After Five Years of Widowhood

In the fifth year of Li Yaoniang’s widowhood, the clan chief brought back a young man named Pei Jue, claiming that he was her late husband’s long-lost younger brother. He told her to take good care of him and support him in the days to come. Li Yaoniang was initially very unwilling. Making a living on her own was already difficult enough; taking care of another man would only make her situation worse. But after taking one look at Pei Jue’s handsome, refined face, she quickly changed her mind. She planned to bring him home first, then marry him off as a live-in son-in-law in exchange for a sum of money to support her in her old age. Yet before Pei Jue could be married off, ripples had already begun stirring in Li Yaoniang’s heart. Pei Jue was young and handsome. His lean waist, the thin calluses on his fingertips… without exception, every little detail made her heart tremble. She found herself secretly longing for a spring rain after a long drought, hoping it might nourish the loneliness that had plagued her through more than a thousand days and nights of widowhood. The more she thought about it, the more afraid she became. Li Yaoniang began deliberately avoiding contact with Pei Jue, unwilling to let him discover her shameful thoughts. Thus, she failed to notice that Pei Jue’s gaze toward her was gradually filling with scrutiny. …… Zhao Huai was the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, a bright moon high above the mortal world, his status so exalted that words could hardly describe it. Later, due to an accident, he had no choice but to disguise himself as a man named Pei Jue and temporarily conceal his true identity. This man’s status was lowly, and the only person left in his household was a widowed sister-in-law living alone. When Zhao Huai first met Li Yaoniang, he saw that her face was fair and clean, while a clumsy, understated charm was hidden beneath her coarse cloth clothes. Li Yaoniang was worldly and shrewd, and she was always thinking about marrying him off as a live-in son-in-law in exchange for money. Zhao Huai treated her politely but coldly, even finding her tiresome. He only wanted to wait until his trusted aide came to find him, at which point the two of them would go their separate ways. But wherever Li Yaoniang was around, her eyes were always wandering restlessly over his hands, and even his waist and abdomen, filled with a secret yet burning desire. Zhao Huai could not imagine the loneliness Li Yaoniang had endured, but those emotions tugged at his cold restraint until they became something like a tiger eyeing its prey, making him want to give her a taste of fulfillment. Once he had that thought, he acted on it. Then one mistake led to another. On countless deep nights, he tore away Li Yaoniang’s false facade, forcing her to acknowledge the truest version of herself. …… Later, after Zhao Huai’s true identity was restored, he looked at Li Yaoniang’s troubled expression and thought that as long as she asked him, he could give her the status of a concubine. But after pondering for a long while, Li Yaoniang only wanted the two of them to settle their accounts and go their separate ways. Only then did Zhao Huai realize that Li Yaoniang had merely been greedy for a moment of pleasure. From beginning to end, he was the only one who had truly fallen. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: After Five Years of Widowhood — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