Chapter 1

I had never been an endearing child.

When I was five, Grandmother held me in her lap. “Your father works so hard away from home every day, while your mother sits around doing nothing. Father’s good and Mother’s bad, aren’t they?”

I thought it over. “No. Mother takes care of Father and me, and she manages the household. You’re the one who sits around doing nothing. You’re the bad one!”

Grandmother was so angry that she moved into my eldest uncle’s house that very night.

When I was ten, that uncle teased me. “Zhen’er, wouldn’t you like a little brother? Since your mother can’t give you one, why don’t you persuade your father to take a concubine and give your family a male heir?”

I stared at him. “Would a concubine definitely have a boy? Grandmother said your two concubines had three little girls between them, and that they were useless.”

His concubines wept, made scenes, and threatened to hang themselves. The whole household descended into chaos.

Knowing my temperament, my parents feared I would suffer when I married into the marquis’s family, so they prepared a dowry so lavish that people gaped.

There was no great mystery to it. Our family owned a silk business and was the richest in the region.

Money was what we had.

Even so, the morning after my wedding, my mother-in-law decided to put me in my place.

“A merchant’s daughter has no breeding, as expected. What new bride sleeps half the morning away on her very first day?”

Her face was stern, her manner formidable without a hint of anger. My two sisters-in-law stood beside her, mockery in their eyes.

My eldest sister-in-law pinched her handkerchief and sighed. “Surely you don’t think that a dowry procession ten li long gives you the right to lord it over us? If the household hadn’t been short of funds, how could a merchant’s daughter ever have slipped in? The very thought keeps me awake at night with shame.”

I said nothing.

I simply crept into her room in the dead of night and pried her eyelids open.

“I thought… you couldn’t… sleeeep.”

It was laughable, really. This grand marquis’s household had fewer maids and serving women than my own family did.

I had slept so late because no one had come to wake me.

But my parents had warned me time and again that great houses had endless, complicated rules.

I was to watch what I said and did. Speak less, observe more.

Fortunately, I had never been fond of explaining myself.

People who wrong you know better than anyone that you are innocent. Explaining yourself only lets them lead you around by the nose.

I preferred to stick to the facts.

Snide remarks and evasions wouldn’t work on me.

Surprisingly, my eldest sister-in-law never came to make trouble over it.

The fright left her with hysterical symptoms. It took three months of treatment before she dared close her eyes at night.

After hearing what had happened, my mother-in-law stopped provoking me too.

The other day, we had happened to meet in a narrow corridor.

Good heavens. That noble lady, so particular about dignified conduct, vaulted straight over the railing.

My days became wonderfully peaceful.

Then a letter arrived from Wei Jue.

He said he was bringing home a woman who had saved his life.

The smiles that had been absent from my mother-in-law’s and sisters-in-law’s faces for so long returned.

“Ahem. Jue’er left for the front immediately after the wedding because he puts the country first. You have shown some sense in not complaining.”

My mother-in-law was speaking kindly to me for once. Then her tone changed.

“Now he is bringing his savior home. Naturally, you must treat her with courtesy. You mustn’t throw a jealous tantrum over romance and give people something to talk about.”

My sisters-in-law hid their lips behind their sleeves, looking as though they could hardly wait to see me fall apart.

I had always known Wei Jue disliked this marriage.

He was proud.

He thought marrying for a woman’s dowry sullied his character and sacrificed a great love that had yet to materialize.

His parents had forced him to agree.

So he took it out on me.

On our wedding night, he left for war without even lifting my bridal veil.

I listened to my mother-in-law’s instruction in meek silence.

Romance?

A merchant doesn’t get up early unless there’s profit in it.

I had paid handsomely to marry up.

It certainly wasn’t for something that worthless.