Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I was eighteen, I went to Jiangnan to recover from an illness.

Specifically, the kind of illness caused by a lack of men.

I had married at sixteen.

My dead husband was a good man.

He had no concubines, caused no drama, never met me, and, of course, wasn’t alive.

My mother-in-law was also a good woman.

When she heard about my symptoms and saw the physician’s assistant stammering with a flushed face, she understood exactly what was going on.

She was a traditionalist.

“It’s too easy to get caught in the Capital.”

“How about this: go to Jiangnan and find a few men you like to play with.”

One was bold enough to suggest it; the other was bold enough to listen.

I was so excited that night I couldn’t sleep.

I didn’t even drink the honeysuckle tea the physician’s assistant had prescribed.

The next morning, my mother-in-law rose early to check on my health.

The roomful of maids stammered and hesitated.

“Uh…”

“The Young Mistress left before dawn. She’s likely already out of the city gates.”

“She left a letter for you.”

“She said… if they’re good, she’ll bring back some local specialties for you too.”

My father-in-law had also been dead for years.

Who would have thought that upon hearing how ‘filial’ I was being, my mother-in-law would be so moved she nearly fainted.

I don’t know what the customs are elsewhere.

But in our Capital, a mother-in-law can be called ‘Mother.’

When I arrived in Gusu, I bought a house.

Whenever the neighbors asked, I told them honestly that I had come from the Capital because of my poor health, and my mother had sent me here to recover.

I came to Jiangnan to do three things.

First, pick up men from the roadside.

Second, seduce the man next door.

Third, write to my mother-in-law.

“Mother, I’m hungry. Send allowance.”

My mother-in-law was frustrated by my lack of ambition.

“Have you accomplished what I sent you there to do? All you care about is money.”

Well, I’d accomplished half of it.

At least I had a target.

The scholar living next door, Xie Tingshu, was rumored to be the youngest son of a wealthy family studying abroad.

He was a year younger than me, with a face like jade and a refined, exemplary bearing.

Even in the Capital, I had rarely seen anyone so fine.

I threw my handkerchief over his wall eighteen times.

Every time, his page would stiffly invite me in to retrieve it, and every time, Xie Tingshu would keep his head down, focused on his books, completely unmoved.

On the nineteenth time, I regretted it as soon as I threw it.

It was like casting pearls before swine-or in this case, batting my eyes at a blind man.

But this time, before I could even ask, the page opened the door of his own accord.

Xie Tingshu stood beneath the plum blossoms in full bloom, cradling a scroll, my handkerchief held between his fingers.

He looked at me with such intensity that my face flushed crimson, and I didn’t dare reach out to take it.

He smiled, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

I lost my nerve and ran away.

Only later did I find out that he had taken the bait long ago. That day, he had intended to confess his feelings to me.

But because I ran, it ended up being delayed by a few days.