Scheming for a Wife

The first time Ming Xueji met Yuan Zhen, she was accompanying her husband, Ji Yanzong. By then, Ji Yanzong had placed first in the imperial exams and won the favor of Yuan Zhen, the all-powerful Prince of Zhenbei. At last, the impoverished couple had made it through. But before long, Ji Yanzong announced that he intended to take her younger half-sister as his secondary wife. He said, "You’ve always been so gracious. Surely you can make room in your heart for your own sister?" As her half-sister’s bridal sedan entered the household, Yuan Zhen summoned Ming Xueji to his inner chamber. He looked at her with a meaningful smile on his lips. "Would you like to take revenge for every humiliation you’ve suffered?" Ming Xueji looked at her ring finger. It had once borne the ring her mother left her. Now only an ugly scar remained. She had sold the ring to pay for Ji Yanzong’s studies. The scar was from the endless washing and cooking she had done through countless bitter winters. The flesh had rotted, and it would never heal. Ming Xueji no longer stopped Yuan Zhen’s hand as it reached for her skirt. ◆ Ji Yanzong noticed that Ming Xueji had become even more considerate than before. She personally arranged his new bridal chamber. Every night, she sent him to his half-sister’s room. For the sake of his future, she even kept up appearances with the Prince of Zhenbei. She loved him so much, Ji Yanzong thought, that perhaps he could spare her a little affection now and then. That was, until the day he knelt outside the Prince of Zhenbei’s residence to request an audience and caught the suspicious sound of murmuring from within. Peering through a crack in the door, Ji Yanzong saw the cherry-colored hem of his virtuous, well-mannered wife’s skirt, and a pair of bare feet beneath it. The marks of teeth were clearly visible. Content warnings: 1. A minister’s wife, coercive pursuit, and a reckoning for everyone 2. The male lead is a virgin; the female lead is not 3. The heroine and Ji were never formally married Coming soon: The Friend’s Wife The great general Huan Xuan rushed back from the frontier to see his dying friend one last time. They had been companions since childhood and shared a deep bond. His friend took his hand with a pale, trembling hand and gave him his final instructions, haltingly: "My betrothed has no one to rely on and is so pitiful. After I die, please take good care of her." Huan Xuan looked up and saw a woman with snow-white skin and dark hair hiding behind a curtain, her eyes swollen red from crying. Fu Yunwan had lived a lonely life. Her one good fortune was having a handsome, virtuous fiancé. She loved and respected him, and only wanted to marry him soon and spend her life by his side. But her fiancé died on the eve of their wedding. His friend, a murderous-looking great general, stood before her, his sharp gaze slowly roaming over her. Fu Yunwan shivered without meaning to. To be fair, Huan Xuan treated her very well. When her family rejected her, Huan Xuan personally arranged a place for her to stay. When rumors spread through the capital, Huan Xuan stepped in to silence them. Fu Yunwan knew she should be grateful, but she was afraid of him. His gaze always seemed to look right through her clothes, as if he could see everything. She avoided him every day and would only speak to him from behind a screen. But after one night, she had lost her innocence. Huan Xuan’s iron arms pinned her in place, leaving her no room to escape. "Why are you avoiding me? If he could do it, so can I." When Fu Yunwan had cried herself hoarse and was ready to accept her fate, her dead fiancé came back alive. The author's completed novels: After the Divorce, the Chancellor Regretted It: Old-school melodrama and a painful reckoning The Beloved in His Palm: Three lifetimes of entanglement / a painful reckoning / lovers turned enemies and back again How Could She Resist Her Alluring Charm: Scheming beauty / lovers turned enemies and back again After Being Cruelly Abandoned by the Cold Female Taoist: Cold female Taoist x reckless young playboy After Losing My Memory, I Saved the One Who Tried to Kill Me: Couple with secret identities / mutual healing Spoiled Love: Sweet, delicate heroine with an old-school feel Theme: Even women oppressed by the old world can transform themselves