next: The New Widow.

On the day the heir to the Duke's estate is buried, the young emperor comes to pay his respects.

As he looks at the kneeling family members, he summons only the heir's wife, Su Qingyan, into the inner hall.

No one knows that behind the layers of white curtains and funeral banners,

the newly widowed Su Qingyan, whom they all despise, is pinned atop the altar table where the offerings are laid.

Dressed in mourning white, Su Qingyan angrily scolds him: "My husband's body isn't even cold, and his memorial tablet is right there!"

Gu Ningyuan looks toward the name on the tablet, the one he has hated for three whole years, and says coldly, "Then let him watch."

Ten years ago, Su Qingyan, the youngest daughter of Imperial Physician Su, met the deposed crown prince, Gu Ningyuan, in the palace.

Ignoring his grim silence, she clung to him, asking him to talk with her and making him laugh, keeping him company through the long days and nights in the Cold Palace.

On the day Gu Ningyuan reclaimed his position as crown prince, he painted a picture for Su Qingyan with his own hands.

It showed a black swallow and a white swallow, their wings crossed as they nestled close together. He swore into her ear: May the two swallows never part, and share a nest year after year.

But a year later, when Gu Ningyuan ascended the throne, he was also the one who said, "The Su family is unfit to be empress."

Su Qingyan tore the painting of the two swallows in half and swore that she and the emperor would be strangers for the rest of their lives, with nothing to do with each other's marriages.

He waited for her to regret it, but she turned around and married someone else.

Everyone knows Emperor Guangyu is violent by nature, murdered his brother to seize the throne, and purged the court with an iron fist.

But no one knows that there is someone he loves but cannot have. Longing eats away at him, yet he can only keep it tightly reined in.

He waited three years, finally waiting for her sickly husband to die.

This time, he will never let his swallows fly from his hand again.

Bonus Scene:

Rumor has it Su Qingyan is haughty and disliked by the great noble families. The only reason she has lived comfortably in the Duke's household is that her husband spoils her without limit.

Now that her husband is dead, if she didn't have a daughter to protect her, she would have been thrown out of the household long ago.

Everyone thinks she'll have to keep her head down and work hard to please her late husband's family.

But no one expects her to carry on as usual, bold enough to meet her lover in secret right there in the Duke's household.

One day, her mother-in-law brings a group of women to catch her in the act, determined to leave her daughter behind and kick her out.

But before they can enter, they see through the drooping curtains that Su Qingyan is disheveled and flushed, her slender waist held in someone's grasp as she's pressed into their arms.

And the mighty, ruthless Emperor of Wei, as everyone calls him, has buried his face in the crook of her neck, pleading piteously: "What must I do for you to come back to me?"

Theme: The wicked get what they deserve.