Any more spoilers? What are the two ex husbands playing? Like do both really love her? Also what about the emperor? Did he know her before the first meeting (on the fish pond?) in the novel?
The Mina and Nina blog on Wordpress has a completed summary for this novel. For the sake of convenience, I will also paste it down below Spoiler: Summary from Mina&Nina The following is the complete summary of 2 Ex Husbands on One Stage written by the Mina & Nina blog The story started with FL (Shen Miau Miau) who was four months pregnant went on a marriage date and both her ex-husbands came to join the date. FL was married to ML1 (Pei Yan Zhen) 2 years ago. ML1 has a promising future in the government and was chosen by 9th Princess as husband candidate. It was well known that 9th Princess has been chasing after ML1 and then one day, ML1 asked for permission to return home to Yang Zhou to take up a local governor position giving the excuse that weather in the capital city was not suitable to his health condition. On the wedding day of ML1 and FL, 9th princess gate crash their wedding and abducted ML1. ML1 was not the ideal husband that FL wanted. FL has always been attracted to strong men with martial arts skill and ML1 is a scholar. FL thought that since the wedding rites was not fully completed, she packed her stuff to return home. Before she managed to leave, ML1 returned to continue the wedding rites. 2 years later, there was news spreading that ML1 is related to FL. ML1 is the distant cousin to FL’s mother hence the emperor sent an edict to cancel their marriage. A few days after she returned home, she was bored and went out to look around for fun in town with her brother. She fallen into the river and was saved by ML2 (Song Xi Yuan). ML2 later went to her father to ask for her hand in marriage. A month later FL was married to ML2. However, there were always obstacles that prevented ML2 from consummating his marriage. 2 months later, FL was diagnosed by a physician that she was 4 months pregnant. Then another physician said FL was pregnant for 2 months. Both ML1 and ML2 argued that the child belongs to them. This story was widely spread until the emperor sent the royal physician to check on her. She was diagnosed by the royal physician to be 3 months pregnant. This put her into a difficult situation. If she was 4 months pregnant, the child belongs to ML1. If she was 2 months pregnant, then the child belongs to ML2. When ML2 went on a business trip, FL went to his study room to draft the divorce paper and used his official seal and returned home. She didn’t want ML2 to be laughed at for being cuckolded. FL also misunderstood that both her ex-husband were attracted to each other. FL later realised that it was no longer important to get marry again since her family is very rich. Her son can follow her surname and can do without a father. The emperor also wanted to know who is the child’s father. He came to see her and even stayed at her house. During this time, FL gave birth to a baby boy (nick name Tang Yuan). The emperor has 5 princesses and no male heir. The emperor wanted to carry out a blood test to see who the child belongs to. Unfortunately, it did not produce any confirmed results. 3 years later… FL realised that her son was unlike other kids. Very quiet and like to read instead. FL was disappointed that her son has no interest in martial arts. One day during FL’s dad birthday celebration, a busybody mentioned the upcoming marriage of ML with a merchant’s daughter from Su Chow. ML1 has been given an edict by the empress dowager to marry another girl. But on the wedding day, ML announced his refusal to marry the girl because he loves FL. ML was sent to prison for capital punishment. He was released when his family presented a pass from the previous emperor to avoid the capital punishment. His position was taken away and demoted to be a civilian. ML1 took on a job as a chef at the Shen family. On another hand, ML2 went to take on the job as a gardener at the Shen mansion. There were fights between ML1 and ML2 trying to outdo one another. At this time, FL has already fallen in love with ML1. Not too long after that, an edict came from the emperor to ask ML1 to enter the palace to cook for the royal family. ML1 went to the capital city to overthrow the current government. When FL’s myna bird was sick and a doctor came to treat the bird. The doctor advised FL to discontinue the contraceptive medicine on long term as it will bring harm to her health. FL came to realise that she was fed with contraceptive medicine by ML1 during her marriage to him. Once the bird recovered, FL heard the bird repeated a conversation with regards to the fate of Shen family. ML1 was planning to get rid of the Shen family. FL used a drug to disguise a fake death to help get her family to run away. Unfortunately, when it was her time to do it, ML1 returned home and did not believe that she has passed away. He held on her body until the drug subsided and FL has no choice but to wake up. FL asked whether ML was willing to let go of his ambition if she stayed on with ML. ML said no. During the mooncake festival, there was an assassination attempt. FL was injured. In actual fact, FL already noted that this assassins were sent by her father to help her to escape. She took the same drug to fake her death but she never expected to be truly injured. Once again, ML refused to accept that she died and held on her body. But on the second day, ML fainted. During this time, FL’s body was switched. 