Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was once the Song woman, a child bride taken into the Song family.

Unfortunately, when I was thirteen, my husband died.

Lady Bai of the town saw me kneeling at the street corner with a straw marker stuck in my hair, and pity stirred in her heart. She bought a cheap coffin and helped me lay the body to rest.

By the rules, I should have entered her household as a servant, but she would not allow it. “You became a widow at such a young age… If you entered my Bai Mansion, I fear there would be too many inconveniences.”

She did not say exactly what would be inconvenient. She merely had someone send word to the county deputy magistrate.

The next day, my official name, “Madam Song nee Qian,” was added to the chastity arch.

I was still young then and did not understand what that meant. I only knelt in a daze and thanked Lady Bai.

Before long, I went up the mountain and entered a nunnery.

I became the youngest nun there.

In just three years, I had grown used to life on the mountain.

Then one day, someone suddenly came to say that Lady Bai had been suffering from chest pains lately and wanted me to come to her residence to chant sutras for a few days.

Because the offering money was generous, the abbess sent me down the mountain with little ceremony. Seeing my gleaming bald scalp and the ocean-blue monastic robe on me washed nearly white, the elderly nun accompanying me told me to wrap my head in a black kerchief and veil my face with a long cloth that hung all the way down to my feet.

Dressed that way, if one did not look too closely, it was hard to tell I was a nun.

Only when we reached the official road did I understand why she had done so.

Hooves clattered, dust billowed, and in the blink of an eye, a group of brocade-clad youths went galloping past with a roar. With their hair loose, their robes carelessly open, and their horses racing at full speed, they looked truly dashing.

I was watching with interest when another large carriage with a lacquered roof came down the road, carrying several young, radiant beauties. Their bright voices and laughter drifted along as they traveled onward.

In all my dozen-plus years of life, I had never seen such a scene before. For a moment, I could not look away.

Just as I was wondering why they were showing themselves in public like that, I heard a teasing laugh from behind my ear.

“Ninth Young Master, this one must be a beauty too!”

I had only just turned around when a riding crop sliced through the air. In the next instant, my headscarf was struck clean off.

The stout youth at the front still had his whip raised in midair, but he froze.

“Why is it a nun?”

I was clutching my bald head and glaring furiously when, amid the tall horses and the press of figures before me, someone slowly reined his mount forward. A single red mole between his brows was like the finishing touch in a portrait of a beauty, yet he was a young man, handsome as a jade bodhisattva.

He glanced at me, then shook his head slightly.

“Do not harass women of decent households.”

That light, effortless intervention left the stout youth somewhat unconvinced. “Ninth Young Master, weren’t you the one who said we were going out to hunt beauties?”

“Look at her. Even if this nun’s head is smooth and shiny, she still counts as delicate and pitiful, doesn’t she?”

At that, the other young man looked at me again and gave a faint, amused smile.

In that instant, his glance seemed to cast light all around him.

This person was clearly someone of consequence. Since he did not give the word, the other youths, no matter how eager they were, did not dare do anything too outrageous.

They could only watch as I picked up my kerchief and covered my head and face as before.