Marrying in His Brother's Stead

[Opening at 300 favorites] During the Shangyuan Lantern Festival, the lanterns shone like daylight, and they met at first sight. The young general Lu Xingzhao galloped through the streets and stopped a spooked carriage for Shen Miaoyin, the daughter of a minor official. Dressed in fine clothes and riding a fine horse, he was full of youthful confidence. When he lowered his eyes and saw her, her dimples were faintly visible, her brows and eyes smiling. All the lanterns in the street seemed to dim. The next day, Lu Xingzhao disregarded the vast gulf in their social standing and sent a matchmaker to her home. The Shen family happily agreed to the marriage. But as the wedding date drew near, her fiancé grew more and more withdrawn, saying only that war was about to break out at the border and he was weighed down with worries. She understood and didn't press him. Until their wedding night. The red candles blazed, and the bridal veil was lifted. She looked up and saw the exact same face, but met a pair of eyes like moonlight reflected in a cold pool. He held the nuptial wine, standing close enough to touch. His voice was cool and distant, like a judge reading a case file. "Now that you've married into this family, you'll have to follow all the proper rules from here on out." * Shen Miaoyin thought her husband had changed completely. She went to great lengths to please her cold-faced husband, learning to cook for him and grinding ink and tending the incense for him. She tried everything she could before finally sharing his bed. Then one day, news of victory arrived from the border. Her real fiancé, the young general Lu Xingzhao, who had narrowly escaped death, was about to return to the capital. Shen Miaoyin was locked in a dark room. The person responsible was none other than the husband she had spent every day and night beside: Lu Xingzhou, Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. In the dark room, a hand accustomed to holding a brush stroked her cheek. The touch was feather-light, yet it sent a chill through her whole body. "I fulfilled his duties as a husband for three years. I served you morning and evening, and we treated each other with respect. Was any of that not sincere? Now that he's back, you want to leave?" "That's not how this works." The refined and upright scholar Lu Xingzhou, Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, spent his life administering justice, overseeing prisons, and solving unsolved cases. He considered himself a man of fairness and integrity. The only wrong thing he ever did was this: his younger brother was urgently sent to the border before his bride had even entered the family. Their mother knelt before him and said that the Lu family could not let its lineage die out, asking him to take his brother's place and marry the woman instead. He thought it would be nothing more than a charade to appease his mother. A woman was just a woman. He could keep her in the household. But on their wedding night, with flower shadows wavering and red candles glowing, his new bride looked up timidly and softly called him, "Husband." He tightened the hand around her waist, until he realized things were gradually slipping out of control. On a stormy night, she instinctively burrowed into his arms. Her bright eyes were like water, her gaze timid and shy. Still trembling from the thunder, she pressed herself against his heart... In that moment, Lu Xingzhou thought: If only his younger brother had died at the border. Reading guide: * A delicate, gentle flower of a heroine vs. a cold, calculating, deranged older brother vs. a passionate, sincere younger brother * Deceptive marriage + taking by force + twin brothers competing for the heroine. Both men are virgins and completely pure in body and heart; they love only the heroine * Set in an imagined late Ming era. No historical fact-checking Theme: Striving for a happy and harmonious life.