Stealing the Oriole

On the seventh night after her husband's death, Xue Zhiying was sadly drinking by herself when he came silently into her room.

She looked up, utterly stunned. But in an instant, her longing overwhelmed her. Unable to stop and ask questions, Zhiying was already weeping as she nestled aggrievedly into the man's arms, breathing in the scent so much like her husband's and murmuring in his ear, "I've missed you so much."

Xue Zhiying cautiously kissed the man's cheek, then drew the bed curtains closed in the silent night.

She had meant to share a few tender words, but the man gripped her slender waist without a word, and fiercely stole the breath from her. His bite hurt, yet she felt so happy.

Her husband had really come back.

Trembling, she left a damp bite mark on her husband's wrist.

She really did love her husband so much...

*

The next day, her husband was gone from her bedside.

Her husband had always been busy. Xue Zhiying silently applied medicine to her bitten lips, then covered the improper marks on her skin with powder. Putting aside her disappointment for the moment, she went as usual to pay her respects to her mother-in-law.

She was just about to tell her mother-in-law the happy news that her husband had returned, when the older woman coldly pointed to someone. "Come meet your brother-in-law. He arrived last night. From now on, he'll handle the remaining arrangements for your eldest husband's funeral."

She looked up. The man was handsome and refined, and his face was identical to her husband's. His gaze was deep and amused. As he raised his wrist, he revealed a bite mark she knew all too well.

Zhiying was instantly overcome with shame.

The man she'd passionately called "husband" again and again last night was her brother-in-law, whom she'd never met before!

*

Xue Zhiying tried every way she could to avoid her brother-in-law, until at last she made him furious.

In broad daylight, in full view of everyone, Pei Yunsheng dragged her to his elder brother's memorial tablet. He locked an arm around her weakened waist and forcefully pried open her tightly pressed lips with his fingertips.

"Xue Zhiying, make a sound."

"Go tell your beloved husband, was I really the only one seducing you?"

Seeing her expression change, Pei Yunsheng gave a cold, mocking laugh and deliberately used the humiliating form of address she least wanted to hear.

"Sister-in-law, let me tell you a secret."

"That time you got drunk, went into the wrong room, and had your way with me, my brother was standing outside the room. He heard you moaning softly all night."

Since she had initiated their first time, she would have to bear all the countless times they abandoned propriety and stole forbidden pleasures.

- One-on-one romance / Female lead has no prior sexual experience; male lead does / Happy ending

A lustful, sweetly sincere woman who runs off after sex VS a brooding, calculating black lotus who advances step by step

- Taking what you want by guile and force / An affair made possible by crossing the "ethical mountain" she can't get over

- While the female lead was still married to her former husband, the protagonists developed no romantic feelings for each other.

- Before her former husband "died," he had already divorced her, publicly ending their marriage. Afterward, the female lead temporarily stayed with her former in-laws to help handle the funeral.

- Before her "mother-in-law" told her, the female lead didn't know the male lead existed and thought her former husband was an only child.

- "Sister-in-law" is the male lead's teasing nickname for her. They have no actual family relationship. Two free individuals fall in love!

Theme: Mutual consent