Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The original host’s one wife and three concubines were all in a panic.

But after panicking for a moment, each of them started putting on an act.

Madam Song calmly took a sip of tea and looked at the other three concubines.

She was the proper wife. There was no reason for her to be driven out of the manor.

She was certain those words had been meant for the three concubines.

Concubine Zhao was honest and dutiful, and she was one of Madam Song’s people.

She immediately dropped to her knees to declare her loyalty, saying that in this lifetime she would never betray her mistress and never leave the Marquis Manor.

She had given birth to Third Miss, and since she knew she had no son, she could only rely on Madam Song. As a result, her daughter, Third Miss, had become the enforcer for Madam Song’s daughter, Second Miss, as well.

She was an honest, muddleheaded fool.

Concubine Luo took out a handkerchief and delicately dabbed at the corners of her eyes, where there were no tears at all, then said mournfully that she would never leave either.

Concubine Luo had originally been a respectable girl the original host had taken a liking to. After coaxing her in with romance and sweet talk, he tossed her into the rear courtyard and left her there.

She had beauty and little else. She gave birth to Fourth Miss and was bullied terribly in the inner household.

In the end, it was only with the help of the eldest daughter born to the first wife that she came to her senses and escaped the prison that was the Marquis Manor.

Concubine Hu sashayed up to my side, and the scent of face powder and perfume reached my nose before she did.

She was the youngest of them, with sultry eyes and charm in every gesture. A smile lingered on her lips as she spoke in a cloyingly sweet voice.

“Master, you’re always so good at teasing people. Just a few days ago, you were still full of vigor in bed with me, and today you’re saying you can’t anymore. I don’t believe you. Let me test it myself.”

She was passionate and bold, and very skilled at seduction.

She was also the original host’s favorite concubine.

But she didn’t love him.

She had originally been a courtesan from a brothel, bought and presented to the original host. In truth, she had long since given her heart to someone else. She was the one who cheated on him.

She slept with another man and gave birth to the only son in the entire Marquis Manor.

Relying on the original host’s favor and on having a son to support her position, she competed with Madam Song and often angered her.

But I had no intention of pursuing any of that.

After all, I wasn’t the original host. I didn’t sympathize with him all that much.

He was the most useless person in the entire Marquis Manor, yet the one who had lived the most comfortably.

After marrying a wealthy first wife, he went on to have an affair with Madam Song.

He angered his first wife to death, and as soon as the hundred-day mourning period ended, he brought Madam Song into the household.

He felt guilty toward his eldest daughter, and his solution was to let Madam Song send her off to an estate in the countryside, out of sight and out of mind, where she nearly died.

Later, after the eldest daughter returned, he even snatched away the marriage arrangement the first wife had made for her and gave it to the second daughter instead.

But if you said he loved the second daughter that much, that wasn’t true either.

After the second daughter got her wish and married, her husband saw the radiant eldest daughter and regretted it, then abused her in every possible way.

And the original host, as her father, didn’t say a word.

The third daughter framed the eldest daughter, only to be set up by her in return and violated.

As her father, his first reaction was that the third daughter had disgraced the family. Deceiving himself, he married her off to her rapist and fabricated the appearance of family harmony.

Third Miss’s birth mother, Concubine Zhao, threatened him with her life and hanged herself.

He thought she was bad luck and ordered a hasty burial.

A concubine who had accompanied him for more than twenty years received nothing but a torn burial mat after death.

The fourth daughter was forced by the second daughter into plotting against the eldest daughter.

He knew nothing about it.

When the fourth daughter asked him for help, he impatiently berated her, saying she was sowing discord and disregarding the bond between sisters.

Fortunately, the eldest daughter showed mercy. After giving the fourth daughter a few sharp words of warning, she won her over, and together they turned the scheme back on the second daughter.

In the end, Madam Song married the fourth daughter off to a poor xiucai with many siblings.

She spent her days serving her parents-in-law, attending to her husband, enduring her sisters-in-law, being coveted by her brothers-in-law, and getting slapped by her elder sister-in-law.

Even so, that already counted as one of the better endings among the daughters.

As for the only young son, although he had been born of adultery, the original host didn’t know that, so he should have been properly raised as the family’s heir.

Instead, after the boy cried and threw tantrums for a few days, his heart softened in fatherly affection, and he stopped making him practice horse stance and martial arts.

At a very young age, the boy was already beating up his tutor, gambling on cockfights, running around with hunting dogs, learning nothing at all, and spending every day mixed up with a crowd of idle young dandies, until he became a notorious spoiled wastrel.

In the end, the eldest daughter exposed him as a child born of adultery.

The original host drew his sword and killed Concubine Hu and the boy.

Then he himself was so enraged that he suffered a stroke and lay paralyzed in bed, waiting to die.

This whole family was busy harming one another.

They fought and schemed back and forth as if they were raising venomous creatures in a jar.

In the end, the eldest daughter seemed to have won and became the Empress.

But only a few years later, the Emperor was assassinated and lost his memory. He forgot her and had her executed for the sake of another woman.

After recovering his memories, he mourned her with great devotion on the one hand while keeping a substitute who looked exactly like her on the other.

Honestly, it’s hard to even say what to make of that.