Being a widow in a powerful family is no easy thing. Every day feels like walking on thin ice.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back more than ten years in the past. She had just become a new bride, destined to spend the rest of her life beside a coffin.
The short-lived general had also left her with three stepsons. A fortune-teller told her they would all grow up to be extraordinary men, and he was right.
The eldest was refined and gentle, and became an official whose integrity and uprightness won universal praise.
But Shen Youlu knew what a hypocrite he was: ambitious, all smiles to your face, stabbing you in the back, and ensuring those who crossed him met a terrible end, one step at a time.
The second was gloomy and cold, with no understanding of human feelings, like a beast without a heart.
Born with incredible strength, he killed as easily as pulling up a weed. In the future, he would become a blood-soaked god of war, feared by the tribes beyond the frontier.
The youngest had a vicious, unruly temperament from childhood and was always crossing the line. As he grew older, he became a notorious menace in the capital.
Inside, he was volatile and obsessive, with an almost pathological fixation on whatever he liked.
In her previous life, Shen Youlu had constantly tried to win the three stepsons over. The unruly youngest pushed her into an icy pond, and the second watched coldly. Only the eldest scolded his brothers and ordered the servants to pull her out.
She had thought her efforts had finally paid off, but the eldest, who had always treated her with respect on the surface, ordered someone to force a bowl of poison down her throat just before she died.
Heartbroken, Shen Youlu wanted nothing to do with them after being reborn.
When she said she wanted to leave,
the most rational eldest lost control and crushed a porcelain object. Wiping the blood from his hand with a handkerchief, he smiled and asked her why, his face no longer composed.
The usually cold-blooded second said nothing. He picked up his sword and blocked the estate's gate, his eyes ringed with red as he stared stubbornly at her.
Then there was the youngest. In the dead of night, while she slept, he stroked her face and spoke in a coaxing voice, saying vicious things that didn't match his expression at all.
But none of that changed how much she hated them or how badly she wanted to escape the marquis's estate.
The day she got her divorce papers, she packed up and ran.
But she had barely gone a few steps when someone covered her mouth and nose from behind, and darkness swallowed her vision.
In the lightless cell, she stared coldly at the bastard. "Do you know what you're doing?"
The bastard tilted his head slightly and lowered his eyes as if thinking. "Defying your authority?"
He smiled. "Then, Mother, will you punish me yourself?"
Also known as: The Stepson Who Hated Me So Much Back Then
#Now They and the Others Are Eating Their Words#
Reader's Guide
1. The female lead and General Wei never had a real marriage, so this story does not involve any intention of disregarding moral boundaries. See the later setup in the main text for details.
2. Stepson rivalry, dual virgins.
3. An alternate universe. Don't nitpick the details, they're all my own headcanon (hands on hips).
Theme: Learn how to get along harmoniously with your family
