“Isn’t this Lady Lin’s younger sister? Didn’t Lady Lin agree to have me wait for her? If she isn’t coming, then you’d better come and lend a hand.”
As Qiang Ning was walking from home toward the medical clinic, she was suddenly stopped halfway by someone. Her mood had been quite good today, so she asked, “What is it that requires a hand?”
The man calling out to her was middle-aged, his skin burnt dark from farm work. In the scorching heat of midsummer, he wore only a short undershirt, wiping away sweat even as he spoke.
“Come and help wipe down and sweep the dust in my house.” The man frowned as he looked at the sun in the sky, fanning himself with a cattail leaf fan while grumbling, “It’s a real hassle not having a woman in the house.”
Qiang Ning didn’t even know him. Being told to go tidy up a house out of the blue ignited a surge of fury in her instantly. “We are neither kin nor friends; why should I help you?”
The man grinned, winking as he said, “We’ll be family sooner or later anyway. Once your elder sister marries in, these chores will belong to you and her. What’s the difference between doing them now or doing them later?”
Where did this country bumpkin come from? His brain must be filled with mush if he dared to harbor such delusions about her Lin Dongruan.
Because it was so absurd, Qiang Ning felt he was simply mad, and she wasn’t even as angry as one might expect. “You truly are daydreaming in broad daylight. You want to marry my sister? Look at yourself and see if you’re even worthy.”
Even as the current Princess Regent, she had not lightly entertained such thoughts; how could a mere village boor dare to imagine such things?
How laughable…
“Don’t you believe it—Lady Lin nodded her head to this marriage personally,” the man said. “Her ancestors were from Wusang Town. Our ancestors settled this engagement between me and her. She should have married me long ago. If it weren’t for the fact that she was away all those years, I wouldn’t have ended up marrying that short-lived hag…”
“What?” Qiang Ning knit her brows, her expression turning quite ugly. “What nonsense are you talking?”
“My wife went to see Lady Lin for treatment several times but never got better. She died of illness recently. What else can I do? I can only find Lady Lin to be my second wife.” The man rubbed his hands together, his face showing not a trace of grief over his wife’s death; instead, he seemed to be anticipating something else. He said, “Don’t you worry, once your sister marries me as a successor, I won’t mistreat her.”
Qiang Ning looked at him with a cold, displeased gaze. “You are seeking death.”
The man gave a “Yo-ho” and tried to reach out to touch Qiang Ning. “Lady Lin’s sister has quite a temper… Hiss! Why is your hand so heavy?”
With a grim face, Qiang Ning dodged and swung her medicine pestle, striking hard at that disgusting hand. The man pulled his hand back in pain, the back of his hand throbbing.
“Speak such crazed words again, and I’ll make sure your tongue is pulled out.” Qiang Ning wasn’t just threatening him; she was telling the truth. As long as she wished it, this man’s tongue could be removed at any moment. “If you don’t want your hand anymore, just say so, and I guarantee I’ll chop it off finger by finger.”
“At such a young age, you are so bloody and cruel. I don’t know how a gentle woman like Lady Lin could raise such a heartless sister like you.” The man remained obstinate, still mockingly taunting Qiang Ning in his base manner. “Don’t believe me? Go back and ask your sister if this is how it is.”
Qiang Ning’s lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, looking at him as if looking at a dead man. “If it is false, you have disturbed my good mood and will need to compensate me with your tongue. If it is true, you—most certainly—will never get your wish to marry Lin Dongruan.”
The man laughed. “You are just a sister she picked up on a whim. Never mind that you aren’t blood-related; even if you were her biological sister, you’d have no right to dictate her marriage.”
How could she have no right? Qiang Ning let out a cold smile. She thought: Lin Dongruan, body and heart, must belong to her. Whatever she wanted was within her reach.
Qiang Ning turned back. “What is your name?”
The man replied, “Xu Zhang.”
Fine, Xu Zhang. Very well. Qiang Ning silently noted his name and went to find Lin Dongruan with a dark face.
After she left, Xu Zhang kept craning his neck and looking around for a long time, but he never saw Lin Dongruan’s figure.
