In early summer, a sudden downpour swept over the city. Passersby hurried along, desperately searching for somewhere to shelter from the rain.
Su Nuanru walked the streets of the capital like the walking dead, numb to everything. Raindrops as large as beans struck her body, yet she seemed not to notice.
When she was young, her father had opened a small restaurant in the capital. As business flourished, the little eatery grew into a large restaurant, and she lived a life of fine clothes and rich food. However, because the business was so prosperous and her family had no connections, the restaurant gradually attracted unwanted attention. Three years ago, her father’s business collapsed completely. They could no longer remain in the capital, so he took the whole family back to their village.
Afterward, her father fell seriously ill. Her mother, who had not known hardship for decades, had to manage the entire household, while her younger brother was still a child and needed to attend school. As the eldest daughter of the family, Su Nuanru should have taken on the burden of supporting them. But although she possessed beauty, she could neither lift heavy things nor carry burdens. She knew nothing about her father’s business and could not work the fields. She was utterly unable to help.
At that time, quite a few people from the surrounding villages came to ask for Su Nuanru’s hand in marriage. In the end, her father selected two men and let his daughter choose between them.
One was Scholar Qian, a refined, handsome, clean-cut young man with a promising future. The other was Huo Hanye, a tall, powerfully built farmer with sharp, severe features. The latter had a cold appearance, but whenever he looked at her, his gaze burned as though he wanted to devour her. He truly frightened her, so in the end, she chose the former.
She had thought that Scholar Qian was gentle by nature and that the two of them would surely treat each other with mutual respect and affection. However, married life was not as comfortable as she had imagined.
Scholar Qian’s father was an aging tongsheng[1]Tongsheng – was someone who had entered the imperial examination system but had not yet passed the lowest-level qualifying examination. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3424866_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3424866_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); who had taken on several students, earning a monthly income from their tuition. Scholar Qian himself had also attained the rank of xiucai[2]Xiucai – is the title/degree obtained after passing the lowest-level imperial examination, making it a step above Tongsheng. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3424866_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3424866_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. The Qian family did not farm. They lived off the tuition fees Scholar Qian’s father collected, and outsiders all said that Su Nuanru had married into a family where she would not need to work in the fields—a life of comfort, by all accounts.
Only Su Nuanru knew how bitter that life truly was.
Scholar Qian cared only about studying and left every household matter unattended. She was no longer as carefree as she had been in her parents’ home. It was true that she did not need to work in the fields, but every day she had to rise before dawn to cook and serve Scholar Qian, his sharp-tongued mother, and his pedantic father their meals. Afterward, she still had to scrub the pots and wash the dishes, feed the chickens, sweep and clean the house—in short, nearly every chore in the household fell upon her shoulders. She was exhausted every day and suffered terribly.
Even so, her mother-in-law never gave her a kind look. Every day, she ordered Su Nuanru to do this and that. She forbade her from going out as she pleased and would not allow her to play the qin or compose poetry. Whenever Su Nuanru did the slightest thing improperly, her mother-in-law would nag her about it for ages, then go out and complain about her to others.
The previous year, her husband had attained the rank of juren[3]Juren – was someone who passed the provincial-level imperial examination. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3424866_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3424866_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. This year, he was going to the capital to sit for the imperial examinations. Because Su Nuanru had lived in the capital for many years, her mother-in-law made her accompany her husband so that she could look after his clothing, food, and daily needs.
Her husband lived up to everyone’s expectations, finally passing with distinction and attaining the rank of jinshi[4]Jinshi – highest and most prestigious degree in China’s imperial civil-service examination system. Eligible for important government appointments and had very high social status. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3424866_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3424866_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Su Nuanru thought her good days had finally arrived. However, people from Marquis Changwei’s Residence suddenly came to their door. After seeing the jade pendant her husband wore, they claimed that he was the legitimate son of their family who had gone missing in childhood and said they would take him back to the Marquis’s Residence.
