After Pledging My Life to My Brother

The final installment in the Northern Yan series

One woman with three male leads / the heroine and the first male lead are pseudo-siblings / the second male lead takes her by force / the heroine and the third male lead are enemies from rival nations forced into marriage, a couple bound by mutual hatred

Bright, spoiled little sun x a dashing young man three years older x an elegant, unhinged powerbroker twelve years older x a cold, obsessive crown prince five years older

Blurb:

In the fifth year of Tianshou, Emperor Yan was incompetent and had not held court in a long time. The powerful minister Wei Zhen controlled the government, wielding absolute power.

The Northern Yan royal family was entirely under his control. The slightest misstep could bring disaster, and everyone had to tread carefully.

Through the long, lonely nights in the palace, the siblings Li Zhaolie and Li Yangui had relied on each other since childhood, saving one another through years of isolation.

On cold winter nights, her big brother held her through one miserable night after another.

When the storm clouds gathered, he stood in front of her, shielding her from every attack, open or hidden, and becoming her only light in the darkness.

Li Yangui wanted nothing more than to spend her life with him.

On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she pulled out her hairpin, letting her dark hair fall over her shoulders. A warm fragrance drifted between them, and their feelings became entwined in their clinging gazes.

After the candlelight flickered through the night, the siblings held each other without reservation, feeling each other’s heartbeats as they listened to the snow falling outside.

They wanted only to escape the turmoil and remain in that moment forever.

But before Li Yangui could spend her life with him, she received an order to go to Great Ning as a bride in a political marriage.

For the sake of the greater good, she was forced to set out and marry Great Ning’s crown prince.

On their wedding night, when her veil was lifted, she met a pair of cold, phoenix-like eyes.

She stared in slight astonishment as she recognized the crown prince.

He said with icy sarcasm:

“I’m still alive and well. You must be terribly disappointed.”

The red candlelight was painfully bright. Li Yangui looked away, afraid that dwelling on the past would burn her eyes...

Wei Zhen had once forced her to become his wife, then imprisoned her in his estate, controlling her day after day under the guise of tenderness.

But she didn’t love him and had no wish to bear his child, so she schemed to escape time and again.

On her third attempt, Wei Zhen personally led his troops in a citywide hunt for her.

Driven to a cliff, she jumped without hesitation. Using her wits, she made her way into a cave in the cliff face, where she discovered a seriously wounded man lying unconscious.

Feeling pity for him, she treated his wounds.

She stayed in the cave for another half a month, both because he could not move easily and because she needed to evade her pursuers.

One night, she hazily saw a shadow standing perfectly still and watching her, then slowly leaning toward her face...

In desperation, she grabbed the hairpin at her side and stabbed him.

When he fell into a pool of blood, she stabbed him several more times. Only after confirming he had stopped breathing did she flee, her clothes soaked in blood.

Red candlelight flared. Li Yangui stared at the crown prince before her in his wedding robes, unable to recover for a long time.

The man she had once saved, then killed, was Crown Prince Zong Changfeng.

Zong Changfeng approached slowly. “Relations between Great Ning and Northern Yan are strained. If you bear a child with blood from both nations, it would bring our families even closer.”

Li Yangui looked at him coldly. “And if I refuse?”

Zong Changfeng removed her hairpin, his expression gentle. “After your brother sent you off to marry into Great Ning, he was ambushed on his way back to Northern Yan. He is now trapped in a valley, his life hanging by a thread.”

“It happened within Great Ning’s borders, and he is my brother-in-law. I won’t stand by and do nothing.”

He stared at Li Yangui. The last traces of feigned tenderness in his eyes were swallowed by obsession.

“Only if...”

When a pool of moonlight entered the dark cave and fell across those light brown eyes, the ripples in its reflection met the ripples in his gaze.

Zong Changfeng never realized that this was the first time in his life he had fallen in love.

He had crept closer while she slept with no other intention than to kiss her, but she mistook it for an attempt on her life.

He knew that A-Yan and the brother she called hers were in love, and had already pledged themselves to each other.

Even Wei Zhen, a man so arrogant, had failed to win her heart.

Zong Changfeng could only keep the woman he loved by forcing this marriage upon her.

He thought A-Yan must hate him for using her brother’s life to threaten her.

Otherwise, why did she always resist his kisses, even when she was overcome with desire as they grew intimate?

So be it...

After their passion had subsided, Zong Changfeng looked at the woman in his arms and smoothed the furrow from her brow.

Word had come from the front lines: his brother-in-law, Li Zhaolie, had been trapped in the valley for two months, but was still putting up a desperate fight.

Meanwhile, he and Great Ning’s general had already devised a battle plan. They only had to wait for the southerly wind to rise three days later before they could eliminate this threat for good.

Then he and A-Yan could be together for the rest of their lives.

Reading guide:

1. All three male leads are sexually inexperienced and devoted to the heroine, with no fiancées, exes, childhood sweethearts, or maids.

2. The heroine has relationships with all three male leads and marries the second and third.

3. The main story has a bad ending; the bonus chapters have a happy ending.

Message: I can never repay the kindness you showed me in this life. I hope I can become spring mud for you in the next.