Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Later, my mother-in-law heard that Xie Yan had been poisoned by some vixen from outside the household.

For the first time in years, she put down the Buddhist prayer beads she never let out of her hand and personally led people to Xiang Tunan’s teahouse to block her path.

Not only did she reward Xiang Tunan with two stinging slaps in public, she also left her with a ruthless warning:

“A wild sparrow kept for others’ amusement has actually grown ambitions and an appetite. Very well, I’ll make the decision for you. On the day of the winter solstice, a small sedan chair will carry you into the marquis estate to become the lowest, most contemptible concubine.”

In the past, Xiang Tunan was always loudly preaching independence and self-reliance, sneering that women of the inner courtyard were crippled birds trapped in cages.

With that rhetoric, she had won over a crowd of noble sons.

Relying on her teahouse, ice jelly, and hotpot businesses, she had made money hand over fist and gained a foothold in the capital.

But once she entered the marquis estate as a concubine, it would be a slap to her own face. Every grand declaration she had ever made would become a joke.

Not only would she find it impossible to survive in the inner courtyard, but the shops she depended on for her livelihood would also be crushed.

Besides, her mission was to grasp Xie Huaiyu’s heart.

She was not willing to become a lamb waiting for slaughter.

That was why she had deliberately stopped my sedan chair and made a grand spectacle of provoking me.

In front of the entire crowd, she used one bitter self-sacrificing act to make Xie Huaiyu stand wholly on her side.

Against loyalty, filial piety, propriety, and even me, his lawful wife.

Those who had always abided by rules and etiquette were often the easiest to attract with someone who defied them.

This Transmigrator who was trying to win him over had already carved out a place in Xie Huaiyu’s heart.

Nanny Li was frantic with worry.

I, however, remained unmoved.

Holding my son Xie Yan’s copybook in one hand and my daughter Xie Zhao’s policy essay in the other, I compared the two and nodded in satisfaction.

My son’s brushwork took after his father’s: stern and commanding, with no lack of character.

My daughter, however, was like me, hiding her edge beneath flowing sleeves, strategy tucked within her heart.

Then Xie Huaiyu pushed the door open and came in.

The cold wind swept in with great flakes of snow, making both Xie Yan and Xie Zhao shiver.

With a single look from me, Nanny Li led the two children out of the courtyard.

Xie Huaiyu leaned back in the grand armchair and wearily rubbed the space between his brows.

“She is only a young girl who knows nothing of the world. Ah Heng, you have always carried yourself with dignity and generosity. Why lower yourself to quarrel with her?”

“She was humiliated in public, frozen until her body suffered, and lost face so completely. How is she supposed to establish herself in the capital after this?”

The pearl-studded clasp on Xie Huaiyu’s chest and the silver band on his index finger shone dazzlingly.

They happened to be a matching pair with the one pinned at Xiang Tunan’s chest and the one worn on her index finger.

She called them… a brooch and a ring.

In her era, they were tokens of love only husband and wife would exchange.

I looked at them and laughed softly, then slowly lowered my eyes. My tone was cool and distant.

“A feudal relic doomed to rot in the inner courtyard? Was she cursing me, or every wife in every inner courtyard under heaven? Does that include your late mother, Marquis, the mother-in-law who raised you, Her Majesty the Empress in the deep palace, and your own elder sister, the Noble Consort?”

“She forgot my warning. I merely gave her a small punishment as a larger lesson, yet Marquis is already beside himself with heartache. If those words reached the harem and left her gown soaked in blood, her corpse carried out for all to see, what would Marquis do then?”

Xie Huaiyu’s hand froze.

He raised his eyes to look at me, his cold expression carrying a crushing pressure.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I would not dare.”

I leaned back slightly in my own grand armchair and met his gaze head-on.

“The capital is a place that speaks in power and rules. Since she knows nothing of the world, she ought to get as far away from it as possible. A little girl may not understand, but Marquis cannot pretend to be a fool.”

Xie Huaiyu slammed the table and rose.

With a gust of cold wind caught in his sleeves, he strode straight toward the door.

“I once thought that, at the very least, you were gentle, magnanimous, and broad-minded. In the end, you are no different from those women of the back courtyard.”

His angry back disappeared into the wind and snow.

Amid the howling wind, I could not help laughing aloud.

Gentle, magnanimous, and broad-minded?

He did not know that Women of the Ning Family had always been petty to the point of death when it came to vicious Transmigrators.