Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night’s birthday banquet ended with me excusing myself on the grounds of illness. I claimed I was feeling unwell and retired to my room early to sleep.

The next morning, I was startled awake by the sound of Zhao Shuo whipping the servants.

“Who let her in?”

I threw on a robe and stepped out into the courtyard, watching as Zhao Shuo kicked over a pageboy standing beside him. “Speak!”

“Husband,” I said flatly. “If you wish to punish your own servants, why must you do it in my courtyard?”

There was no need for such a transparent performance.

“Madam…” The pageboy Zhao Shuo had kicked crawled on his knees toward me. “Madam, it was our negligence last night. We don’t know how Miss Liu managed to sneak in. The Marquis truly had no idea.

“If this damages the relationship between the Marquis and Madam, we truly deserve ten thousand deaths!”

I watched this display of self-inflicted misery with a cold, indifferent expression.

Liu Wenying’s name had not been on the list of performers for the troupe scheduled to celebrate my birthday last night.

In fact, it would have been impossible for her to be there-she was the top courtesan of Chunyan Pavilion. No official would ever invite her to sing at his wife’s birthday banquet.

Furthermore, as Zhao Shuo was the only son of the Marquis Manor, and last night’s guests were all people of high status, Liu Wenying’s appearance had brought shame upon the entire Marquis Manor.

I stepped around the pageboy and walked up to Zhao Shuo. “Husband, let us talk.”