Don’t Seduce an Honest Married Man! [Painted Skin]

Opening on October 23!

Yu Ying is timid and honest. Even when her husband, Wang Sheng, leaves her to live as a wife in name only for three years, barely after their wedding, she still dutifully fulfills her role as a virtuous wife.

She has almost gotten used to being left alone, when her husband suddenly returns to their hometown with two people: a pretty concubine he took on the road, and the concubine's younger brother, whom he orders her to care for.

Yu Ying comforts herself: Although her husband doesn't share her bed, at least she has a whole big bed to herself and can get a good night's sleep.

But soon, Yu Ying can no longer sleep well:

She starts frequently dreaming about herself and the younger brother. In the dream, the handsome, ravishing young man holds up her legs, kissing his way down as he murmurs and looks up at her, calling her "Sister Ying."

For months on end, Yu Ying loses herself in the dream again and again. Even though she tries her best to avoid the young man in real life, it makes no difference. She still wakes up with aching hips and limp legs.

Yu Ying dares not tell anyone. She can only endure it day after day, hoping to save enough money to rent the younger brother another house so he can move out. Perhaps things will improve if she doesn't have to see him.

At last, she saves enough and goes to find the pretty concubine.

Standing outside a half-open window, she sees her husband, Wang Sheng, fast asleep. Beside him, at the dressing table, the concubine has been flattened into a roll of human skin. The ravishing young man stands before it, brush in hand, touching up the rouge on its cheeks.

Yu Ying is terrified out of her wits. She stumbles backward, only to crash into an ice-cold embrace.

The ravishing young man is standing behind her. He catches her with a smile, his frigid hand gripping her wrist.

"Oh dear, you've discovered my secret."

His icy breath brushes Yu Ying's earlobe, almost exactly as it did in her dreams.

"Now that Sister Ying has a hold over me, should I eat you..."

His breath drifts lower, past her collarbone, lingering where he'd nibbled in last night's dream.

"Or will you give me something to hold over you, too?"

*

Wang Sheng has never liked his wife, who lacks all charm, but she is virtuous, after all. He can occasionally visit her and give her a child to rely on.

He doesn't know that whenever magic leaves him dazed, the young man puts away his painted skin, kicks him under the bed, and holds his wife in his arms. As the bed creaks, he draws the curtains and runs a finger over her flat lower belly.

"This isn't your first time, so why are you still so tense, Sister Ying?"

* The female lead and Wang Sheng are not legally recognized as spouses. In a sense, she was deceived.

* The pretty concubine is a painted-skin puppet controlled by the male lead, not the male lead himself. Their relationship is like that between a puppet and its puppeteer. The male lead has more than one painted skin. From the female lead's perspective, this could also be called "In Search of the Cui Danqings Around Me."

* The female lead will become pregnant. It won't be a normal birth, but she will experience some symptoms of pregnancy.

Theme: Cherish the beauty in life