Highlight: Female lead, no male C.
Wang Yu was the younger daughter, always the one who was overlooked.
When she was fourteen, a mishap befell her elder sister, who had been engaged, and she was taken into a nobleman's household. The marriage was then transferred to Wang Yu.
She married Chen Wenzhi with a heart full of unease.
Fortunately, no one in the Chen family minded the switch. Her parents-in-law were kind, and her husband treated her wonderfully, gentle and considerate. For a time, she felt as if she had fallen into a jar of honey. But the good times did not last. In the second year of their marriage, Chen Wenzhi died of a sudden illness. His parents could not bear the blow and soon followed him.
The Chen family was left with only her twelve-year-old younger brother-in-law, Chen Wenxiu.
Her parents sent a letter telling her to remain a widow and not entertain other thoughts. If she brought disgrace upon the Wang family, they would consider her no daughter of theirs.
Wang Yu held the letter and wept. Chen Wenxiu, instead, told her that a woman's youth was fleeting, and that before his brother died, he had said she should not make herself suffer and should find another good man.
Wang Yu had shared a deep bond with her husband and had never considered remarrying. She was only crying because her parents were so heartless.
She stayed with the Chen family and managed the household, letting her younger brother-in-law focus on his studies. Fortunately, Chen Wenxiu lived up to expectations. He passed the provincial examination at fifteen and soon became the top scorer in the palace examination at a young age. Everyone said she would enjoy good fortune from then on.
Wang Yu thought so too.
Until one night, after drinking too much, she and Chen Wenxiu somehow spent the night together.
Wang Yu could not accept it. Even after all those years, she still remembered how good her husband had been to her and thought of him constantly. She had never considered remarrying. But Chen Wenxiu seemed even less able to accept what had happened. He kept saying he had wronged his brother and prepared to kneel in the ancestral hall until he died.
Her head was spinning, so she could only comfort him first.
It was only later, when she married Chen Wenxiu in a grand wedding procession with ten miles of dowry, that she still couldn't understand how she and Chen Wenxiu had ended up this way.
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Chen Wenxiu knew that his sister-in-law's heart belonged only to his brother.
But he couldn't help falling deeply in love with her.
He used every means at his disposal, acting vulnerable and even using his face, which resembled his brother's by seven parts, to tempt her. At last, he got what he wanted.
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After being reborn, the first thing Wang Yao did was find a way to marry into the Earl's manor and escape the marriage to the Chen family.
In her previous life, her father forced her to marry into the Chen family against her will. She and her husband were unhappy together, and after he died young, she was forbidden to return to her family. Filled with resentment, she would lash out at her younger brother-in-law at every turn. But later, later...
Later, Chen Wenxiu became the top scorer and rose steadily through the ranks. The first thing he did was imprison her in the inner quarters and torment her day and night. He even drove the Wang family to ruin.
Beneath that gentle, dignified facade was a vicious beast. The thought of him alone made her blood run cold, and she would never dare provoke him again.
When she learned that the marriage had fallen to her younger sister, she felt relieved. Though she felt a little guilty about making her sister suffer in her place, she had no choice. But who could have guessed that Chen Wenxiu would be just as formidable as in her previous life, yet always treat Wang Yu with respect and never neglect her?
She felt a sense of loss, then wondered: if she hadn't run away and had treated Chen Wenxiu well, would all the boundless wealth and glory he now enjoyed have been hers?
Theme: Good deeds are rewarded.