“Mother! Think about your eldest sister!”
“Think about what life she is living now in that prefectural governor’s residence!”
“Do you want your daughter to follow in her footsteps too?”
That single word—“eldest sister”—was like the sharpest needle, instantly piercing through Madam Jiang’s forced composure.
Her body trembled violently, and tears burst from her eyes…
Song Yibai’s elder sister was originally named Song Yilan. Five years ago, she was sent by Song’s father to the Lingyang Prefecture governor as a concubine.
The governor was already over fifty. After marrying in, Song Yilan had once enjoyed brief favor thanks to the Song family’s wealth and her own beauty, but she never bore a child.
The inner courtyard of the governor’s residence was filled with numerous concubines, and the struggles there were like an invisible battlefield without blood.
Song Yilan was gentle by nature, and without children to rely on, she lost favor in just three years.
Now she likely lived worse than even the more respectable servants in that deep residence.
Last year, during Madam Jiang’s birthday, Song Yilan had finally managed to return home for a visit after obtaining permission.
The daughter who once had bright, lively eyes and would softly call her “Mother” had become gaunt, dull-eyed, and surrounded by an unshakable sorrow.
During the banquet, when Song’s father casually asked how life was in the governor’s residence, she was so frightened that her hand trembled, her chopsticks fell to the ground, and she hurriedly bent down to pick them up like a startled rabbit—her shoulders shaking uncontrollably…
That scene was like a burning brand, deeply seared into Madam Jiang’s heart, becoming a nightmare that woke her in countless nights.
That was her flesh and blood!
How could she not ache?
How could she not regret?
And now, was she really going to watch her younger daughter step into another seemingly glorious but equally predatory pit of fire?
“No—!”
Madam Jiang suddenly raised her head, her voice sharp and anguished, filled with desperate resolve.
She pulled Song Nianyun tightly into her arms, like a mother beast protecting her cub, glaring at Song’s father and the Chen family of three.
“My Yibai cannot marry! This engagement must be annulled!”
Madam Jiang’s sudden outburst stunned everyone.
Song’s father was the first to react. Furious, his face turned dark as he pointed at her and shouted:
“Ignorant woman! What nonsense are you spouting? Where do you think you are? Get back to the inner courtyard!”
In the past, being scolded like this, Madam Jiang would have already retreated in fear.
But now, the image of her trembling daughter and her eldest daughter’s haunted eyes filled her mind, giving her endless courage.
She not only did not retreat, but stepped forward, shielding Song Nianyun even more firmly behind her, meeting her husband’s furious gaze without yielding:
“Master! You already pushed Yilan into a pit for your ambition to climb the official ladder! Now you want to sell Yibai too?”
“Open your eyes and look! What kind of family is the Chen household? Before even marrying, they already demand eight hundred taels to repair their ancestral hall! Is this a marriage or a robbery?”
“If Yibai marries into such a family, she will be skinned and drained of blood!”
“You… you dare defy me!” Song’s father trembled with rage and raised his hand to strike.
But Madam Jiang did not step back.
Instead, she suddenly pulled out the jade hairpin from her bun—the symbol of the Song family matriarch—and smashed it hard onto the ground!
The jade shattered instantly, scattering like the fragments of her resolve.
“Master! Hit me! Even if you beat me to death today, I will never watch Yibai follow in her sister’s footsteps!”
With tear-streaked face raised, she declared each word like iron:
“If you insist on selling your daughters for glory, I will take Yibai back to my maiden home! We will divorce!”
The words struck like thunder.
Song’s father’s raised hand froze mid-air.
He slowly looked at his wife’s tear-soaked yet resolute face.
This face, which he had seen for more than twenty years—always gentle, always obedient, always looking up to him as her heaven.
When had it ever been so… so violently unyielding?
“You… you…”
His lips trembled, but he could not form a complete sentence.
He could not believe it.
His always docile wife had actually shattered her hairpin in public and threatened divorce.
How could she dare?
Why would she?
All for a girl?
After the shock, a surge of humiliation and anger rose again—but the broken jade on the ground, and her unyielding eyes, pierced through his bluster like a needle.
He suddenly realized she was not acting.
She truly meant it.
At the same time, Song Nianyun, standing behind Madam Jiang, was deeply shaken by what she had just witnessed.
Her understanding of “mother” had always been vague.
Her biological mother had died when she was three.
Her memories were faint and fragmented—only a weak silhouette and the bitter scent of medicine remained.
Her stepmother later entered the household…
She survived only because she was talented enough to be chosen as an attendant for princes and princesses, rarely returning home.
So maternal love had never truly been something she understood.
Yet now, this woman—her nominal mother, the one who usually did not even dare speak loudly—had shattered all restraints for her sake and spoken the word “divorce,” something unthinkable in this world.
A strange, overwhelming warmth surged violently in Song Nianyun’s chest, bitter and suffocating.
It was a feeling she had never experienced before—being unconditionally protected, being firmly chosen.
So this… was maternal love?
Soft, yet also unbreakably strong?
Song’s father’s hand trembled in midair.
He looked at the shattered jade hairpin, then at his wife’s resolute eyes, and suddenly felt this woman—who had been by his side for over twenty years—had become utterly unfamiliar.
“You… you actually dare…”
“Song Wenmo! Do you still remember the promise you made when you married me?”
Madam Jiang’s voice carried a trace of self-mockery.
“You said, ‘one lifetime, one couple.’ But later you had Madam Wang! Madam Li!”
“I do not blame you. After all, I failed to give you a son.”
“But you said that even if you took concubines and had sons, you would never wrong us mother and daughter!”
Her voice was calm, but Song Nianyun could feel the sorrow buried deep in her bones.
“But now? You sent Yilan into the governor’s residence as a concubine, and now you want to push Yibai into another fire pit?”
“Song Wenmo, how many of your promises are actually true?”
Tears finally fell from Madam Jiang’s eyes.
Her words carried a bitterness that made even Song’s father feel a flicker of guilt.
Madam Jiang had once been the most beautiful woman in Lingyang Prefecture, born into a scholarly family, courted by many talented men.
He had promised everything just to win her hand.
He once believed he could keep those promises—but…
He had ultimately failed her.
“Madam…” His voice softened, tinged with guilt. “Yunli is after all the top scorer of the county exam. In the future…”
“In the future?”
Madam Jiang interrupted him coldly.
“You think he will treat Yibai well? Respect her? Love her?”
“Master, can’t you see?”
“In the future, once he rises to power, the first person he will discard is Yibai!”
“From the very beginning, the Chen family has only ever seen our Song family as a money bag!”
“They look down on the Song family—and even more so on Yibai…”