A Mistaken Marriage, a Red-Eyed Bride

(I couldn't write the original trope, so I changed it!)

As the only daughter of a wealthy family in Qianjiang, Guan Jingshu lost her mother when she was young. Her father struggled for years to shield her from life's hardships, but when she was eighteen, he fell gravely ill and took to his bed.

Her relatives were all waiting to swoop in and seize the family fortune. Just as she was in a panic, her betrothed, to whom she had been engaged since childhood, happened to flee to Qianjiang and seek refuge with her.

She looked him over. He had sharp brows and bright eyes, broad shoulders and a slim waist. Having fled in such a sorry state, his handsome face wore just the right touch of vulnerability and helplessness.

The crybaby who had given her such a headache back then had grown into a man she couldn't take her eyes off. She made her decision on the spot.

"Become my live-in son-in-law! Or we can get married here, and once I have a son, we can divorce. The boy will stay with me, and I'll give you two hundred thousand taels."

She'd already got him right there in front of her. She might as well sleep with him.

Gu Xu: Am I seeing things? Is someone offering two hundred thousand taels to sleep with me?

As the Crown Prince's cousin and heir to the Duke of Dingguo's household, Gu Xu was sent to Qianjiang with a secret order to investigate a case. He needed a respectable identity that would let him travel around freely, so he assumed the identity of Yang Chen, the son of a traitorous adviser from the Crown Prince's residence, and went to find Yang Chen's fiancée under the pretense of attending a funeral.

They said Yang Chen's fiancée came from a merchant family, was shallow and greedy, and would surely look down on Yang Chen now that he had fallen on hard times and was fleeing for his life.

Gu Xu assumed their meeting would be nothing more than a formality. His fiancée would "throw him out," and he could then move around Qianjiang freely under the identity of Yang Chen.

He never expected Yang Chen's fiancée to be so bold!

He should have firmly refused, but she wept before him, her tears like pear blossoms in the rain, and told him her relatives were all eyeing her family. They were just waiting for her father to die so they could carve up the Guan family's estate, and she had no idea what sort of hideous man she might be forced to marry...

She wept with such pain and despair, her exquisite face full of helplessness, so touching and pitiful. Her watery eyes looked at him with such hope, as if he were her salvation. Gu Xu's head went hot, and he agreed.

At first, he thought he would help her sort out the Guan family's affairs once he had finished his own business.

But when he was done, he turned around to find that his "dying" father-in-law had suddenly recovered, and his "frail" wife had put a stop to all the troublemakers in the Guan family.

Later, a letter from the capital urged him to return. He planned to bring his wife with him, but at the same time he received one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news: His wife was pregnant.

The bad news: She wanted a divorce.

"Yang Chen, you should go. I know your heart isn't here. I don't want to be a cage holding you back." His considerate wife spoke with red-rimmed eyes, putting on an air of deep reluctance.

Gu Xu gritted his teeth in anger. "I'm not Yang Chen! And you can forget about divorcing me."

Guan Jingshu looked shocked and began to weep again, tears like pear blossoms in the rain. "My husband even lied about his name, sob... I want a divorce..."

Gu Xu: "..."

What terrible acting. How had he failed to see through it back then?

His cousin, the Crown Prince, gave his verdict: "What else could it be? You fell for her looks."

A flirtatious, "frail," scheming beauty x an heir who seems aloof and untouchable but is actually easy to lure in

Theme: Before loving someone else, learn to love yourself.