Chapter 1

Mulan took her father’s place in the army. My father took his daughter’s place at the altar.

The Empress issued a decree ordering our family to choose one of us to marry her notorious wastrel of a nephew.

My father was barely past forty. With his teeth clenched, he snatched up the red bridal veil my elder sister and I had nearly torn to shreds.

“Stop fighting over it. I’ll be the one to marry him.”

My mother tried several times to speak, but in the end she could only watch, eyes red, as he climbed into the bridal sedan.

My father said goodbye to her, then rode all the way to the Empress’s maiden home in a wedding procession full of clanging gongs and drums.

My sister and I stared, our eyes nearly popping out of our heads.

I asked, “Mother, will Father still send his salary home after he’s married?”

My sister asked, “Mother, will Father still come home for dinner later?”

1

My father was a third-rank official. After completing an important assignment, he had been summoned back to the capital to report.

Plenty of princes wanted him on their side.

There were all sorts of ways for people at court to signal their desire for an alliance. The simplest was to marry their families together.

The Empress had set her sights on my elder sister and me.

Her decree was delivered to the Shen residence. It stated plainly that our family must choose one daughter to marry the son of her maiden clan.

That would make the two sides allies.

My father had been away from the capital for years and knew nothing about his prospective son-in-law, so he sent people to investigate.

When the reports came back, he wished he had never asked.

The young heir was a rake who drank, chased women, and gambled—he had every vice in the book.

He had once been involved in a death at a brothel. Before the marriage negotiations had even begun, there was already a three-year-old boy in his household.

Lately, he had settled down a little, but it wasn’t because he had mended his ways. He was simply besotted with a young woman and busy fighting his own family over her.

In short, any girl who married him would have a miserable life.

My elder sister already had someone she loved. The elders of both families had given their word; they were only waiting for an auspicious day to formally ask for her hand.

I hadn’t found anyone I liked yet, but I had written down the qualities I wanted and was waiting for my parents to find someone suitable.

Now, with one decree, one of the sisters’ lives was bound to be ruined.

My father was so worried he fell ill, but he still forced himself to go to the palace and plead for mercy.

He knelt outside the palace gates for a long time. He never even got to see the Emperor or the Empress.

At last, only the Empress’s attendant came out to deliver a message. “Young men are bound to be immature. Once a daughter from your household marries into the family, she can teach him to behave.”

My father’s vision went dark. He fainted on the spot.

His colleagues carried him home, then were ordered to persuade him to accept the decree.

One of them sat beside his bed and said awkwardly, “Old Shen, Her Majesty means well. Your daughter is grown and has to marry eventually. What difference does it make whom she marries?”

My father leaned against his pillows, pale as paper but perfectly clearheaded. “If it were your daughter facing a man like that, would you be willing to marry her off?”

His colleague fell silent. If it were his own daughter, he wouldn’t want her to marry that man either.

He had already come to offer advice against his conscience. If he said any more, the powers above might assign his family a son-in-law just like this one. By then, it would be too late to cry about it.

The two officials could only sigh together over their children’s marriages.

They knew it was a pit of fire, but with the imperial command hanging over them, there was nowhere to run.

2

No matter how unwilling we were, one of us still had to marry him.

My mother set the red bridal veil the Empress had sent on the table.

My sister reached for it first. Her fingers hovered over its gold-embroidered edge for a long time, then finally closed around the red cloth.

I grabbed the other side. I refused to let her face this marriage alone.

My sister’s eyes reddened. She shook her head at me. “You’re still young, and I’m your elder sister. If one of us has to marry him, it should be me.”

The very day the decree arrived, my future brother-in-law had hurried over with his mother.

My sister spoke with him for a long time, but in the end no one could think of a way out. When they left, everyone’s eyes were red.

I wouldn’t let go. “You already have someone you want to marry. This time, let me go instead. It’s only a marriage—what difference does it make which of us goes?”

Tears spilled down my sister’s cheeks. “How can you say that? If you marry a man like him, your whole life will be ruined!”

