Climbing the Social Ladder

Shen Wan had always known that marrying Lu Yanqing was marrying above her station.

Lu Yanqing was born into nobility, dazzling and peerless, the youngest top scholar in the dynasty, with a brilliant future ahead of him.

She was merely the daughter of a humble merchant, timid and cowardly, with nothing but a pretty face.

If someone hadn't schemed against him, Lu Yanqing would never have married her.

Life in the Lu household was like walking on thin ice. Her mother-in-law made things difficult for her, her husband despised her, and even the servants never treated her with respect.

But Shen Wan had no other choice.

She didn't dare offend the Lu family, least of all Lu Yanqing.

The day she learned she was pregnant, Shen Wan wept with joy.

She thought that having a child might make Lu Yanqing like her just a little more.

But she never expected this.

In front of everyone, Lu Yanqing stared at her with a gaze cold as frost, as if she were already dead.

He didn't remember sharing a room with Shen Wan that night, or that he'd been drinking.

Lu Yanqing thought the child... belonged to another man.

He had someone bring Shen Wan a bowl of abortion medicine and a letter of divorce.

-

When Lu Yanqing first learned that Shen Wan had fallen off a cliff, he was unmoved.

A shameless merchant's daughter like her wasn't worth mourning, even if she was dead.

Until he accompanied the emperor on a tour of the south and met a local magistrate.

Everyone in the area knew that five years ago, the magistrate had found his true love. The husband and wife lived in perfect harmony, devoted to each other, and envied by all.

The robe and shoes the magistrate wore had been sewn by his wife, stitch by stitch.

On a misty, rainy day, Lu Yanqing saw the magistrate's wife for the first time.

Her face was exactly like Shen Wan's.

She held her new husband's hand, her eyes full of a tender affection Lu Yanqing had never seen before.

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[The Ex-Wife-Chasing Crematorium / Double Substitutes]

After her twin sister died unexpectedly, Ruan Yan took her elder sister's place and married into the Song family.

She knew Song Mingyu loved her sister deeply. They had been childhood sweethearts, bound by an unbreakable love.

On their wedding night, Song Mingyu didn't even lift Ruan Yan's red bridal veil. He left the city alone and sat at her sister's grave all night, leaving Ruan Yan to spend the night alone in their bridal chamber.

"The only woman I'll ever take as my wife is your elder sister."

Song Mingyu thought he'd made himself perfectly clear, but whenever he met Ruan Yan's gaze, he could still discern the deep affection and love in her eyes.

Ruan Yan liked him.

That was an undeniable fact.

She would kneel in the temple day and night, praying for Song Mingyu's safety.

She would even brave the snowstorm to leave the city and meet him.

Only later did Song Mingyu learn that Ruan Yan's prayers in the temple hadn't been for him. They were for the man whose face resembled his younger brother's.

His younger brother had "died" on the battlefield three years ago.

Three months after Song Mingyu got married, he returned to the capital.

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Halfway through the palace banquet, the crown prince used changing clothes as an excuse to step out for some air.

Through the rain and mist, someone stood in the waterside pavilion, drenched and disheveled.

The palace attendants said she was Wen Sui, the new top scholar's wife. She should have been living in splendor, but the scholar had given up his new bride for the woman he loved, leaving her alone in the pavilion, hiding her face as she wept.

How pitiful.

The crown prince sneered.

He had someone bring her an oil-paper umbrella.

-

Wen Sui was the daughter of the crown prince's tutor. She had been meek since childhood, and after marriage she dutifully served her parents-in-law for half a year, only to be called "pedantic and dull" by her husband.

She knew she wasn't very likable, and she knew her husband loved someone else.

But Wen Sui had no other choice.

From childhood, she'd been taught the virtues and admonitions for women. She had learned the Three Obediences and Four Virtues: obey your father before marriage, your husband after marriage, and your son after your husband's death.

At that palace banquet, her husband suspected her of harming the woman he loved. In a fit of anger, he shoved her into the rain and walked away.

At her most wretched moment, someone brought her an oil-paper umbrella.

Wen Sui thought she'd met a good person.

Only later did she learn that beneath that person's kindly face lurked a beastly heart.

Another palace banquet.

The rain poured down as the new top scholar knelt outside the Eastern Palace, shivering with cold.

Inside the hall, the hibiscus curtains were warm, and the storm had passed.

The crown prince's expression was gentle as he asked, though he already knew the answer:

"...Sui Sui, should I let him come in out of the rain?"

Wen Sui clutched her slightly rounded belly and could only sob.

Theme: Love life