2 years later…. FL settled down in Lou Yang and started a theater business there. ML2 came often to visit her but was being ignored by FL. One day, ML2 brought a cat for FL. It was her son’s pet. Later on, she got to know that her son ran away from home and was now in Lou Yang. ML1 came to Lou Yang to look for his. FL planned a fire to distract ML to order to save her son. She discovered during this time that ML1 was blind. ML2 arranged for FL and her son to stay in a temple. One day, she met ML1 that came to the temple to pray. She overheard ML1’s confession to the monk that he regretted his past decision. While FL tried to run away with her son, her son stopped halfway knowing that ML1 has fallen down while chasing them. Tang Yuan told FL that he needed to help ML1 because ML1 could no longer see. Because of that, ML1 managed to reunite with FL and their son. FL followed ML1 back to the capital city. FL agreed to marry him again. But it was a plot. FL was helping ML2 to steal the royal seal from ML1 to make ML2 to become the new emperor. ML1 was confined to stay in Lou Yang for life. FL reunited with her own family. She found out that ML1 actually was aware of her plan all along. He has once proposed marriage to her by giving up his kingdom. When ML1 requested for Tang Yuan to be sent to Lou Yang to spend a few months with him, FL went with her son, pretending as his son’s personal maid. At first, FL thought that ML1 was still blind and tried to help him with his daily activities. FL did not realise that ML1’s eyesight has actually recovered. Spoiler: Ending One day, FL went out on a stroll with ML1 and a little girl called him "daddy". The child is some villager's daughter who likes to run around and call any attractive male "daddy" (lmao HmMMM that sounds oddly familiar). She thought ML1 fathered this child so she ran away upset. He tried to stop her, accidentally slipping up and calling her "Miao'er" but she didn't even realize. When she came back to the wangfu, he admitted that his eyesight had already recovered, and he was just waiting for her to come back to him. They got remarried and lived as husband and wife again. In case people might be confused about the actions of ML1 and ML2, I'll try to explain. I also MTL-ed the story so some chunks will be missing. Spoiler: ML1 Real name is Pei Yanzhen. He was actually the son of the previous emperor but had to be hidden away for some reason. He was adopted by the Pei family who might be his blood relatives, but I'm not sure. I didn't read this part carefully because it was hard the first time and I frankly didn't care but now I have to do this. The current emperor is his half-brother, and the current Empress Dowager got her power and favor from the previous emperor because she resembled PYZ's mother. Since the very start, the new emperor was suspicious over PYZ's true parentage. I think PYZ wanted to usurp the throne since before the novel even started. He married FL for her family's wealth but later on fell in love with her. The marriage didn't rest easy with the emperor because of the Shen family's wealth so when people found out that PYZ's official parents were related to FL's mother, he took the opportunity to force them to divorce. PYZ was reluctant to go through with the divorce but his ambitions still trumped her at the time. He gave her up to protect his government post but still loved her. Around this time, he became unsure if the pain in his heart was from losing her family's connections or from losing FL herself. When she fell into the water at the Dragon Boat Festival, he was genuinely upset and held her in public even though he was now technically her uncle. He tried to stop her from marrying ML2 and when that failed, he tried to stop their consummation (but again, he failed :'<). He was restless throughout the entirety of her new marriage. When she became pregnant, he knew right away that it was his child because the real gestation date matched their last coupling. I think they did the deed once after the divorce because she was drunk. While they were married, he secretly gave her contraceptives because he was afraid the emperor would kill her if she became pregnant with a possible imperial son's child. Now, he wanted to have the world know that the child was his so that he could take her away from ML2. He meant to hide her away to give birth safely while keeping a decoy in his estate, but ML2 thwarted his plans by forcing a doctor to say she was only 2 months along. This caught the attention of the emperor and I think he also suspected ML2 to be a secret imperial son so no matter whose child this was, the emperor would want her dead. FL was manipulated into thinking PYZ wanted to kill her Shen family so she became distant and tried to leave him. She told him he could not be greedy and have her and the world, but he was unwilling to concede. After she faked her death, he became blind but still did his