Steal the Moon

Prince Ning's heir, Xiao Yunheng, is ambushed and badly wounded. He escapes his pursuers only because a country girl saves him.

To conceal his identity, he calls himself Han Yun.

Later, to keep up the pretense, he marries the girl.

But even after they marry, he thinks Mingyue knows nothing of etiquette, poetry, or music.

A coarse, clumsy country girl like her is no match for him.

When he finally finds a chance to leave, Xiao Yunheng slips away without a sound...

Mingyue saves a badly wounded man.

She tends to him with care, asking after his comfort and health.

He teaches her to read, holding her hand as he guides her stroke by stroke to write her name.

As they spend their days together, feelings inevitably bloom in secret.

But their difference in status weighs on Mingyue, and she keeps those feelings buried in her heart.

Then Han Yun says he wants to marry her. Mingyue blushes and nods.

Mingyue thinks she and Han Yun will spend their lives in harmony, their hearts in accord.

But one day, as rain pours down, he says he is going out to buy her favorite pastries.

She never sees the pastries. Instead, she hears that the mountain road was slippery in the rain and Han Yun fell into a bottomless ravine.

Mingyue falls gravely ill. When she wakes, she can no longer see.

When Xiao Yunheng sees Mingyue again, her eyes are vacant. She holds her young brother's hand and asks the yamen constables if they have heard of a man named Han Yun.

Out of gratitude, he buys her a small courtyard in the capital.

When asked about it, he replies, "She was my late elder brother's wife. It is only right that I look after her."

Xiao Yunheng often visits the courtyard. Mingyue always sits quietly on a stool, making knotted ornaments.

He remembers how, before their wedding, she sat just like that, quietly embroidering her wedding dress, her heart full of hope.

Her younger brother asks innocently, "Sister, when are we going home?"

She takes out a handkerchief and wipes his sweat. "We'll go home once we find Brother Yun."

She raises her eyes, seeming to look toward him. A brilliant glimmer, like a gemstone, shines in them. "Sir, have you heard any news of Brother Yun?"

She has never believed her Han Yun is dead.

A lie is still a lie. When it is exposed, Mingyue's heart turns to ashes.

She was simply foolish. Someone had coaxed her, and she had believed them.

The carriage bound for Tanxi Village is stopped outside the capital.

In the cold rain, Xiao Yunheng grits his teeth and flings open the carriage curtain.

In the corner, Mingyue holds her brother close. In her arms is Han Yun's memorial tablet: the tablet of the Han Yun who taught her to read and write her name, and who had been dead all along.

Reading Guide:

* One-on-one romance, both leads' first relationship.

Coming Soon 1: Marrying My Cousin Again [Both Reborn]

Jiang Qinghe was born into a family of scholars. She was beautiful as a celestial maiden, with a clever and virtuous heart.

After her parents died, her uncle took advantage of the fact that there were no sons in Jiang Qinghe's branch of the family. He colluded with the clan elders to seize the family estate, taking back the properties her father had acquired.

Lost and helpless, Jiang Qinghe takes her young sister to the capital to seek refuge with the Dowager Lady of the Marquis of Jining's household.

The Dowager Lady loves the sisters as if they were her own granddaughters. If that incident had never happened, when Jiang Qinghe came of age, the Dowager Lady would have arranged for her to marry the third son of the Right Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial.

But fate takes a sudden turn.

On the Dowager Lady's sixtieth birthday, Jiang Qinghe is set up and becomes intimate with Xu Huaishu, the heir to the marquisate.

When everyone bursts in, she is dazed and disheveled, clinging to Xu Huaishu as she shyly calls him "Cousin."

After such a scandal, the marriage the Dowager Lady had arranged for the sisters is naturally called off.

The wedding to Xu Huaishu is simple, with none of the traditional betrothal gifts or rites. Their life together afterward is equally muddled.

The Dowager Lady is so devastated that she can barely hold her head up. She is miserable every day and dies within a couple of years.

