Five Sisters

(Reader’s note: A romance featuring all five sisters 🥰)

To avoid being sent to the palace to die alongside the emperor, the four Gu sisters must marry before next year’s imperial selection.

Gu Nianxuan, wife of the heir apparent, had been confident she could manage it.

Who knew her husband would die and she would become a suspect? 😢

Born into a distinguished family and cherished by her parents, Gu Nianxuan grew up to become Jinling’s greatest beauty. She married Wen, the gentle and devoted heir to the Duke of Anguo, and her in-laws treated her like their own daughter. Their marriage was a match made in heaven.

That was until the newly crowned top scholar, Ji Zhimo, appeared at the Duke of Anguo’s residence. A modest gentleman, warm as jade, he carried himself with effortless grace.

But the entire household whispered disdainfully: Ji Zhimo was the duke’s illegitimate son. He might be handsome and impeccably mannered, but he was lowborn, cruel, and ruthless.

They insulted him, mocked him, and humiliated him to his face.

He was her husband’s younger brother, after all, and Gu Nianxuan couldn’t bear to see him treated that way. She often stepped in to defend him.

She failed to notice that the refined, upright top scholar’s gaze grew more and more deranged whenever he looked at her.

When her husband’s relatives treated Ji Zhimo coldly, Gu Nianxuan kindly brought him a cup of hot tea. The young man smiled warmly. “Sister-in-law, it’s not their fault. I’ve been a little too overbearing.”

Gu Nianxuan therefore believed that her husband’s half-brother, Ji Zhimo, was polite and gentle as jade, nothing like the sinister, ruthless man people described.

Until one day, she discovered that those who had made trouble for her had either lost a hand or had a leg broken, and Ji Zhimo was the one behind it all. 😱

Blood stained his pale, colorless face. His lips curled into a strange, obsessive smile. “No one is allowed to bully Sister-in-law.”

*

When her husband died, Gu Nianxuan wept until she fainted in the mourning hall.

Ji Zhimo caught sight of his sister-in-law in mourning clothes.

The coarse hemp could not hide her breathtaking beauty; her plain mourning robes only made her seem more delicate and moving.

Her skin was as white as cream, almost translucent. Her almond-shaped eyes were veiled in mist, and as she glanced about, tears welled beneath her thick lashes and fell straight into his heart.

Just one glance.

A sinister glint appeared in the eyes of the usually proper top scholar.

His every drop of blood cried out.

He would descend into hell without a single regret.

*

The beloved heir to the Duke of Anguo died young. Stricken with grief and suspicion, the emperor sent his nephew, Yan Kai, Vice Commissioner of the Censorate, to investigate.

Yan Kai naturally suspected the dead man’s wife at once.

Gu Zhaotang: Let’s see if you’re capable of taking my sister away. 🧐

Yan Kai arrived to investigate, a young man full of ambition and eager to prove himself. But when his inquiries led him to the deceased’s wife, Gu Nianxuan, her difficult sisters did everything they could to obstruct his investigation.

The worst of them was the third sister, Gu Zhaotang: fiery and capable, with ten thousand ways to protect her elder sister.

What a joke. No suspect could escape the grasp of a Vice Commissioner of the Censorate.

But Yan Kai never imagined that he would be the one to fall in the end. 🫪

The five Gu sisters had once been the most sought-after young women in the city’s marriage market. After getting caught up in this case, however, they suddenly found themselves without a single suitor. The townspeople either mocked them, pitied them, or took pleasure in their misfortune.

The eldest sister was mired in suspicions surrounding her late husband. The second sister, Jiwei, was born to a low-ranking concubine, and though insecure and introverted, wanted to break out of her shell. The third sister, Zhaotang, was a transmigrated special forces soldier, fiery and forceful. The fourth, Xunli, was lost in romantic fantasies. The fifth, Qingke, always had a lecture ready. What would become of these five young ladies? 🤷‍♀️

At that time, several mysterious cases took place in the city one after another. Even the once-prosperous Jiangnan seemed shrouded in gloom. Beneath the moonlight on the Twenty-Four Bridges, could the jade pavilion ever be locked away in peace?

Five couples: Eldest sister Gu Nianxuan, a gentle people-pleaser, and a deranged, sinister minister: they save each other and overcome their flaws together;

Third sister Gu Zhaotang, a fiery, forceful woman, and a sunny, confident young man: an opposites-attract couple who bicker and fight as much as they love each other;

Fourth sister Gu Xunli, lost in romantic daydreams, and a taciturn general.

“Five graceful young ladies, and five devoted gentlemen who understand their hearts.” From the Republican-era promotional slogan for the film Pride and Prejudice.

References: Women’s Lives in the Ming Dynasty; A History of Social Life in the Ming Dynasty; Stories to Caution the World; The Structure and Operation of State Power in the Ming Dynasty

Theme: Loving yourself comes first.