Chapter 4

Since I hadn’t married into the family yet, it wouldn’t have been proper to follow them to the Lin residence. Instead, I sent my nanny over with two young maids and some gifts.

My darling girl was so thin she looked as though a gust of wind might knock her down. It hurt to see her.

My nanny had nursed me as a baby and was practically another mother. Looking over my presents for little Daiyu, she struggled to find the words.

“Miss, these gifts… aren’t they rather unsuitable?”

I rummaged through them and saw nothing wrong. “They seem perfectly suitable. Five-in-a-row, a Huarong Path puzzle, a rosewood Rubik’s cube… What’s wrong with them?”

She couldn’t bear it any longer and spoke plainly. “We’re not sending food, drink, or medicines because things in the Lin household may be unsettled and someone could tamper with them. So yes, we agreed on a few ordinary amusements. But surely you needn’t send these!”

The Shen family’s old maid of a daughter had truly worn her down.

My disposition was the result of the whole household indulging me. Here I was, giving my future stepdaughter a first gift made up entirely of cheap little things I’d tinkered with myself.

The lot wasn’t worth a single hairpin set with an eastern pearl!

“You must spare some thought for Lord Lin’s dignity,” Nanny pleaded. “And for the Jias staying there.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, Nanny. Just take them over. I’ll answer for anything that happens.”

There were reasons I had become the Shen family’s unmarried daughter. Unable to change my mind, Nanny could only brace herself and take the gifts over with the two young maids.

She didn’t return until just before supper.

I sat in the reception hall with my long-haired lion cat in my arms and raised an eyebrow. “Well? Did Miss Lin like them?”

Mother and my sisters-in-law were eager too. “Tell us, Nanny Xu.”

Nanny was an old and respected member of the household, so she dispensed with ceremony. “I thought Miss Lin might pretend to like them out of politeness. But she truly did. When she grew sleepy this afternoon, she was still holding that rosewood… was it a mill or a cube? She told Lizhi and Yingtao to teach her how to use it when she woke.”

“And Lord Lin? Did he say anything?” Mother was more concerned about his opinion.

“Not about that. But when Miss Lin solved the Luban lock and found Yingtao’s and Lizhi’s bond papers inside, she begged him to let them stay, and he agreed.”

Mother relaxed. “Good. Good.”

Then she glared at me. “How dare you send servants over before you’ve even married him? Where are your manners?”

I played with my cat and invoked our eligible bachelor as my defense. “Lord Lin told me he’d dismissed all the servants.”

“He spent practically all of last year living at his office and hardly went home. This time he returned with only a few old retainers and his page. Everyone else in the house was bought recently. Their backgrounds may be clean, but that doesn’t make them easy to work with. Yingtao and Lizhi have served me. They’re loyal and quick-witted, and young enough to get along naturally with Miss Lin.”

I explained with perfect seriousness. After all, if Lin Ruhai had told me so much about his household, he could hardly expect me to sit there like a clay doll.

He had agreed to my involvement. The least I could do was protect his daughter.

Mother and my sisters-in-law had no answer for me beyond a scolding.

“Even if you send maids, you don’t send their bond papers with them,” one said. “No one expects you to keep them under your thumb, but you can’t give up every safeguard.”

Another said, “Fortunately, Yingtao’s and Lizhi’s parents are old servants here, and our household holds the papers for their entire families. We can still give them a warning now and then. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, wouldn’t you have put Miss Lin in danger?”

When they saw me taking their scolding without answering back, smiling over my cat, they all caught on.

“You little wretch! You had this planned all along, didn’t you?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Of course.”

How could I give my daughter anyone but the most carefully chosen attendants?