Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Matchmaker Liu was waiting for me to demand an outrageous price.

When she heard me say thirty-three taels, she froze.

“Silly Xiaoyu, what is that little bit of money enough for?

“If you don’t take this chance to ask for more before you marry into the family, what will you have to support yourself later?”

When she put it that way, I felt a twinge of regret.

But Cui Ning said I wasn’t worth much.

I was afraid that if I asked for too much, the Shen family would get angry just like Cui Ning and decide they didn’t want me anymore.

Matchmaker Liu was just about to leave when she suddenly thought of something important.

“Does the young master of the Cui Family know you’re remarrying into the Shen family?

“What if he gets desperate and comes to the Shen family to demand you back? What will you do then?”

Old Matchmaker Liu, you’ve got it all wrong.

Cui Ning can’t wait for me to get lost.

Six years ago, during the Lantern Festival, I rescued Cui Ning after he had been abducted by a Kidnapper.

To repay the debt, Cui Ning begged his parents to spend fifteen taels to buy me from a brothel madam, saying he wanted to take me as his wife.

In the beginning, Cui Ning was so traumatized by the Kidnapper’s beatings that he had constant nightmares. Cui Ning’s mother went to a temple to get a hundred-gold soothing bed curtain and a thousand-tael pillow to ward off fright, but Cui Ning wanted none of it. He said he could only sleep peacefully if I was by his side.

But later, as Cui Ning’s injuries healed and his nightmares faded, the version of me bought for fifteen taels became the cheapest and most eyesore-like thing in his room.

Cui Ning’s mother went from smiling as she watched Cui Ning cling to me, saying we were childhood sweethearts…

…to pointing at the servants and laborers, saying the Cui Family business was struggling and she feared it would hold me back, so she wanted to arrange a better marriage for me elsewhere.

Every time Cui Ning’s mother brought it up at the dinner table, I just held my bowl, keeping my head down and remaining silent.

Cui Ning never argued. He would simply place some food in my bowl and say I was playing dumb, that I was greedy and had a huge appetite.

I thought Cui Ning refused to marry me because business was hard and the Cui Family had run out of money. I thought he was afraid my large appetite would lead to us starving.

Anxious for him, I tried to find ways to save him money.

I only ate two meals a day. I didn’t dare take any side dishes, eating only the plain rice in my bowl.

I wore one set of winter clothes and two sets of summer clothes for three years, mending and altering them over and over.

Cui Ning had a photographic memory and was skilled at writing and accounting; he was a natural-born merchant.

He kept a ledger of everything I had eaten and used in the Cui Family over the years. He sneered, “Go ask around how much a liter of rice costs or a foot of cloth. The Cui Family marrying you was a losing deal from the start.”

Those words made me lose heart.

But I thought, if I ate a little less, the Cui Family would lose a little less.

That was until half a month ago, when I saw that paulownia qin in the instrument shop. It belonged to my mother.

Afraid of making things difficult for Cui Ning, I specifically found work on a pleasure boat washing clothes and combing hair for others. I also asked the kind Old Matchmaker Liu to help me write a promissory note, specifying the interest, and I pressed my thumbprint to the contract.

When I went to borrow the money, the Cui Family merchant ship was docked at the pier.

Cui Ning looked at the promissory note I handed over and frowned.

“Zhao Xiaoyu, you don’t even know how to play. Why are you buying it?”

I hurriedly tried to please him, saying that if my mother were still alive, she would have taught me.

“But your mother is long dead. No one will teach you, and hiring a tutor is no small expense.”

Seeing Cui Ning’s deepening frown, I swallowed the words “you also know how to play.”

“Thirty-three taels? That qin is enough to buy two of you.”

I was afraid he wouldn’t lend it to me, so I didn’t dare talk back. I just lowered my head and waited anxiously.

Cui Ning wanted to scold me more, but seeing my thin winter clothes and my hands, red and cracked from washing laundry in the cold, he ultimately didn’t say anything more cruel.

He folded the note and tucked it into his sleeve. Seeing my lowered head and reddened eyes, he showed a sliver of patience.

“Xiaoyu, I am a merchant. If I say that qin isn’t worth that price, then it isn’t.

“Thirty-three taels is no small amount, after all. Let’s talk about it when I get back.”

But by the time you get back, the qin will have been sold to someone else.

Panicked, I grabbed his sleeve and spun a half-lie.

“Your mother asked Matchmaker Liu to arrange several marriages for me. The Shen family said if I marry in, they’ll buy the qin for me. I… I haven’t agreed yet.”

Cui Ning was flipping through my ledger, about to record the thirty-three tael loan.

Hearing this, his brush stopped. He suddenly looked up and stared at me intently.

“Oh? That’s good for both the Cui Family and for you. Why aren’t you marrying?”

Before I could say another word, Cui Ning had already stood up and left.

The bead curtain rattled as he pushed through it, the sound like a slap across my face – stinging and hot.

The next day, when Matchmaker Liu came to the Cui Family home to collect me, a fine drizzle was falling from the sky.

Having lived with the Cui Family for six years, I hadn’t eaten much and my expenses were minimal.

Consequently, my luggage consisted of only one tiny bundle.

Cui Ning was away on a long trip, and Cui Ning’s mother had just laid down for a nap, making it inconvenient for her to see a guest off.

Only Cui Ning’s wet nurse, Old Mrs. Li, held me in her arms, reluctant to let me go.

“Old Matchmaker Liu is cheating you. That Shen Qinghe only has one small apothecary shop.

“And he’s a muddlehead who can’t keep his books straight; he’s nothing like Master Cui when it comes to business.

“He might not treat you well. Who knows, he might squander the family fortune one day, and you won’t even have enough to eat!”

I adjusted the very light bundle on my shoulder and looked at my sleeves, which had been patched so many times that the cotton batting was still poking out. I shook my head.

“It’s alright, Granny. I’m very used to living frugally.”

Life is like a sleeve that’s been patched too many times to fix; once it hits rock bottom, it can’t get any worse!

“If you leave, what will Master Cui do?”

That question made my heart ache a little, but I thought about it carefully.

By remarrying someone else, I’d be saving the Cui Family rice and cloth. Cui Ning would be very happy.