The Foolish Widowed Sister-in-Law of the Treacherous Chancellor

The upcoming novel is now open for follows: A Scheming Beauty's Guide to Rising to the Top

[An outwardly gloomy, aloof beauty who is secretly a puppy but doesn't know it, an arrogant boy x a foolish beauty who gradually awakens and struggles to stay alive]

Sang Sang is a child bride. She's stunningly beautiful, but terribly timid. She was bought to bring good fortune to a sickly man, and yet just half a month later, she became a widow.

Sang Sang is timid. Someone coaxed her into eloping, but that very night, she dreamed that her frail young brother-in-law would someday become a man of immense power, while she would be banished to a freezing wasteland and suffer for the rest of her life.

When Sang Sang woke again and saw the young brother-in-law in her home, she was so afraid that she abandoned the idea. She decided to wait until he became wealthy and powerful before leaving. Surely then no one could accuse her of being ungrateful.

Pei Yuzhen was reborn after his elder brother's death. He watched the fox-spirit of a sister-in-law with cold eyes, deciding that if she eloped with another man, he would break both her legs and the man's. But Sang Sang's behavior was nothing like it had been in his previous life.

What's more, she went out of her way to please him and win him over. Pei Yuzhen suddenly understood: this woman wanted to seduce him. So he watched her actions coldly, determined not to feel the slightest pity for her, and tried to drive her away with the most hostile attitude.

Later, Pei Yuzhen thought, what would be the harm in giving her a little sweetness? It might make her give up on eloping with someone else.

Later still, Pei Yuzhen thought, Sang Sang was beautiful and just his type. Why not marry her? It would keep the family ties close, after all.

But just as he reached the highest position in the court, Sang Sang ran away.

Later, by the Qingming River, Sang Sang was accompanied by a handsome young man. The two chatted happily, their manner intimate.

Pei Yuzhen's eyes darkened. He lowered the madness in his gaze and waved to her with the air of a gentle gentleman. "Be good, Sang Sang. Come back."

Sang Sang looked in alarm at the guards on either side and instinctively grabbed the young man beside her. What she said cut like a blade, leaving Pei Yuzhen in unbearable pain.

"Who are you?"

Short scene

After they married, Pei Yuzhen was exceptionally clingy. If he didn't see her for a day, he would sulk, so Sang Sang had no choice but to placate him.

Beneath the hazy moonlight, red candle wax hardened as the flames flickered.

Pei Yuzhen smiled gently. One hand rested on the back of her neck, caressing it slowly as he spoke with a hint of menace. "Tell me, Sang Sang. Do you think I'm better, or that young man of yours?"

Sang Sang cried until her voice turned hoarse, but still couldn't earn the slightest bit of sympathy from him.

To outsiders, Pei Yuzhen was a refined and virtuous gentleman, but no one knew how greedy he could be in the stillness of night.

"Sang Sang, won't you take pity on me?"

P.S. The synopsis has been screenshotted. The leads confess their love only after their relationship has ended, so the heroine is free.

Upcoming novel: A Scheming Beauty's Guide to Rising to the Top

Synopsis:

[A seemingly gentle but vengeful young princess x an apparently pitiful, humble illegitimate son who is secretly a black-bellied, obsessive, deranged boy]

Everyone in Bianjing knew Princess Changning Wen Dai. She was beautiful and adored by the imperial family.

Though she was spoiled and wilful, she still had countless suitors.

But Wen Dai was stubbornly devoted to the eldest son of Duke Xie's family, and wouldn't even spare anyone else a glance.

After yet another failed attempt to seduce the eldest son of the Xie family, Wen Dai accidentally fell into a lake. There, she discovered that in the future, her maid, a woman claiming to have come from a later age, would trample her underfoot.

The man she loved would make things difficult for her at every turn because of that woman. She would be abandoned by everyone and forced to marry a beggar, spending the rest of her life in misery.

Wen Dai refused to accept her fate. If she wanted something, she would get it.

So she put away all her former capriciousness and became gentle and well-mannered, taking one careful step after another.

She even treated Xie Huai, the Xie family's illegitimate son whom everyone else avoided, with courtesy, all so others would believe that she had changed.

She did all this so the eldest son of the Xie family would fall in love with her, and then she could discard him like trash.

Later, the refined and virtuous eldest son of the Xie family turned white-haired overnight for her, while the so-called girl chosen by fate died in a foreign land.

She grew tired of it all, walked away, and married a young man she had recently taken a fancy to.

On her wedding day, in the bridal chamber, her husband in name only was tied up beside them, while Xie Huai, the supposedly pitiful and lowly illegitimate son of the Xie family, lifted her veil with his sword.

Beneath the candlelight, the stunning young man curled his lips into a faint smile. His eyes were dark as ink, filled with a sick, frenzied obsession.

"Yinyin, you wanted power, so I seized it all and laid it at your feet. But why won't you love me? If that's how it is, then I'll take everything you care about. In this life, you can only be my wife, Xie Huai's."

Male lead's perspective:

Xie Huai believed Wen Dai was gentle and kind. Even when he was mired in the mud, she always treated him with tenderness. He desperately wanted to hold on to that ray of light.

But then he suddenly realized that everything she had done was for the sake of his elder brother. He was nothing but a pawn she could discard whenever she pleased.

Xie Huai hated her. If she had used him, why hadn't she used him all the way?

But he loved her too, so much that he wished their flesh and bones could become one.

So he endured and bided his time, determined to leave her without support or a way out, with no choice but to sink with him in his love.

Theme: Take love seriously.