After Pretending with the General Turned Real

A proud, aristocratic young nobleman x a brilliant, free-spirited young general

Wei Qi was born into nobility as a member of the imperial family. Handsome and striking, he had an elegant bearing, yet in the twenty-seventh year of Yuanchun, he died a grisly death in the damp, gloomy imperial prison, never knowing who had killed him.

Eight years earlier, the Princess's residence was implicated in a conspiracy behind Beilin's defeat. It fell from grace overnight. The princess's husband took his own life in the imperial prison, the Grand Princess withdrew to a Buddhist shrine to spend her days before the Buddha, and Wei Qi's elder brother was so sickly that he coughed up blood every few steps. The vast Princess's residence was left with no one but him.

He was furious. He could not accept it.

In his previous life, he traveled north and south to uncover the truth, hoping only to clear the Princess's residence of its false accusations and restore its good name.

But obstacle after obstacle stood in his way. His family hid the truth, old acquaintances hunted him, and his subordinates betrayed him. They all drove him to the edge of a cliff, and in the end he died in the imperial prison without ever learning why.

Perhaps his resentment was too deep for him to enter the cycle of rebirth. When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to three years earlier, before anything had happened.

This time, when he was attacked, he decisively killed the subordinate who had betrayed him.

Afterward, battered and exhausted, he lay in the muddy, filthy water, straining to lift his head and clutch the hem of the person before him. With difficulty, he managed a few words: "Save me..."

Those words saved his life, and brought him into an alliance with the Beilin general. Together, they stirred up the capital's political scene and dug into the secrets of five years ago.

Everything was going smoothly, except... why did the general look at him so strangely?

At last, the man came to see him.

"How about we make a deal, Young Master Wei?"

Wei Qi: "?"

"What if we got married?"

Wei Qi: "..." He's crazy.

*

To better avoid suspicion and make things easier, Wei Qi accepted the other man's proposal. They got engaged, married, and went through the wedding ceremony and wedding night in one seamless rush.

He thought it was just a mutually beneficial deal, nothing more than pretending for appearances.

But on their wedding night, Wei Qi found himself pinned to the bed, bewildered, as the figure drew closer. His mind nearly short-circuited, and he could hardly react.

Wait, weren't they just pretending? Get any closer and this will stop being an act!!

In the dimly lit bridal chamber, red candles flickered behind the bed curtains.

The man leaned over him and brushed their cheeks together. "We've completed the wedding ceremony today, but we still have the wedding night ahead of us."

"Wei Qi, whether you think I'm sincere or using you, I've been plotting this with you in mind for a long time."

*

An alternate-history setting. There may be inconsistencies, so don't scrutinize the details.

Qi is pronounced yin, second tone; Ren is pronounced ren, second tone.

Theme: Anchor yourself in your convictions and temper your resilience through hardship