Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I turned and walked away.

Behind me, there was a brief hush. Then Zhao Yan’s sobs and the sharp crash of Zhao Hong smashing something erupted at once.

I did not look back.

Nanny Zhu hurried over to meet me, wringing her hands in anxiety. “Miss, why put yourself through this?”

I did not slow my steps. “They clearly want to keep me under their thumb, make me feel inferior, and force me to meekly serve them like a beast of burden. But I refuse.”

I pushed open the door and entered the courtyard. In front of the bronze mirror, my expression was calm, but every word I spoke came out harder than the last.

“What has the Zhao Family given me? An empty title as mistress of the household, two children who see me as an enemy, a legal mother who made me barren, and a husband who thinks I am beneath him. With treatment like this, they still expect me to manage the household accounts, raise their children, and handle their social obligations?”

Nanny Zhu cut in anxiously, “But you have no dowry, no people of your own, and no one to rely on. What are you going to use to…”

I sat back down, smoothed my hair at the temples before the bronze mirror, and said each word clearly. “As long as I refuse to take over the household authority, the one who panics will be Zhao Hong. As long as I refuse to manage Zhao Yan and his sister’s futures, the one who grows anxious will be my legal mother. When they are anxious, I have leverage. When they panic, I can set conditions. Nanny Zhu, remember this: every contest in this world comes down to a few words in the end: who needs whom more.”

Nanny Zhu clenched her handkerchief, her eyes reddening. “But what if… what if the young master-in-law writes a divorce letter in a fit of anger?”

I gave a short laugh.

“Of the Seven Grounds for Divorce, which one have I violated?”

Nanny Zhu froze.

“If he dares to write a divorce letter, he will have to produce a charge.”

I stood and patted down my skirt. “Do you think it is easy for an established noble family to repudiate a wife? He may have no shame, but the Zhao Family still needs theirs. A lineage of officials and aristocrats that cannot even tolerate a second wife. If word gets out, will the Zhao Family’s reputation sound very fine?”

Nanny Zhu fell completely silent.

I pushed open the window. The cool morning breeze poured in, leaving me refreshed.

“Zhao Hong only has two paths now. Either he sits down and speaks with me properly, giving me respect, real authority, and dignity, and then we can discuss terms. Or he can keep this stalemate going. In that case, no one will manage his son’s clan school affairs, no one will attend to his daughter’s upbringing, and no one will bother with the Zhao Family’s household management.”

I turned and smiled at Nanny Zhu. “He is the one in a hurry, not me. At the negotiating table, only the person with no leverage flips the table. Does Zhao Hong have any leverage?”

Nanny Zhu grew even more anxious and stammered, “But… but you do not have any leverage either.”

I raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“My status as Mistress of the Zhao Family is my leverage. Either they give me power and dignity, or they divorce me.”

“I am not afraid of being divorced, because I have nothing to lose. But… does he dare?”