Although the matter was absurd, Qiang Ning pondered the ins and outs of it on the way. The more she thought, the more she felt that a soft-hearted “good person” like Lin Dongruan might actually do such a thing—being bound by a base man with a joke of a promise from years ago, and then lightly agreeing to the other party’s request.
A person like Lin Dongruan might actually nod her head!
Lin Dongruan was just muddled, just foolish, and easily manipulated by people using “debts of gratitude” or “obligations.”
That’s how good people are—limitlessly used by the wicked. Just a flimsy excuse, and she actually dared to agree so easily…
“Sister, tell me, is it true? Is it—” Although Qiang Ning had her suspicions, she still held onto a sliver of hope that Lin Dongruan would deny it. “How could you like someone else? That man named Xu Zhang—I didn’t even know his name or seen him—he’s just a broken widower. How does he have the audacity to say he’s going to marry you?”
Lin Dongruan seemed not to have taken the matter to heart. She spoke calmly, “He brought a token that day. It is indeed an heirloom passed down from my ancestors. Perhaps I forgot, but the elders of the family truly might have made an arrangement for a betrothal before birth. It is I who have failed to fulfill the agreement all these years…”
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by a furious Qiang Ning.
Qiang Ning was trembling all over with rage. “Lin Dongruan, you… you… do you know what you are doing? Do you like him? You’re going to marry him just like that? Is it you who has gone mad, or me? Speak!”
When the Emperor sought your hand, you refused so decisively. Why now, because of some dubious token, are you going to marry a broken widower in this godforsaken place?
Qiang Ning felt her vision darkening in waves. Furious to the extreme, her clenched knuckles turned white.
Lin Dongruan remained calm as ever. “Love and hate are but illusory emotions. I have never liked anyone; I am merely fulfilling an agreement.”
Qiang Ning grabbed her clothes and questioned her loudly, “He is just a poor farmer! And a widower who just lost his wife! Are you blind?”
Lin Dongruan raised her hand and covered the back of Qiang Ning’s hand, soothing her. “Princes and generals, or peddlers and servants—what is the difference? A-Ning, do not use such harsh words.”
More than just harsh words, Qiang Ning wanted to kill someone right now.
“I do not give my consent.” Qiang Ning let go with a force that was almost a shove. She turned her gaze away, her teeth nearly grinding to dust. “What kind of thing is he? If you marry him, you are cheapening yourself.”
Lin Dongruan set down the brush in her hand, her expression turning a bit more serious. “A-Ning, you must not be so rude.”
“Hahaha, rude? You always argue with me over trivial things, forbidding me from lying, forbidding me from swearing. But what about you? You have such a good temper toward that piece of trash, doing whatever he says? Did he save your life? Can he marry you just by relying on a token? Then if I go snatch that thing, will you marry me instead?” Qiang Ning was likely about to explode; her speech was fast and urgent. “Have you considered me? Have you considered my feelings?”
Lin Dongruan: “I simply… had not yet found the time to tell you about this.”
Qiang Ning: “Sister, you are too good—so good that you can be exploited by anyone with malicious intent. He saw your kind nature and dared to act so recklessly.”
Lin Dongruan smiled. “It matters not. I still have A-Ning. A-Ning is clever and can judge character.”
Being suddenly praised with a couple of words, Qiang Ning’s emotions settled slightly. She said indignantly, “It’s a good thing you met me first, Sister. If you had met some other villain before me, there’s no telling how badly you’d be bullied.”
Seeing that she was no longer so angry, Lin Dongruan continued her praise. “Indeed, it is fortunate that I met A-Ning first.”
“That’s exactly right…” Qiang Ning was talking to herself when she suddenly paused.
During that pause, a thought suddenly popped into her head—That’s right, she wasn’t exactly a “good person” herself. There was no need for her to be timid or hesitant.
Since Lin Dongruan couldn’t be persuaded here, she would simply start with that man surnamed Xu. She would make his life a living hell, make him die with his eyes open in regret, so that he would never again dare to cast his thoughts upon Lin Dongruan.