Chapter 7

“If people see you here late at night, tomorrow they’ll accuse me of shamelessly seducing my brother-in-law.”

On my wedding day,

my bridal procession was even more grand than my elder sister’s had been.

The Lu family did not dare offend Xiao Che, so they prepared a lavish dowry.

Even Lu Yunchu gritted her teeth and added another gift.

Before I climbed into the bridal sedan, she leaned close and whispered viciously in my ear:

“Lu Yao, do you think you’ll be able to outshine me for the rest of your life?”

“Keep dreaming!”

They always imagined themselves at the center of everyone’s world,

as if every choice other people made was meant to compete with them.

7.

After I married, my days were indeed loud and extravagant.

Xiao Che held a second-rank post, and he even secured me a second-rank title as an imperial lady.

The highborn young ladies who had once looked down on me

now had to call me “Madam” with perfect decorum whenever we met, however unwillingly they might be.

On the day I returned to my parents’ home, I deliberately held a banquet at the Lu residence.

I invited every last guest who had attended Lu Yunchu’s birthday banquet.

I wore my official robes and took the seat of honor.

Gu Jingchuan had not yet inherited his title,

so my elder sister had no choice but to salute me along with everyone else.

Before the ceremony was over, tears were already falling from her eyes.

Ever since the wedding night, when Gu Jingchuan moved into the study,

he had not returned to her room even once. The whole capital knew it by now.

After I left, Madam Lu was so furious she smashed every porcelain piece in her room.

“That bastard born to a servant dares make my daughter bow to her!”

“My poor Yunchu—she’s been trampled under that creature’s feet!”

She worked herself into an illness, yet still sneaked out to lecture me.

“The old grudge between your birth mother and me should not be held against Yunchu!”

“Yunchu knows nothing. She’s innocent!”

“When you were little, she truly thought of you as her younger sister!”

That last part was not entirely false.

As children, Lu Yunchu had not treated me the way her mother treated Qinghe—with direct cruelty.

The first time she learned who I was, she innocently asked,

“I heard you have my father’s blood, too?”

“Then you should call me Elder Sister!”

“Stay by my side from now on. We can play together!”

She swung on the swing while I pushed her; she admired the flowers while I caught butterflies for her.

She gave me her old clothes and leftover pastries,

and once even held my rough hands and taught me to recognize written characters.

“I have two names: Yunchu and Yao’er. You can use either one!”

“How can you not even have a name?”

“How can a person have no name?”

Later, Father happened to see us standing together and, for once, paused.

“You’ve grown so much in the blink of an eye.”

He stopped to ask me,

“Has your mother been well lately?”

I was bold enough to tug on his sleeve.

“Could you go visit my mother?”

Father patted my head and said he would go when he had time.

Overjoyed, I forgot myself and asked again,

“Will you come the day after tomorrow? It’s my birthday.”

All the servants in the servants’ quarters bullied us.

Right in front of Qinghe, they would always sneer,

“Master will never look at you again for as long as he lives!”

I only hoped Father might stand outside our door for a little while,

so that the two of us could buy ourselves a few quiet days.

That day, Lu Yunchu wasn’t happy about it, but she still took out a gold hairpin and pressed it into my hand.

“Think of it as a birthday present.”

I ran off with the hairpin held carefully in my hands, eager to tell Mother the good news.

Granny Qian led people after me into the room.

She snatched the gold hairpin away and slapped me across the face.

“You little wretch! You even dare steal Miss’s gold hairpin!”

“And after all the kindness she’s shown you!”

She dragged me out to be beaten with the rod. Qinghe could not stop them,

so she could only kneel at Madam Lu’s feet and bow her head.

Madam Lu slowly brushed off her sleeves.

“Qinghe, the evidence is right there.”

“Did the girl dare to steal it on her own, or did you, her mother, put her up to it?”

Qinghe knocked her forehead against the ground until it bled. She had no choice but to take the blame.

“I—I told her to take it…”

She knelt in the courtyard for two days.

My birthday came, and Father did not appear, just as I had expected.

If Lu Yunchu truly had not done a single thing wrong,

then who should answer for all the suffering Qinghe and I had endured over the years?

I told Madam Lu,

“If you come here again to lecture me with this wretched nonsense,”

“I’ll make sure Lu Yunchu never has another peaceful day in her life!”

Truthfully, whether she came to lecture me or not,

I had never intended to let either of them live in comfort.

Six months after my wedding, memorials impeaching Xiao Che piled high on the Emperor’s desk.

One of the charges was that he allowed me to assault people in the street.

8.

There were plenty of people accusing Xiao Che of abusing his power to punish others.

Even more called him a man who let his “overbearing” wife run wild.

That charge, at least, was not unfair.

The highborn ladies who had insulted me at the birthday banquet

had all, one by one, been given an opportunity by me over the past six months

to make fools of themselves in public.