After Marrying the Late White Moonlight's Younger Brother

[Twin brothers competing for her: the doomed white moonlight versus the lover who stays by her side]

Her betrothed died the year she came of age.

Cui Zhiyao was promised to the Lu family's eldest son, Lu Heng, when they were children. Their elders were close, and she spent her childhood with the Lu twins. The three of them grew up together.

Though the Lu twins looked exactly alike, they were easy to tell apart. The older brother, Lu Heng, was steady and proper, a perfect gentleman, while the younger, Lu Zhao, was a mischievous troublemaker.

Lu Heng taught her to read and write. Lu Zhao, meanwhile, was always plotting how to spirit her away from his brother and take her out to have fun.

Then the Lu family was convicted of a crime. Lu Heng died, and Lu Zhao was exiled three thousand li along with the rest of his family.

Four years later, the Lu family's wrongful conviction was overturned, and the former Marquis of Cheng'en's residence was bustling once more.

But her A-Heng-gege would never come back.

*On the day Lu Zhao returned to the capital, everyone in the residence was there to congratulate him, but the one person he most wanted to see was nowhere to be found.

He sent someone to ask, only to learn that the Cui family was choosing a husband for her, and Cui Zhiyao was admiring the willows by the riverbank with the man she favored.

*Lu Zhao galloped over and saw her smiling as she took the hand the man held out to her.

Years of longing, gnawing at him day and night, suddenly burst free and drove him mad.

He seized her wrist, the veins on the back of his hand standing out, but his voice was gentle as he said, "I came back alive against all odds. Why didn't you come see me?"

Five years apart. After all the hardships he'd endured, the young man had shed his boyishness and seemed like a different person.

Zhiyao looked at him and thought, So this is what A-Heng-gege would look like grown up.

*Lu Zhao once demanded to know why she couldn't choose him if all she wanted was a husband who would treat her well.

Staring at that face, identical to Lu Heng's, Zhiyao was lost in thought. Being with him felt like betraying Lu Heng.

Lu Zhao couldn't bear the look in her eyes. He pulled her into a fierce embrace, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones. His voice was low, almost pleading: "If that's what you want, I can learn to be like him. I can learn how he treated you. Stay, all right?"

*, A little scene from the early chapters, *

Zhiyao spent every day with Lu Heng, calling him "A-Heng-gege" at every turn. Lu Zhao ground his teeth every time he heard it. At last, he came up with a plan: he could skip class and take Zhiyao out to have fun. Lu Heng would never do that.

He skipped class countless times. Then one day, he took Zhiyao horseback riding outside the capital, and she accidentally scraped her leg on a branch. Desperate to check her injury, he tried to look, but the girl guarded her leg and wouldn't let him. When they got home, though, the moment she saw Lu Heng, she followed him inside with tears in her eyes to have him tend to it.

After Lu Heng bandaged her up, he deliberately asked, "Why wouldn't you let A-Zhao treat it? Why let me?"

Her voice was thick with tears, as if she truly cared. "The wound is ugly. A-Heng-gege won't think less of Zhiyao, but what if Lu Zhao gets scared off?"

Lu Heng's gaze darkened at once. After a long silence, he crouched beside her leg until they were eye to eye. His voice was gentle, almost coaxing. "It hurts so much. How about you stop going out with him?"

Zhiyao shook her head, then inexplicably felt guilty and lowered it.

The next day, Lu Heng paid a visit to the Cui residence.

A few days later, Zhiyao's injury had healed. Lu Zhao was daydreaming in class about how to make it up to her when he saw the teacher lead the little girl in and announce that she would be studying there from now on.

The young lady of the Cui family drew everyone's attention the moment she entered.

Like everyone else, Lu Zhao looked at her and watched her turn her excited gaze toward Lu Heng.

He was too young to understand why his chest felt so tight.

Years later, after countless midnight dreams, all he wished was that she would look at him like that once.

*, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *

Please add my upcoming novel to your reading list! (Banging gongs and drums)

"Has Cousin Finally Gone Mad with Rage?!":

*Xie Zhixu has had a smooth life and extraordinary talent. The only trouble was that he was sickly as a child. A Taoist priest claimed he would recover once he passed the hurdle of turning twenty.

He nervously made it to his fifteenth birthday. That very day, his cousin moved in.

His cousin was healthy and full of energy. She was hopeless at studying and loved climbing onto the roof and ripping off tiles, and the books she tore up and the tiles she pulled off were his.

She often made him so angry he could barely breathe, leaving his heart pounding.

Their families looked at his face, which had finally gained a little color, and beamed with relief. Ever since his cousin moved in, they said, he seemed more alive. They insisted she stay a while longer.

Xie Zhixu: ... I think I know what that hurdle is now.

*As the only girl of her generation in the Shen family, Shen Mingyue was spoiled rotten from childhood and had no patience for anything.

Except her eldest male cousin.

Her eldest cousin might have a bad temper and insist on making life difficult for himself, but he was undeniably handsome.

But he never paid her any attention.

When she went to find him, he simply shut the study door in her face. Luckily, she never gave up. She climbed in through the window and knocked over his inkstone.

The next day, she found the window had been latched too.

Xie Zhixu watched the figure outside disappear. He had just breathed a sigh of relief and bent his head to focus on his book when a sudden blaze of light caught his eye. He looked up. One of the roof tiles above him had been lifted, the sun blazing overhead, and Shen Mingyue was peering down at him.

Shen Mingyue: Hee hee.

*Later, the Shen family was promoted and moved to the capital as a household. Shen Mingyue left the Xie residence too.

Xie Zhixu passed the imperial examinations with top honors in all three stages and rose through the ranks as he implemented new policies.

Even his health miraculously recovered after he turned twenty. He excelled at riding, archery, and martial arts.

At the palace banquet celebrating his achievements, the empress asked if he was engaged. He instinctively looked at Shen Mingyue

For some reason, even now, the thought of Shen Mingyue made his heart race.

But his cousin wasn't looking at him.

Xie Zhixu didn't sleep a wink that night.

But thinking of how Shen Mingyue had appeared before him every few days over the years, surely... she liked him too.

First thing the next morning, he went to the Shen residence, planning to confess his feelings. He also wondered what he would do if Shen Mingyue was so happy she fainted

But as soon as he walked in, he saw her laughing and chatting with the newly appointed third-place scholar.

The betrothal geese sent by the scholar's family were still flapping around in the courtyard.

[Elegant and refined (?): cousin x puppy-like cousin]

[Little scenes]

*Shen Mingyue knew her eldest cousin wasn't in good health, but she hadn't realized he was this frail!

All she did was drag him out boating, and they accidentally capsized the boat. How had he come down with a high fever that wouldn't break as soon as they got back?

The man on the bed lay with his eyes shut tight. The physician shook his head and said that if he didn't wake up tonight, he might...

Shen Mingyue kept watch at his bedside all night, holding his hand and sobbing uncontrollably, calling his name again and again.

Xie Zhixu had a splitting headache from the noise. He struggled to open his eyes and saw hers, red and swollen from crying. Suddenly, he couldn't say a word.

...How could anyone have so many tears?

She'd cried so much, he thought he was still in the lake.

*After they married, Shen Mingyue accidentally wandered into his bathing chamber as part of his plan.

Steam filled the room. His inner robe hung open, and droplets slid down the perfect, powerful lines of his waist and stomach

Shen Mingyue's almond-shaped eyes widened. She hastily threw a cloak over his head. "You'll catch cold! You'll get a fever! You're not well, "

Xie Zhixu closed his eyes, pulled the cloak off, then swept her into his arms and held her tight. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Why don't you see for yourself whether I'm well or not, Jiaojiao?"

Theme: Life rarely goes as planned. Only by looking ahead can we get what we want.