Chapter 8

The abacus had been worked with great precision.

Too bad greed had thrown off the calculations.

Big Brother escorted the culprit to the Jingzhao Prefecture and submitted the testimonies of Wet Nurse Qian and Granny Zhou.

In the end, Su Wanning was not sentenced severely.

She had not been the mastermind, but neither was she entirely innocent.

The Jingzhao Prefecture ordered her beaten with the rod, then banished her to her native place, forbidding her from returning to the capital to stir up trouble again.

Before she left, she had someone deliver me a letter.

I did not even bother to read it. I simply told Nanny Du to burn it.

Not long after the betrothal gifts were delivered, the Duke of Jingguo’s household sent word.

The Duchess said the marriage contract had been settled and the betrothal gifts delivered. I need not pay the slightest attention to the rumors outside.

Gu Bo’an even brought over a chest of books himself.

At the bottom of the chest lay a note.

It held only one sentence:

“Miss Peiyao, please be at ease. You are the only one I wish to marry.”

I looked at those words and could not help laughing.

Later, I married into the Duke of Jingguo’s household.

On the day my bridal sedan chair left the gate, Mother held my hand, her eyes reddening again and again.

Ji Mingyi adjusted my phoenix crown and said softly, “Little Aunt, you must be safe and happy.”

Ji Mingheng stood beside her, shyly pressing a scented sachet into my hand.

“I sewed it myself.”

The stitches were crooked, as if chewed by a dog.

I took it, criticizing it all the while.

Gu Bo’an treated me very well.

He was not one for sweet words, but he was thoughtful and dependable in everything he did.

I loved sweets, so he made sure the kitchen always had candied fruit on hand.

Whenever I wanted to visit the Marquis’s residence, he never stopped me.

When Ji Mingyi came of age, he even accompanied me back to the residence and added to her dowry.

That day, Mingyi stood beside Mother in a new dress. Her eyes were gentle; she was no longer the girl who had once lived in constant fear of being sent away.

Ji Mingheng was arguing with her in the courtyard. Unable to win, he stamped his feet in frustration.

Mother sat beneath the eaves, smiling.

Big Brother stood nearby, his expression finally more at ease.

I suddenly remembered what Su Wanning had said on the day she first entered our home.

She had said she was only taking back what had always belonged to her.

But there were not so many things in this world that truly belonged to anyone “by right.”

To be acknowledged as a daughter of the Ji family was a kindness; to remain one was a matter of propriety.

As for my husband, my betrothal, and my life—

They had been mine from beginning to end.

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