Springtime in Yingying

Baoying's husband died on the battlefield, and life in the Liang household became increasingly difficult for her as a young widow.

Her husband's elder brother eyed her hungrily, while his wife considered her a thorn in her side.

Her nominal mother-in-law disliked her, and the servants looked down on her and tormented her every day.

Baoying cried day after day until her eyes swelled like peaches. Her eye condition flared up again, and at night she could barely see.

The Liang family even refused to enshrine her husband's memorial tablet, saying he had died young and childless, and did not deserve a place in the ancestral hall.

Baoying was filled with hatred.

So she went to the most powerful person in the Liang family for help.

He was the eldest legitimate son of a century-old noble family, the Liang family's next heir, and a young man who had already taken charge of the Council of State. He was its youngest chancellor.

Her nominal elder brother-in-law, Liang Bingsu.

She wanted to give her husband an heir.

She wanted to make sure the Liang family could never bully her again.

But she never expected this.

Her husband, Liang Zhen, wasn't dead.

On the day her pregnancy was confirmed, Liang Zhen returned from beyond the passes, having narrowly escaped death.

The Liang family was a noble house of ministers and dukes, renowned for its upright traditions.

From childhood, Liang Bingsu had been the model of a noble scion: honorable, disciplined, and respectful of the rites. He was even hailed as the greatest gentleman of all time.

A man like him ought to marry a woman of equal standing, live a harmonious life with her, and in the end rise to the highest offices, his name remembered for generations.

And yet in the end, he cast aside every rule of propriety, took his younger brother's wife's hand, and spoke from the depths of his heart, each word deliberate.

“Yingying, wouldn't choosing me be better?”