Stealing My Sister-in-Law (GL)

[Going VIP on August 1; 10,000 words on release day.]

[Two updates the day after going VIP: 00:00–12:00, midnight reincarnation time]

[Note: Chapters 25–61 will be locked retroactively.]

[Thanks for your support! Occasional revisions and typo fixes.]

[Blurb]

Unhinged powerful minister Xiao Yunshuang X eldest princess Li Changle

During the Lantern Festival, as the city’s lights first began to shine, Xiao Yunshuang caught sight of Li Changle amid the bustling crowd and fell for her at once. From then on, she was deeply in love. There was a beauty whose face one could never forget after seeing her...

Later, at a palace banquet, Li Changle fell victim to a plot by Zheng Mingzhu, one of the emperor’s consorts. Drugged and fleeing in a panic, she hid among the rocks in the imperial garden, where she happened to run into Xiao Yunshuang.

She clutched Xiao Yunshuang’s sleeve, her voice trembling. “My lord, please save me. I’ve been drugged...”

Overcome with desire, Xiao Yunshuang immediately took her to a room hidden within the palace’s secret passageways.

After their wild night together, afraid that the truth would come out, Xiao Yunshuang hurried back to the banquet, leaving Li Changle asleep alone.

When Li Changle woke, still dazed, she mistook Xiao Yunshuang for her older brother, Xiao Jingteng.

Believing it was her brother who had saved her, she immediately begged the emperor to arrange their marriage.

When Xiao Yunshuang heard about it, how could she let the woman she loved marry someone else, even if that someone was her own brother?

One thought sent her down a dark path. She plotted to make her brother incapable of having children, finally forcing the emperor to change the betrothal and give Li Changle to her instead.

But Li Changle remained trapped in that misunderstanding from beginning to end. She kept her distance from Xiao Yunshuang, the person who had truly saved her and committed terrible sins for her...

In the winter of Jinghe Year Five, the history books of the Great Liang recorded:

Regent Xiao Yunshuang stood in for her brother at his wedding, and the officials offered their congratulations.

No one knew what happened that night when the wedding sedan reached Vermilion Bird Gate.

Xiao Yunshuang pointed her sword at the bride, her brother’s lawful wife, the reigning eldest princess Li Changle.

Smiling, she pressed a poisoned silver hairpin against her own heart:

Yunshuang, if you kill me, the whole court will tear you to pieces!

If you don’t, I’ll make sure you spend eternity in hell!

The official histories recorded only this:

Regent Xiao Yunshuang stood in for her brother and welcomed his bride.

The brother she stood in for was impotent.

The bride she welcomed was a sister-in-law who held power over the entire court.

And what she tore away was the mask of ruler and subject!

P.S.:

1. Wei-Jin-era spirit and bearing, combined with Tang-Song institutions

2. Same-sex marriage is legal in this setting

3. Angst first, sweetness later; love and hate intertwined, with misunderstandings resolved.

4. Written to suit particular tastes; spectacularly melodramatic and old-school

Theme: Going against the current