After I Became a Blind Prince's Substitute Bride

Jiang Mo is the daughter of a seventh-rank official in the Ministry of Works. She is beautiful, gentle, and quiet.

Because she looks remarkably like the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Qing, she is forced to take her place and marry the blind Prince Yu.

Prince Yu is tall and straight as a pine, with a face as handsome as jade. He is a master of both letters and arms and was the obvious choice for heir to the throne. Unfortunately, he returned from a military campaign blind. Worse, the formerly mild-mannered gentleman became sensitive, quick-tempered, and unpredictable.

After marrying him, Jiang Mo served him carefully and acted with the utmost caution, hoping only to keep herself and her father alive.

Then Prince Yu’s eyesight recovered, and word spread that the emperor intended to make him crown prince. The Duke of Qing threatened Jiang Mo’s father’s life, demanding she “return” the title of princess consort.

Jiang Mo had wanted to leave for a long time. She agreed at once and took her father far from the capital that very night, settling in Jiangnan to live a quiet life.

A month passed. In Jiangnan, May brought gentle breezes and fine rain. Jiang Mo hummed as she tended the orchids in her courtyard, enjoying the peaceful life. But the moment she turned around, her smile froze, and she instinctively stepped back.

Prince Yu stood before her, his eyes bloodshot, shock mingling with tenderness and pain. He fixed his gaze on her, his body trembling slightly as he took one step after another toward her...

The man who reached out and took her hand in the darkness could be blind, and still remember who she was.

1v1, alternate universe. (Synopsis dated March 24, 2022)

[Coming Soon: Burning Frost to Ashes]

When Xia Ran fell from the envy of all as the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Dingbei to the Music and Dance Bureau, she thought her life could get no worse. She was wrong. It was only the beginning...

A large hand closed tightly around her slender neck. The man before her was as cold and fearsome as a demon. “You caused the deaths of all three members of the Jiang family. You’ll never escape me in this life.”

The evidence was overwhelming, and Xia Ran had no way to defend herself. All she could do was endure Zhou Yan’s hatred, expressed through his need to control her.

Shunned by the old hands at the Music and Dance Bureau, Xia Ran washed clothes with reddened hands in the bitter winter cold. Someone kicked over her wooden tub, and the silver that made everyone’s eyes burn landed heavily before her. The man looked down at her from on high, his thin lips parting. “Beg me.”

When she was pushed into a river, Zhou Yan rescued her too, wrapping her in his cloak with furious force. “You think you can choose to die?”

Xia Ran understood that Zhou Yan hated her and was determined to keep her firmly in his grasp. Even on the day she resolved to put herself up for hire, he seized her first.

That night, the red curtains billowed. For the first time, Xia Ran shed tears, not knowing that they fell, burning hot, into Zhou Yan’s heart.

Something seemed to have quietly taken root long ago in the frozen earth of a heart blinded by hatred.

Zhou Yan had thought he would hate Xia Ran forever. He never imagined that one day he would willingly shield her from every harm, cut down everyone who had ever humiliated her, and place the empress’s throne before her, pleading in a hoarse voice...

The frost burns away, and spring blooms; Ran Ran’s verdant beauty shines beneath the sun.

This is probably a story of love born from hatred.

[Coming Soon: The Eastern Palace Maid]

Xin’er had barely entered the palace when the Empress Dowager died. Her matron sent her to keep watch outside the mourning hall.

Clouds covered the moon, and a cold wind howled. She trembled with fear. When she saw someone coming, she assumed it was a young eunuch there to stand watch too. She grabbed the sleeve of his mourning robe and said bravely, “You look so heroic, Eunuch. You must have plenty of yang energy. Could you keep watch with me?” Reluctantly, she fished some silver out of her robe. “How about one tael for the night?”

Eunuchs probably didn’t have much yang energy, but two people were better than one. Xin’er figured she could make do.

She ended up making do for seven whole days. When the mourning rites were over, the Eastern Palace specifically asked for her.

