After Marrying a Widowed Heiress as a Substitute Bride, My Husband Returned from the Dead

In her previous life, after Yu Qingci refused to become a substitute bride, her stepmother schemed to marry her off to a treacherous man.

After ten years of barely surviving, she died alongside her in-laws.

Reborn, Yu Qingci decides to agree to marry into the general's household in her elder sister's place, where she will be a widow in all but name.

She knows that in three years, the young general, said to have died in battle, will return safe and sound.

The general's household rapidly declines after losing two generations of generals, father and son. After marrying into the family, Yu Qingci outsmarts her awful relatives, protects her timid mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and uses memories from her previous life to build a business and amass wealth. She holds the whole household together by herself.

Three years later, the young general Lu Yunqi returns with his beloved confidante. He has also earned great merit and received the court's praise, and the general's household soon regains its former glory.

Yu Qingci feels her work is done. She takes the initiative and tells Lu Yunqi that she intends to divorce him and retire from the scene.

She won't become a wicked first wife who separates two lovers.

That was the reason she had agreed to marry in her sister's place in the first place:

In this life, I will not be another man's wife. Let others bear the joys and sorrows of a century.

But that is the way of the world. She can only take a step back to move forward, marrying into the household and hoping the young general will let her leave on good terms, in recognition of her three years of diligent service protecting his family.

The ideal is beautiful.

But she never expected the young general, who always had the final word in public, to become so wishy-washy, stalling at every turn over the divorce and even helping her deal with his beloved confidante?

His beloved confidante puts up a tenacious fight against the rightful wife, and the young general finally declares in public:

That so-called beloved confidante was merely a cover. From beginning to end, his one and only love has been his wife.