After I Flirted with My Husband's Legal Wife

[Complete] Ming Yu transmigrates, only to be given away as a concubine to the powerful Marquis of Zhenwu by her awful birth father. Ming Yu figures she's come out ahead: the marquis is young and handsome, and his household is full of women of every kind of beauty. What's more, she hears that the marquis's wife is a sweet, frail, kind-hearted woman who is out of favor and keeps a low profile behind a veil, as if she were disfigured. Going by the usual rules of household intrigue, she surely won't last three years. Ming Yu rubs her hands together, ready to scheme her way to the top. Then she'll have all the marquis's lovely concubines put on a group performance of "The Moon's Reflection on the Second Spring." Wouldn't it be delightful to have them play, sing, and perform? On her second day in the household, Ming Yu runs into the principal wife being mocked by a concubine in the garden. She heads over with interest, ready to enjoy the show, only to see the concubine, enraged, yank the veil from the sweet woman's face, revealing features so exquisite they seem otherworldly. Ming Yu, the looks-obsessed, black-hearted lotus: !!! #Sis! Give me a chance to be your girlfriend!# A scheming green tea sets up an innocent legal wife? Ming Yu jumps in and delivers a round of face-slapping: No one gets to bully my beautiful-as-a-fairy big sister! The Marquis of Zhenwu dotes on his concubines, neglects his wife, and won't give her the time of day? Ming Yu sneaks over late at night to comfort her: Sis! That dog of a marquis doesn't deserve a face as beautiful as yours! The sweet-faced principal wife coolly asks Ming Yu what she's after? Ming Yu confesses on the spot: Sis, if you're happy, I'm happy. Even when Cen Guilan returns to his true identity and stands before Ming Yu, she keeps showering him with exaggerated praise: Sis! You look so handsome and charming dressed as a man! #Wait, you're really a man?# #Holy crap, you gave birth to him# The male lead's version: Cen Guilan, head of the Imperial Guard and the emperor's closest confidant. He'll do whatever it takes to get the job done, and if it works, it's a good plan. So he disguises himself as the Marquis of Zhenwu's wife and gets close to the households of court officials to gather intelligence more easily. It's a great trick and it works like a charm. After all, if you put on a veil and lie down in someone else's household, no one would guess you were the renowned head of the Imperial Guard. Until the day his household schemes go disastrously wrong and someone accidentally pulls off his veil... #I thought I was already weird, but who knew someone could be weirder than me?# #It'd be such a shame not to marry someone this weird# [Reading Guide] 1. The male lead disguises himself as a woman. The female lead is ruthless and black-hearted, the sort who can make herself cry! 2. I don't want people to get the wrong idea, so let me emphasize that the Marquis of Zhenwu has no emotional or physical relationship with either lead. 3. It's actually a silly comedy, with a bickering couple dynamic. Written for my own enjoyment. 4. This blurb is provisional. The first version was finalized on January 4, 2021, and the male lead's character was changed on July 10, 2021. 5. The setting is fictional. The official system is roughly based on the Ming dynasty, but there are plenty of alterations. Please don't nitpick the details, or this author may have so many plot holes that you'll die of frustration. 6. I'm practicing characterization and storytelling. I recommend taking a step back and reading from an omniscient perspective. Both leads have their share of bad luck. 7. The male lead is NOT short!!!! (shouting) Check out my upcoming novel, "After Transmigrating as the Useless Legitimate Daughter." You can find it in my author profile. Here's the blurb: The Mingde Marquis's family has been loyal and virtuous for generations, and has long been connected to the imperial family by marriage. They're known as a factory for producing empresses. But in this generation, something went wrong with the household's only legitimate daughter. She's neither virtuous nor proper. She prefers to stay home, is bad at needlework and embroidery, knows nothing of the Confucian classics or the Four Books, and has no interest in socializing. Even her looks only rank somewhere in the middle among the noble young ladies. She'd have to wait in line for days just to qualify as a "vase." How could she possibly become empress like that? So, after all the family friends and elders spent three days discussing it, a tutor arrived at the marquis's estate, determined to teach this rebellious girl to become a suitable empress. Xie Yunqi is caught completely off guard when she's handed an empress-training plan: "What? I haven't even finished drawing the design for my catapult!" Theme: Pursue independence and freedom, and always stay true to yourself