Her younger sister, Jiang Shuangjiang, suffers for her too, enduring everyone's gossip until she finally shaves her head and becomes a nun, spending her days before the Buddha.

When Jiang Qinghe opens her eyes again, she has returned to the age of sixteen.

The Dowager Lady is still in good health, and Shuangjiang is still innocent, carefree, and naive.

She is not yet the shameless vixen outsiders call a social climber who married above her station.

She can still choose a different path...

Coming Soon 2: My Sister A Yao

Female lead's perspective:

Three days after the wedding, on the customary visit to her parents' home, the carriage slowly enters the alley. Shen Yao gently lifts the curtain and looks outside.

High gray-tiled walls line both sides of the alley. Her older brother stands solemnly at the doorway.

Shen Yao lets the curtain fall and smooths the front of her already neat robe.

Once the carriage stops, Cui Nian'an settles her cloak around her and helps her down.

Shen Yao lowers her head bashfully, the corners of her mouth lifting.

Qin Lin's eyes darken. He says softly, "You're back."

Male lead's perspective:

On the third-day visit, A Yao is dressed in bright red. Her dark hair is styled in a falling-horse bun, and the pomegranate flower ornament set with rubies makes her skin look as smooth as jade.

His little sister is graceful and lovely, and Cui Nian'an is refined and handsome. What a perfect pair, matched like pearls and jade.

Qin Lin looks up. The spring sunlight glitters with a cold light, dazzling his eyes.

Qin Lin suddenly recalls that night. He had drunk himself senseless and lain on the bed, unconscious.

In a haze, someone changed his clothes, soiled with filth, and wiped his face.

That person leaned down slightly and touched the corner of his lips ever so lightly.

The faint scent of gardenias lingered around him and refused to fade.

The next day, he pretended to speak casually to Shen Yao. "You're grown up now. It's time I found you an older sister-in-law."

He only remembers the chopsticks in A Yao's hand falling to the ground with a sharp clatter.

Coming Soon 3: Beauty Broken

Youlan is a maid serving the First Madam of the prominent Shen family of Gusu. She is beautiful as a celestial maiden, elegant and refined.

But however beautiful she may be, she is still only a maid, with no say at all in her own marriage.

Having seen too many cases of men taking women by force and forcing them into marriage,

Youlan constantly reminds herself to keep a low profile and stay out of sight,

seeking neither wealth nor status, only a peaceful, stable life.

At the New Year's Eve banquet, Youlan accompanies the First Madam, whose skirt has been splashed with water, back to her room to change.

Hurrying along, she runs straight into the Third Master, who is coming out of the covered walkway.

The stench of wine on him makes Youlan's stomach churn.

The Third Master repeatedly apologizes to the First Madam, but his eyes keep wandering to Youlan's face, and a smug smile plays on his lips.

That nausea sticks in Youlan's throat, neither rising nor going down. She cannot even spit it out.

After that, Youlan deliberately avoids the Third Master.

But how can she keep out of his way forever?

After the first month of the new year, the First Madam smiles and congratulates her.

She says the Old Madam wants to take a concubine for the Third Master and has chosen Youlan, who is obedient and gentle.

Youlan is struck dumb, as if by a bolt from a clear sky.

Shen Huaixin, the eldest young master of the Shen family of Gusu, is naturally intelligent and exceptionally perceptive. After several years in government, he has become an expert at protecting himself.

And yet this man, who is so good at looking after his own interests, steps in where he should not.

At the New Year's Eve banquet, he happens to see the lecherous old man from the Third Branch deliberately bump into the beautiful little maid from the First Branch.

Later, the lecher goes to the Old Madam and asks her to give him the little maid as a concubine.

Everyone in the room watches in silence, eyes lowered. Not one person speaks up for the maid.

It is none of his concern, really. But he remembers how the little maid looked that night, trying not to throw up while hiding from everyone.

He decides to help her...

Theme: Be self-reliant and stand on your own feet even in adversity