Chapter 1
Chapter 1
To avoid becoming a living cuckold, Shen Yuan’an made up his mind to marry me.
When he brought me back to the marquis manor, the Marquis rolled his eyes and lowered his head to shell peanuts for his wife.
The Marquis’s Lady clutched her forehead and roared, “Marry her, then! You brought her back, so you take care of her yourself! Don’t expect us to spend a single coin helping you keep a woman!”
Only then did I learn that Shen Yuan’an was a thoroughgoing wastrel.
He had been betrothed since childhood to the legitimate daughter of the Loyal and Brave Marquis Manor.
But the two of them were always fighting like cats and dogs.
This was far from the first time Shen Yuan’an had made a fuss about marrying someone else.
Every year, he would bring a girl home and put on a grand show of deep devotion, as if he would marry no one but her.
Then he would go out to have fun for a few days, and by the time he came back, he would have forgotten the girl completely.
In the end, it was always the Marquis’s Lady who had to clean up after him.
This time, the Marquis’s Lady was determined to cure him of the habit.
She made it known that if Shen Yuan’an wanted to keep me, no maidservant was allowed to wait on me, and he was absolutely forbidden from spending a single coin of the family’s money.
Shen Yuan’an turned his head.
He saw me with my head lowered, picking crumbs of coarse cornbread out of my clothes.
He took a deep breath.
Then he looked at my hair, so dirty it had knotted together, and at the filth all over me, giving off a strange smell.
He held his breath.
The Marquis’s Lady said leisurely, “Shen Yuan’an, no wonder Miss Qi called you a good-for-nothing. Count for yourself. Since you were a child, what have you ever stuck with for more than seven days?”
Those words stirred Shen Yuan’an’s pride.
He swore up and down that he would take proper care of me!
Forcing down his nausea, Shen Yuan’an waved a hand grandly. “Just you wait and see! I will raise her well!”
But I didn’t want that.
I walked toward the door.
My parents had taken my elder sister to see a doctor, and my younger brother had gone to look for food.
We had agreed to meet under the bridge.
How could I become this fool’s fiancée for no reason at all?
I didn’t manage to leave.
Shen Yuan’an sent people to bring my parents, my elder sister, and my younger brother all to the manor.
He even specially invited a doctor to treat my sister.
I soaked in the bathtub, head lowered as I scrubbed the dirt off my body.
Shen Yuan’an had a strip of cloth tied over his eyes as he came fumbling in with a bucket.
After boiling three full buckets of water, he was so exhausted that he plopped down on the floor.
Panting, eyes unfocused, Shen Yuan’an looked as if he wished he could sleep forever and never wake up.
The Marquis’s Lady had issued a strict order.
Anything related to me had to be handled by Shen Yuan’an personally.
When the kitchen heard the hot water was for my bath, they made Shen Yuan’an boil it himself.
Now his body and face were covered in grass ash, and he had even scalded his hand, raising two blisters.
I came out wearing Shen Yuan’an’s clothes.
When he saw my frail appearance, he froze for a moment.
Shen Yuan’an pinched my thin arm and asked with a miserable expression, “How old are you?”
I held up a number with my fingers.
Shen Yuan’an shrieked, “Fifteen?! Doesn’t that mean I have to raise you for another two years before I can marry you?!”
This fine-faced Heir Apparent had to go and grow a mouth!
And he was a chatterbox!
He went on and on by himself until my head was buzzing.
“As of now, I’ve already spent ten taels on you.”
“Getting your sister treated and buying things for your family all costs silver!”
“This young master even personally boiled water for your bath!”
“No. I can’t give up. I’ve invested so much already. I refuse to accept a loss!”
As Shen Yuan’an spoke, the look he gave me grew ferocious, as if he had made some momentous decision.
Through gritted teeth, he said, “I’ll raise you! No matter how bitter or difficult it is, I’ll keep raising you!”
Shen Yuan’an lifted his arm and ordered me around. “Come here. Give this young master a massage.”
This man talked too much, demanded too much, and his brain didn’t work properly.
No wonder no one else was willing to marry him.
I glanced at him, got up, and left.
He said in disbelief, “Is she looking down on me? That look in her eyes was clearly disgust, wasn’t it?! The nerve of her! She eats my food and drinks my water! I haven’t even looked down on her for being a Little Beggar, and she’s looking down on me first!”