Repenting Before the Bright Moon

*Sorry, this book is temporarily on hiatus. Not recommended for reading.

[The hero chases his wife to win her back; the second male lead takes the top spot]

Jiang Lanshu knows that she and her older sister are worlds apart. Her sister is the family's precious darling, while she is merely a lowly illegitimate daughter born to a servant.

Her sister and Shen Du, the eldest son of the Shen family, are deeply in love. Sadly, her life is cut short, and she dies before their wedding. Shen Du vows never to marry again, but the Jiang family can't bear to give up the chance to gain favor with the Shens. Since Jiang Lanshu's face bears a seven-tenths resemblance to her sister's, they send her to Shen Du, heedless of the fact that she is already betrothed.

Jiang Lanshu knows that Shen Du loves her sister deeply and wholeheartedly.

But she thinks that perhaps one day she'll warm his heart and he'll see the good in her.

Until the day she sees Shen Du holding his newly taken concubine and promising her tenderly, "She's nothing but a plaything who knows how to pander for affection. She thinks she can rise above her station just because she looks a little like A Ying. Why should you care about her? Hit her or scold her as you please. Just treat her like a lowly maid you can use to vent your frustrations."

Jiang Lanshu's heart turns completely cold.

That night, in the pouring rain, heavily pregnant, she escapes the little courtyard where she has been imprisoned. Pursued and cornered with nowhere to run, she can only cling to one faint hope and knock on the gate of the house next door.

The gate opens. A handsome, refined man stands there holding an umbrella. She grabs the tip of his boot without a second thought, tears in her eyes. "Sir, please save me."

Xiao Tangzhen freezes for a moment. He knows Jiang Lanshu doesn't remember him,

though they once had a marriage contract and were just one step away from becoming husband and wife.

*

When Shen Du hears that Jiang Lanshu has run away, he doesn't take it seriously.

She loves him so much. How could she bear to leave? She's just playing games to win his pity.

But he waits and waits, until the spring flowers bloom and fall again, and Jiang Lanshu still hasn't returned.

Shen Du completely panics.

Everyone says the eldest son of the Shen family has gone mad. For the sake of a lowly maid, he's nearly turned the entire capital upside down.

He can no longer find the girl who used to call him "Sir" so gently. Just as despair consumes him, he sees the face that haunts his dreams at the banquet celebrating the Imperial Uncle's wedding.

He hears that the Imperial Uncle was separated from his family in childhood and spent many years recovering in the countryside before finally returning to the capital and reuniting with his relatives. The Empress, moved by the hardships her elder brother has endured, personally asked the Emperor to grant him a marriage.

The bride raises a cup of wedding wine to him. He grabs Jiang Lanshu's hand like a madman, only for the guards to pin him to the ground in disgrace.

The refined, aloof young gentleman, dressed in wedding robes, shields Jiang Lanshu protectively. He looks at Shen Du as if he were an ant he could crush at will.

Shen Du's heart turns to ash. He watches helplessly as his A Shu smiles politely and says, each word like a blade piercing his heart and leaving him bleeding:

"Sir, you've mistaken me for someone else."

[Content warnings]

1. The second male lead is pure in both body and heart; Shen is not.

2. The heroine likes Shen at first. As a regret-and-reconciliation story, the early chapters inevitably include mistreatment of the heroine. Don't read if that bothers you.

3. There are hidden circumstances surrounding the male lead and the heroine's sister.

4. This is a fictional setting, so don't nitpick historical accuracy. There are original world-building details; everything serves the romance.

--Note from 2025.11.9

Theme: Fate brings people together