Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Pei Dalang had come in person to speak with my uncle. Once their talk was over and he had left, I sent Ah Tao out to ask around.

She returned before long. She already had a round, full-moon face, with a tiny nose and tiny eyes, and now her features were all scrunched together until her eyes could hardly be found.

“They say the wedding is to be postponed for a while.” Ah Tao was three years younger than me and would only turn thirteen after the New Year. Since I was to be married, Mother had traded half a sack of wheat to bring her back as my maid.

Her family had too many children to feed, so they sold her.

At noon, my uncle came to see me. He and my father had not been born of the same mother. It was only after my father died and our family’s reputation began to rise that he grew close to us.

When I was sent off to marry, he came along to escort me. He did not much resemble my father. He was dark and thin, with hollow cheeks, thin lips, deep-set eyes, pale irises, and brown hair that curled slightly. His mother must have been a Hu woman, though I had never seen her.

“Fifth Lady, this matter cannot truly be blamed on the Pei Family. Pei Erlang injured his head in a fall and, for the moment, has forgotten about the marriage. After some time, he may remember. The Pei Family has never said they will not take you as a bride. They only ask that we wait a few more days. Tomorrow, your uncle will take you back home first. What do you think?”

My uncle spoke tactfully, but I was no fool. I understood the gist of it.

The Pei Family still acknowledged the marriage, but Pei Qian no longer did.

If I wanted to marry him, I would have to wait until he recovered.

But whether he could recover, and when, were both uncertain.

In that case, I rather hoped he never recovered at all.

With Mother’s temper, she certainly would not let me wait for Pei Qian to get better. After all, no one knew when that would be. Now that the Cui Family’s fortunes were rising with the tide, if I returned home, she would immediately marry me off to someone else, so long as the suitor held a higher status than Pei Qian.

“Uncle, please allow me to remain in Anyi for a while. If I return home at once, Mother will surely marry me into another family. When that happens, people will say our family broke faith and abandoned righteousness. How would the other sisters in the family face the world then?”

“I will wait here for a time. Perhaps the Second Young Master will recover soon. The journey to send me here for marriage was so long. Making it all over again would be far too difficult.”

“These are chaotic times. If I stay in Anyi, the Pei Family will not simply ignore me. It may even be safer this way. Once the Second Young Master recovers, if he still acknowledges this marriage, I will marry him at once. If he does not, the Pei Family will have to give an explanation. At that point, if I return home and marry someone else, no one will have anything to say.”

Mother was not a bad person. My father had only ever been responsible for taking in beauties and begetting children. As for what those children ate and drank, how they grew up, whether they learned to read or studied at all-Mother managed everything alone.

There were more than a dozen children in the family. Father did not earn a single coin, yet every day he took money out to indulge in pills, drink wine, and entertain guests. The household survived on a few hundred mu of farmland west of the city.

Mother’s life had been bitter. I was not born of her body, yet she pitied me for losing my birth mother young, taught me, and raised me. For that, I was deeply grateful.