chapter 1

chapter 1

My name was Lin Yan, and I had once been the cherished only daughter of a wealthy merchant in Yangzhou.

My parents loved each other dearly and treasured me above all else. Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

The previous year, Father had died in an epidemic. Mother, overcome by grief, soon followed him.

As the family’s only child, I had no brothers to stand behind me. Against the hawks and wolves of the Lin clan, I could not hold on to our property alone.

With nowhere else to turn, I followed Mother’s dying instructions and traveled to the capital to seek refuge with her cousin, who had married into the household of the Marquis of Ning’an.

My aunt was now the Marchioness of Ning’an. Taking pity on an orphaned girl, she had her eldest son help secure my inheritance and allowed me to remain in the estate.

“My dear child, your mother and I were the closest of friends when we were young,” she told me gently. “Now that she is gone, I will take good care of you. From now on, this is your home.”

I was deeply grateful and resolved to repay her kindness in every way I could.

And so I settled into the marquis’s household.

Whether out of gratitude or concern for my future, the marchioness was the person I most needed to please. Every day, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to attending her.

She enjoyed reading scripture, so I copied texts for her in the delicate calligraphy she favored. She liked goose-fat rolls, so I learned to make them from the cook. Whenever she had a headache, I promptly presented her with an exquisitely sewn forehead band.

Seeing that I was pretty, obedient, and devoted, the marchioness grew fonder of me by the day. She often lamented that she had no daughter and wished I could remain at her side forever.

But remaining in this household was easier said than done.

I was already fifteen, almost old enough to marry.

The marchioness had two sons. Her eldest, Zhao Yuan, was the heir. In his early twenties, he was strikingly handsome and accomplished in both scholarship and martial arts.

Her younger son, Zhao Feng, was only eight—a mischievous child.

When the marchioness spoke of keeping me forever, she naturally meant for me to become Zhao Yuan’s concubine.

After all, I had lost both parents and came from a merchant family. Though the marchioness and I were nominally related, our kinship was distant enough to fall outside the five degrees of mourning. My mother’s youthful friendship with her was hardly enough to make me Zhao Yuan’s lawful wife.

I had no fondness for the idea of becoming a concubine, but I considered it carefully.

I had property but no one to protect it. If I married elsewhere, others might covet what I owned.

If I remained here, my aunt could at least keep me safe. And for the sake of our distant kinship, Zhao Yuan probably would not treat me harshly.

His future wife would surely be a lady of distinguished birth. I simply had to keep to my own sphere and stay out of hers.

If she happened to be pleasant, we might even become companions at leaf cards.

After thinking it over, I gladly accepted my aunt’s proposal.