Taking Her Sister's Place as the Sickly Villain's Bride

[My new book, The Lady and the Scholar, is now being serialized next door.] In the book The Real and Fake Heiresses, the supporting female character is the fake heiress who was switched at birth. To repay her adoptive parents' kindness, she takes the real heiress's place and marries Lu Jichong, the Marquis of Jingyuan, who is gravely wounded and on the brink of death, in hopes of bringing him good fortune. Su Tao, who has become the fake heiress, gazes at the unconscious man on the bed with mixed feelings. She remembers that he doesn't have long to live in the book, and she has nowhere else to go, so she settles down to care for Lu Ji. She might as well do a good deed. But who could have guessed that Lu Ji would wake up and immediately call her his wife? The Marquis of Jingyuan, Lu Ji, is ruthless and notorious. When he falls unconscious, everyone celebrates and waits for him to breathe his last. What no one knows is that after falling unconscious, he possesses a jade pendant. He cannot speak, but he can see everything happening around him. So he watches the young woman who married him to bring him good fortune wash him every day, apply medicine to his wounds, and give him water. When everyone carries him out into the courtyard and waits for him to die, she brings him back inside with tear-reddened eyes and says to the unconscious man, "Come on, come home with me." After waking, Lu Ji gradually grows powerful, becoming the Marquis of Jingyuan, whose influence dominates the Great Qi court. But he never forgets the sight of her entering in her red wedding dress, or her words: "Come on, come home with me." He remembers those words for the rest of his life. I watched you from the darkness, while you walked toward me. My new book, The Lady and the Scholar, is now available: Pei Zhi was born into nobility, but her birth mother died young, and her stepmother raised her to be spoiled and overbearing. Later, her stepmother schemed to marry her off to the poor scholar Lu Hanzhou. Married life was far from happy. Lu Hanzhou was taciturn, while Pei Zhi had the temper of a spoiled young lady, and the two often argued. Everyone secretly laughed at Pei Zhi. But no one expected Lu Hanzhou to pass the highest imperial examination the following year, then rise rapidly through the ranks until he became a powerful minister. Everyone quickly changed their tune, saying Pei Zhi was lucky. But she didn't enjoy that good fortune for long before someone killed her. Pei Zhi unexpectedly lives again, but she is still destined to die young. The only way for her to live a long life is to find the person fate has chosen for her and make him fall in love with her. Later, Pei Zhi discovers that the person fate chose is Lu Hanzhou. In other words, she has to win Lu Hanzhou over and make him like her. Pei Zhi refuses. Looking at Lu Hanzhou in a scholar's robe of indigo so faded it was nearly white, Pei Zhi smiles. The future Lord Lu, who will wield power over the entire court, is now nothing but a down-and-out scholar. Everyone already says she's vicious and spoiled, so she might as well keep being vicious. Pei Zhi often bullies Lu Hanzhou, for example by scribbling all over the essays he has written for his teacher, or deliberately getting in his way. Lu Hanzhou never takes it to heart. He knows Pei Zhi has always been difficult, spoiled, and unreasonable. At most, she gives him a bit of a headache. So when Pei Zhi says she likes him, he doesn't believe her either. He assumes she's trying to torment him again. It is only later, when Pei Zhi leaves and says she doesn't like him anymore, that Lu Hanzhou realizes she is the only color in his dull life. He has loved her since long ago. Theme: Even in difficult circumstances, we should support one another.