My father was the richest man in Great Zhou, and I was his only daughter.
To protect me, he arranged for me to marry into Marquis Manor with an enormous dowry.
On the day of my engagement, I had a dream.
I dreamed that Marquis Manor looked down on me for being born to a merchant family, while the Young Marquis doted wholeheartedly on his talented cousin.
After my father died, my dowry was swallowed up completely.
To make his cousin his legitimate wife, the Young Marquis bribed the midwife to murder me while I was in childbirth.
When I woke from the dream, the Young Marquis walked into my family’s jewelry shop with his cousin in tow.
“Since you’re going to marry into Marquis Manor, you ought to shed that stink of money. Marquis Manor can’t afford that kind of embarrassment.
“Give this shop to my cousin. Consider it a greeting gift from you, her future sister-in-law.”
I looked at his smug, superior face and let out a cold laugh.
Then I turned and ordered the steward to throw him out.
“What kind of down-and-out household starts eyeing a wife’s dowry before she’s even married in?
“Your highborn Marquis Manor has worse manners than a farming family!”
