A Lover Entangled in Drama

[Cool, calculating beauty × brooding, frail heir × upright, devoted gentleman]

Song Wan was forced to take her older sister's place and marry the frail heir, Shen Zhan, to bring him good fortune. She refused to resign herself to becoming a widow before her wedding night, so she did everything she could to cure Shen Zhan, then used every trick she knew to tempt and tease him. She refused to believe he was as cold and aloof as the rumors claimed.

But the shadow of a dark soul kept appearing in her dreams. Red candles flickered, her hair came loose, and an unspoken passion stirred between them.

Then, at a family banquet one night, the man who should have been in the underworld appeared, tall and elegant beneath the bright lights. Her frail husband called him "little brother."

Later, Shen Xing closed in on her step by step, blocking every escape. His burning breath brushed her neck. "Sister-in-law, you don't have a heart, do you? Have you really forgotten what we had?"

She pressed her fingertips to his chest and pushed him back, smiling with pursed lips. "It was just the thoughtless talk of youth. Don't take it seriously, Second Brother."

*

After his dreams had faded and he had reached a dead end, Shen Xing thought he would never see her again.

Until, after a long and difficult journey back to the manor, he saw her at a family banquet, head bowed, smiling before she spoke, leaning against his frail older brother.

By day, watching her and his brother live in perfect harmony, Shen Xing felt so jealous he was about to go mad.

But at night, her eyes were dewy with longing as she called his name in a trembling voice. In her dreams, she was reckless and delirious, unable to love or hate without becoming entangled with him.

Though jealousy and resentment surged in his heart, he hid his obsession and madness before her, gritting his teeth as he said, "You can think of me as him..."

She hurriedly turned her head to avoid him, never seeing the graceful figure in a blue robe behind the beaded curtain.

Shen Xing, however, calmly fastened his lapel, leaned down to breathe in her scent, and held himself in a pose for a kiss as he glanced toward the person behind the curtain.

"Or... have you always thought of him as me, Wan'er?"

She was sharp, cold, greedy, and a habitual liar.

He ought to resent her, hate her, and look down on her.

But he wanted only her.

- The heroine is a scheming, capable villainess. She has flaws, but she's not wicked.

- Both brothers are the male leads, with equal roles. One-on-one romance at different stages.

- Neither the heroine nor the male leads have past sexual partners. Powerful men will grovel and back down.

--- Next Novel: The Graceful Lady and Her Mad Dog ---

In her past life, Xiao Yufu had never paid any attention to Xiao Tan, the son of her father's mistress. Besides, the methods he used to rise from a hated, brutal official to a powerful minister at the very peak of his career were hardly honorable.

As for her, she had married a handsome man from a family of equal standing. She and her husband treated each other with respect, and her mother-in-law was kind. Her only regret was that she had never had a child.

Miaoyuan Temple was an ancient monastery with a thousand years of history, and prayers for children there were said to be especially effective. Yufu lifted her skirt and knelt sincerely on a prayer mat. As she raised her eyes in a daze, she felt, for some reason, a dark, sticky gaze pass over every inch of her body. Even the compassion of the buddhas seemed somehow twisted.

Behind the statue, a young man's murky gaze stayed fixed on Xiao Yufu through a narrow hole.

Beneath the lofty coffered ceiling, sandalwood incense spiraled upward. Her sincere face glowed with a faint, soft light. When he heard what she was silently praying for, he pressed his lips together, and an overwhelming possessiveness swept over him.

A bodyguard asked, "My lord, will Miss Fu's prayer come true?"

Xiao Tan's gaze darkened. "Yes."

The bodyguard continued, "Then should we stop giving Miss Fu's husband the medicine that prevents pregnancy?"

After a pause, Xiao Tan replied in a calm, icy voice, "Kill him."

*

After Xiao Yufu died unjustly, her spirit wandered the world. She saw her usually stern, taciturn younger brother emerge from her husband's home with a knife in hand, standing tall on the bloodstained jade steps. He looked up at the sky full of ashes and softly said, "I've avenged you."

Reborn, she returned to the time before her marriage. Young Xiao Tan was still in the carriage her father had brought him to the Xiao residence in.

She sincerely protected him as his legitimate elder sister, sparing him from being looked down upon and teaching him to fit into the great aristocratic families. She raised him into a peerless gentleman whom the noble families praised without end.

Yufu decided she couldn't be an annoying older sister, so before arranging a marriage for her younger brother, she had to marry first.

But one night, she woke up in a strange secret chamber. Her usually docile younger brother radiated an intense air of aggression. He approached her step by step from the darkness, holding the letter she had written to the palace graduate.

"You promised you wouldn't abandon me. You promised that as long as I..." He pressed close to her neck, breathing in her scent. His eyes were dark and bloodshot, filled with a kind of sick obsession. "We were already husband and wife in our past life, Fu'er. Where do you think you're going now?"

Xiao Yufu: "... ?"

Theme: Learn to be patient, wait for the right opportunity, and build strength over time.