May All Wishes Be Repaid

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[Blurb]

Rong Yan was the daughter of a Grand Tutor, gifted and well-read, with impeccable manners. She was formally wed to Gu Changhao, the second son of Prince Huai, and entered the Prince Huai estate as his principal wife.

Her husband, Gu Changhao, was young and accomplished. At twenty-three, he had already risen to a fourth-rank position. He was handsome, mild-mannered, and devoted to her alone.

Their only regret was that after three years of marriage, they still had no children.

But her husband never complained. He even told her, "It doesn't matter if we have no children. We can adopt one."

He kept his word and adopted a child, moving Rong Yan deeply.

Only later did she learn that the child was actually her husband's own.

Furious, Rong Yan returned to her parents' home.

Before she even had time to grieve, her husband's elder brother came to see her.

Her brother-in-law had gone to war at the age of twelve and earned impressive victories before he was even twenty. But what people praised was not only his military record. He was also known as a gentleman of upright character who governed his household well and held himself to the strictest standards.

Rong Yan admired him deeply. If anyone else came to persuade her, she would have firmly refused. But when her brother-in-law came to talk, she didn't know how to face him.

Who could have guessed that he hadn't come to make peace at all? He had come to steal her away.

That day, the gentleman, as noble as a pine or cypress and as open and upright as the full moon, stood in the pavilion and spoke shamelessly to his younger brother's wife: "I didn't come to persuade you to reconcile. I came to tell you that I've loved you for years."

Nobleman's daughter and younger brother's wife x upright gentleman and elder brother-in-law

Cool restraint and undercurrents...

Female lead is not a virgin; male lead is. Happy ending.

[Please note]

The leads begin interacting romantically and take things further only after the heroine has divorced.

Up next: After I Tempted My Adoptive Brother. If you're interested, visit my author page and add it to your favorites. Thank you!

On the day Pei Qingfu married Mu Zheng, the young general guarding the north, she received a wedding gift from her elder brother, Pei Shuyue.

She accepted it with a smile and thanked him, finally feeling the tension leave her heart.

She thought she had neatly put an end to the secret past when she had deliberately grown close to her elder brother in order to survive.

But she never saw the shadowy anguish in the eyes of the man who turned and walked away.

Later, the general's household was caught up in a struggle for the throne and toppled overnight.

To save her husband, Pei Qingfu went to beg Pei Shuyue for help.

Her adoptive elder brother was now the Grand Secretary, the emperor's trusted aide, and the most powerful man in the court.

Within the high walls of the inner residence, the man stood with his hands behind his back. After hearing why Pei Qingfu had come, he said nothing for a long while. He simply plucked a hibiscus flower and rolled its stem between his fingers, his expression unreadable.

At last, he walked slowly toward her and tucked the flower into her hair.

He bent down, his breath brushing her ear, his voice as faint as mist. "The tricks you used to coax me back then, little sister... have you really forgotten them all?"

He still looked like a distant, moonlit gentleman, but Pei Qingfu felt a chill run down her spine. She looked up sharply and met his deep gaze, only then realizing

The story she thought had ended long ago had never ended for him.

-

Everyone in the capital knew that Grand Secretary Pei Shuyue was upright and self-controlled, and valued rules above all else.

No one knew he kept a hibiscus flower hidden in his heart, where no light could reach.

When he was seventeen, the quiet hibiscus in a corner of the rear courtyard turned a tempting shade of red. So he indulged his timid half-sister's deliberate advances.

He waited for her coming-of-age ceremony, planning and dreaming of how to keep her by his side forever.

Instead, he watched her happily marry another man.

While he defied his elders and knelt in punishment at the ancestral hall, while he burned scar after scar into his own skin, she was plotting her escape. She quietly slipped away and cast him aside with ease, leaving him to drown alone in his feelings.

Later, the hibiscus fell into his hands once more.

He stroked the nape of her trembling neck, his laughter steeped in possessive tenderness. He coaxed her into divorcing, then kissed away the traces of blood on her lips as she wept.

"You chose him over me back then. Now... it's time to come back to my side."

-

In Mu Zheng's eyes, his friend Pei Shuyue had always been quiet and reserved, but honest and forthright in his actions. At some point, though, his friend became dark and unreadable.

Later, a conflict ended their friendship. But since Pei Shuyue was his wife's brother, Mu Zheng swallowed his resentment and continued to show respect to his brother-in-law in name.

Only after he and his wife divorced did he regret everything. With nowhere else to turn, he barged into Pei Shuyue's courtyard. Just as he was about to ask for help, he saw the wife he'd missed every day curled up in the arms of her noble, moonlit elder brother, letting him torment her.

Enraged, he swung at Pei Shuyue's face, only to see his wife's panic-stricken expression, her eyes full of concern for her elder brother and reproach for him.

A moon that seems to hang high in the heavens.

But is within reach, and willingly descends to the mortal world.

#Forbidden tension at first, then possessive pursuit.

Theme: May every wish be rewarded, and may joy know no end.