Something Is Off About the Young Lady's Identity

In the eighteenth year of Jingning, Xie Nan accompanied her mother, Fu Qionghua, to the capital to visit her maternal grandmother, Old Madam Wei of the Duke of Anguo's residence, whom she had never met. She had no idea that she had already become entangled in a vast conspiracy.

The woman she had called Mother for nearly twenty years was not her birth mother at all, but her aunt. Back then, to secure a bright future for her own son, Fu Qionghua switched her newborn niece, the daughter of her elder brother and his wife, with her own son. From then on, Xie Nan, the legitimate eldest daughter of the Duke of Anguo's main branch, became merely the second young lady of the Xie family, a girl who had never won her mother's affection.

This time, Fu had come to the capital with an even more calculating plan: she wanted Xie Nan to become her son's bedmate. Even if the truth of Xie Nan's birth were exposed in the future, the Duke of Anguo's household would have no choice but to help cover it up. After all, Xie Nan, the legitimate eldest daughter of the main branch, was betrothed to the current Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace before either of them was born. The Duke of Anguo's household did not want to be implicated in the crime of deceiving the emperor, so they could only accept the arrangement. Unfortunately, the truth could not be hidden forever. Xie Nan had been the heir's wife for several years when her true birth was exposed. What awaited her was not the restoration of her rightful status, but a cup of poisoned wine from the Grand Empress Dowager, meant to conceal the scandal. After all, the Crown Prince from back then had become the new emperor. How could he allow someone like her to remain as a stain on his reputation?

Reborn, Xie Nan found herself on the way to the capital, right at the point when she was trying to figure out how to avoid the deadly fate she had suffered in her previous life. Who could have guessed that, while stopping to rest at a temple, she would encounter the Crown Prince returning to the capital after escorting his mentor's coffin to his ancestral home for the funeral? He was the fiancé to whom the emperor had betrothed her before their births. Not only that, she also stumbled upon the Crown Prince's greatest secret.

Announcement: Following my editor's notice, this novel will be available to read by subscription on December 16, 2023. There will be three chapters that day. I hope you'll show it lots of support!

I also recommend my friend's novel, The Intended Crown Princess Becomes a Prince's Secondary Wife. Please show it lots of support!

Blurb: At first, Song Yu had never considered marrying Xie Yingshi.

But the emperor granted their marriage, and he could not defy the imperial decree. He had already decided that he would deliberately humiliate Xie Yingshi so everyone in the land would know he disliked the match.

He did just that, thinking Xie Yingshi would rely on her status as a princess and storm off to live in the Princess's Residence in a fit of anger.

But to his surprise, she endured everything he did to her. Each time he took her apart and made her his, deliberately treating her like a plaything, she could only cry and beg him to spare her.

Looking at Xie Yingshi like this, Song Yu thought her aunt, the empress, must have told her to pretend to indulge him so she could learn military intelligence from him, or perhaps assassinate him.

Yet Xie Yingshi truly served him as her husband, without a trace of ulterior motive. She never showed the slightest jealousy toward the concubines in his household, either.

If he had not known that Xie Yingshi had cried and protested when the emperor arranged their marriage, and if he had not known that she had once been meant to marry the Crown Prince and become his crown princess, Song Yu might almost have believed that she had truly fallen in love with him.

Then he discovered that it was all because of a dream. She was only trying to survive, not because she loved him deeply.

Realizing that all her compliance had been nothing but calculated pretense, that she treated serving him as a job, his eyes filled with icy contempt.

No one had ever dared to humiliate him like this.

Ever since she was little, Yingshi had known that she would marry Crown Prince Brother and become his crown princess.

But before the imperial decree of betrothal arrived, rumors spread both inside and outside the palace that her imperial uncle, the emperor, planned to confer princesshood upon her and marry her off to the battle-hardened heir of the Prince of Yanbei, sending her far away to Yanbei.

In tears, Yingshi went to her aunt, the empress. Her aunt, who had always doted on her, merely wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and said nothing about sending her away from the capital to marry elsewhere.

Her aunt's attitude only added to Yingshi's worries. More than once, she woke in the middle of the night in tears, overcome by hurt.

Then one day, a dilapidated palace appeared in her dream. On the bed lay a woman, her face yellow and gaunt, clad in white as if in mourning, and looking almost like a madwoman. That woman was none other than Yingshi herself.

In the dream, she was in Jinling. She had become the Crown Princess and then the empress, just as she had wished, but she was now in the Southern Zhou dynasty.

A palace maid came in to report to her. "Your Majesty, this servant came especially to inform you that three days ago, His Majesty made the Second Princess the Princess Deyang and betrothed her to the elderly Prince of the Southwest as his second wife. But please do not worry. Although the old Prince of the Southwest is advanced in years, he knows how to treat a woman well. He will surely be good to the princess."

"You must understand that this marriage offers Southern Zhou a rare chance to catch its breath. Once the princess marries him, the Prince of the Southwest will surely join Southern Zhou in fighting the Prince of Yanbei."

The scene shifted. Xie Yingshi was dressed once more in splendid robes, and the palace before her was no longer the shabby, desolate palace from before. A middle-aged Crown Prince, Zhou Rang, wearing an imperial robe, knelt before her in terror and begged, "Yingshi, the Prince of the Southwest has broken his word and submitted to the Prince of Yan! Please save your cousin! Your cousin will send you to the Prince of Yan. Father had intended to make you a princess and betroth you to the Prince of Yan in the first place. You were always meant to be his woman. Your cousin will return you to him."

Xie Yingshi did not know why she had dreamed such a terrifying dream. Whenever she thought of it, her heart filled with unease.

She did not want to become that pitiful woman. So she would do her best to become a proper wife to the heir of the Prince of Yanbei. All it would take was a little acting and some patience.

Theme: Only by staying positive can you change your life.