After Falling for the Scheming Heir's Tricks

Blurb:

The heroine's story:

Jiang Qingruo is the legitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant in Yunzhou City. She is stunningly beautiful and comes from a rich family, but her love life has been anything but smooth since she came of age.

Circumstances changed, and one engagement after another fell through.

Just as she decided she had no intention of marrying and would be better off on her own, she attended a banquet at the prefect's residence, wandered into a guest room, and slept there for the night.

The next morning, she woke to find the playboy she had once hated, the heir to the prince's estate whose leg she would later cling to again and again, wearing nothing but a thin undergarment with his robe hanging open. He stared at her, his expression shifting unpredictably.

Jiang Qingruo: ?!!!

"Can we just pretend nothing happened?"

His expression was grave, his refusal absolute. "You and I must take responsibility for this."

The hero's story:

Pei Jin'an is the heir to the Prince of Zhenbei's estate. He is peerlessly handsome, a brave and skilled warrior, and an exceptional strategist.

To investigate the military governor's rebellion, he disguised himself as a playboy and spent his days drinking and carousing in Yunzhou.

He fooled all the other playboys, but somehow kept getting into trouble with one young woman, who frequently met him with a cold stare and sharp retort:

"If you're trying to scam me, I don't have a single tael of silver!"

"You shameless scoundrel!"

"But you're no gentleman."

...She had even hit him on the head and splashed water on him. The list of her misdeeds went on and on!

He was dignified, honorable, and magnanimous, so he wouldn't stoop to holding it against her.

Who knew an accident would leave them sharing a bed for one night, and that she would refuse to marry him?

With no other choice, he first laid out the pros and cons, then proposed a sham marriage.

A little scene:

One day after the new emperor ascended the throne, Pei Jin'an was busy with official business in his study when Jiang Qingruo thoughtfully brought him some nourishing soup. Then she suddenly asked, "Didn't we agree to a fake marriage back then? Why have you never brought up getting a divorce?"

Pei Jin'an narrowed his starry eyes without changing his expression.

They had already discussed how they were mutually in love and perfectly suited to each other. Why bring up the past again today?

As far as he was concerned, he had fallen in love at first sight. There had never been any fake marriage.

Note: A slow burn, beginning with their first meeting. The events in the blurb come later.

A Good Match: A Day-to-Day Romance

He Jinyuan, the Duke's eldest legitimate grandson, was handsome and brilliant. But an accident left him blind, and he acquired a reputation for bringing bad luck to his wives.

When his marriage could no longer be put off, the family arranged for him to marry the daughter of a seventh-rank official, Jiang.

Jiang Yi'an, the Jiang family's legitimate daughter, had grown up in the countryside slaughtering pigs and selling meat. At eighteen, she was still unmarried.

The Duke's household's "windfall" landed right in her lap.

As she prepared to marry into a much higher station, she sat in the main hall with one leg crossed over the other and a pig-killing knife in hand, smiling as she negotiated her dowry with her father and stepmother.

On the night she first met her husband, the man had a black satin ribbon over his eyes and a gloomy expression. He had no intention of consummating the marriage.

"I, He, am ill-suited to take a wife. I'm sorry to drag you into this. If you agree, we can part ways after three years. I'll compensate you then."

Jiang Yi'an smiled brightly at him.

What did he mean, ill-suited for marriage? Once they were married, he was her husband. She was tough enough that he couldn't bring her bad luck!

On their wedding night, she put her recent lessons from an illustrated erotic manual to use, climbed onto the bed, and consummated the marriage with him.

The Duke's household was large and complicated. Though Jiang Madam was the eldest son's wife, she had suffered plenty at the hands of her mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and husband, the heir.

After her son was blinded in an accident, she dragged her sick body through prayers and vegetarian offerings, begging the gods to protect him. No one knew how many times she had cried in secret.

At last, her son successfully married. But his bride had come into the household carrying a gleaming pig-killing knife!

With such a fierce daughter-in-law, how could her son possibly have a good life?

Jiang Madam hid in her room and wept quietly, swallowing all her tears.

Everyone thought that the Duke's eldest legitimate grandson had lost his sight, had no hope of inheriting the title or pursuing a career in government, and had married the daughter of a minor official who had grown up in the countryside. They thought that was all his life would amount to.

But within three years of their marriage, He Jinyuan had passed the highest imperial examination, driven back the enemy on the battlefield, earned promotions and titles, and made outstanding achievements. As for his damaged eyes, they had long since recovered.

Meanwhile, Jiang Madam, who had always been timid and meek, now stood tall, radiant and completely recovered from her illness. Her sisters-in-law treated her with deference, and the Duke himself valued her greatly!

Her son was renowned, the household ran smoothly, and everyone praised her good fortune and skill in managing the family.

But only Jiang Madam knew that none of it would have happened if her daughter-in-law hadn't walked into the household with a pig-killing knife!

A little scene:

At a palace banquet, the noble young ladies of the capital finally got a look at the Duke's eldest grandson's wife.

They had assumed she would be a plain, ignorant, uncultured country girl who had gotten lucky by marrying into the Duke's household. Surely Lord He, now a powerful official, couldn't really love her.

But the woman who emerged from the hall was spirited and radiant, beautiful as a flower, articulate, and graceful in every move.

And Lord He, handsome, reserved, and dignified, gazed at his wife with deep affection, his eyes holding no one but her.

Brave and clever, an earnest little ray of sunshine * A proper gentleman, a gloomy iceberg

Notes:

1. Fictional setting.

2. Marriage before love, family life, sweet romance.

Theme: Grow against the wind and keep moving forward.