After Marrying the Ailing Regent in My Sister's Place

SC, 1v1, happy ending. The complete novel costs just one cup of Mixue. Writing is hard, so please support the official release.

Delicate fangirl × sinister yandere

Blurb:

When Jiang Li opened her eyes again, she had returned to the age of seventeen.

Everyone in the Southern Dynasty knew Jiang Rou, the eldest legitimate daughter of the chief minister and a celebrated beauty in the capital. No one knew Jiang Li.

The top scholar, once riding high on the spring breeze, fell from his horse while hunting and plunged off a cliff. In an instant, the cool, noble young man became a cripple despised by all. His future bride, Jiang Rou, the talented beauty of the capital, naturally refused to marry him.

Now Jiang Li was to take her place as the substitute bride.

In her previous life, she had been sent away to a country estate, where she lived longer than anyone else. Only historical records and classic texts kept her company.

The name she read most often was Gu Ting.

He had been the light that kept her company through the darkness of the latter half of her life, and he was her faith. She couldn't bear to watch him sink into despair at a time like this.

Now she had the good fortune to become his wife.

Who would be foolish enough to turn him down?

On their wedding night, the red candles flickered. Blushing, she gazed at him with tender admiration and softly called him her husband.

The man in his wedding robes ignored her. His eyes were cold, his face full of contempt. He only told her to collect a letter of divorce and go home the next day.

Her husband only thought she was Jiang Rou. It was Jiang Rou he hated, not her, Jiang Li. She wasn't heartbroken.

With enough dedication, she could surely thaw his heart.

▼

As time passed, Jiang Li realized that he truly didn't like her. She only hoped that the Prince Regent would recover from his leg injury, just as the historical records later said he would, so she could leave once her task was done.

Who could have guessed that just as she walked out of the mansion, the man, who had hurried over after receiving the news, would block her in a dim, narrow alley?

Gu Ting wrapped an arm around the woman's slender waist, his fingers gently rubbing the ties of her bundle. With his other hand, he pinned her between himself and the wall. He lowered his head and stared at the flustered Jiang Li, his eyes turning bloodshot, his expression shifting between light and dark. His voice was low and hoarse. “A Li, you've packed your things. Where are you going?”

Jiang Li looked up in shock. When did he figure out who I was?!

Bonus scenes:

1. No one knew that the man, his legs healed and his heart darker and more ruthless than before, lowered his head in front of his own wife, his eyes brimming with the desolation of being abandoned.

“Ever since we had a child, all you see is the child, A Li. Is there no room for your husband at all?”

2. At the palace's year-end banquet, with all the officials watching, the usually cold and dignified Prince Regent held his beauty around the waist with one arm and fed her a bright red cherry, his face brimming with affection.

“How does it taste, my wife?”

Content warnings:

[The premise is an old-school, melodramatic substitute-bride trope, with some dramatic little misunderstandings too. The overall tone is sweet in the beginning, with a little angst later on, but it won't get into hzc.]

It's not pure, sugary fluff, but at heart, it's still a sweet romance (speaking loudly).

P.S. To avoid confusion, the male lead is the Minister of Justice early on. The Prince Regent mentioned in the title and blurb is a later development.

Upcoming story blurb ▼

Everyone in Shengjing knows that Lady Gu Yao and her husband, Marquis of Lin'an Xie Yu, are on bad terms, all appearance and no affection.

People assumed they would separate within three years, but then Lady Gu fell from her horse while hunting and injured her head.

When she woke, her cheeks were flushed, and she shyly turned to the Marquis of Lin'an beside her and called him her husband.

Her voice was sweet and tender, brimming with affection. Everyone present was so shocked they nearly lost their sight.

Gu Yao had forgotten the past and remembered only that she had a loving husband with whom she shared complete trust. But her husband used her injury as an excuse to reject her at every turn. Even when she put on the sheer garments worn by the fox spirits in the stories, he still remained unmoved.

The two had already drafted a divorce agreement, and Xie Yu had promised that they would separate after three years on the grounds that they had no children.

At first, Xie Yu was at his wits' end with Gu Yao, who had injured her head and forgotten their past.

He could handle military campaigns and political treatises with ease, but he was utterly helpless with a woman who loved to cry and put on a show. His best strategy was to avoid her.

But he never expected that his wife after losing her memory would be... so sweet and soft.

He'd miscalculated.

▼

And then...

He ran, she chased, and neither could escape.

Sweet, playful actress × seemingly gentle but secretly ruthless powerful official

Upcoming story: Every Time, I Die in the Villain's Arms

Jiang Ruan stayed up all night reading an old-school tragic romance.

When the male lead in the book finally eliminated his rivals, overcame every hardship, and joined hands with the heroine to unify the Central Plains, everyone else was howling in the comments for the author to add some sweet moments. She was the only one who felt differently.

It was because she genuinely felt sorry for the villain tyrant. On the eve of the ending, his country had fallen and enemy armies stood at the gates, yet he still didn't furrow his brow.

The villain was frighteningly clever, handsome and cold, and so celibate he made her scream!

Out of love and pity for this fictional character, she immediately flooded the comments with angry criticism:

“According to the character setup, everything the villain does is clearly for the good of the country and its people. Fine, let the chancellor keep him in check and make the people call him a tyrant, but his desert kingdom is clearly the strongest on the whole map. How can his country fall for such a ridiculous reason? Even political scheming that a child could see through shouldn't be this absurd, Author!! Do you even respect your own character setup?!!!”

Then she transmigrated,

into the body of an invisible little palace maid in the laundry bureau.

And at that point, the tyrant was still the disgraced crown prince, confined to the cold palace

Taking advantage of her laundry deliveries, she went to the cold palace. The villain before her was tiny as a bean. When he saw the clean clothes she had brought, his eyes were full of suspicion. He said coldly, “Get out.”

Jiang Ruan watched him and thought, as expected of one of the protagonists. He was only thirteen and already this cold. His future looked very promising.

Then she used her advantage of already knowing the story:

The first time, she drank the poisoned wine the empress had sent him, and died in the villain's arms.

The second time, she transmigrated into the body of the chief eunuch. By then, the villain had already ascended the throne. She exposed the spies the original male lead had planted for him, but one of the traitors struck her so hard that her heart meridians shattered. Once again, she died in the villain's arms.

The third time...

By the fourth time she transmigrated, Jiang Ruan looked at the wedding hall before her, then at the girl in a phoenix crown and wedding robes reflected in the bronze mirror, utterly baffled.

The villain who lifted her bridal veil was gloomy-faced and no longer the tiny boy from her first transmigration.

He effortlessly pinned the petite girl onto the bed. Beneath his hand was her slender waist, so delicate it could be encircled in one grip. Pressed against her ear, the villain whispered the most terrifying words of love as they brushed cheek to cheek:

“If you dare die one more time, I will have the whole world buried with you.”

Theme: Only by standing on your own can you find love.