My eldest sister hated what she called pampered wives more than anything.
At a palace banquet, she sneered at the empress.
“A true strong female lead would have seized the throne and made herself empress regnant long ago.
Strip away the fine words, and the empress is still just a pampered wife who climbed to power through a man, isn’t she?”
One remark from her condemned the entire Song family.
On the day our estate was confiscated, Prince Chen offered my eldest sister a hand.
If she would only beg for mercy, every woman of the Song household could be spared enslavement.
Instead, she lifted her chin and declared, “Even if every woman in my family is made a slave, I will never beg a man for pity like some pampered wife!”
Prince Chen stormed away in fury, and our entire family was exiled into bondage.
On the road north, my second brother risked his life and led men to free us.
My sister only scoffed.
“Only pampered wives need men to save them!”
She deliberately raised the alarm, and my brother died beneath a storm of arrows.
Yet that very display of “independence” caught the eye of a prince from an enemy kingdom.
When he wanted to take me as a concubine, I had no choice but to agree if I wanted to live.
My sister said, “I’m marrying him for love.
If you become his concubine, you’re nothing but a pampered wife fighting another woman for a man’s favor!”
She ordered me to kill myself.
I had endured enough.
I lunged at her, determined that we would die together.
When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day the Song estate was seized.
Prince Chen was holding out his hand to my sister.
She looked at him with disdain.
“I will never be a pampered wife who depends on a man!”
As disappointment crossed his face, I reached out and caught hold of his belt.
“She doesn’t know a good thing when she sees it, Your Highness.
Perhaps you might take a look at me instead.”
