Chronicles of the Marquis of Huai'an's Estate

I've been a little busy lately, so I'm posting five chapters a week for now. Once things calm down, I'll work toward daily updates!

A post-marriage romance with face-slapping, household intrigue, and raising children. If that sounds like your thing, add it to your collection! My upcoming novel, The Canary's Handbook, is listed at the very bottom!

Synopsis

When Pei Jun first transmigrated to the Great Yan Dynasty, she thought she'd landed the perfect lie-flat life. After all, her father was the crown prince, and she was his legitimate eldest daughter, born to the crown princess.

Everything about her life looked utterly privileged: the perfect setup for a lifetime of good food, fun, and doing nothing.

That is, until she was three, when her crown prince father was suddenly deposed.

Pei Jun: Wait, what? This can't be right!

After just three happy years of eating well and living in luxury, Pei Jun had to follow her deposed crown prince father and the rest of the family as they made a miserable move to the place the emperor had designated for their confinement: Qiulan Palace, in the most remote corner of the imperial palace.

When Pei Jun was sixteen, her imperial grandfather suddenly fell gravely ill and died. The throne went to her fifth uncle, who, like her deposed father, had been born to the empress.

Her fifth uncle was a man of his word. Not long after ascending the throne, he released the family from confinement and gave her father a prince's title. He also bestowed on her the title of Lady Zhaoyang.

Then he promptly betrothed her to Qin Chu, who had just been made Marquis of Huai'an for helping him secure the throne.

*

Qin Chu had passed the imperial examinations as a young man and was gifted in both letters and arms. He was also famous throughout the capital for his handsome looks, noble bearing, and imposing presence. Born to the centuries-old Qin clan, he had not only been granted the title of Marquis of Huai'an for helping the emperor take the throne, but had also inherited the hereditary title of Duke of Su. His family background and personal qualifications were flawless in every respect.

There was just one problem. Although Qin Chu had never married, he had adopted the children of his late elder brother and sister-in-law, a boy and a girl. He made it clear that after Pei Jun married him, both children would be entered under her name and treated as legitimate. So although Pei Jun would be his first wife, she would still be a stepmother.

Those two children would also take the titles of her eldest legitimate son and eldest legitimate daughter.

Her mother, a former crown princess, wailed and protested, refusing to agree no matter what, as though Pei Jun were being sent into a fire pit. Pei Jun, however, thought this sounded like a fantastic deal!

She wasn't planning to have children anyway. Since Qin Chu already had a son and daughter, that saved her the trouble. All she had to do was move from Qiulan Palace to the Marquis of Huai'an's residence and keep eating, doing nothing, and passing the time. It was all the same to her.

The main reason, of course, was that her imperial uncle had already issued an imperial edict. She had no choice but to marry.

*

The day before her wedding, Pei Jun suddenly dreamed that the world she lived in was actually a novel. The protagonist was Qin Yu, Qin Chu's adopted son, who was about to become her beloved son.

When Qin Yu grew up, he would rise to the highest ranks of the court and wield immense power. Once he took control, the first people he would deal with were Pei Jun and her deposed crown prince father.

He would target her because after marrying into the family, she would use her grandmother, the empress dowager, and her uncle, the emperor, to throw her weight around and bully him and his sister. She would be nothing but a vicious stepmother. He would target her father because Qin Yu's birth mother's family had once been framed, stripped of their property, imprisoned, and sent into exile. His mother had become the daughter of a convicted criminal, spending her days in sorrow until she eventually died full of bitterness. The case had been wrongly decided by Pei Jun's father back when he was still crown prince.

And because his wicked stepmother, Pei Jun, had only added fuel to the fire, she and her father would both pay for it years later and die horribly.

Pei Jun woke up in a cold sweat.

Pei Jun: Ha, there's really no way out. When can I escape the suffering caused by my family of origin?

Oh. Right. I can also be the source of my own suffering.

So Pei Jun, who had planned to lie flat, could only spring into action. She began going out of her way to care for the two children she'd acquired for free, hoping they'd remember her kindness when they grew up and spare her useless father and birth mother.

In the end, Pei Jun watched Qin Chu, who had once looked down on her, and the two children circle around her every day, and fell into deep thought. It seemed she'd been a little too successful.

Content warnings: 1. Pei Jun's father was also manipulated into making the wrongful ruling. The real culprit was someone else.

2. This should be a post-marriage romance about raising children, with a bit of household intrigue. The overall tone won't be too heavy. I hope you enjoy reading!

Theme: Treat others with sincerity.