After the Rich Stepmom's Failed Escape

[The full novel costs just 4 yuan. Thank you for your support! A deep bow!]

Mo Xiaofu was transported into a clichéd, melodramatic rich-family period novel, where she became the foolish, wicked stepmother who served as cannon fodder for the wealthy family.

The original woman pretended to be kind and saintly in front of the domineering male lead, but secretly subjected his only daughter to verbal abuse and emotional torment, driving the little girl into depression and eventually to jump from a building.

Naturally, the original woman met a terrible end, while the male lead was healed by the heroine and went on to live happily ever after.

Mo Xiaofu: Ugh, this trope is so outdated. Whoever wants to be this stepmother can have the job. I'm getting out of here!

She worked tirelessly and racked her brains to make a clean getaway.

The first time, she saved the male lead's daughter from nearly choking to death on food, then used the opportunity to ask for a divorce. The man suddenly darkened his handsome face and tossed her a prenuptial agreement: "If the wife requests a divorce, she must compensate the husband two million yuan."

The second time, Mo Xiaofu saved the male lead's amusement park business from a huge loss. Thinking she could finally get a divorce, she heard him say, "The losses you prevented don't add up to two million yuan."

Later, Mo Xiaofu lost her temper. "Let me tell you the truth. Whether you agree to a divorce or not, I'm leaving."

Qin Zhang: "Take me with you!"

Mo Xiaofu: "Uh, why is this story turning into another cliché?"

[Notes] 1. This is a sweet, cheesy story. The original heroine is not vilified, and the two heroines later become true best friends. Enter at your own risk if that's not your thing.

2. The male lead has an important reason for taking in and raising the child. This is one of the central plot points.

3. The male lead is five years older than the female lead. 1v1, both are virgins, happy ending. Includes cheesy tropes such as the domineering CEO, marriage before love, and villains causing trouble.

[Coming soon: The Treacherous Chancellor Can't Escape His Fate]. Please add it to your collection:

Shi Miaoyan lost both her parents as a child and had to live under someone else's roof. Though she was as beautiful as an orchid, she had neither wealth nor influence, and finding a suitable match was difficult.

Who could have guessed that fortune would fall from the sky? One day, the young chief minister, Lu Yichuan, came to ask for her hand. "I hear the eldest daughter of the Shi family is gentle, virtuous, and peerlessly beautiful. I have long admired her and wish to make her my wife."

Lu Yichuan was powerful and influential, as well as exceptionally handsome. Every noblewoman in the capital adored him. Only the princess's announcement that she intended to take him as her consort had kept others from approaching him.

Yet instead of marrying the princess, he took a lowborn Shi girl as his wife.

After their wedding, Lu Yichuan was gentle and attentive. Everyone envied Shi Miaoyan's good fortune, and she thought herself fortunate too. She dutifully cared for her in-laws and managed the household, while quietly letting Lu Yichuan into her heart.

Until the day Lu Yichuan personally sent her to the carriage carrying the princess's entourage on a diplomatic marriage mission. Only then did she understand that it had all been a lie.

His supposed admiration and marriage proposal had only been a way to make her die in place of the princess he loved.

Everyone said Lu Yichuan was a treacherous chancellor who would bring ruin to the country: iron-fisted, ruthless, and willing to do anything to achieve his aims. His refined manners were merely a mask.

To provoke a war between two nations, he even sent his own wife in the princess's place to marry into the Great Zhao kingdom, giving him an excuse to declare war on Great Zhao.

Shi Miaoyan, who went in the princess's place, was stabbed to death, and her body was never found. But the real princess resembled Shi Miaoyan so closely that she took her place and became Mrs. Lu, just as she had wished.

Yet no one knew that, whenever night fell and he was alone, Lu Yichuan remembered the day beneath the red plum tree, when Shi Miaoyan had turned back with snow on her shoulders and smiled at him, radiant and captivating.

No matter how much time passed or how thoroughly it washed away the past, she remained the lingering ache and searing pain at the heart of him.

