Chapter 2

A second smack landed. This time, I didn’t dodge fast enough.

After so many years without being hit, my reflexes had clearly grown rusty. Meanwhile, Mother’s successive blows were faster than ever.

The courtyard erupted into chaos. She chased me until I had to scramble onto a low wall. Only when my elder sister grabbed Mother’s arm did the commotion finally stop.

Mother began telling us how she and Father had met.

4

Father came from a poor family. He had grown up with almost nothing.

He was handsome and excelled at his studies. Everyone said he had a bright future ahead of him. But back then, he couldn’t even scrape together enough money to travel to the capital for the examinations.

Mother’s circumstances were the opposite.

Her parents had died early, leaving her a large family estate—and plenty of distant relatives eager to get their hands on it.

So Mother sought Father out, and the two of them hit it off at once.

Father married into her family. Mother supported him through his studies and the examinations, while he helped her fend off the relatives who were always reaching for her money.

After a few years together, Father passed the provincial examination as a recommended scholar. He planned to go to the capital, study further, and sit the palace examinations.

By then, Mother had put her estate in order. She had more money than she could spend and wanted nothing more than to shut the gates and enjoy a quiet life.

Watching her husband prepare to leave, she thought the two of them ought to part ways.

Father refused. Mother was always afraid she wouldn’t be able to keep him. They went back and forth for more than a year, but in the end, neither could bear to let the other go.

Even as I listened, I couldn’t forget the enormous misunderstanding from earlier. “What does any of that have to do with Mother taking another man? I’m not saying I’d necessarily object, but I still have to scold you a little.”

Mother raised her hand to hit me again.

I dodged three blows in a row. Apparently, being cornered had finally restored my old reflexes.

She stood in the courtyard, so furious she called me by my full name. “Ye Anning, the household register is under my name. You and your sister are both registered under me. Do you understand?”

I stopped running. I didn’t dare go any farther.

Only then did Mother explain properly. “According to the government register, you and Ye Lingyi are my daughters, but you aren’t registered in the same household as Shen Huaijin. The Shen household consists of him alone. Even if something happens to him, it may not necessarily implicate us.”

I nodded. It took me a long while to understand what that meant.

Father was still my father, Mother was still my mother, and my elder sister was still my elder sister—but on the household register, Father wasn’t part of our household…

The Empress’s decree required the Shen household to provide one person.

My sister and I usually went out with Mother. We rarely appeared as daughters of the Shen family. The people at court had simply assumed both of Father’s daughters belonged to the Shen household.

Because Father was the only person in the Shen household!

The Emperor and Empress had sealed off every escape route. If someone from the Shen household had to marry, who else could it be but Father?

Only then did Mother flick her handkerchief and say, “We’ve lived together for so many years. Even if we can’t claim to be relatives, we can still go and have a look. Come on. Let’s see how he’s getting married.”

She led my sister and me through the narrow lane between the two houses, then into our home through the side gate of the Shen residence.

The two houses stood side by side, only a few steps apart. After we changed clothes, we headed to the Duke of Guo’s estate.

The wedding procession swayed along, taking the long route around half the city.

By the time we reached the gates, the procession had just come to a stop. The matchmaker was still smiling, but her expression looked stiff.

Who had ever heard of a forty-year-old man—and a serving official, at that—being the one carried off to his wedding?

I actually thought that wastrel was pretty lucky.

My father was handsome, held a respectable post, and had once served as Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. Marrying him was like getting a wife and a tutor in one—and saving the cost of hiring someone to educate the household.

Most importantly, the Duke’s estate might even get to keep Father’s salary from now on.

At the thought of that money, my heart began to ache.

Someone in the crowd rose onto their toes and called, “Look! The newlyweds are coming out of the sedan…”

Before the person could finish, they fell silent.

The matchmaker helped someone in red step out of the sedan.

That red robe was unmistakably the uniform of a third-rank official. And the person beneath the veil was a grown man. No wonder the whole wedding looked so strange.

The lively entrance fell silent all at once…

Silence…

The wastrel heir, who had been waiting inside the gates, was already visibly impatient. When he sensed something was wrong, he first threw his riding crop onto the ground and demanded, “Where’s the bride?”

No one answered.

He grew even angrier and pointed at the bridal sedan. “That Shen girl dares to run away from the wedding? I’ll repudiate her right now!”

The matchmaker had no choice but to step forward, bracing herself. “The person marrying into your household today isn’t a Shen girl. It’s the master of the Shen residence.”

The heir thought he’d misheard. He craned his neck. “Who? Who did you say is in that sedan?”

My father pulled off the veil. The wind caught the hem of his official robe.

His voice rang down the street. “The person marrying into your household is me, Shen Huaijin.”

The red silk slipped from his shoulders. The matchmaker let out a startled cry. “Ah—!”

No one inside or outside the gates said a word.

The silence stretched to its breaking point—then burst into a chorus of astonished gasps.

Before, perhaps, nine out of ten people had come for the wedding sweets and the gift money. Now, nine out of ten genuinely wanted to see what would happen.

The news spread down the street. Even shop assistants from distant storefronts ran over to watch the spectacle.

I looked at my father standing at the Duke’s gates and couldn’t help giving him a line worthy of the moment: “The whole city has come to see Lord Shen.”

When the Duke and his wife hurried to the entrance, beads of sweat were already on both their foreheads.

The Duke took one look at Father. His expression shifted several times before he managed to ask, “In-law, why take things this far?”

Father stood ramrod straight, with no intention of turning back. “Her Majesty the Empress ordered this marriage. I’m only following her decree.”

The Duke’s face immediately flushed red. Lowering his voice, he tried to reason with him. “…The decree said it concerned the marriage of your children. How can you come here and marry in their place?”