My Brother's Wife

In her previous life, Qu Yaoyu's sickly husband died young.

She endured with her frail body and remained a widow for him.

After that, she rarely ventured out. Sometimes she would run into her stern, taciturn elder brother-in-law in the covered corridor, and would simply give him a graceful curtsy.

Her brother-in-law had always been distant, never making any improper advances toward her.

But when she accidentally twisted her ankle, he went too far and put an arm around her waist.

She was flustered, her watery eyes glistening, yet she could not resist the blazing hand at her waist.

On the day her brother-in-law died, an elder of the Xiao clan forced her to drink poison. Her mother-in-law tormented her, her relatives abandoned her, and she died miserably in the woodshed, bearing a shameful reputation.

When she opened her eyes again, her brother-in-law was still the same head of the family: a man of immense power who held himself to the highest standards. Qu Yaoyu was once again the lowborn younger sister-in-law who had just been married into the Xiao family to bring good fortune to a sick man.

Her husband was alive. And Xiao Tingshu, her elder brother-in-law, had not been reborn; he also had a fiancee he had yet to marry.

This time, she pulled her husband back from the gates of death and kept well away from her brother-in-law.

Xiao Tingshu had always been a man of restraint and impeccable conduct, admired like a lofty mountain. He took over the declining Xiao family and raised it to a position of power over the court.

If nothing went wrong, he would marry the legitimate daughter of the Cui family, joining forces in a powerful alliance.

But he was uniquely repulsed by his younger brother's wife.

She was a timid, delicate woman whose only virtue was her beauty.

Yet his gaze fell on her more and more often.

His secret desire for her grew stronger by the day.

After his memories returned, he thought that Heaven had granted this life to the two of them. What did his younger brother have to do with it?

So what if she was his younger brother's wife? He would simply take her back.

Reader's guide:

A melodramatic novel. The heroine is gentle and considerate. The hero dislikes her at first, then gets his comeuppance.

The heroine has not been with anyone; the hero has. The second male lead survives in the second life and competes with the hero for the heroine.

The hero breaks down and pursues his wife, enduring a long road to redemption as he gradually remembers his past life.

Note: There are no romantic feelings while the family relationship remains in place.

Coming soon: I Mistook My Fiance, and He Forced Himself on Me

Xianyu is the most revered princess of Miaojiang. After coming of age, she set out for the Central Plains with her marriage contract to find her fiance.

By chance, she found a badly wounded man by a cliff. A jade pendant fell from his arms, and it fit perfectly with the other half she carried.

Overjoyed, Xianyu hoisted him onto her shoulders.

The man was exceptionally handsome, if a little frail. Xianyu not only helped him recover, but also wiped out the assassins sent to kill him.

She was already gleefully planning how to nurse him back to health so they could have several children.

Then one day, she saw her usually gentle and delicate fiance swiftly run a sword through an assassin.

He wiped the blood from the blade on the crook of his elbow. "That woman may be stupid, but we can keep her around to use as leverage against my imperial brother, or have her treat me."

Only then did Xianyu realize that she had not only been deceived, but had mistaken someone else for her fiance. Worse, she seemed to have fallen for him.

But it didn't matter. Her mother had told her that men cared most about their pride, and the best revenge was to have them, then dump them.

Xianyu drugged him, fumbled her way through the whole thing and took charge. At dawn, she held her aching waist, left four crooked words behind: "You're not very good," and walked away.

When the new emperor ascended the throne, his first act was to surround Miaojiang with his troops. As it happened, a new Miaojiang Saintess was about to marry, and the emperor said with a sinister smile that he had come especially to share in the wedding celebration.

Xianyu stared in shock as he advanced step by step. In the end, he trapped her in front of him. Though he had always hated Gu worms, he willingly bit his tongue and forced her to implant a love Gu in him.

With a click, a shackle closed around their wrists. From then on, they could never escape each other, no matter how far apart they traveled.

Theme: Pursuing a new life.