After I Switched Brides and Married a Widower with Three Marriages and Kids

#A sweet, slice-of-life story about a marriage that turns to love. Please give it a home ^-^

Pauper Lin Yan transmigrates into the second daughter of the Lin family, a fourth-rank official's household. Her birth mother died young, and her father remarried. Life under her stepmother is miserable.

Fortunately, while her mother was still alive, she arranged a childhood betrothal for her. Her intended is a young lord from a noble family: a prestigious household where she'll want for nothing and have plenty of time and money.

She swallows her grievances and waits for marriage to escape this living hell.

But then her father gets embroiled in a corruption case. To protect himself, he decides to arrange a marriage alliance with the Jinyiwei investigator in charge of the case.

Zhao Changqi is a widower whose two previous wives both died, and he has a child in tow.

Her stepsister Lin Mengyao pretends to flatter their father and readily agrees, but behind his back, she starts scheming to switch the brides.

The sisters marry on the same day. When the bridal sedan chair lands, Lin Yan discovers she's been tricked. This isn't the Earl's residence, but the Zhao household.

This is outrageous!

She can take no more. She lifts her veil and turns to go back and demand an explanation, only to open the door straight into the impassive, demon-faced Zhao Changqi, a saber at his waist.

"You're not marrying me? Trying to break off the wedding?"

Lin Yan immediately loses her nerve and waves her hands. "Of course not! I just saw how generous your betrothal gifts were and thought I'd take them back... to spend myself."

If it's money she wants, that's easy.

Zhao Changqi has his men bring it all back, then lays his entire fortune before Lin Yan as well.

Well...

All right, then. For the money.

-

And so Lin Yan half-heartedly marries Zhao Changqi.

Her stepmother and stepsister expect her to die like his two previous wives. But six months, a year, two years later, she's not only alive and well, but her life keeps getting better.

Zhao Changqi earns the emperor's trust and rises to become head of the Jinyiwei. He has power and money, but there's just one problem:

He's too clingy!

The old man has just discovered the pleasures of the bedroom, and once he starts pestering her, he never stops.

At last, Lin Yan can't take it anymore. "Zhao Changqi, do you have any idea how terrible you are in bed? I'm done. You could move a whole mountain of gold in front of me, and I'd still never..."

Before she can finish, a stack of banknotes appears before her. "I'm terrible in bed? Then who is good?"

The young lord from the Earl's household, who's been trying to steal you away and elope with you every day?

Lin Yan's anger fades at the sight of the money. She takes the banknotes and tosses him a manual of erotic techniques. "I'll give you one more chance. Don't disappoint me."

A few days later, Zhao Changqi has practically worn the book out, but still thinks it would be safer to take a saber to that young lord.

-

She thought marrying into a higher-ranking household would bring her a good life, but her husband ran away with a performer.

Unable to endure her in-laws' mistreatment, everyone's mockery, and a life as a neglected wife, Lin Mengyao slinks back to her parents' home, only to run into Lin Yan and her husband as they return.

Seeing Lin Yan living in comfort and enjoying a loving marriage, Lin Mengyao regrets everything so much she wants to bang her head against a wall.

*

1. The male lead is a virgin, very much so. The child isn't his, and there's another reason his two previous wives died

2. A fictional setting, so please don't nitpick

3. Enjoy the story, and keep the discussion friendly

Theme: Wherever you are, live well