best as a Regent King and single father to Tang Yuan. He came to regret his priorities and decided he loved FL more than he wanted the throne. Later on, when he found her again, he allowed FL to help usurp his seat to prove that he cared about her more than his power. The time when he was blind was the saddest imo. She once promised to never leave him but after ML2's scheme, she kept trying to get away. She lit Tang Yuan's place on fire so he could run away, but PYZ didn't know that TY was fine and ran inside even though he couldn't see anything. He was almost set ablaze in the building but FL snapped out of her shock and helped him out. After he managed to get her and TY back into his palace, they began to grow close again. At one point, I think they even became intimate together. FL got up before him and went to get medicine for his throat but lost her way. When she came back, the room was a mess and he was in hysterics. He woke up and couldn't find her, so he blindly reached around and knocked everything down. His guards told him that she was at the door and he ran over the broken porcelain pieces while barefoot to beg her not to leave. PYZ has his moments of cheekiness too, I guess. When FL came to him as a mute maid, he pretended to be interested in the beautiful dancers sent his way to see her jealous. When she first entered the wangfu, a higher-up maid already told her not to have any ideas because ML didn't care about any woman in the city. FL's pretty dense and her understanding of something can change in the blink of an eye (this is why ML2 manipulated her so easily even though she was already in love with PYZ). He kept having his chefs serve him bony fish so that she would take it upon herself to personally pick the bones out for him. FL kept thinking in her mind that the chefs have no regard for their optically impaired master but didn't even bother to think how he managed before she came along. She later came into his room and saw makeup on his robe. (Not sure why she did this but) She pressed him down on the bed and tied him up so she could wipe the fabric clean. He acted like he was resisting, but as soon as she was done with her wiping and wanted to get off, he was suddenly stronk n manly again and managed to flip her over. Pretty sure hanky panky happened that night. There was this one time at her grandpa's birthday where she and ML2 got drunk. ML2 was all over her but PYZ then saw and beat him up. He took FL away and when she woke up, he told her he was only keeping her company but later on, she was wondering why the heck they were in their inner garments. PYZ was strong enough to injure ML2 when FL couldn't see but when they were fighting again and she came to break it up, he was suddenly weak and easily beaten up. She took care of him and he got to play the pity card. Spoiler: ML2 Real name is Song Xiyuan. He might be another one of the previous emperor's secret sons, but I'm not sure. He never intended to use FL, but as I see it, he was forced into a corner. PYZ wanted to wipe out his entire clan and the only way he could protect them was to snatch the throne himself. He and PYZ had an alliance once but once PYZ got closer to his goal, I guess he began to view SXY and his family as a thorn in his heart. He tricked FL into think the family PYZ wanted to kill was hers instead of his, so she became embittered with him and decided to wrong him. He first met Fl when she was 3 and he was 6 at her grandfather's birthday banquet. He was appalled by her unruly appearance and told her she could never get married with that kind of look. Years later, he met her again when she crossdressed as a man to watch a theater performance. She dropped her moustache and instead of panicking, she fished around to stick it back on nonchalantly. He tried to find out who she was but when he finally saw her again, she was already someone else's bride. Even though he's not TY's biological father, TY is much closer to him because of his easy-going nature. When FL agreed to help him usurp the throne, she told him that in exchange for her help, he could not harm PYZ. I think he does know that FL loves PYZ but it didn't stop him from trying. Even after he became emperor, he still asked if there was still a chance for them. When he didn't get the answer he wanted, he questioned TY's parentage. He said that TY could definitely be his child because they get along so well, but FL still shut him down. I don't really like how the story ended for him. I get that this is supposed to be Run Yu's happy ending story, but it kinda hurts to see SYX like this. Even though he used her in the end, it can still be attributed to PYZ's actions forcing his hand. If you have to choose between saving the family that raised you (not like they're evil public enemies) and the preserving your image for the person you love, you shouldn't pick the latter. SYX did what was right for his family but it put him in a bad spot with FL. In truth, even if he picked her, I don't believe she'd pick him back. From the start, their relationship was full of missed opportunities and thwarted intentions. He met her early, but wormed his way into her heart late. In the end, he had to live the way Run Yu did in HSALF :<