Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xiao Shuang was an orphan my mother had rescued from the refugee slums. Later, she and Xiao Cui became my dowry maids.

Before I married, I warned the two of them in no uncertain terms:

“You both grew up with me. If, in the future, you find someone you love, tell me. I will prepare generous dowries for you and see you married off in style.”

“But there is one rule. The young master is my husband. I don’t care what rules other households follow; while you are by my side, you will know your place. You must never harbor any thoughts about him that you shouldn’t.”

On the night of my wedding, I put the ugly words out first under the guise of a joke:

“Husband, Xiao Shuang and Xiao Cui are like younger sisters to me. Don’t go losing your soul just because they’re pretty.”

Qi Yuanhuai froze for a moment, then smiled. “No matter how beautiful another woman may be, how could she compare to my wife’s natural grace?”

Yet not long after, I found Xiao Shuang and Qi Yuanhuai in the woodshed.

The two of them had stripped off their clothes, their hair loose and tangled, sweating as they rolled together in the heat of passion.

On Qi Yuanhuai’s broad, bronze shoulder blades, Xiao Shuang’s clutching fingers had raked several red marks.

I caused a scene and demanded a divorce.

Qi Yuanhuai pleaded with me gently, saying Xiao Shuang had drugged him. Then he knelt on the ground and swore to the heavens and earth that I was the only one in his heart.

Divorce might sound respectable enough in name, but in the end, outsiders would still blame the woman, and the family mocked would still be the woman’s maiden home.

Under my parents’ persuasion, I endured it.

Xiao Shuang was driven out of the estate, and her name became a forbidden word in the household.

It also became the name Qi Yuanhuai and I both tacitly understood never to mention again.

The scented sachet she had made before had originally been hidden away by Qi Yuanhuai in secret. Who would have thought Qi Jin, being playful, would accidentally dig it out?

I had deliberately placed the sachet in the drawer. I had not expected it to prove useful so soon.

I picked up the sachet and toyed with it in my hand, saying softly, “Oh? What familiar stitching. I feel as if I’ve seen it somewhere before.”

Then I turned to Qi Yuanhuai. “Husband, have you seen it?”

Qi Yuanhuai rested both hands on his knees and turned his head to look elsewhere, his face drawn tight. “How would I have seen something that belongs to a woman?”

I blinked at him, my face full of surprise.

As if desperate to prove his innocence, he added, “Since it isn’t yours, just have someone take it out and burn it.”

“All right.” I ordered someone to take it out and burn it.

The earlier ambiguous mood vanished like smoke.

He grew restless in his seat. Suddenly, he rose to his feet, left behind a single sentence-“It’s late. Rest early”-and strode away.

I watched the direction he had gone, my gaze gradually turning ruthless.

In any case, within three months, he would be leaving for war.