chapter 2

Song Lin’an was the empress’s own nephew, the crown prince’s cousin, and the legitimate eldest son of the Song family.

He publicly declared that my elder half sister would be his principal wife. That alone showed how much he valued her.

No wonder she had wept without end after their affair was exposed. She must have been overwhelmed by his devotion.

Even after Grandmother ordered her punished and refused to provide a dowry, she remained determined to marry him.

That made it even harder for me to warn her that disaster awaited the Song family. I would have looked like a cruel woman trying to tear true lovers apart.

Besides, what was a mere life compared with their love?

True love was supreme. Long live true love.

One day, I discovered that Father’s concubine had been embezzling money from the kitchen accounts, so I summoned her.

She admitted it without hesitation and even became arrogant. Gone was her meek manner and her pretense of kindness.

People like her were only falsely virtuous. I, on the other hand, was kind to my very bones.

She lifted her chin and looked down at me with her narrow phoenix eyes. “My daughter is about to marry into the Duke’s noble Song household! Since the Wei family refuses to give her a dowry, I have no choice but to scrape one together myself. Do not push us too far. In the future, my daughter and son-in-law will never let you off!”

I sighed.

She had entered the household as part of Mother’s dowry, yet she had climbed into Father’s bed before Mother was even pregnant. There was nothing kind about her.

I shook my head in disappointment and tried to educate her with patient concern.

“Arrogance will ruin a person. How can I watch you sink any lower?”

She swayed on her feet and could barely form a sentence.

See? I simply could not be pleasant to her all the time. Otherwise, she forgot her proper place.

I flicked my hand. “A concubine who disrespects the legitimate daughter has confused the distinction between legitimate and concubine-born. I now manage the Wei household, so defying me also violates every rule of propriety. Servants, slap her.”

The matrons restrained her while another began striking her face.

I stretched lazily before her. “There is no need to thank me. Rest assured, I will teach you properly. With me here, nothing can go wrong.”

By the time her face had swollen like a pig’s head, she no longer glared or shouted at me.

Much better.

I had stripped away every thorn. The legitimate line was the legitimate line, and the concubine-born line was the concubine-born line. No one should overstep.

Shortly before the wedding, my elder half sister began retching.

My heart leaped into my throat.

She had died in childbirth in our previous life. For more than a decade, her mother had raised her like one of those fragile Yangzhou beauties groomed to please men, leaving her delicate and painfully thin.

Men certainly adored such exquisite creatures.

Unfortunately, exquisite creatures had a habit of taking their babies with them when they died in labor.

There were also three younger female cousins in the Wei clan who had yet to marry. My elder half sister had already tarnished the reputation of every Wei daughter. I feared an unmarried pregnancy would cost her life, and I worried about my cousins’ prospects as well.

After considering every possibility, I concluded that the only solution was to end her pregnancy.

I went to see her myself.

She was holding a hairpin. Clearly, she already knew she was with child. One hand pressed the pin to her throat while the other protected her belly.

Her face was wet with tears. “If you dare hurt my child, I will die right here!”

Goodness, did she no longer care about her own life?

Everything I did was for her sake.

I reasoned with her gently. “Elder Sister, giving birth before the age of twenty can harm a woman’s body, and you are so frail already. What will you do if the labor goes wrong? You may have taken my marriage, but I do not want you to die.”

Then I added from the bottom of my heart, “I truly want what is best for you.”

When the Song family fell, I could report them first and trade that merit for my sister’s life.

But if childbirth killed her, even I would be powerless.

Hatred twisted her pale face. “You resent me! That is all this is! You hurt my mother, and now you want to hurt me. Why? We are both Father’s daughters. Why do you get to oppress me at every turn?”

She left me speechless.

I could not tell her that she was destined to die in labor.

I had tried my best.

How exhausting.

When every last scrap of warmth in a relationship had been spent, one could only step back.

I poured the abortive medicine into a potted plant and sighed. “Then take care of yourself, Elder Sister. Whatever happens, you will always be my sister.”

I would collect her body when the time came.

As for my three younger cousins, they had mocked me for being a vicious woman whom no man would marry. Now they probably would not find husbands either, since my elder half sister had ruined the reputation of every Wei girl.

I, the legitimate daughter of the main branch, wanted only to save them.

Yet no one appreciated me.

The good were always betrayed.

So be it.

When Song Lin’an learned of the pregnancy, he moved the wedding forward. To preserve my sister’s dignity, he paid for her dowry himself.

Even so, it remained modest, and few guests came to the wedding feast. Many nobles collectively fell “ill” and sent only servants with gifts.

The Song family found the humiliation unbearable.

According to the escort who returned to report, my sister was mistreated the moment she entered the Song residence. Pregnant as she was, the matrons still made her step across three braziers, nearly setting her skirt on fire.

I could not help worrying about her.

My mother-in-law from the previous life had never been easy to deal with. Only a woman like me could keep her under control.

My poor sister had leaped straight into a pit of flames.

True love could be terribly destructive.