The Secret of My Late Wife

[Completed] This story contains no horror elements.

After his wife suddenly passed away, Lu Yan was overcome with grief. He resigned from office and went into seclusion in the mountains, but even after three years, he still could not move on. He packed his belongings and set out for Yangzhou.

That was where his wife, He Yulan, had been born and raised. She was one of a pair of twins, with a twin brother. He wanted to see the place where she had grown up.

Once there, Lu Yan discovered that everything about the He family was strange.

His brother-in-law’s child was practically a miniature version of his wife. He Zhaoyu was famous for doting on his younger sister, yet there wasn’t even a memorial tablet for her in the family home. His ill-tempered sister-in-law seemed to harbor a grudge against him. A fire broke out for no reason, strange events kept happening, and a cousin from another branch of the family had his eye on the dye works. The He family all seemed to have their own agendas.

The He family seemed like a deep pool, and his late wife seemed to be the key. One conspiracy after another came to light, bringing a twenty-year-old secret to the surface... It turned out that the women of the He family had been protecting a startling secret, and his late wife was at its very center.

Next novel: Ming Li. Please add it to your collection.

A marriage first, love later.

Ming Li is the illegitimate daughter of an assistant county magistrate. Her mother died when she was young, and she has struggled all her life, stretching every coin as far as it will go. One day, a high official’s son takes an interest in her legitimate older sister. Her father is also about to be promoted and transferred to the capital, so he orders Ming Li to take her sister’s place and marry Xie Qingyu.

Xie Qingyu is the most famous rich young master in Luozhou City.

A spoiled playboy, wild and unrestrained.

Her father was afraid the high official’s son would find out that her older sister had once been engaged to someone else, so he put her in a bridal sedan and sent her off to Xie Qingyu.

His beloved had married another man, and he had been forced to take a woman he had never even met. Xie Qingyu couldn’t be bothered to lift her veil. He only tossed out, “There’s no chance I’ll ever touch you.”

Xie Qingyu drank himself into a stupor.

When he woke with a splitting headache, the bright sunlight seemed dim. A slender figure stood by the window. The girl was on tiptoe, pressing dried flowers onto the window with flower-patterned paper and a hairpin. Even the shadow cast on the floor by the sunlight was shaped like flowers.

Xie Qingyu sat up and watched the scarlet quilt slide off him.

Noticing he was awake, Ming Li hurried over from the warming basket with a bowl of perfectly warm tremella soup. The broth was golden-orange, the tremella stewed until soft, the jujubes sweet, and a few goji berries sprinkled on top. It looked delicious.

She was diligent and virtuous, at least.

But did she really think that would make him fall for her? No chance!

Xie Qingyu deliberately found fault with it. “It’s too sweet!”

Ming Li lowered her eyes and replied obediently, “I’ll get you another bowl.”

No matter how much he criticized her, Ming Li remained gentle and soft-spoken. Frustrated, Xie Qingyu went to his friend Qin He, a teacher at the academy, to complain and ask for advice.

“She seems to be head over heels for me. She takes care of everything I eat and wear, and even when I don’t come home at night, she doesn’t get angry or ask where I’ve been.”

“What can I do to make her give up on me?!”

Qin He gave him a huge eyeroll!

Ming Li was actually terrified of Xie Qingyu.

She had seen him once before. With his hair bound beneath a golden crown, he gripped a club as thick as an arm and, with a crack, broke someone’s leg. He laughed wildly, with a wicked glint in his eyes. “You dare covet my fiancée? You’re asking to die!”

He broke a man’s leg and spent a fortune, all to make his legitimate older sister smile.

Her father had already taken her older sister far away to the capital. She was alone, with not a single family member to turn to. Aside from the Xie family, she had no idea where else she could go.

She still had to make a life in this unfamiliar place. His heart belonged to her older sister, and fortunately, Ming Li didn’t like him either. What she needed was a place to stay.

The Xie family was wealthy and had few rules, and her mother-in-law was kind and never made trouble for her. Seeing some advantages, Ming Li took even more care of Xie Qingyu. Surely he wouldn’t throw her out if she worked hard enough?

She would do needlework for two more years, save enough to buy a house of her own, and then leave. She could buy a little maid to keep her company, too. And if she was lucky, she might find a gentle, courteous scholar, someone like Qin He, the teacher at the private school two streets away. He seemed so kind.

If he was willing to marry her, too.

A hamster-like penny-pinching heroine versus a spoiled, shameless playboy at first, who will grow as the story goes on. The male lead never truly loved the legitimate older sister. The heroine is the one he truly loves.

Please add The Lady Ran Away from Her Wedding! to your collection.

At the end of her life, Song Ciyue looked back and thought that, though she had been empress, it had hardly been a life worth living.

She had spent her life married to Lu Wen. He was indeed a wise ruler, appointing virtuous officials and expanding the realm until its territory had doubled. At home, he rooted out corrupt officials and struck down powerful families with an iron hand. His sweeping reforms made his reign the stuff of legend.

He was a good ruler to the realm, but certainly not a good husband.

When she gave birth to her first child, she lay on the bed with her life hanging by a thread. The man’s cool voice instructed the midwife, “...Save the baby.”

Before she had even finished her month of postpartum recovery, one high official’s daughter after another entered the harem.

Lu Wen sat on his golden dragon throne and said without even looking up, “To keep the court in balance.”

She grew sick with worry and resentment.

Lu Wen casually toyed with the white jade ring on his finger. “Stop being petty and jealous. If you can’t manage this palace, I have no objection to taking back your appointment as empress. Plenty of people want the position.”

She had never once known what it felt like to be cherished.

When she opened her eyes again, she was seventeen, and she had yet to marry Lu Wen.

She did not want to marry him again. Her grandfather was the chief minister, and all she wanted was to live freely and happily, to discover what true love was like and what it meant to be treasured. The gentle, handsome top scholar was very much to her taste.

Lu Wen could never have imagined that his usually gentle and steady fiancée would ask to break off their engagement.

“Why?”

“Because I love someone else.”

Lu Wen thought it ridiculous. Marriage was a union between two families, bound by power and influence.

He casually opened a memorial and said coolly, “Go tell your grandfather that I can marry another daughter of the Song family.”

Song Ciyue could not persuade her grandfather, so she climbed over a wall and eloped with the top scholar, fleeing to a remote place where they could live under assumed names. On their wedding day, Lu Wen kicked open the wooden door and came in with his sword.

Looking at the simple yet cozy wedding hall, Song Ciyue stepped in front of the top scholar. For the first time, Lu Wen felt his heart break.

Starts with the heroine reborn, followed by the male lead’s long road to winning his wife back.

Blurb posted on 2023.11.5. Plagiarism will be pursued.

Theme: True love means growing together