After Becoming a Widow, I Became My Late Husband's Mistress

[Next up: "Surrendering Myself." Please add it to your favorites~]

A countryside romance plus a capital-city pursuit of the wife

A powerful regent x a widowed country woman raising a child

Crown Prince Pei Hu defeats the enemy army, but is ambushed on his way back to the capital. The crown prince dies, and all his subordinates are killed. When the emperor hears the devastating news, he coughs up blood and dies, leaving an edict naming his illegitimate eldest son as his successor.

Yet the crown prince, who should have inherited the throne but was supposedly hacked to pieces by the enemy, suddenly appears in a rural village. The locals call him a "country bumpkin." He remembers neither what happened to him nor who he is. There, he meets and falls in love with the country woman who rescued him, and they marry.

A year later, he is found and returns to the capital as Prince Qian, overseeing the state as regent and holding great power. He remembers who he is and why he was injured, but has forgotten everything about the country woman. He often wonders where he went during that missing year, and who the indistinct figure in his dreams might be.

*

Lu Yuezhao is a beautiful young widow from the countryside, with a little "burden" in tow. The villagers say her husband died and that they were once deeply in love. She was injured while pregnant, and when she awoke, she remembered everything except that she had a husband. She has no idea how the two of them fell in love or married, or even had a child.

Later, by a twist of fate, she rescues someone. Others tell her he is the regent himself. She cannot understand the look in his eyes, nor why he insists that she become his woman.

"Would the prince really risk his reputation by taking a widow as his mistress?"

Only later does she learn that she saved him twice.

Bonus Scene 1:

Prince Qian’s subordinate one: "Didn’t the prince keep hinting to Lord Zhang that he should protect his official reputation and future, and not get entangled with a widow? So why is he himself..."

Prince Qian’s subordinate two: "Ahem, ahem... We mustn’t speak of it."

Bonus Scene 2:

After making love, Pei Hu holds Lu Yuezhao tightly in his arms. His eyes are tinged red as he kisses the top of her head and murmurs, "Can you stop loving him? Please?"

Lu Yuezhao’s eyelids grow heavy. She forces herself to ask, "Hmm? What did you say, Your Highness? I didn’t hear you."

Pei Hu: "...Never mind."

Reader’s Guide:

1. Single-couple romance.

2. The leads are not perfect and have their flaws.

3. One of the story’s tags is "ensemble cast." Important supporting characters will have some storylines of their own.

4. Amnesia melodrama. The blurb has already made it clear.

Screenshot archived on 2025.1.8

, The following is the preview blurb for "Surrendering Myself",

[Coercive seduction] [Angst and groveling] [Bittersweet] [Intense push and pull]

A princess of the Northern Dynasty and a favored consort of the Southern Dynasty x an abandoned son of a Northern noble family and a demon Daoist of the Southern Dynasty

One seems unwaveringly devoted, but is secretly a former actress; the other seems elegant and immaculate, but is secretly dark and twisted.

Someone is locked away in the depths of the Southern Qi palace: a beautiful woman. Less than a month after entering the palace, Consort Yun has been tormented into a grave illness, lying at death’s door. She is nothing like the woman who arrived for the political marriage, radiant and full of life.

At just this time, strange incidents plague the Southern Qi harem. Vengeful spirits and evil forces are suspected, and rumors spread through the palace, leaving everyone on edge. The foolish and incompetent emperor summons the imperial preceptor to perform rites, hoping to ward off disaster and dispel evil. When the ceremony ends, the divination lots all point to one person: Yun Wanzhuang, the princess of Northern Yan.

At her first sight of Lan Ji, Yun Wanzhuang is struck by his moonlit grace and crane-like elegance, so different from the treacherous, sycophantic demon Daoist of the rumors, said to have bewitched the emperor.

But so what? He has come to kill her.

Beneath the moonlight, she tears off the talismans on her body. Her garments slip halfway off, revealing layers of crimson gauze that frame her alluring figure. Her cheeks are flushed, but her face is deathly pale, a captivating contrast of cold and alluring, snow and rosy color.

"Imperial Preceptor, have you seen clearly whether I am the demon you claim I am?"

Yet he is so free of desire and worldly thoughts that, if she had not later tried every trick in the book, she might really have thought him a holy man of otherworldly grace!

On the night they consummate their affair, she clings to his back and lets him carry her to the heights of pleasure, but still sheds tears that stir his pity. "You’re so good to me, so why do you still want me dead...?"

For just one moment, she catches the pity that flashes through his lust-filled eyes.

That is enough. It’s all she needs!

By day, she is an ailing, unloved consort held in someone else’s power. By night, she gives herself to the demon Daoist of an enemy nation, becoming his captive beneath him. With a touch of his sympathy and her peerless acting, Yun Wanzhuang manages to save her life.

Until one day, she discovers that he is not what he seems. His aloof, serene temperament and his moonlit, noble manner are all a lie!

The skeletal monster beneath his disguise is so terrifying that she cannot even tell whether he is the one secretly obstructing her journey home, which seems so close yet is repeatedly thwarted.

It turns out he had discovered her secret long ago.

Well, in that case, he can only die. All that tenderness and affection, all those passionate embraces, she takes it all back!

But she never expects that, after returning to her homeland, the demon Daoist she had once plotted to kill will appear before her again. This time, he is the one clinging to life, the one fallen into the dirt, and the one red-eyed and begging her for even the smallest scrap of pity and compassion.

Yun Wanzhuang: You don’t really think we were together, do you?

Lan Ji: So she was only pretending to love me...

Reader’s Guide:

1. Single-couple romance.

2. Includes male rivalry over the female lead.

3. A battle of acting between the leads, with bittersweet, intense push and pull. Who is the better actor?

4. The leads will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. They are neither perfect nor saints, and sometimes their sense of morality is even in the negative.

5. The main story remains serious in tone. Set in a fictional world inspired by the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, with invented details, so please don’t nitpick historical accuracy. Ensemble cast.

[Add it to your favorites in advance!]

The title and blurb may be changed later, but the story will remain the same.

Screenshots archived on 2025.1.19, 2025.2.23, and 2025.3.23

Theme: Be self-reliant and persevere through hardship