A Substitute Bride

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(Her perspective: marriage first, love later. His perspective: secret crush comes true, a long-laid plan.)

Princess Xiao Lan was born with an irresistible charm and peerless beauty, but suddenly developed a chronic illness that marred her appearance and left her unable to bear children.

Everyone said her marriage to the God of War would be called off. To their surprise, the two still married, and outsiders said the God of War was devoted and true.

Only Xiao Lan knew it was all an act. The man treated her with courtesy, propriety, and respect, but no love.

When she accidentally discovered that he was hiding a woman outside, she laughed instead of getting angry. This was the perfect chance to divorce him!

She followed the man to the house where he kept his secret lover, but searched every inch and found no woman.

There were only many portraits. She picked one up and studied it for a long time, thinking: She looks so familiar!

A palace attendant exclaimed, "This is the princess at the royal hunting grounds!"

"And here she's drumming at the tower, racing horses and rowing boats, winning the cuju match... all the way up to her wedding."

The inscription read: My beloved Xiao Lan.

But the signature was... Wei Jin?

Xiao Lan's eyes widened in shock: My younger uncle is secretly in love with me?!

-

Wei Lin would rather die than marry a princess with flaws in her appearance and body, so he ordered his half-brother Wei Jin to keep pretending to be him.

Wei Jin had long hated wearing Wei Lin's identity. But then he heard: "Marry Xiao Lan in my place."

He suppressed his surging delight and said blandly, "All right."

Later, Wei Lin realized how beautiful Xiao Lan was and plotted to murder his half-brother. He warned him in a measured tone, "You must not be intimate with the princess."

Then he heard a voice so sweet it melted his bones: "Elder brother-in-law." He saw the princess approach gracefully, her small belly just beginning to show, her pregnancy radiating allure.

His half-brother wrapped an arm around her waist and smiled at him. "Too late."

Someone then informed Wei Lin that the cure for the princess's infertility was, in fact, him!

A princess x a marquis's son who has been plotting this for a long time, a God of War in the eyes of outsiders

Note:

1. The male lead is Wei Jin.

2. The supporting male character Wei Lin gets his comeuppance, reduced to nothing but scraps of bone.

Blurb dated June 7, 2023

The manuscript is well stocked, so feel free to start reading.

Upcoming novel (1)

At the wedding, the Crown Prince, whom Nan Sangning had admired for half her life, said, "Be sensible. I'll be right back."

Then he galloped off at full speed to see his one true love.

Before the ceremony was complete, Nan Sangning's heart went cold, and she called off the wedding.

The Crown Prince blamed her for being unreasonable. "How can you hope to be Crown Princess if you begrudge a gravely ill person?"

That night, Nan Sangning left the Crown Prince's palace without looking back and stepped into the torrential rain, heading to a place she hadn't set foot in for a long time. "I want to be a princess consort."

"Have you made up your mind?" Prince Jin, Li Zheng, lazily raised his eyes, his phoenix eyes dark and deep. "If you change your mind, you'll be struck by lightning."

A flash of cold light passed overhead. Nan Sangning met the Crown Prince's uncle's gaze, her deer-like eyes clouded with tears. He was also a rival for the throne. She nodded.

-

After their marriage, Nan Sangning dutifully played the role of a convenient wife, never crossing the line.

Yet Li Zheng smiled, his eyes full of shards of ice. "You haven't even tried your husband, and you already want to burn the bridge? That'll get you struck by lightning too."

The bed curtains swayed all night.

On the day of the hunt, Nan Sangning nearly fell off her horse. She ignored the Crown Prince rushing toward her with concern and curled up in Li Zheng's arms. "It hurts."

The Crown Prince vomited up old blood and burned with a fever for three days and nights. Weak with illness, he came to see Nan Sangning, only to glimpse two figures, blazing like candles, behind a folding screen.

Li Zheng made her whimper with desire and flaunted his triumph. "Be good, Ningning. Call me husband one more time."

Crash!

Nan Sangning: What just fell behind the screen?

Li Zheng: Don't mind him!

-

Li Zheng had lain among mountains of corpses and crossed seas of blood. He was a murderous god whose name inspired terror! When people first heard that he'd married, and that his bride had almost completed the wedding ceremony with the Crown Prince, the whole capital was in an uproar.

Everyone said he was using the Southern Army left behind by Nan Sangning's father to fight the Crown Prince for the dragon throne.

But he casually tossed his military tally onto the floor of the Golden Phoenix Hall, frightening the ministers so badly they begged him to take back his decision.

His eyes held a softness no one had ever seen before. "She doesn't like me fighting and killing..."

The ministers: At least you're honest about yourself!

Wait, no! It's far too early for you to retire!

[Reading Guide]

Delicate, sweet young woman x gentle, unhinged older man

Upcoming novel (2)

After six months of war between the Liang and Jin kingdoms, Liang was defeated and the conflict came to an end. Not long afterward, someone found a man at Muya Stockade, which lay between Liang and Jin.

The head of Muya Stockade was a woman. The people there were all eyeing the position, and every kind of scoundrel was using every trick in the book to try to marry Mu Qingqing.

How could she let them have their way?

The man had straight brows and bright eyes, as handsome as a jade tree. Mu Qingqing asked him three questions in a row: "Are you married? Do you have someone you love? Do you want to live?"

The man shook his head, shook his head again, then nodded.

"Wonderful!" Mu Qingqing exclaimed. "He's mute!"

She could dump him without having to argue!

On the spot, Mu Qingqing pointed at the man and declared, "I choose him to marry into the Mu family!"

Everyone was dumbfounded.

That night, they washed the man clean and sent him to her bed.

Mu Qingqing snapped her whip. "Once my belly starts showing, I'll set you free!"

The Jin kingdom's poisoned and silenced crown prince, Lian Gu: "..."

-

After Mu Qingqing's belly began to show, the people at the stockade worried that the mute man would eventually claim a share of their wealth.

Mu Qingqing waved a hand. "Don't worry. I'll abandon the father and keep the child in a little while."

A few days later, Lian Gu woke up after being drugged, only to find that his wife and home were gone. He was lying in a flower field, with a bag of silver and a letter beside him.

The letter read: Better to forget each other in the wide world than to cling to each other through thick and thin.

Lian Gu laughed with anger!

-

The Jin kingdom sincerely invited Muya Stockade to join them, and the envoy brought gold, silver, and jewels.

Mu Qingqing decided that working for the government beat being a bandit, since she'd have food and clothing without worry. So she took her brothers-in-arms and child down the mountain, only to be arrested as soon as they entered the city.

Looking at the portrait on the wanted poster, Mu Qingqing couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Just then, the mute husband who had shared months of passion with her appeared before her, dressed in a prince's ceremonial robe.

"So you seduced me and abandoned me? You kept the child and ditched the father?"

Mu Qingqing laughed awkwardly. "No... well... actually, absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Theme: Treat each other with sincerity, and stay true to love.