Reborn After Widowhood: Sending My Cross-Dressing Husband to the Underworld

Ye Zhen, the widowed daughter-in-law of the powerful Zhongyong Marquis Estate, is reborn moments before her execution in her previous life. In that past existence, she had spent three years enduring abuse from her mother-in-law, the Marquise, and her servant Granny Feng. They drugged her, subjected her to cat torture to destroy her chastity, and spread rumors of her infidelity, leading to her public humiliation and eventual death. Upon waking in the past, Ye Zhen realizes she has returned to the moment Granny Feng attempted to kill her with a wild cat. Using a hidden detoxification pill and her secret martial arts skills, she overpowers her captors, kills the two matrons, and dislocates Granny Feng’s jaw to silence her.

Ye Zhen discovers that her husband, Xie Yunzhou, is not actually dead but has been living in hiding at the estate with his male lover, a guard named Chi Heng. They conspired to fake his death to avoid marital duties and to allow them to live together openly, while planning to eliminate Ye Zhen to clear the path for their return. Ye Zhen confronts them, kills Xie Yunzhou and Chi Heng, and stages the scene to look like a crime of passion and suicide between the two lovers. She frames the incident as a scandalous love triangle, ensuring that the truth of Xie Yunzhou’s homosexuality and the Marquise’s complicity becomes public knowledge, thereby destroying the family’s reputation from within.

To avoid suspicion, Ye Zhen fakes her own fall down a mountain slope, injuring herself to appear as a victim of the estate’s cruelty. During her escape into the mountains, she encounters a bearded man, Xie Tingzhou, the Heir of the Zhongyong Estate, who is being assassinated by palace guards. Ye Zhen intervenes to save him, revealing her combat abilities. Xie Tingzhou, wearing a mask due to a facial disfigurement, becomes intrigued by her strength and secrecy. He returns to the capital, where he witnesses the fallout of Ye Zhen’s actions. The Marquise, desperate to protect her son’s legacy, attempts to frame Ye Zhen for adultery and murder, colluding with the corrupt County Magistrate to produce false witnesses and evidence.

Ye Zhen anticipates these moves and turns the tables by killing the County Magistrate and making it appear as though he was murdered by the Marquise’s men. She uses her knowledge of the estate’s politics and her hidden identity as the daughter of a renowned female general to navigate the dangerous court intrigue. The Marquise’s schemes are repeatedly thwarted by Ye Zhen’s cleverness and martial prowess, as well as by the intervention of Old Madam Wang and Xie Tingzhou. As the Marquis Zhongyong returns from the battlefield, the family is plunged into chaos, with secrets about Xie Yunzhou’s death and the Marquise’s treachery coming to light. Ye Zhen resolves to reclaim her true identity, avenge the wrongs done to her in her previous life, and dismantle the corrupt forces that destroyed her, all while maintaining her position within the hostile marquisate.