Chapter 1

When our families met to discuss the marriage, Father begged Xiao Zhuye, over and over, to give me my medicine on time.

He stood before him with his back bent, bowing repeatedly, cold sweat almost running down his neck as he pleaded:

“My late wife died young and left me only this beloved daughter. She’s always been frail, and she’s been living at a temple all these years. If she should forget her manners or offend anyone in your household, I beg you to forgive her.”

Xiao Zhuye sat there, insolently playing with a dagger studded with gold and jade.

Two wild geese he had hunted lay on the table. Not quite dead, they drooped their necks and gave feeble cries.

He raised his hand and sank the dagger to its hilt into a goose’s neck. Father fell silent as abruptly as the bird whose throat had been cut.

Xiao Zhuye lifted his eyes and gave a mocking laugh. “Once Wei Qiao marries into the Xiao family, she’s a Xiao wife. You needn’t trouble yourself, Deputy Magistrate.”

He rose and walked behind the screen. An elderly servant was helping me to my feet, but I was still swaying. He saw me and curled his lip coldly.

“A sickly beauty indeed.”

Then he strode away.

Father slapped his thigh in distress. “Well! Well, now we’re in for it!”

My stepmother was at a loss. “What are we going to do?”

Father sighed. “Increase her dose. Once she’s in the marquis’s household, whether she lives or dies is no concern of ours.”

Soon enough, my bridal sedan entered the marquis’s gates to the din of wedding music. The handful of dowry chests made the onlookers shake their heads.

“Are the Weis marrying off a daughter or selling her? Such a paltry dowry! They’ll be a laughingstock.”

“Shh! Keep your voice down. Everyone knows the young lord already has a woman. His family made such a fuss about marrying him to a delicate young lady. I say they mean to torment the wife to death and make room for the concubine. Anything they send with her is money thrown to the dogs!”

“Ugh! That family really does play dirty!”

“She’s walking into a den of wolves. How long do you think the new wife will last?”

“Six months.” “Three!”

The bets kept coming, and the crowd was in high spirits. A hand reached in and leisurely set down a gold ingot.

They looked up. The handsome young lord, dressed in wedding red, tugged lazily at the red silk in his hand and smiled with malicious amusement.

“I wager one day.”

A brazier had been set before the gates. Flames leaped high over scarlet coals, which spat occasional sparks.

Two maids gripped my arms and forced me forward. “Step over the brazier, young madam!”

I shook my head weakly. The smoke left my chest tight and my breath short; I couldn’t speak. I swayed, and Xiao Zhuye caught me in time.

His voice held a smile, his hand was very steady. “My wife is frail. Let her husband help her.”

At the brazier, I raised my foot. No one lifted the hem of my bridal gown. With a hiss, the flames devoured the cloth and reached my calves in an instant.

A maid screamed. “The young madam’s on fire!”

At that very moment, Xiao Zhuye let go.

Unable to stand, I fell. My calves burned; my limbs felt stuffed with cotton, utterly useless.

No one around me dared move. Panting, I used what little strength I had to pull off my bridal veil and try to smother the fire.

Xiao Zhuye looked down at me with his hands behind his back. Suddenly he laughed. “Someone cool our young madam off!”

A servant brought a basin of ice-cold water and emptied it over me.

I shuddered and glared at him, but my eyelids grew heavier.

The last thing I saw was Xiao Zhuye’s amused smile.

When I woke, I was cold and wet all over. The red candles had burned halfway down. I was alone in the bridal chamber except for the elderly servant who had come with my dowry. She was roughly forcing a bowl of black medicine into my mouth.

I clenched my teeth and stared at her with wide eyes.

“Accept your lot! These were your father’s own instructions. Why, you little hussy, you dare fight me?”

She pried my mouth open. I seized the chance to bite her hard. She screamed and raised her hand to slap me.

Just then, the door opened. Xiao Zhuye came in with a voluptuous woman.

She too wore a bright red bridal gown, but hers was daringly cut. Half her pale shoulders were bare, covered with red marks.

She must be Ji Furong, Xiao Zhuye’s beloved concubine.

They said that three years ago Xiao Zhuye had been badly wounded at the border. Ji Furong had cared for him for a month, scarcely taking off her clothes to rest, until the soldiers searching for him arrived.

The woman described as kind and steadfast in those rumors now leaned against Xiao Zhuye as though she had no bones.

She covered a yawn with her hand. “I heard Madam moaning from a long way off. I thought how pitiful she must feel, lonely in her chamber, so I brought her husband.”

She gave him a playful push toward me. “Here, Sister. Please accept my gift.”

Xiao Zhuye wasn’t angry at her teasing. He put an indulgent arm around her waist.

“You really will say anything. She’s made of paper; one touch and she’d tear. How could she compare with my irresistible Rong’er?”

The two of them began discussing their private pleasures right in front of me, as though I wasn’t there.

Ji Furong twisted her waist coquettishly. “Stop teasing, my husband. Sister’s watching. It sounds as if she’s trying to say something.”

I stared at Xiao Zhuye. Tears slowly welled in my eyes. My lips parted, soundlessly forming a single word: “Medicine.”

For a moment he was lost in the sight of my deathly pale face and shallow breaths in the candlelight. His throat tightened. Instinctively he leaned closer to hear. “What do you want?”

I secretly gave Ji Furong a provocative smile.

Her face turned livid. She glanced around, snatched the bowl from the servant’s hands, and lifted it high.

“You want your medicine? Very well. Get on your knees and kowtow to me three times, and I’ll give it to you!”