Everyone knew the crown prince was a man of exceptional talent and a cold disposition who hated having people near him. The Eastern Palace was always solemn and orderly, and no one dared make the slightest mistake.

The first time Xin’er helped the crown prince change, she didn’t dare look up. The more nervous she got, the more her hands shook, until she tied the sash in a knot she couldn’t undo. Just as she thought her life was over, a pair of long-fingered hands covered hers.

Xin’er dropped to her knees to beg forgiveness, but when she glanced at the bronze mirror beside her, she froze.

How could the tall, imposing man in the dragon robe look exactly like the young eunuch who had kept watch with her?

Thinking of what she had done to the “young eunuch” over those seven days, Xin’er wanted to bash her head against the floor.

She had planned to be a quiet little quail and keep her distance, but the lofty crown prince insisted she attend him at all times.

The tea couldn’t be too hot or too cold. The pastries had to be neither square nor round. In the end, Xin’er had to eat them all herself.

She stayed up reading with him until the night dew grew heavy, grinding ink, lighting lamps, fanning him, and burning incense. She even had to warm his bed, then curl up on his rosewood bed. How could she possibly sleep?

He really was going to torment her.

The palace attendants all waited to see when Xin’er would be thrown out of the Eastern Palace.

They waited and waited, until the usually composed and self-controlled crown prince lost all restraint and rushed into Consort Xian’s palace. Ignoring everyone who tried to stop him, he carried Xin’er, who had fainted after being made to kneel, back to his chambers.

After that, the crown prince broke his rules again and again for the little palace maid who was more timid than a kitten.

Xin’er always thought it was the “young eunuch” who had spent those unbearable seven days with her. Only after she became empress did she learn that those seven days had been the most stifling and miserable of his life too.

Where ten thousand lanterns go dark, you bring me a palmful of light.

[Coming Soon: I Want Both Her and the Empire]

Wang Shuyi had spent fifteen years being the perfect prospective crown princess.

She never showed her feet when she walked, never showed her teeth when she smiled, and even the depth of her breathing seemed measured by palace rules.

The blizzard on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month was the one time she ever broke character.

An abandoned mountain temple, leftover wine laced with drugs, and the Sixth Prince, Ning Yi, who drank it with her.

Her breath was scalding, but his was even hotter. His voice was hoarse and his eyes red as he said, “Miss Wang, save me.”

Wang Shuyi couldn’t say whether she was saving him or herself.

She only remembered the wild night. When she came to her senses, she dismissed what had happened at the mountain temple as an accident. Afterward, she remained the dignified, self-possessed granddaughter of the Grand Tutor, the future empress.

When the new emperor ascended the throne, she became the empress, mother of the realm, just as she had hoped.

At a night banquet, the emperor grew angry at a minister’s remonstrance and drove a sword into his chest. Everyone fled in panic. Wang Shuyi was being escorted away by palace maids when she found herself trapped behind a crumbling wall.

In a blood-soaked winter, a man walked toward her from the end of the covered walkway. Behind him, attendants carried the emperor, who had lost his senses. Ning Yi, too, had been drinking at the banquet, but now his eyes were frighteningly clear as he cornered her.

“Sister-in-law.” His breath burned against her ear. He looked at her frightened eyes and brought up the past. “Save me one more time?”

She quelled the storm raging inside her, put on a calm front, and coldly pushed Ning Yi away as he nearly pressed against her chest. “Please show some respect, Your Highness.”

Ning Yi watched her walk away, his heart burning. When he saw the two of them seated side by side on the dragon throne, something he had once found utterly uninteresting suddenly became unbearable to look at.

Later, Ning Yi overthrew the tyranny and seized the throne. He fought his way through a mountain of corpses into the inner palace and pulled Wang Shuyi back from the brink of death, holding her tight in his arms.

In this life, she would never push him away again.

Theme: Do good, and good will come to you.