My Wife Is Obsessed With Me, Yet She Keeps Treating Me as a Substitute

[Completed draft; opening in October. Please add it to your collection, QWQ]

[Male substitute] [Ex-wife pursuit] [Male lead suffers]

Jiang Lingqu was the daughter the Jiang family left behind in the countryside.

She had never been taught a lady's manners and knew nothing of etiquette, so she did not fit in among the noblewomen.

Wang Mingshen, the eldest legitimate grandson of a century-old aristocratic family, had been steeped in etiquette and propriety from childhood. He was cool and dignified.

At eighteen, he passed the palace examinations with distinction. His talent was dazzling, and his rise was meteoric, earning him ever greater imperial favor.

No one thought they were a good match.

But he looked so much like her older brother.

Longing to ease her lovesickness, Jiang Lingqu disregarded all propriety and pursued Wang Mingshen for three years.

Whenever she saw him, she gazed at his face with adoration.

She told him the red mole beneath his chin was beautiful, praised his eyes, and urged him to smile more.

Wang Mingshen ignored her completely, meeting her with a cold expression. Even when they had to meet, he addressed her only as Miss Jiang, as etiquette demanded.

He was distant and cold, his annoyance impossible to hide.

It was only after Jiang Lingqu took a knife meant for him and saved his face that he finally agreed to marry her.

On their wedding night, he looked at her coolly and said, "I'm only repaying your kindness."

Jiang Lingqu smiled and nodded, gazing intently at his face, her eyes full of love and joy.

People around town all said Jiang Lingqu was hopelessly in love with Wang Mingshen.

He was convinced of it.

-

Not long after they married.

To fulfill his duties as a husband, Wang Mingshen began coming home early, spending every night with her, paying attention to her likes, standing up for her, and indulging and pampering her more and more.

Sometimes at night, hearing her call him "Brother" in a hoarse, intimate voice made his heart feel as if it were immersed in spring water.

Until one day at a palace banquet.

The new top graduate entered in scarlet robes, dressed and styled just like Wang Mingshen had been in those days.

The young man's eyes shimmered with laughter. With a red mole beneath his chin, he cut a dashing figure, carefree and debonair.

Without exception, everyone at the banquet was watching him.

Wang Mingshen ignored him, intending to murmur to his wife as usual. Then he noticed that the woman who had always gazed at him with adoration was staring fixedly at the new top graduate, tears in her eyes as she softly called him "Brother."

Her expression was focused, her gaze ardent, her voice intimate.

Exactly the same way she acted toward him. No, it was even more sincere, passionate, and intense...

Wang Mingshen suddenly understood. He crushed the cup in his hand, and cracks spread across his usually composed face.

No wonder his wife treasured his face so much that she took a knife for him and got hurt. It was because that face was so much like the other man's.

No wonder his wife always covered his unsmiling eyes at night, made him put on scarlet robes, and kissed the mole beneath his chin again and again. It was because that was how he looked most like him.

All this time, she had been treating him as a substitute for another man.

-

A nobleman from a family of lofty standing had become a substitute for a poor commoner.

The capital was in an uproar. No one could believe it.

And they could even less believe that Wang Mingshen, a man of noble character, would later pursue his divorced wife by shamelessly becoming the other man in her relationship and resorting to the tactics of a brothel, doing everything against his principles.

All just to make her look back at him.

[Reader's Guide]

1. The male lead is a substitute. The heroine genuinely treats him as one at first, and her bond with her old flame is a pseudo-sibling relationship. Includes male romantic rivals.

2. The male lead pretends not to care. He falls for her early but refuses to admit it and is extremely stubborn. Includes an ex-wife pursuit arc.

3. Fictional setting. The government system, customs, and other details are a mixture of influences; everything serves the romance.

Theme: What can I use to make you stay?