Synopsis
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In her previous life, Lin Nian, the daughter of a Jiangnan merchant, ignored her parents' objections and married Xu Yunchang, Marquis of Yong'an, without hesitation.
But after three years of marriage, she still hadn't borne a child. Then her husband suddenly suffered a heart attack and died.
Lin Nian spent a year as a widow, devoting herself to caring for her mother-in-law. Then she received the terrible news that both her parents had died. She rushed back to Jiangnan, where she found two cold corpses, along with the husband who had supposedly been dead for a year.
Her husband had a wife and child by his side. The child was already over five years old, even though she and her husband had been married for only three years.
The Lin family's immense fortune fell into the hands of that faithless man. Lin Nian threw herself against her parents' coffins and died, her heart filled with sorrow.
But when she opened her eyes again, she had returned to a time before any of it had happened.
Xu Yunchang hadn't returned home yet, and her parents were still alive!
This time, she would never make the same mistake again!
Not only would she protect the Lin family's business, she would take the marquis's household for herself!
Lin Nian changed her appearance and began doing business under a false identity.
She even carefully selected Chen Qinghe, a handsome, timid down-on-his-luck scholar, to keep as a lover, solely so she could conceive a child and inherit the marquis's household after her faithless husband died.
Once her plan succeeded, Lin Nian gave him a sum of money and sent him on his way. After her husband died, she could openly establish a merchant guild with the fake young marquis in her belly and benefit the common people.
But she never expected her former lover to pass the imperial examinations.
The scholar who used to cram at the last minute was now an editor at the Hanlin Academy!
Worse, he had discovered her true identity. He wanted to move into her home and make her take responsibility!
How was a widow whose husband had been dead for less than two months supposed to take responsibility?
And that wasn't all. When she went to the palace to meet the emperor, everyone treated her lover with the utmost respect and called him...
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Just the other day, this Crown Prince had knelt in her room, begging her to change her mind and not abandon him. He promised he would quietly be a lover who never fought or competed for anything.
Take responsibility...
It didn't sound entirely out of the question.
After all, he could handle court affairs, cook, put his useful status to good use, and behave himself.
Just as her lover ascended the throne and issued an imperial decree to marry her, a widow, as his empress, she was fretting over what to do when...
Her husband, who had faked his death, came back.
What perfect timing!
Using a visit to her parents' home as an excuse, Lin Nian left the capital with her cuckolded husband. After coaxing him to "sleep," she changed course in the middle of the night and headed for Shazhou City.
The world was full of wonders. She didn't want to be confined behind palace walls.
Three months after she left the capital, the throne changed hands. Jiang Yan rode a white horse day and night, traveling a thousand miles to find her.
"From now on, there will be no more Crown Prince Jiang Yan. There will only be the poor scholar Chen Qinghe."
A female lead who plays dumb to fool the world but is secretly cunning and ruthless
A seemingly frail scholar lover, but a crafty, flirtatious male lead
Theme: Women can hold up half the sky