"Did you figure out a long time ago that I wasn't a woman?"
The tall beauty, adorned with exquisite jewelry, spoke in a dangerous voice as she cornered Jin Shu against the wall.
*The male lead is a stunning cross-dresser, but kind of a jerk / The jerk tries to seduce her, then resorts to coercion / Both the ex-husband and the current lover get their comeuppance
Jin Shu lived up to her name: radiant and beautiful, she was the cherished jewel of a merchant family.
When she married into the Duke of Ying's household, everyone said her husband was a refined gentleman, gentle and elegant, and that marrying such a man was a blessing she had earned in a previous life.
Jin Shu only smiled at their words, hiding her scarred arms beneath her sleeves as she quietly and dutifully agreed.
One day, hurrying to a family banquet, Jin Shu happened upon a beauty leaning on the railing and turning to look back.
Ning Jue was tall, with phoenix eyes bright as dew on begonias. She gazed at Jin Shu and asked:
"Sister-in-law, have you come to fetch me?"
Her voice was low and lilting. Before Jin Shu could wonder at it, the other woman came over and gently took her hand.
Jin Shu finally remembered that the ducal household had a young woman who'd been raised away from home since childhood. She was her husband's younger sister, just a year younger than Jin Shu.
To appear virtuous, Jin Shu put on a smile and affectionately linked arms with her.
Ning Jue's eyes gleamed with interest, and the corners of her lips lifted.
But being a good and virtuous wife did not earn Jin Shu any love or respect. One day, to her horror, she discovered that her husband intended to "offer her up" to advance his grand ambitions!
The calm of her life shattered. Overcome with grief and fury, Jin Shu finally resolved to bring everything crashing down with her.
On a snowy winter night, Jin Shu hid in a room, trembling as she waited for her plan to succeed, fingers clenched tight.
The door swung open. A familiar yet unfamiliar man, sword in hand and spattered with blood, walked toward her step by step.
"Sister-in-law, how cruel of you. Just last night, you patiently taught me how to sew a little shirt, and today you plan to eliminate me along with everyone else?"
Reader's guide:
One-on-one romance, happy ending, the female lead has no prior sexual experience; the male lead does.
A scheming cross-dressing younger brother-in-law x a gentle, long-suffering sister-in-law
The male lead and the heroine's former husband are not related by blood. The heroine does not begin a romance with the male lead while still in a relationship with her former husband.
Theme: Love yourself before you love someone else
