How Dare You, I Am Your Father's Secondary Wife

Expected to start in August 2026. (Already drafting.)

[Forced Love + The Crematorium]

Qingshu entered the palace at thirteen. At last, the late emperor died, and by custom she was to go live out her widowhood in a temple. Though life there would be hard, at least she could live in peace.

But the new emperor was Xiao Heng.

The obscure son of a concubine whom she had humiliated in their youth, forcing him to kneel on the ice to beg for carp.

Now he had ascended the throne over mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Every day, Qingshu knelt before the spirit tablet, weeping and begging the late emperor to appear in his son’s dreams and tell him not to kill her.

Perhaps the late emperor’s spirit answered her prayers, for someone pleaded with the new emperor to show mercy.

The new emperor really did make an exception.

But this act of mercy meant that everyone who was supposed to be buried with the emperor could live, while she alone was sentenced to die by poison.

Qingshu: “...”

*

After drinking the poison, her only regret was that she would never see the young man she secretly loved pass the imperial examinations and achieve greatness.

But when she opened her eyes again, it wasn’t the King of Hell coming for her. It was Xiao Heng.

Candlelight flickered. He reeked of wine, and casually poured the fine liquor in his cup over her hair.

Knowing she could not escape death, she begged forgiveness through her tears.

“How is death any worse than making your stepmother my slave, day and night?”

In the next instant, he seized her ankle and pulled off her silk stocking. As she struggled, the chains around her wrists clinked sharply.

Every night at midnight, the sound of silk tearing mingled with her furious curses: “Your father’s body is barely cold, and you dare defy all morality! You’ll die a terrible death!”

Xiao Heng took the dagger she had hidden and pressed his burning breath to her temple. “Now that Mother is dead, wouldn’t that be far too easy for her?”

“It’s only right that a hundred years from now, she kneel before Father in the underworld and beg forgiveness.”

His hand tightened around her ankle.

*

Qingshu had never wanted to be humiliated day and night by the son of a concubine she once tormented.

Fortunately, Xiao Heng’s former beloved returned, and Qingshu seized the chance to escape.

She changed her name and made a living at an embroidery shop. She even reunited with the young man she had secretly loved and became engaged to him.

On her wedding day, she waited in the bridal chamber. She sighed with gratitude that the gods and Buddhas had taken pity on her, and that she could finally live in peace.

But the wedding feast took a sudden turn.

The estate was surrounded, and the groom was bound.

The emperor lifted her veil, his eyes cold as he sliced through her bridal robes with his sword. “A wife must follow her father, then her husband, then her son. Even now, does my stepmother still not understand?”

But she unexpectedly moved to meet the point of his sword.

The emperor, who had fought his way to the throne on the battlefield, felt his sword hand tremble with panic for the first time in his life.

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. There are misunderstandings, but no sad endings.

2. Forced love, fake familial relationship, the crematorium. The leads are not related by blood.

3. Melodramatic, old-school style.

4. The heroine once fell for the second male lead.

Theme: Freedom in marriage, and a love that can overcome any obstacle.