After Marrying My Frail Husband

Pure Sweetness / Bickering Couple / Not Especially Period-Accurate

The Ji family fell from grace overnight, and Ji Shiwei, once a highborn lady who had held her head high, was about to be sent to the entertainment quarter.

Her father had once had a close friend in Yangzhou. When Ji Shiwei had nowhere else to turn, this old friend came to her rescue and told her, "Come back to Yangzhou with me. Our families arranged a betrothal for you when you were children, so we can't just leave you to fend for yourself."

After arriving in Yangzhou, Ji Shiwei happened to overhear the servants say that her benefactor's second son was gravely ill, and that he had saved her only to bring him good luck and keep him company through his final days.

Ji Shiwei could only smile bitterly. There was nothing she could do.

On their wedding night, a weighing rod lifted her veil with a deft touch. In the wavering candlelight, the young man wore wedding robes, his skin pale as powder and his thin lips bloodless. When he glanced at her, his eyes seemed to smile, yet held no warmth at all.

Ji Shiwei steeled herself. So be it, then. She'd marry him for good luck, wait for him to die, and still get to live a peaceful life afterward.

Who could have guessed that day after day, not only would she fail to outlive her frail husband, but rumors would spread that the young master of the Jiang family and his new bride were a perfectly harmonious couple.

Ji Shiwei: Heaven knows, all I really want is to be on my own.

-

Jiang Xu had been frail since childhood. When he grew older, he finally realized that his father's second wife had been secretly poisoning him.

He kept taking the medicine as usual, enduring it in front of everyone and pretending to be weak, all so he could wipe out the threat once and for all when the time came.

Who could have guessed that his scumbag father would lose his nerve, afraid he might die at any moment, and bring a convicted woman from the capital to marry him for good luck?

Fine, let her. Women were all soft-hearted anyway. Once the second wife won her over and talked her into joining forces to harm him, he'd keep the evidence and get rid of her along with the rest.

Who could have guessed that as the days passed, she wouldn't join in on any plot against him, but would instead treat him with endless tenderness?

Jiang Xu's smile softened. Perhaps there was no harm in saving a place for her at his side.

He heard that she had stood up for him, abandoning her usual meekness to openly defy the old madam, and had been punished by being made to kneel in the ancestral hall.

Jiang Xu pretended to be passing by the ancestral hall by chance, carrying a bowl of her favorite lotus seed porridge.

He looked up and saw the woman, usually so gentle and demure, kneeling perfectly properly. She said earnestly, "Why is he still alive? I can't keep pretending much longer. When will I be free?"

Theme: No matter how low life takes you, stay grounded and hopeful, and you can rise again.