After Being Forced to Become My Brother-in-Law's Favorite Concubine

Female lead's perspective:

As the least favored illegitimate daughter in the Minister of Revenue's household, Gu Xia had her marriage arranged by her stepmother early on.

Although her betrothed was poor and only a licentiate, Gu Xia still looked forward to growing up, getting married, and leaving her family as soon as possible.

Who would have thought that on the eve of her elder sister's wedding, her sister would abruptly ruin Gu Xia's engagement, demote her to a concubine accompanying the bride, and bring her along to Prince Rui's manor?

From wife to concubine, her life and livelihood were no longer in her own hands. Gu Xia's heart turned to ashes.

But what is going on with this heir to Prince Rui's title? Doesn't he have to spend time with his primary wife? Why is he always hanging around in her courtyard?

Male lead's perspective:

Su Yu was a prince's grandson, but he carried a blood feud. While searching for his father's killer, he met the love of his life.

But their stations were worlds apart, and the woman he loved was already betrothed.

Just as Su Yu was about to give up, the elder sister of the woman he loved saw how he felt and came to him.

To avoid misunderstandings, here are two important spoilers!

1. The female lead has no feelings for her betrothed. No feelings at all. They've barely even met! The engagement is part of her stepmother's scheme, which will be revealed gradually.

2. The female and male leads love each other. But the female lead doesn't know his identity.

Now, let me tell you how this story came about. This is something I wrote in the final chapter, but I've moved it up here.

This story was flawed from the start.

At first, I only planned to follow the trend and write a short, satisfying revenge story.

For some reason, around that time I kept seeing short videos about illegitimate younger sisters becoming their elder sisters' husbands' concubines.

They were all similar: the elder sister couldn't have children, so she used her younger sister to bear a child for her. Then the younger sister died in childbirth and was reborn to take revenge, or she discovered her sister's intentions and deliberately seduced her brother-in-law to compete for his favor, and so on.

After seeing so many, I complained to a friend that all these stories followed the same formula, and that they must be so easy to write. Then I thought, if they're all formulaic, I can write one too. The template is right there. Easy.

So I got started. But as I wrote, I kept thinking, there's a loophole here that I need to fill; this part won't work, so I need to add something. The word count kept growing and growing...

By the time I realized I couldn't actually write this kind of formulaic wish-fulfillment story, the word count had already piled up. I'd written about 50,000, nearly 60,000 characters. I thought, I'd already written it, so I shouldn't waste it. I might as well throw everything out and start over. I couldn't discard the core premise of becoming one's brother-in-law's concubine, though, and that's how this story came to be.

The premise really isn't popular, so the male lead is quite easy to hate at the start. I saw lots of people cursing him in the comments, on other platforms too, and he did deserve it. But the author deserves the blame, not the characters! Please don't curse them!

I've done my best to tie everything together since then. I don't know if I've managed it; those of you who finish the story can tell me in the comments.

My next book will also be historical romance.

Title: Your Highness Thinks He's Fallen for Men

Also known as: How to Make My Young Companion Fall for Men, The Mad Prince's Daily Meltdowns, or How Can a Sudden Arrival Compare to a Childhood Friend?

It's a sweet little story too, about childhood sweethearts and a woman disguised as a man.

Lin Yi: I've fallen for men. What should I do? A Yan, we're all good brothers, so you have to fall for men with me.

Ye Qingyan: Thanks for asking, but I'm a woman, so I can't.

Theme: May you find someone who loves only you