Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After that day,

Elder Brother arranged for me to meet the sons of various noble families, one after another.

By the bridge, beneath the willows, a minister’s son spoke to me with a smile.

“I naturally have no objections. It’s just that after you marry into my household, Second Miss Zhu will need to treat my three concubines a little better. You mustn’t slight them. Oh, and if I go to the pleasure houses in the future, Second Miss Zhu will have to help cover for me in front of my parents.”

Eldest Sister spat at him and dragged me away.

In a private room at a restaurant, the general’s nephew cupped his hands boldly and said, “If Second Miss Zhu has taken a fancy to me, that’s my good fortune. It’s just that my mother wants eight big, fat sons. You’re built so delicate and tender-can you manage that?”

Eldest Sister flushed red with anger, planted her hands on her hips, and cursed, “What do you think she is, a breeding sow? Get lost!”

In the peach blossom grove outside the capital, the newly appointed Tanhua (third-ranked scholar) gazed at us with deep feeling.

“Brother Zhu said he was matchmaking for his younger sister. I thought he meant you.”

He looked at Eldest Sister and spoke with sincere earnestness.

“Yunshao, now that I have won honors in the imperial examination, can you give me another chance?”

Eldest Sister’s beautiful brows knitted tightly as she rebuked him sharply.

“You won honors, yet you abandoned your lawful wife. How can you still have the nerve?”

“You’re not worthy of Yinyin!”

And so it went, for half a month.

At last, Eldest Sister realized something was wrong. While I was flipping through the portraits Elder Brother had given me, she chose her words carefully before speaking.

“Yinyin, stop looking.”

Beneath the grapevines in the residence, my hand did not pause as I turned another page, and I answered casually,

“If Eldest Sister feels tired, I can go look at them by myself from now on. You don’t need to worry…”

She hesitated for a moment. “Three years ago, when I came of age, every man in these portraits came to deliver betrothal gifts.”

“Elder Brother investigated them back then. They were all unworthy men.”

I froze and unconsciously clenched the album in my hands. “What?”

Eldest Sister laid her hand over the back of mine and comforted me softly.

“This time, Elder Brother must have mixed things up.”

“You have to understand, Elder Brother is the Dali Temple Minister. He’s busy. Mistakes happen.”

My throat turned sour, and my fingertips felt hot.

Honestly, I really wanted to comfort myself that way.

But I couldn’t.

Because when Elder Brother returned from court and passed by, he admitted it openly.

He looked at the faint redness at the corners of my eyes and said flatly,

“You picked them yourself.”

“Now you’ve hit the wall.”

“So? Are you still going to make a fuss?”

“If I take you to beg the Third Prince, he could still marry…”

My eyes grew hotter and hotter, and tears as big as beans rolled down one after another.

In a hoarse voice, I demanded,

“Elder Brother, do you actually want what’s best for me, or not?”

In the dim light of dusk, Elder Brother frowned, bewilderment in his expression.

“Marrying the Third Prince is the best fate you could possibly have.”

“Yinyin, what are you still clinging to? Why are you less sensible now than when you were a child?”

“Your eyes are on top of your head. You already made your choice, so what more do you want? If even the Third Prince isn’t good enough, then who exactly do you want to marry?”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to say that I was sensible.

But I remembered the Liuxian Skirt from when I was little. The truth was, I hadn’t liked pink all that much. It was too bright. I had liked the aqua one.

Then I remembered that fat tutor. He wasn’t as gentle as Eldest Sister’s tutor. He always beat me with a rattan switch.

Then I remembered our second year in the capital, when Elder Brother cleared Father and Mother’s names and also took first place in the imperial examination.

By imperial favor, Elder Brother was allowed to attend His Majesty’s birthday banquet. Holding the congratulatory poem, he had asked me and Eldest Sister, “Who wants to stay home, and who wants to enter the palace to present the poem? Yunshao, you choose first.”

At that birthday banquet, Eldest Sister not only recited the poem, she also saved the Crown Prince and Pei Chi, and her fame soared.

The evening wind brushed past me, making my cheeks hurt and my head ache too.

So I wiped my tears dry and deliberately talked back.

“Then I’m just not sensible.”

“I refuse to marry Pei Chi.”

“If it’s not Pei Chi, then anyone else is fine.”

The moment the words left my mouth,

there were two loud sounds.

The first was Elder Brother raising his hand and slapping me.

The second was Pei Chi-who came every day to bring Eldest Sister peach blossom wine-accidentally dropping and shattering his wine cup.

The cool wine splashed across my cheek.

It was cold, and it made my skin feel tight and swollen.