Seven years later, Lu Yichuan accompanied the emperor on a tour of the west. In the boundless desert, he recognized at a glance the woman who had haunted his dreams.

Mist veiled the distant hills, and the sunset shimmered across the sands. Her beauty was unmatched, radiant as a sky filled with rosy clouds.

Lu Yichuan pulled her into his arms, his voice breaking. "A-Yan, I'm so glad you're alive. I'll take you home."

The woman slowly plunged a dagger into his chest and smiled. "The fiend is still alive in this world. How could I go to the underworld before him?"

She did not know that beneath his cruel, heartless fiend's mask was a heart just as fervent and bleeding as hers.

Smiling, he pushed the dagger deeper. "Yanyan, if I'm a fiend, then let me follow you into hell."

With all the luck of my life, I bought myself this inescapable fate.

Note: 1. The male lead will not be changed. He did not kill the female lead, will never truly be married to the princess, and does not love her.

2. A groveling-to-win-her-back story. Don't read if you dislike that. 1v1, both are virgins, happy ending.

3. Inspired by Claude in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: "I want to go to your hell, but you don't want me, a sinner!"

[Coming soon: What Should I Do After I Seduced the Crown Prince?] Please add it to your collection:

Baiyun Academy had three treasures: peach blossom wine from the back hill, rare books from the library, and Xie Yunhuan, the headmaster's only daughter.

As the academy's little tyrant, Ah Huan's greatest regret in life was the day she hit a new poor scholar with an abacus in the middle of a peach blossom shower.

His blue robe was stained with blood, yet he smiled like a spring mountain. The sight startled the copy of My Domineering Prince Falls in Love with Me hidden in her sleeve right out of it.

"Yuan Lie, a runaway apprentice from a blacksmith's shop, nineteen years old, dirt poor, hardworking, with no wife, concubine, or mistress." Ah Huan counted the boy's long, clearly defined fingers and cornered him by the book-drying racks. "What a coincidence. My father says the academy needs a live-in son-in-law. The wedding will be in three years. Want to give it a try?"

He remembered her made-up hobbies by heart.

He drank her disastrous peach blossom wine with a calm smile, finishing every drop.

She taught him to read the stars and study the heavens, and he disguised himself as a girl to help her skip class.

She took him climbing onto roofs and sneaking into rivers to catch fish, while he stayed up all night copying the academy rules for her.

Every day, Ah Huan marveled, "Oh heavens, this live-in husband is just so perfect for me!"

Then one day, she accidentally overheard Yuan Lie talking to his cousin, who had traveled a thousand miles to find him, and learned that her live-in husband was actually the crown prince, Chu Yuanlie.

Ah Huan was thunderstruck.

She had no desire to get mixed up with the imperial family. After discussing it with her parents, the whole family packed their valuables and fled in the middle of the night, taking along the unfinished Guide to Avoiding Disaster in her bundle:

1. Treasure your life and stay away from the palace.

2. How to dump the crown prince gracefully.

3. If caught, pretend to have amnesia on the spot.

But she couldn't outrun the eight hundred secret guards of the Eastern Palace.

That day, the clatter of armor filled the mountain gate. The live-in husband she had abandoned countless times sat in a carriage adorned with dragon patterns, dressed in black and wearing a gold crown, as beautiful as jade. At his waist hung the ugly gourd pouch she had embroidered.

"Xie Yunhuan, do you know the punishment for deceiving the Eastern Palace into a false marriage?"

"You've got the wrong person. I'm not Xie Yunhuan, I'm her twin sister!"

"Oh? Then where is Xie Yunhuan?"

"Unfortunately, she slipped and fell into the water last month and drowned!"

Chu Yuanlie's eyes blazed. His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists, and he said ominously, "Men, bind the crown princess and take her back to the Eastern Palace for the wedding!"

Note: 1v1, both are virgins, happy ending.

Theme: May the world be filled with kindness and love.