Manhua was penniless, with barely anything in her home, and had to care for her seven-year-old younger sister. They often went hungry.
Then someone offered her five taels of silver to marry in place of their daughter.
Manhua thought she had misheard. What kind of man was worth only five taels?
The other person said the man was named Lingzhou Ji. He had five ears and two noses, and was so ugly that even a pig would drop dead on the butcher's block at the sight of him.
Yet he was fabulously wealthy, and had set his sights on their daughter and wanted to force her into marriage, so the family had to find someone to take her place.
Already going hungry, Manhua couldn't afford to care that he was ugly and cheap.
She gritted her teeth and agreed.
-
Manhua learned that no such thing as a free lunch falls from the sky.
Lingzhou Ji wasn't ugly at all. He was as handsome and aloof as moonlight.
But he was the deposed crown prince, with neither power nor money. She had been cheated.
As soon as Manhua married him, they were both imprisoned in the palace's dark inner quarters.
He gave up on himself, drinking, fooling around, and sleeping.
They weren't close, but he was her husband, and her future depended on him.
They couldn't go on like this forever, could they?
So Manhua proposed a deal: she would help her husband escape the palace, and once he regained power, he would give her a fortune in gold and silver and divorce her.
In just half a year, her husband had become the glorious Crown Prince once more, and wanted her by his side at the very top.
But she had no interest in being Crown Princess. She wanted the money and a divorce.
-
Her husband came looking for Manhua, deliberately dressed in finery: "Do you still want a divorce?"
Manhua gazed reluctantly at his moonlit, beautiful face. "Yes. I only want the money."
Her husband came looking for her again and slowly took off his shirt. "Do you still want a divorce?"
Manhua ran her hand over his strong, muscular chest and stomach. "...I only want the money."
Her husband came again. This time, he brushed back his hair and lay beneath her. "What about now?"
Manhua drooled in spite of herself. "I really only want the money! Why do you keep seducing me!"
Theme: Finding daylight beneath the darkness
