Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On the day Third Miss Liu’s concubine mother died, her legal mother, Madame Zhou, sat in the seat of honor and questioned her with practiced nonchalance.

When the questioning reached the subject of her name, Madame Zhou feigned surprise. “The Third Young Lady is already six years old, and she doesn’t have a name yet?”

The Liu Clan did not value daughters. Regardless of whose womb they came from, a daughter’s name was not worth the father’s time to bestow.

Third Miss Liu’s mother had been a maidservant who couldn’t read a single word. Her appearance was plain; had Liu Chengshan not been stumbling drunk, he never would have shared a night of passion with her.

“It won’t do to be without a name…” Madame Zhou’s gaze drifted to the moss on the stone steps outside the door-slimy, damp, and a sickly green.

“Let’s call her – Liu Tai, shall we?”

This name was different from those of her elder sisters.

The eldest sister was named Liu Yi, and the second was Liu Rong. Both their names featured the ‘roof’ radical, but hers did not.

There were so many characters with the ‘roof’ radical; why couldn’t they give her one as well?

Even calling her Liu Bao would have been better!

She disliked names with the ‘grass’ radical. People always said a motherless child was like a blade of grass; to her, it sounded like a child whom nobody loved.

Madame Zhou was that kind of person – kind of face but cruel of heart, always finding some obscure corner to make someone feel disgusted.

Fortunately, Liu Yi and Liu Rong both treated her well.

Liu Yi was Madame Zhou’s legitimate daughter. She was well-educated and often took her younger sisters along to study.

Liu Rong was born to the favored Concubine Yang. She was exceptionally beautiful and was her father’s favorite.

They grew up together as true sisters.

However, when facing Madame Zhou, even Liu Yi was powerless.

Liu Tai was only fourteen when Madame Zhou began plotting to betroth her to a nephew from her own maiden family.

It wasn’t because she liked Liu Tai, but because that nephew, Zhou Tao, was not only a glutton, a drunkard, a gambler, and a womanizer, but had recently even beaten his wife to death. His reputation in the capital was utterly ruined; no decent family was willing to marry their daughter to him as a successor wife.

Zhou Tao was a wretched gambler, yet they still wanted a daughter from a good family to match him.

Liu Yi went to plead with her mother, only to receive a slap across the face.

Madame Zhou snapped angrily, “What do you know? Your maternal uncle was just promoted to Vice Director of the Ministry of Revenue this year. There will be times in the future when your brothers will need his care. If I don’t marry Liu Tai into that family, should I marry you off instead?”

Liu Yi had two older brothers also born to Madame Zhou; her mother’s affection for her daughter ended there.

In truth, Madame Zhou most wanted to marry Liu Rong to that wretched gambler of a nephew. However, because Liu Rong was beautiful, Liu Chengshan had other arrangements for her, and Madame Zhou could not interfere.

Liu Yi wept piteously. “What a sin!”

She both ached for her sister and feared her mother would face divine retribution.

Her mother could hardly be called a good person, yet she had always been exceptionally good to her.

Liu Rong also went to beg Concubine Yang. Concubine Yang had a fiery temper; upon hearing the news, she cursed Madame Zhou as a poisonous old hag.

But she, too, was helpless. “I am merely a concubine. Never mind your sister’s affairs, I don’t even have a say in yours. At the very, very most, if she tries to target you, I’ll risk my life against her! But as pitiful as your sister is, she didn’t come out of my womb. I am a common woman; I cannot bring myself to throw my life away for her.”

In the year Liu Tai turned fourteen, she heard people speak of fate for the first time.

They all said she had done nothing wrong; she simply had a bad fate.

She stood solitary in the bleak autumn wind, but she did not want to accept her fate.