The King’s Beloved Substitute Bride

She is Lin Jing’er, the renowned Immortal Physician of Stillwater. She lives in Rouran, revered by all, yet is free-spirited and carefree by nature, doing whatever she pleases. What does she care for worldly etiquette or the Three Bonds and Five Constants? Her own happiness matters most! She conceals her peerless beauty simply because she refuses to become another beautiful woman doomed to an early death. He is Murong Ye, the undefeated God of War famed throughout the realm. After ten years on the battlefield, he has vanquished seven kingdoms and unified the land. Yet rumors claim he is as ugly as a demon, cruel and savage, and drinks human blood. He has no interest in women and especially hates having them near him. Women everywhere flee from him as if he were a plague. One day, deep in the Yun Mountains, he was surrounded by hundreds of Skull Sect assassins in a shadowy forest. He could have wiped them all out by himself, but the cold poison in his body suddenly flared up, leaving him gravely wounded and on the brink of death. She descended through the air from a sheer cliff thousands of feet high, like a celestial maiden fallen from the heavens. With nothing but a delicate peach branch, she slew every member of the Skull Sect. Their brief encounter ended in an instant, but a feeling called love quietly took root. At the Hundred Flowers Banquet, an imperial decree sealed his marriage to Liu Ningyan, daughter of the Right Chancellor. But neither had any interest in the other, and both had their own schemes. She only wants to become Crown Princess. He only wants to marry that carefree woman, as light and ethereal as moonlit mist. To repay an old debt, Jing’er gladly decides to take Liu Ningyan’s place and marry the Prince of Ling, the man every woman in the land avoids. As ugly as a demon? Jing’er merely pouts. Beauty and ugliness are only skin-deep! Cruel and savage, drinking human blood? Please! With my skills, should I really worry about becoming someone’s prey? No interest in women, and hates them? Even better! She can be a princess consort in name only, living a carefree, easy life. What could be better? Once she gets her divorce letter, she can wave goodbye and leave without a trace! When they meet again in the bridal chamber, he removes his mask and her appearance changes, but neither recognizes the other. But how could someone as clever and perceptive as he be fooled by a pretty face? Her appearance may have changed, but her calm, easygoing, lazy nature has not. Those clear, limpid eyes, engraved in his heart from the moment they first met, are unchanged. And so is that fragrance, as delicate as a peach blossom and as refined as an orchid. Could the woman he has longed for day and night really have been by his side all along? And is she his wife? Could there be anything happier? But since she married him under a false name, he has no intention of exposing her. Now that she is by his side, all he needs to do is cherish, love, and protect her! And so rumors spread throughout the land that the Prince of Ling is not only peerlessly handsome and elegant, but also tender and devoted, spoiling his wife without limit. Women everywhere can only sigh with envy. Her dream of becoming Crown Princess lies in ruins, and Liu Ningyan is so captivated by the Prince of Ling that she shamelessly accuses Jing’er of deceiving everyone and scheming to marry in her place. Jing’er lazily pouts. “I’ve married him, and I’ve fallen for him. He can only be mine! Don’t even think about it. Otherwise…” Her lips curl into a lazy smile. “Anyone who dares covet what’s mine is already lining up to be reborn!”