For the ten years she was married to Pei Shao, Lin Qimo lived what others saw as the life of a wealthy young mistress.
People said she was lucky, blessed, and living a life of comfort.
No one knew how dull, suffocating, and helpless her life had been throughout those three thousand-plus days and nights.
Even so, she still wanted to live.
“Help! Help me!”
The woman cried for help from the water, but every person standing on the shore looked at her with icy indifference.
“Save me! Save me!”
Lin Qimo struggled desperately.
On the bank stood a woman in a qipao, smiling sweetly.
With just a slight glance from the woman, the servants who had initially felt a little sympathy for Lin Qimo lowered their heads and dared not show any concern.
Peng Shumin curled her lips and looked down at Lin Qimo struggling in the lake.
Her eyes were filled with mockery.
“You’ve been the young mistress of the Pei family for ten years, occupying my place and stealing ten years of my life. Your death is simply returning everything to its rightful owner giving me back the man and position that should have been mine.”
“Who told you to have such a strong body? You should have died long ago, yet you managed to survive for ten years. I’ve even prepared your coffin already. Once you die properly, I’ll bury you in the graveyard I personally selected for you.”
“Lin Qimo, you should be grateful to me. If it weren’t for me, do you really think a village girl like you would have been allowed to marry into the Pei family?”
“Back then, Pei Shao only married you because I left. He was angry with me, so he settled for second best and married you instead.”
Lin Qimo stared at her in shock.
She wanted to speak, but a mouthful of water choked her, blurring her vision with tears.
Peng Shumin raised her chin proudly and continued looking down at her.
“Oh, and you probably don’t know this. I only had to cry and throw a little tantrum, and Brother Shao personally fed you the medicine that caused your stillbirth.”
What?
Lin Qimo thought she must have water in her ears and was hearing things.
How could that be?
Her child…
But the next words from Peng Shumin struck her even harder.
“If Brother Shao hadn’t said that keeping you around was necessary to protect the Pei family’s reputation, you would have been thrown back into some remote mountain village long ago. The fact that you’ll die as his widow should be enough for you to be grateful.”
Instinctively, Lin Qimo continued struggling in the water.
She wanted to climb ashore.
Meanwhile, the servants began mocking her alongside Peng Shumin.
“She really thinks she’s the young mistress. She’s just a country bumpkin pretending to be something she’s not.”
“Exactly. A pheasant puts on new feathers and thinks it’s a phoenix. Besides that pretty face, how could she ever compare to Miss Peng?”
“Everyone can see how cold the young master is toward her. She dresses herself up every day trying to seduce him, just so she can send money back to her family. She’s no different from women who sell themselves.”
These were people who had lived under the same roof as her for ten years.
Yet now, to curry favor with Peng Shumin, they could invent every kind of insult imaginable.
“Her life isn’t worth much,” Peng Shumin said to the servants beside her.
“What are you waiting for? Hurry up. I still need to accompany Brother Shao to tonight’s banquet.”
A few servants suddenly produced bamboo poles from somewhere and began striking the water.
Lin Qimo couldn’t swim at all.
She splashed around desperately with nowhere to hide, taking blow after blow.
Before long, she felt dizzy and weak.
Her body began sinking.
She should have understood this truth long ago.
A marriage built on unequal status could never last.
Three thousand days and nights of companionship and devoted care still couldn’t compare to a childhood sweetheart who was a perfect social match.
Today was supposed to be special.
It was the tenth anniversary of her marriage to Pei Shao.
It was also the banquet celebrating Pei Shao’s success and fame.
That morning, she had dressed up beautifully, hoping to surprise him.
Before she could even attend the banquet, Peng Shumin had arrived with a group of people to cause trouble.
At first, Lin Qimo hadn’t sensed anything wrong.
Not until Peng Shumin ordered people to drag her forcibly into the backyard.
They pushed her into the pond.
The Pei family servants saw everything and ignored it.
So much time had passed, yet Pei Shao had never appeared.
In that instant, Lin Qimo understood.
Pei Shao wanted her dead.
The Pei family wanted her dead.
Everyone wanted her dead.
Who would have thought that the pond she had once insisted on having dug in the courtyard, where she had personally planted lotus roots one by one for the man she loved, would become the grave she had dug for herself?
Memories flooded her mind.
Peng Shumin’s triumphant smile and mocking gaze at the wedding.
The slap from Pei Shao’s mother that knocked out one of her teeth after she gave birth to a stillborn child.
For ten years, she had been trapped inside this so-called blessed home, constantly trying to please everyone and living a miserable, humiliating life.
It turned out that her husband had never loved or cherished her.
Even the kindness he had shown her was only because she was a substitute for someone else.
She had simply been blind and unable to see the truth.
Suddenly, she understood everything.
Without Pei Shao’s approval and the consent of the Pei family, none of them would have dared treat her this way.