I Won't Be Your Wife

[Rebirth story] In the fourteenth year of Zhongping, Shen Lanyi, the daughter of a minor official, married a top-ranked palace graduate. Everyone said she’d married above her station and gotten a bargain. Even she thought so. But after more than ten years of drudgery, running his household, managing the estate, and looking after his children by concubines and a whole courtyard of concubines, she had grown prematurely gray and her eyesight had blurred. In return, she got the news that he wanted to bring into the household his first love, now fallen into prostitution. He said she was dull, a block of wood, and that after putting up with her for so many years, he had already done more than enough. Shen Lanyi was tired. All she wanted was to leave, even if all she got was a letter of divorce. Instead, all he gave her was this: “In life, you’re one of my family. In death, you’ll be my ghost.” When she was driven to the end of her tether, Shen Lanyi suddenly remembered who she’d been as a young woman, before she was married. The girl had been stubborn and hard to tame. Her family claimed it was for her own good when they locked her in a tiny embroidery tower, forbade her from taking a single step outside or speaking to anyone, and used endless darkness and loneliness to force her to submit, to become a proper lady, a good wife... Amid the rush of old memories, she recalled how she had refused to yield. She would smash the window with her fists if she had to, then stand on the sill and sing at the top of her lungs. “Then let’s be ghosts!” Shen Lanyi wiped her tears, raised a torch, and claimed the freedom to choose her own death. In the moment they died together, she thought with utter certainty: If there is another life, I will never be anyone’s wife again. Tips: Rebirth, divorce, building a career, no taking back trash A light ensemble cast with lots of female characters, both good and bad At its heart, this is the story of the heroine and her friends “Never marry or have children, and stay forever young; never give birth or raise a child, and live forever like an immortal. From Ms. Shen, who has successfully divorced.” Coming soon: Lessons for Young Ladies, a female ensemble cast A fallen dynasty’s princesses rebuild their country from the ground up / History begins on their page Blurb: Lin Yu excelled in virtue, speech, appearance, and womanly work. She was skilled at every art, from music and chess to calligraphy and painting. A princess of the imperial family, she was born with a lovely, jade-like face and had been the star pupil at the girls’ school since childhood, a model for the capital’s young ladies. Lin Yu thought this was a good thing. When she came of age, she would be married to a fine husband, bear his children, manage his household, and grow old with him in lasting love. Until this towering dynasty stood on the brink of ruin, and she and her seven younger sisters were assigned prices and sent off to marry into an enemy state to pay the debt, like pigs and dogs being delivered as tribute. They were treated as precious treasures, with the deal settled in full. As she rode in the bridal procession, Lin Yu looked back The endless palace walls seemed like a coffin, and every mansion like a prison. Noblewomen were merely more exquisite goods. Their lives and fortunes were tied to one man, and that was only a gentler form of humiliation than being sent off in a political marriage. Theme: The world is vast, and there is so much to be done.