chapter 3

The woman standing inside was Yunxiu.

She was the maid who had grown up beside Qin Zhaoyuan.

“So it was you, you little slut! How dare you crawl into his bed behind my back!”

Liu Ruying poured all her fury onto Yunxiu, pinning her down and beating her.

For a time, pleas for mercy and vicious curses echoed through the courtyard.

“Enough!”

My mother-in-law’s face was livid as she stopped them.

“You are his lawful wife. How can you be so jealous?”

She scolded Liu Ruying mercilessly.

Liu Ruying was supposed to be confined to her courtyard. Sneaking out was already disobedient, and now she had caused such a commotion.

When my mother-in-law saw the bloody scratches across Qin Zhaoyuan’s face, her fury redoubled.

With no regard for the new bride’s dignity, she immediately made Yunxiu a concubine.

Humiliated and enraged, Liu Ruying covered her face and ran away in tears.

Qin Zhaoyuan could not entirely abandon the affection of so many years. “Mother, Ruying has always been straightforward.”

“How much trouble has she caused since she entered this house? Today she even dared slander your sister-in-law.”

My mother-in-law patted my hand. “Your sister-in-law is such a virtuous woman. Think how many grievances she has suffered because of Ruying.”

Seeing my reddened eyes, Qin Zhaoyuan could say no more.

And so, within the first month of marriage, Liu Ruying had to grit her teeth and accept a concubine for her husband.

Xiaotao hugged a thick stack of letters to her chest and exhaled.

“That frightened me to death. I thought the Second Young Madam would catch me.”

I sat before the medicine stove and laughed softly.

“If you are such a coward, how did you dare steal the letters?”

I had arranged for Liu Ruying to learn that I was in Qin Zhaoyuan’s study.

With her temper, she was certain to storm in.

Qin Zhaoyuan did have feelings for me, but he valued his childhood bond with Liu Ruying even more. If I wanted to drive them apart, I needed to wedge another woman between them.

Yunxiu came to thank me that night.

She had served Qin Zhaoyuan since childhood. Liu Ruying could not tolerate her and had tormented her at every turn since the wedding.

The moment I offered her a way out, she seized it.

That day, she waited at the study’s rear door. With her help from inside, the woman hidden in the room became Yunxiu instead of me.

Meanwhile, I went to the garden to meet my mother-in-law and returned with her in time to witness the entire farce.

Watching Yunxiu disappear into the night, Xiaotao could not hide her worry.

“I’m afraid she will let the secret slip.”

I opened the letters I had written Qin Zhaoyuan over those three months. Every page overflowed with a young girl’s longing.

No one knew how deeply I had once admired him.

One by one, I fed the letters to the charcoal flame. Firelight sharpened the cold lines of my face.

When the letters were gone, so was my heart.

Everyone who hurt me would pay.

I brushed the ash from my clothes.

“The dead tell no secrets.”