Spring Affairs in the Eastern Palace

Scheming, flirtatious beauty vs. refined yet unruly crown prince

Everyone in Chang'an knows that the current crown prince, Li Yao, is a wonderfully kind man: gentle as jade, a true gentleman. Even a stray cat or dog that brushes against his feet receives proper care and comfort.

It's all a lie.

Only Song Qiushe knows his secret.

Three years ago... It was a rainy spring night. Song Qiushe hid behind a door and watched him hold an umbrella as he helped her cousin down from her horse. They chatted and laughed, clearly deeply in love, reluctant to part.

But once her cousin had disappeared into the residence, glancing back every few steps, he stopped smiling and tossed his umbrella aside, as if removing a mask. Amid flashing blades, he personally led his hidden guards in slaughtering the entire household. Blood seeped into the muddy ground. A bolt of lightning tore across the sky screen, illuminating his deathly pale face, like a jade-faced King of Hell.

Soaked through, Song Qiushe was dragged out from behind the door. From then on, she was imprisoned in a dark chamber, shut away from the light of day.

Each night, whenever she woke from a dream, she saw blazing red candles, loose and heavy shackles around her wrists, and the crown prince sitting by her bed, his expression cold and bleak.

Even long after she escaped, the sound of clanking shackles still echoed in her dreams from time to time, ringing endlessly in her ears.

Three years later, they meet again and pretend not to know each other.

He must choose a consort.

She must discuss marriage.

They should have had no reason to cross paths again, but whenever she looked at that familiar face, she couldn't stop herself from remembering their time together in the dark chamber.

The red candles and shackles of that chamber had become her inner demons, drawing her deeper into them day after day.

At last, on another muddy, rainy night, Song Qiushe could no longer restrain herself. Holding a lotus lantern, she went alone to the Eastern Palace and pushed open the door to his bedchamber.

Li Yao gazed at her, his eyes burning bright. "You actually dare to come back?"

Three years had changed Song Qiushe. She was no longer timid and meek. She had blossomed into the most dazzling woman in Chang'an, graceful in bearing, with eyes clear as autumn waters. She gave him a mocking smile. "I've had a hard time all these years. What makes you think you deserve to have it easy?"

The crown prince lit a room full of red candles for her again. "Who said I've had it easy? ...Only when you came did things get better for me."

Coming soon: The Substitute Bride

The mighty Marquis of Su'an, Jiang Yu, is ordered to return to the capital and marry. Rumor has it that he's cruel and ruthless, killing without batting an eye, and that no woman who has shared his bed has ever emerged unscathed.

The Shen family's legitimate daughter is terrified by the arranged marriage and falls ill in bed.

The doting Shen patriarch can't bear to see his darling suffer, so he digs up an illegitimate daughter from a forgotten corner of the estate.

The Shen family is large enough that its children could line up around the garden. Shen Fanghao has spent more than a decade holed up in her little courtyard, eating and waiting to die. Thanks to her striking resemblance to her legitimate sister, she lands a marriage into a marquis's household for free.

On their wedding night, they go through the motions. Jiang Yu doesn't even lift her veil before leaving for the frontier in the dead of night.

The marquis's residence is empty and desolate, overgrown with weeds. She is all alone, isolated and cold...

Shen Fanghao cries tears of joy.

With the tiger away, the monkey becomes king. The vast marquis's residence is now Shen Fanghao's to rule as she pleases.

When the war at the frontier is over, Jiang Yu returns to the capital and steps into a courtyard so garishly decorated it dazzles him.

He certainly married a wife who knows how to make a mess of things.

Jiang Yu rises in rank, and Shen Fanghao, now the marquis's wife, receives an official title and unmatched favor.

Everyone in the capital envies her. The Shen family's legitimate daughter wants to set things right and switch places again, accusing Shen Fanghao of stealing her marriage.

Shen Fanghao refuses to give way. With a cold smile, she turns around and accuses her birth family of deceiving the emperor.

The crime implicates their entire clan, but married daughters are not included in the clan's punishment.

Still, if Jiang Yu learns the truth and divorces her, she won't escape punishment.

Shen Fanghao waits in the marquis's residence for the final verdict.

Jiang Yu returns from court and, as usual, turns his back to her as he takes off his official robes. In a matter-of-fact tone, he says, "We didn't lift the veil, exchange wedding cups, or consummate the marriage that day, so it doesn't count."

Oh, so she's going to prison...

Jiang Yu clears his throat, pretending to be casual, then adds, "The emperor said we'll hold a proper wedding on an auspicious day. Give me your birth date and hour... Don't pass off your legitimate sister's as yours. I want yours, Shen Fanghao."

Coming soon: The True Daughter's Revenge

Gu Shiqing is the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Changxing. The midwife who delivered her harbored ill will and deliberately switched the babies, stealing Gu Shiqing's identity. The truth only came to light fifteen years later, when she was finally brought back to the marquis's residence.

Gu Shiqing naturally accepted everything that should have been hers: her noble status, generous dowry, respectable marriage, and promising young husband.

She is gentle and kind-hearted. She thinks that now everything is back where it belongs, there's no need to revisit the past.

So when the marquis's household decides to keep the false daughter, she doesn't object.

When the false daughter is treated as her equal and called her sister, she sees nothing wrong.

When her family favors the false daughter in every way, she is only a little sad and thinks nothing of it.

It isn't until one day, when the false daughter sneaks into her room, lies in her bed, wears her clothes, and sleeps with her husband, that Gu Shiqing finally realizes something is wrong.

But it's too late.

Gu Shiqing fights back with every means at her disposal, but still can't defeat the false daughter. Instead, she earns the reputation of a jealous wife and becomes a laughingstock throughout the capital.

After that, she gradually loses everything she had gained. Her parents despise her, her husband divorces her, and her dowry is stolen.

Kneeling in the ancestral hall of the marquis's residence, she pours out her heart to her father. "I'm the marquis's daughter, your own flesh and blood. All of that should have belonged to me."

But her father tells her coldly, "Only what the marquis's household gives you is yours. If the household doesn't give it to you, you can't take it."

Gu Shiqing suddenly understands. The false daughter isn't the only vile person. Her whole family is.

Poisoned with a strange toxin, she dies in a ruined temple. She thinks her laughable life has come to a miserable end, but unexpectedly, she gets another chance to open her eyes.

Reborn, Gu Shiqing reflects deeply on her past and carefully plots her next move. Then she decides:

Not one of them will be spared!

Theme: Sincerity is always the ultimate weapon.