Chapter 2
A month before the wedding, I had a rumor spread at Song Jin’s favorite tavern: a woman physician in the south of the city was particularly skilled at safeguarding pregnancies.
Liu Ying’er sent for her, just as I expected.
The physician was an old acquaintance of my mother’s. Her medical skills were unremarkable, but she knew exactly how to set people at ease.
She stabilized Liu Ying’er’s pregnancy, then casually told her that the marquis’s household already knew she was with child.
Liu Ying’er burst into frightened tears and asked what she should do.
The physician said only, “The third young master is about to marry.”
“If his future wife can tolerate you, you and your child may yet live.”
“If she cannot…”
She left the rest unsaid.
Liu Ying’er understood.
Seven days before the wedding, she had a brocade box delivered to me.
Inside lay an expensive white-jade hairpin and a letter.
Her words were abjectly humble. All she begged was that I allow her to bear her child safely.
She swore she would never seek recognition, and would take the child far away afterward if only I spared their lives.
My personal maid, Qingdai, went white with anger.
“You haven’t even married him, miss, and she’s already flaunting her pregnancy!”
“Why would you help such a shameless woman?”
I picked up the white-jade hairpin and turned it in my hand.
“She isn’t challenging me. She’s asking for help.”
“A woman issuing a challenge thinks she’s the one holding the knife.”
“Only a woman begging for help will put that knife into someone else’s hands.”
I told Qingdai to put the hairpin away and wrote a reply myself.
It contained only eight Chinese characters.
Rest easy. Await your place in the household.
Everyone in the marquis’s residence knew Song Jin kept a mistress. No one spoke of it.
His grandmother doted on him, and the marquis and his wife did not consider a man’s affairs any great sin.
But a mistress carrying his eldest son was more than a dalliance.
The family would never allow a child of their blood to be raised outside, compromising the lineage.
So long as the child was born safely, Liu Ying’er would enter the household sooner or later.
Better she believed I had saved her than let someone else in the family bring her under their control.
On my wedding day, the bridal procession stretched for miles, and drums and music filled the air.
Song Jin came to fetch me on a snow-white horse.
Behind my round fan, I saw his face clearly for the first time.
He had handsome features and a smiling mouth. His scarlet wedding robes made him look every inch the dashing young gentleman.
No wonder so many women in the capital adored him, knowing perfectly well what he was.
When he helped me out of the bridal sedan, I caught a faint smell of wine.
“Once the bows are done, I have to go out.”
He leaned close and lowered his voice.
“Deal with the guests yourself. Don’t wait for me.”
On his wedding day, the groom intended to abandon his bride for his mistress.
Another woman might have wished to die of humiliation and rage.
I merely rested my hand lightly in his palm. “If it’s urgent, husband, of course you should go.”
“Only, Grandmother is so happy today. If you leave too early, I’m afraid she may be angry.”
He raised an eyebrow.
He probably had not expected me to forgo tears and accusations.
“You won’t ask where I’m going?”
“No.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’m going to see another woman?”
I looked up at him through the swaying strands of pearls.
“Your family married me to be your wife, not a jealous shrew.”
Song Jin stared, then laughed aloud.
“Interesting.”
He tightened his grip on my hand and led me over the brazier.
During the wedding bows, his grandmother sat in the place of honor, smiling until her eyes were little more than slits.
The marchioness looked indifferent. Members of the second and third branches of the family harbored thoughts of their own, and the hallful of guests watched the spectacle.
The master of ceremonies called for the bride and groom to bow to each other.
As I bent forward, I met Song Jin’s smiling eyes.
He regarded me as a novel toy.
I was studying him too.
My husband. The household’s most beloved third son. My first stepping-stone to wealth and power.
After we entered the bridal chamber, he excused himself to toast the guests and left, exactly as promised.
Qingdai removed my heavy phoenix crown, so angry she could not stop crying.
“How could he treat you like this?”
“You’ve only just married him, and already he’s humiliating you. Tomorrow, everyone in the household will be laughing at you!”
I rubbed my aching neck and told her to fetch me a bowl of noodles from the kitchen.
“With plenty of meat.”
Qingdai stared. “You can still eat?”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
I had been busy all day and eaten only half a pastry before stepping into the sedan.
Making myself ill with hunger over a man I had never expected to depend on would have been very stupid indeed.