The Great General's Widowed Sister-in-Law

[Delicate, Lovely Younger Sister-in-Law x Stern, Ruthless Elder Brother-in-Law]

On the night of their wedding, Jiang Suyun's husband was called up to war, where he died on the battlefield.

Fortunately, Heaven took pity on her. Her late husband had been an illegitimate son of the Duke's household, so she was welcomed back as a widow and treated kindly.

Knowing she was a country girl, Jiang Suyun trod carefully at her late husband's funeral.

A kind servant woman pointed to the man seated at the head of the room, in a tall hat and dark robe, and quietly warned her:

"That is the heir, General Zhenyuan. You are now his younger brother's widowed wife. Always remember your station. Show him respect, and keep your distance."

Her elder brother-in-law, Qin Xiaozhou, was strikingly handsome, but surrounded by a murderous aura.

Even a glance at him was enough to make Jiang Suyun tremble with fear.

Yet the more careful she was, the more things went wrong.

Before her late husband's coffin, she stumbled and fell right against Qin Xiaozhou.

Jiang Suyun's legs went weak. She waited for the general to berate her,

but instead her brother-in-law gently helped her up.

Then he bent down, picked up the white flower that had fallen from her hair, and placed it in her palm.

"Careful."

Qin Xiaozhou was a man of principle,

strict and self-disciplined, and a stickler for rules.

His concern for his younger brother's widow

was simply the care and compensation owed by an elder brother.

Even when she stumbled into his arms before his brother's coffin,

her slender waist graceful, her red lips parted, fear barely concealed in her almond eyes,

he thought nothing of it.

But from then on, his sister-in-law began to avoid him.

Whether the matter was important or trivial, inside the household or out,

even when circumstances left her no choice but to meet him, she always kept her head bowed and never once met his eyes.

Qin Xiaozhou pressed his furrowed brow and thought,

He was her late husband's elder brother, and she was his late brother's widow. Avoiding each other whenever possible was the proper thing to do.

Then, on the anniversary of his younger brother's birth, rumors spread outside the household that the man might not be dead.

Jiang Suyun packed her belongings that very night, preparing to travel alone to the borderlands in search of her husband.

In the pouring rain, Qin Xiaozhou caught her by the waist.

That night, in the secluded courtyard where the young madam lived as a widow, the door to the small ancestral shrine stood ajar.

Jiang Suyun was pressed down onto a prayer mat, overcome with shame as she bowed her head and sobbed,

only for Qin Xiaozhou to forcefully lift her chin from behind.

He made her look at her late husband's memorial tablet on the altar, and kissed her earlobe.

"Say it again. Do you love me, or him?"

-SC, HE

Theme: Growing resiliently through adversity