A Widow-to-Be, Yet Everyone's Favorite

◎ Fake Everyone's Least Favorite, Actually Everyone's Beloved · A Battle Royale for Her Affections Before Nan Liujing could even marry into the family, her betrothed died Pei Liuyu, the most doted-on youngest son of the Pei family, had plunged off a cliff while searching for a spiritual medicine for her. His body was never found. At the funeral, Pei Liuyu's closest friends and family looked at her as if she were some ill-omened object. “Liuyu treasured you above all else,” his elder brother said calmly, each word like a blade. “Yet you won't even accompany him on the road to the afterlife?” The princess who loved Pei Liuyu gave a cold laugh. “This woman should be skinned, have her tendons torn out, and be hacked to pieces a thousand times over. Only then will my anger be satisfied.” A young master of the Xiao family, who had been close to Pei Liuyu, went so far as to draw his dagger and try to kill her on the spot. That night, a blazing fire engulfed the building and drove Nan Liujing to the brink. Beneath the roaring flames, dressed in black, her pale skin luminous and her hair in disarray, she smiled brilliantly like a beautiful ghost from a painting. “How could it be enough for me to go see Liuyu alone?” “Everyone... care to join me?” * At death's door, Nan Liujing released a Gu worm called Du'e, binding her life to the lives of the three people who most wanted her dead. Forced by the Gu, they could no longer harm her in the slightest. Instead, they couldn't help drawing near, craving her scent, yearning for her touch, and begging for everything she had to offer. These exalted nobles, born of the imperial line, now had to wag their tails and plead with the lowly medicine slave they despised most... It should have been a mortifying disgrace, enough to grind their pride to dust! But gradually, Nan Liujing realized something was off. The young master of the Xiao family, who had repeatedly tried to kill her, now climbed through her window every night, locked an arm around her waist, and bit her earlobe as he demanded through gritted teeth, “Do you do this sort of thing with them, too?” The head of the Pei family, who was always accusing her of being unscrupulous, was Pei Liuyu's elder brother, a man as refined as the moon and wind and as powerful as any minister. Yet his hidden study was covered with portraits of her. He pinned her against one of them and kissed her startled eyes. “Take a guess: when do you think I had this room set up?” Even the “Princess Shou'an,” who had once made her life difficult at every turn, revealed that he was a man. He filled in her brows, powdered her face, draped a robe over her, and adorned her hair with flowers. Holding her up when she could barely stand, he led her in a bow to Heaven and Earth and the wedding elders. “From now on, whether you're human or ghost, I'll haunt you...” Wait, what happened to the mortifying disgrace? Why do they seem to be... enjoying this?! * Nan Liujing is afflicted with a deadly poison and has little time left. Du'e is her only chance at survival. It can't cure the poison, but it can make the people bound to her by the Gu contract die in her place. She gazed at the men fighting over her, each determined to make her his, and fell into thought. Which one should she choose as her sacrificial substitute? [An intensely survival-minded, frail beauty with a calculating streak ☀️] [Stoic General 🐺 & Aloof Beauty 🍵 & Cross-dressing Charmer 🦊] Reading notes: 1. One heroine and three love interests. The heroine and all the male leads are virgins. A battle royale for her affections. 2. Romance-focused, not a strong female lead or an empowering heroine story. 3. The heroine has memory loss; her perspective is subjective and not the full truth. The male leads loved her even before the Gu was planted, and the early chapters include unreliable narration. Blurb written on 2024.12.30 and saved as a screenshot; revised on 2025.12.13 Coming next: Miss Chen Is Up to Her Old Scams Again When Chen Xuanwei was mistaken for a charlatan and dragged to the execution platform, she caught sight of the imperial preceptor atop the jade steps. He wore a Taoist robe and had an ethereal, lofty bearing, aloof and otherworldly. Then she got a look at his face. He was unmistakably her late husband, a notorious liar who had been dead for a year! Desperate to stay alive, Chen Xuanwei put aside any thought of settling old scores and clung tightly to his immaculate robe. “If you don't save me, dear husband, I'll reveal all your dirty secrets. If I'm going to die, you're coming with me!” He lowered his eyes and gave her a cool, distant glance. In the end, though, he saved her life. From then on, the husband and wife became partners in crime, swindling their way through the imperial court and palace. Gradually, Chen Xuanwei realized that her husband had indeed come back to life, but he had grown rusty at conning people. Every time, she had to smooth things over for him. Afraid she'd get dragged down with him, Chen Xuanwei wanted to cut ties with him once and for all on countless occasions. But each night, behind the bed curtains, the man who seemed so untouchable by day would shed his aloofness, interlace his fingers with hers, and kiss away the sweat at her temples. “I'm sorry you had to cover for me again today, dear wife.” “What would I do without you?” Chen Xuanwei's heart would soften, and she could only teach him step by step and protect him. Until, several months later Her real dead husband, the twin brother of the imperial preceptor and a man with exactly the same face, walked into the capital alive. - Ying Zhuoxue was powerful and high-ranking, cold in both temperament and heart. He had been called the Jade-Faced Yama for over a decade, but never before had anyone stood up to protect him. This audacious female charlatan was actually the love debt his twin brother had left behind. The secret of the twins could not be revealed, so he had no choice but to play along and let his convenient sister-in-law mistake him for her husband. At first, Ying Zhuoxue thought of her as an inescapable nuisance. Later, he thought, How could that useless little brother of mine handle someone as irresistible and troublesome as Chen Xuanwei? I'm the only one fit to be there for her. Theme: Turn the tables when all seems lost, and never give up