In the misty winter drizzle over the river, a large ship sailed onward.
Inside the cabin, behind a veil of gossamer curtains, Yun Xiangye lay drenched in a light sweat, trapped in a dream.
“How could a marketplace merchant’s daughter with no parents be worthy of being my Gu family’s daughter-in-law?”
“Gu Yan, listen to your father. You should divorce her and marry a girl from a noble family instead. How could a girl from such a poor background be fit to be the future mistress of our Gu family?”
“Gu Yan, write the letter of divorce today. I absolutely will not allow a girl from such a lowly, humble family to enter our Gu household.”
“Yun Xiangye, when I married you for good luck back then, I was unconscious. It was never my intention to marry someone from such a lowly family. Now that my parents also look down on you, I have no choice but to divorce you.”
Yun Xiangye looked at the blurred faces of her parents-in-law before her, then at the handsome husband who handed her the letter of divorce. Her hands trembled, overwhelmed with anger…
“Mother.”
“Mother, open the door…”
Yun Xiangye awoke from the nightmare at the sound of her two-year-old daughter’s sweet, childish voice, gasping for breath.
It was just a nightmare…
Although Yun Xiangye and her husband had been married for three years, she had never met her parents-in-law.
This time, as she traveled with her husband from a small town in Jiangnan to the capital Chang’an to meet them for the first time, Yun Xiangye felt extremely nervous.
Her husband’s family were wealthy merchants in the medicinal herb business. The renowned Renyuan Medicine Shop, known throughout the Great Sheng Dynasty, was their family’s enterprise—extraordinarily prosperous.
Yet she was merely the proprietor of a small embroidery shop. Her parents had passed away early, and the shop’s annual earnings were just enough to keep her and her sister fed and clothed. The gap between their families was as vast as the distance between clouds and mud.
What occupies the mind by day appears in dreams by night.
She had actually dreamed that upon returning with her husband from Jiangnan to Chang’an to meet his parents, they despised her lowly origins, and her husband, obeying his parents’ wishes, gave her a letter of divorce…
Fortunately, it was only a nightmare.
Coming back to her senses, Yun Xiangye’s eyes fell on the strikingly handsome profile of the man beside her.
Having spent day and night with this man for three years, there were still moments when his appearance made her heart flutter. After all, such a handsome man was truly rare.
Noticing Yun Xiangye was awake, Gu Yan said, “Why are you looking at me like that? Want to give Nuonuo a little brother or sister?”
Yun Xiangye chuckled and pushed away the hand he had placed on her waist. “Stop it. Nuonuo is calling for us outside the cabin.”
Hearing his daughter knocking on the door, Gu Yan planted a kiss on Yun Xiangye’s cheek before getting out of bed to open the door and pick up the little girl waiting outside.
A girl nearing two years old was at her most adorable and softest.
“Daddy, Mommy.”
Gu Yan carried his daughter to the bed.
Little Nuonuo immediately threw herself into Yun Xiangye’s arms. Yun Xiangye hugged the pink, soft bundle and couldn’t resist kissing her little face. “Nuonuo.”
Little Nuonuo called out sweetly, “Mommy.”
Holding her daughter, Yun Xiangye smiled and said, “Nuonuo, we’ll probably arrive in Chang’an by afternoon. Are you happy?”
Little Nuonuo clapped her hands. “Happy! Grandma, Grandpa.”
Hearing Nuonuo call for her grandparents, Yun Xiangye’s smile faltered slightly as she recalled the dream.
Three years ago, on her twentieth birthday, while accompanying her younger sister on a boat trip, she accidentally fell into the lake. She was saved by Gu Yan, who had just arrived in Jiangnan for business, and thus narrowly escaped death.
However, Gu Yan had saved her life by jumping into the lake in spring, catching a severe cold that lingered and left him critically ill.
Gu Yan’s uncle, following a Taoist priest’s advice, believed that having Yun Xiangye marry him for good luck might improve his condition.
With no other options, Gu Yan’s uncle decided to treat this as a last resort and arranged for Yun Xiangye to marry Gu Yan for good luck.
Out of gratitude, Yun Xiangye had no choice but to agree to marry Gu Yan. Their wedding day was rushed, as Gu Yan’s parents were in Chang’an and unable to attend.
Only Gu Yan’s aunts and uncles hastily organized a simple wedding ceremony for them. In truth, their marriage lacked even the formalities of parental approval, betrothal letters, and proper rituals.
She wondered how her in-laws would react upon meeting her. Would they look down on her humble background as in her nightmare and force her husband to divorce her?
