Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Madam Liu was neither particularly kind to me nor particularly unkind. After all, I was only a passerby staying in the manor for a month. What I was curious about was Master Liu. How had he managed to hold back? It wasn’t until the tenth day of his own daughter’s stay that he finally deigned to come see me.

Back when I used to go with Mother to stay at my maternal grandparents’ house for a few days, my father would hem and haw and complain that I had no conscience, that with Mother by my side, I no longer wanted him.

The moment I met Master Liu, I understood. In his eyes, I was less like a daughter and more like an object.

It did hurt a little. He was the man who had given me my flesh and blood, after all. But thankfully, I hadn’t spent the past seventeen years living under his roof. From the look of him, he was exactly the sort of man people meant when they said once there was a stepmother, there was a stepfather too.

If there was anyone in this manor who was most curious about me, it had to be Liu Anhe. She was two years younger than me and had only just come of age. Originally, she was the one who was supposed to marry Shen Sui’an.

“Hey, are you really willing to marry him? My mother says he doesn’t know how to do anything except eat, drink, and amuse himself. He can’t even pass the exam to become a xiucai.”

The moment her mother wasn’t watching, she loved sneaking into my little courtyard to ask me these questions.

I thought for a moment. “Does he visit brothels or gambling dens?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything like that.”

“Then is his family very poor? Will he squander everything they have?”

“How much can eating and drinking cost? His family has a noble title, and his elder brother is capable. Otherwise, Father wouldn’t be so reluctant to give up this marriage.”

It wasn’t exactly ideal to only eat and drink without earning anything, relying entirely on an elder brother. But since he wasn’t going to bankrupt the family for the time being, once I married over, I could slowly teach him. There was still time.

Seeing that I didn’t care in the slightest, Liu Anhe grew anxious. “Why are you so shortsighted? Eating and drinking is nothing. A man’s future is what matters. My mother said that wherever a man ranks among other men is where we rank among other women.”

She wasn’t wrong. It was just that different people wanted different things.

I didn’t dislike this younger sister, so I laid it out for her point by point. “But he protects his wife. On the very first day I arrived, he came to back me up, and he didn’t look down on me for not being as proper as you young ladies of the capital. And his mother was the one who sent him here, which means my future mother-in-law is a good person too.”

“My mother said that when a woman marries, there are two things she can hope for. One is wealth and status, so she can live well, but that kind of man will probably be busy with his career outside the home. The other is someone who treats you well, but he might not be all that accomplished. If you want a man who is both capable and revolves around you, then you’ll have to wait for the immortals to assign one to you.”

“You want the first kind. I want the second. There’s nothing wrong with either.”

After thinking about it, I added, “No, wait. His family is also wealthy and noble. When you think about it, he actually is the kind my mother said only the immortals could send.”

Liu Anhe was bewildered by me. She murmured, “My mother said you grew up out in the countryside, so you’d definitely be timid and ignorant. But you’re actually pretty good at making calculations.”

Now I was bewildered by her. My father, mother, and older brother raised me perfectly well. Why should I be timid? It wasn’t as if I lacked anything.