After the Substitute Princess Fakes Her Death, He Goes Mad

Sigh, there's too much going on. Sorry, I'm taking a break to get things in order. I'll send a red envelope and my best wishes to everyone who left a comment, as an apology for being away all this time~

People couldn't understand why Ling Jinglian, the Second Young Master of Xia, disliked Shan Mushuang so much.

She was the eldest princess of Qi, beautiful, gentle, virtuous, and obedient. In everyone's eyes, they were a perfect match.

But only Ling Jinglian knew that she was faking it!

He was sick of her affected performance, and even more disgusted by the way she deliberately approached and pestered him every day.

At first, he kept his guard up and met her with scorn and harsh words.

Later, unable to get rid of her, he coldly watched to see how long she could keep up the act.

He thought he was stuck with that "clingy nuisance" for the rest of his life.

But then, at the great banquet of the Eastern Alliance, a young general in white arrived from Qi.

From the moment that man approached the hall, her smile froze. And when she heard the name "Shao Hongyu," he clearly saw her fingers tremble.

Only then did he realize that there had always been a "moonlight" in her heart.

That day, his face was colder than icicles in the depths of winter. He nearly crushed the cup in his hand.

*

When civil war broke out in Xia, Shan Mushuang took the military secrets and ran off, ending her act.

Her sword pierced his chest. Her whole bearing was distant and cold.

He stared at her in disbelief. "Liao Feiqing, you?"

She looked at him with cold eyes, not a trace of her former tenderness left on her face. "Young Master Chu Cheng, you've got the wrong person. My surname is Shan, my given name Mushuang. I was never some princess of Qi!"

*

Ling Jinglian was cold-blooded, merciless, cruel, and ruthless.

He had never cared about anyone, yet he fell into the hands of the "fool" he'd done everything to avoid.

Even when people said the Princess of Qi had an unknown background and ulterior motives, he insisted she was naive and ignorant of the ways of the world.

Even when she nearly took his life, he said she must have been acting under someone's orders, forced to do it against her will.

It wasn't until he saw her with her "moonlight" that he finally went completely "mad."

*

Male Lead's Scene:

In a damp, gloomy prison cell, Ling Jinglian looked down at her coldly, as if she were a filthy dog.

"Beg me!" His face was as cold as winter icicles in the dead of night. "If you beg me, perhaps I'll have a change of heart and spare your life."

Shan Mushuang slowly lifted her eyes. Before her stood a man in a crimson robe, his hands behind his back, as cold as ever.

She gave a soft laugh, her voice as faint as nothingness. "Kill me if you wish, Your Majesty. There's nothing left in this world for me to hold on to."

"Is he really that important to you?"

She leaned listlessly against the corner wall and gave a quiet "Mm," unwilling to argue with him.

Haze clouded his eyes, and the veins on his hands bulged. "Death would be too easy for you. I'll make you wish you were dead, but never let you die."

Later, she set a great fire that burned that cold, lightless place to the ground.

In the ruins, the proud king dug through the earth inch by inch. By morning, his hair had turned white.

That night, holding the disfigured corpse in his arms, he laughed and cried. "I've already forgiven you..."

Reading guide: Sweetness amid the heartbreak, with a slow-burning, angsty revenge romance.

Coming soon: "Reborn to Marry a Fake Playboy." Please give it a little love and add it to your collection.

Synopsis: Yu Daihua is the only daughter of the Yu family, naturally beautiful, gentle, and virtuous.

A fortune-teller said she had a fragile fate and would have to be raised away from home to reach adulthood safely, so her father sent her to live with her maternal grandmother from a young age.

Her cousin Cui Zeyao was her betrothed, promised to her before birth. They grew up together as childhood sweethearts. She gave him her heart, looking forward to marrying him when they were grown and spending their lives together.

But just before she came of age, her father died, and everything changed.

First, her grandmother's family delayed the wedding on the grounds that she had to observe three years of mourning.

Then a woman came to the capital, and Yu Daihua discovered that her cousin had always carried a cinnabar mole in his heart.

After that, an epidemic swept through, and she was framed and made to contract the disease.

The cinnabar mole was as bright as a flower, making her seem all the more like a grain of white rice abandoned on the ground, someone anyone could trample and despise.

She wanted to pull herself together, but then learned that her grandmother's family had swallowed up every last bit of the property her father had left behind.

She thought, Never mind. She would be his wife someday, after all.

She waited and waited, three years and then another three, only to learn that her cousin was marrying the woman with the cinnabar mole.

She finally understood: those people who had claimed to be close to her had never meant it.

In the end, she died coughing up blood, consumed by grief.

*

Reborn once more, she cuts her losses and swiftly gives her cousin's family a taste of face-slapping before turning to the playboy Fu Chunsheng. She thinks she'll just lie flat this time and live out her days in peace.

But one night, her playboy husband, who only knows how to eat and drink and can't even kill a chicken, takes a knife and chops off someone's hands.

He wipes the blood dripping from the blade with a white handkerchief, a wicked smile on his face. "Wife, are you scared?"

She smiles brightly on the outside, but inside she's miserable. How could she not be scared?

Good grief, she lived this life for nothing too...

[Reading Guide]

1. The heroine dishes out face-slapping at lightning speed. No dragging things out, no hesitation.

2. The male lead is Fu Chunsheng. The second male lead, Cui Zeyao, gets a groveling redemption arc. He's just cannon fodder.

3. A sweet and satisfying story.

Synopsis saved in 2023.

Saved.

Theme: Cherish the people by your side.