Yun Xiangye thought that perhaps dreams were the opposite of reality. Even if her in-laws disliked her and insisted on divorce, it wouldn’t matter. She could always return to her hometown in the south, reopen her embroidery workshop, and make a living to support her daughter.
Yun Xiangye gently stroked her daughter’s cheek. “You must be well-behaved when meeting your grandparents!”
“Be good.”
Little Nuonuo, not yet two years old, could only speak in two-word phrases.
Gu Yan lay in bed, wrapping his arm around Yun Xiangye. “We’ll be heading home this afternoon. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Yun Xiangye smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely be filial to your parents.”
Gu Yan looked at their young daughter in his arms. “Xiangye, for the past three years, I haven’t told you about my parents’ identities.”
Yun Xiangye turned to him. “Aren’t your parents merchants running a pharmacy business?”
“My mother is indeed the owner of Renyuan Pharmacy,” Gu Yan said. “But their identities are more than just pharmacy owners.”
Yun Xiangye chuckled. “What other identities? Is your father perhaps a prime minister?”
Gu Yan nodded. “Yes, my father is the Left Chancellor and was also granted the title of Prince Ning by the emperor as an honorary prince…”
Yun Xiangye gasped. Prince Ning?
The Prince Ning who quelled the Nanzhao rebellion and expanded the Great Sheng’s territory to the southern city—was he actually her father-in-law?
Yun Xiangye couldn’t believe it. “Gu Yan, are you joking with me?”
“No, my father truly is Prince Ning.”
Yun Xiangye looked at Gu Yan. From the day they first met, she had sensed an inexplicable nobility about him, not just that of a wealthy merchant’s son but more like a descendant of an aristocratic family.
Gu Yan continued, “Also, my mother is the emperor’s own sister.”
“What did you say?” Yun Xiangye sat up abruptly from the bed, staring intently at Gu Yan. “What did you say?”
Little Nuonuo, startled by her mother’s sudden movement, quickly clung to Yun Xiangye. “Mama…”
Yun Xiangye held her daughter close, her voice trembling slightly. “Husband, are you saying your mother is the emperor’s own sister? The emperor is your maternal uncle?”
Gu Yan nodded. “Yes, my mother is the current Princess Shengzhao.”
Yun Xiangye fell into silence. Suddenly, the nightmare she had earlier felt all too vivid—her husband’s parents looking down on her humble background and forcing him to divorce her…
To be fair, if Yun Xiangye were in her in-laws’ position, with such noble status, she too would find it hard to accept a daughter-in-law from such a lowly merchant background.
Princess Shengzhao was the emperor’s own sister. Yun Xiangye vaguely remembered seeing Princess Shengzhao once as a child.
It was when Princess Shengzhao had visited Yongxing City in the south for leisure.
From the very first moment Yun Xiangye saw the princess in her childhood, she thought she was as beautiful as a celestial being. If there were fairies in this world, they would likely look just like her.
Yun Xiangye looked at Gu Yan’s face and thought, no wonder… Gu Yan was so handsome—it turned out he had a mother as beautiful as a fairy.
“Xiangye?”
Hearing Gu Yan call her name, Yun Xiangye snapped out of her thoughts. She took a deep breath and looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me your mother was Princess Shengzhao when we got married? Why didn’t you tell me your identity in the past three years? Why did you only reveal it to me when we were almost in Chang’an?”
Gu Yan replied, “I didn’t think this identity mattered. Since we are already married, whether I am the son of an ordinary wealthy merchant from a medicine shop or the son of Princess Shengzhao and Prince Ning, I am still your husband.”
Yun Xiangye took another deep breath. “How could it not matter?”
Not to mention the vast difference between a wealthy merchant and the status of a princess and a prince, but the princess’s estate would likely involve social interactions with high-ranking officials and nobles of the Great Sheng Dynasty. As a woman from a humble background who had never learned proper etiquette, how could she possibly interact with those lofty noblewomen and officials’ daughters upon arriving in Chang’an?
It was probably too late to learn etiquette now.
What made Yun Xiangye even more furious was that Gu Yan had hidden his identity from her for three years, only revealing it when they were almost at his home in Chang’an.
It seemed Gu Yan had never truly cared about her!
Seeing Yun Xiangye’s angry expression, Gu Yan said, “My parents already knew about your background from my letters. You don’t have to worry that they will look down on you for your humble origins—after all, I have already married you.”
Hearing this, Yun Xiangye frowned even more tightly. “Gu Yan, let’s divorce…”