That was exactly why I couldn’t bear to watch her go.

My sister felt the same way about me, so the more we tugged at the veil, the harder we pulled. By the time we were done, it was all misshapen.

We kept struggling over it while our mother wiped her tears with her handkerchief again and again.

We were both her daughters. Taking one side would be no different from pushing the other into the fire herself.

Then the curtain stirred.

My father had been ill for half a month, yet now he came out of the inner room, one hand braced against the doorframe. His voice was still weak, but his words were firm. “Stop pulling. I’ll take this marriage.”

My sister and I froze and let go.

The red veil fell neatly into my father’s hands.

He lifted it in his palm. Its brilliant red glow fell across his pale, sickly face, making him look even more handsome.

My mother stared at him. For the first time, she looked uncertain.

In his youth, my father had been the palace examination’s third-ranked scholar.

The top scholar that year was over seventy. The second-ranked one was stout and proper. Of the three men who rode through the streets, my father was the one who received the most embroidered sachets and handkerchiefs thrown by young women.

Of course, that was all according to my mother.

I only knew that official documents and illness had worn him down, yet he was still much better-looking than most men.

My father looked at me and my sister, then suddenly said, “According to the household registers, A-Ning and A-Nghi might not even count as my daughters.”

A-Nghi was my elder sister. I was A-Ning.

My head exploded.

So my mother…

I looked at her, unable to keep a trace of reproach from my eyes.

My father had been so handsome in his youth, with such a bright official career. Could she really have taken another man?

Just how handsome would that man have to be for her to leave my father?

My sister and I exchanged a look. We were clearly thinking the same thing.

My mother stopped crying. Her grip on the veil tightened and tightened.

She knew us too well. One look at our faces told her that her daughters’ thoughts had gone badly astray.

The Empress’s decree was still the most urgent matter. My mother held back from scolding us and asked my father instead, “Can you really go in person? What if they accuse you of defying the decree?”

My father set aside the frail act he had just been putting on and gave a cold laugh. “They went to all this trouble because they want me to take their side, didn’t they?”

He shook out the bridal veil, his voice growing bolder. “They want to recruit me, and they want my daughter to go teach that fool how to behave. Why bother with all the detours? Wouldn’t it suit everyone better if I married into the family myself?”

My mother did not answer. My father continued, explaining the decree to us. “The Empress’s real target is me. If I enter the Duke’s household, my position will be clear, and I can keep that idiot in line. Isn’t that better than sending either of you?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

My father had once served as Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. No one wielded a teaching ruler better than he did. He was certainly more qualified to discipline that scoundrel than the two of us were.

Besides, skipping a step and having them escort my father directly into the household would make everything simpler.

My mother raised a hand to smack the back of my head.

I was ready for it. I slipped behind my sister.

She couldn’t catch me and shouted in exasperation, “What are you nodding for? Who asked for your opinion?”

3

It sounded absurd for a father to marry in place of his daughter, but the four of us still sat around the table all night, trying to think of another way.

We drank five pots of tea and ate six plates of pastries, yet came up with nothing.

Neither of my parents wanted us to jump into that pit of fire.

At daybreak, my father put on his dark-red official robe, pulled the bridal veil over his head, and climbed straight into the bridal sedan.

We had plenty of wedding clothes at home, but Father…

He was slender, but he was still a grown man. No matter how they altered the bride’s wedding dress, he couldn’t fit into it.

His official robe was the right color, so he would have to make do.

With tears in my eyes, I followed him to the door and tugged at my mother’s sleeve. “Mother, will Father’s salary still come home to support us after he becomes my stepfather?”

From today on, he really would be living in someone else’s house. The thought alone made me reluctant to let him go.

He had never made a show of his affection for us, but he had never failed to provide for us, either.

I had barely finished murmuring when a sharp smack rang beside my ear.

My mother’s hand had missed me, but she raised it again. “What do you mean, ‘stepfather’? He was your father before, and he’ll still be your father afterward. You have only one father in this life!”

“But yesterday, you two said…” I spun around and nimbly dodged her pursuing hand.