After I Contract-Married My Nemesis's Brother

[Coming to an End | Marriage First, Love Later | Brothers Competing for Her | Sweet on the Outside, Dark Within x Bright and Sunny] To escape a disastrous marriage, Meng Zhihua put everything on the line and deliberately arranged a “chance encounter” with Bai Qingjian, the widely admired eldest son of the Bai family in the capital. A three-year contract was signed, and that was that. She would use his status to escape trouble, while he would rely on her respectable appearance to fend off his family’s pressure to marry and secure his standing at court. When the contract expired, they would part on good terms and go their separate ways. After their wedding, Meng Zhihua played the virtuous wife to perfection. Not a word or gesture of hers could be faulted. She treated their marriage as nothing more than a dignified arrangement that served them both. Bai Qingjian came from a distinguished family and was exceptionally capable. He treated her with courtesy and warmth. As his wife in name only, she enjoyed both respectability and peace and quiet. Meng Zhihua was sure she had come out ahead. That was until her old nemesis, Bai Qinglang, the Bai family’s second son, suddenly returned home after three years guarding the frontier. At the welcome-home banquet, after several rounds of wine, Bai Qinglang leaned close amid the laughter and music, his teasing words audible only to her. “Three years apart, and you’ve gotten quite comfortable in this proper young-lady disguise, haven’t you?” “Who was it that chased me from the training grounds into the mud, yanking my hair and refusing to let go? Sister-in-law.” Meng Zhihua dug her fingertips into her palm beneath her sleeve, but kept her gentle smile and smoothly covered for him. “Second Uncle must be drunk. He’s just telling childhood stories again.” Yet late that night, on her way back to her room, she found Bai Qingjian, who should have been handling affairs in his study, sitting quietly by her window. Candlelight traced his elegant profile. Hearing her footsteps, he looked up from his book. His expression was mild and composed, and his lips held their usual faint smile. “Wife, it seems…” He set down the book. His voice was clear and gentle, but his gaze settled on her face with unfathomable depth. “You’ve never mentioned that you and Qinglang shared a past.” Reading Guide 1. Both leads are each other’s first and only. The male lead is the older brother. A true marriage-first, love-later story, with no long-standing schemes. 2. Brothers competing for her, a little groveling, forced love, childhood friend versus newcomer, and other small doses of melodrama. It won’t get angsty, so these are only light touches. 3. The male lead is sweet on the outside but dark within. His gentle exterior hides a possessive, yandere side. 4. A lighthearted, everyday-life style. Coming next: Can the Princess Just Keep Her Head Down Today? Bright little sun x gloomy and possessive Zhu Yao was reborn thirteen times. She had competed, fought, gone mad, and become ruthless. She was willing to try any wild scheme if it meant staying alive. But every single life ended the same way: Before her cold-faced cousin Li Jujian could inherit the throne and ascend as emperor, she was destined to die. After dying in thirteen different ways, she finally understood, mostly because she was out of options: If you can’t outdo them, just lie down. In this life, she stays away from political intrigue and keeps her distance from the future emperor, pretending to be clueless whenever trouble arises. She wants no part in conflict, but loves money more than life. All she wants is to quietly fake her death and disappear with a fortune before he takes the throne, then live out whatever life she has left. The entire capital laughs at her, calling her a good-for-nothing princess who is lazy and mercenary. She’s happy to embrace the reputation and keep her head down without a trace of guilt. But strange things keep happening in this life: The poisoned wine at a palace banquet is switched without explanation, and plots to frame her mysteriously turn aside. Disasters she once went to great lengths to avoid now pass her by altogether. And the crown prince Li Jujian, who has always been aloof and never spared her a second glance, sometimes looks her way with a gaze so deep it makes her heart skip a beat. Zhu Yao assumes that dying so many times in his shadow has left her with psychological scars. All she wants is to stay alive. She doesn’t want to deal with anything else, and there’s nothing she can do about it anyway. At last, with her destined end drawing near, every detail of her escape plan is in place. Just as she is about to slip away without a trace, someone grabs her and refuses to let go. The usually distant and indifferent heir to the throne has bloodshot eyes, his voice hoarse as he blocks her path. “Don’t be afraid.” “In this life, I don’t want the throne. I only want you to live.” Theme: Recognize your true feelings