The Whole Capital Says She Married Above Her Station

Gu Ying has a slender willow-like waist and eyes that ripple like autumn waters. One glance is enough to make it impossible to look away. Anyone who has seen her will privately joke that even though she entered the wealthy Xu family as a concubine's daughter, dragged along by Wan Niang, once famous throughout Jiangnan, she must have been raised as a courtesan from childhood.

Gu Ying grew up hearing the gossip, but in the end she could not escape her fate: her adoptive father took her to the capital to give her away as a gift.

Fortunately, Heaven had mercy. At a private banquet, Gu Ying was found to look almost exactly like the late Marchioness of Huai'an. Since the legitimate eldest daughter of the Huai'an Marquis's household had gone missing as a child, Gu Ying was welcomed back into the family in her place.

As the eldest young lady of the Huai'an Marquis's household, she was also betrothed from childhood to Chen Yanqing, heir to the Duke of Xinguo.

Gu Ying clung to Chen Yanqing as if he were her lifeline, and in one leap became the envied wife of the Duke of Xinguo's heir.

She tried her hardest to be a good wife and to please her husband, Chen Yanqing. She poured all her effort into warming that stone of a man, hoping he would not regret marrying her.

Only on her deathbed did she finally realize that Chen Yanqing's heart was cold through and through. Even if someone could warm it, that person would never be her.

Reborn, Gu Ying no longer wants to warm that cold stone.

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

But the emperor decreed their marriage, and he could not defy the order. He had already decided to deliberately humiliate Xie Yingshi, so that everyone would know he disliked the match.

And so he did. He thought Xie Yingshi would rely on her status as a princess and, in anger, move into the Princess's Residence.

Instead, she endured everything he did to her. Even when he repeatedly took her apart and treated her like a plaything, she only wept and begged him to go easy on her.

Looking at Xie Yingshi, Song Yu assumed that her aunt, the empress, had told her to feign affection for him so she could spy on his military intelligence or assassinate him.

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

If he had not known that Xie Yingshi had cried and protested when the emperor arranged their marriage, and that she had once been destined to become the Crown Princess, he might almost have believed she had truly fallen in love with him.

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

Realizing that all her actions were merely an act, that her affection was false and she treated serving him as a job, his eyes filled with coldness.

No one had ever dared to humiliate him like this.

Ever since she was a child, Yingshi had known she was destined to marry Crown Prince Brother and become the Crown Princess.

But before the decree came, rumors began to spread in and outside the palace that her imperial uncle, the emperor, planned to make her a princess and marry her off to the heir of the formidable Prince of Yanbei, sending her far away to Yanbei.

Yingshi went crying to her aunt, the empress. Her aunt had always doted on her, but now she merely wiped the tears from Yingshi's eyes and said nothing about sending her away from the capital to marry.

Her aunt's attitude only deepened Yingshi's worries. Several times, she woke in the middle of the night from dreams, crying over her grievances.

Then one day, a dilapidated palace appeared in her dream. A woman lay on the bed, pale as a shroud, her face yellow and gaunt, looking like a madwoman. That woman was none other than herself.

In the dream, she was in Jinling. She had gotten her wish and become Crown Princess and then empress, but she was now in the Southern Zhou dynasty.

A palace maid came in to report, "Your Majesty, I thought I should let you know. Three days ago, the emperor made the Second Princess the Princess of Deyang and married her off to the old Prince of the Southwest as his second wife. But don't worry. Though 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 is a rare chance for Southern Zhou to catch its breath. Once the princess marries him, the Prince of the Southwest will certainly join Southern Zhou in resisting the Prince of Yanbei."

The scene shifted. Xie Yingshi was once again dressed in finery, and the palace before her was no longer the same dilapidated cold palace. The middle-aged Crown Prince Zhou Rang, dressed in imperial robes, knelt before her in fear and pleaded, "Yingshi, the Prince of the Southwest has betrayed us and submitted to the Prince of Yan! Save your cousin, please. Your cousin will give you to the Prince of Yan. Father intended to make you a princess and betroth you to him all along. You were always meant to be his woman. Your cousin will give you back to him."

Xie Yingshi did not know why she had such a terrifying dream. Every time she thought of it, panic gripped her heart.

She did not want to become that pitiful woman. So she would do her best to be a proper princess consort to the heir of the Prince of Yanbei. That would only take a little acting and some patience.

Theme: Only by seeing everything clearly can you begin again.