Her husband did not take her with him. Instead, he told her to wait at the inn and not wander off, saying that he would come for her and bring her into the Marquis’s Residence once he had investigated the situation. She waited at the inn for more than a month, but no one from the residence came to fetch her. Instead, she received a bank draft for one hundred taels of silver from her husband.
He told her to take the money and leave the capital. She was not to tell anyone about their relationship; the two of them were to act as though they had never been married. If she dared speak carelessly in public, he would use the power of the Marquis’s Residence to cut off her younger brother’s path to the imperial examinations.
She had spent these past years exhausting herself, serving her husband and parents-in-law, never imagining that this would be the ending awaiting her. She had thought her good days were finally about to begin, only to discover that they belonged to her husband alone and had nothing to do with her. She had believed him a gentle man, but in the end, he had turned out to be a beast in human skin.
Thinking of all the suffering she had endured over the years, tears slipped from the corners of her eyes like torrential rain. She could no longer tell whether the water running down her face was rain or tears.
Just then, an elegant carriage came toward her. As it passed, the wind lifted one corner of its curtain.
Su Nuanru instinctively raised her eyes and was surprised to see a familiar face.
The woman sitting inside the carriage was Hao Chunniang, the wife of the farmer Huo Hanye. Not long after Su Nuanru had married Scholar Qian, Hao Chunniang had married Huo Hanye. The two households faced each other across the village’s main road, and the two women often saw one another after their marriages. Hao Chunniang knew that Huo Hanye had once proposed to Su Nuanru. After marriage, when she saw that Su Nuanru was not doing well in the Qian household, she often came over to boast about how wonderful her life in the Huo family was, with a distinctly mocking edge to her words.
But after Huo Hanye had become a general six months earlier and Hao Chunniang had entered the capital, Su Nuanru had not seen her again.
Even now, she remembered how smug Hao Chunniang had been on the day she left. As if deliberately trying to show off, Hao Chunniang had deliberately lingered outside the Qian family’s gate before leaving for the capital.
At that moment, a man sat beside her. His face was buried against Hao Chunniang’s neck as he kissed her passionately. The two of them were extremely intimate.
Su Nuanru did not see the man’s face clearly. She assumed that he was probably Huo Hanye.
She had never expected to encounter the two people she least wanted to see in this lifetime at such an unfortunate moment.
Not wanting Huo Hanye and Hao Chunniang to see her in such a wretched state, she hurriedly turned her head away. Just as she averted her gaze, she caught a glimpse of the man’s features from the corner of her eye. His skin was pale, and his brows and eyes were refined. He was not Huo Hanye, whose face had sharply defined features.
That was right. She remembered hearing people in the capital say that Huo Hanye was fighting at the frontier. There was no way he could appear in the capital at this time.
So was Hao Chunniang cheating on him?
The rain grew heavier. Huge drops pattered against Su Nuanru’s body, and soon her clothes were soaked through, clinging damply to her skin and making her extremely uncomfortable. Her lips curved into a bitter, self-mocking smile. She had been abandoned and was now homeless. How could she still have the energy to concern herself with other people’s affairs? Whether Hao Chunniang was cheating on her husband had nothing to do with her.
The moment Hao Chunniang saw Su Nuanru, she froze as well. Her expression quickly darkened.
Damn it. Su Nuanru had actually seen what happened today. Although the relationship between Hao Chunniang and Huo Hanye was cold and distant, if Huo Hanye found out that she had been cheating on him, she would certainly meet a miserable end.
“Chunniang.” Seeing her lost in thought, the man called her name.
Hao Chunniang raised her hand and pushed him away.
The man was puzzled. “What is it?”
“We’re in trouble. That woman is from Qingshan Village. She knows me, and she knows Huo Hanye.”
The man’s expression changed, and he sat upright. Huo Hanye was cold by nature and killed without blinking. Now that he had won several battles, he was one of the Emperor’s favored men. The man did not dare offend him lightly.
A vicious look soon appeared on his face. “Then make sure she can never open her mouth again.”
Hao Chunniang’s expression changed. “No. You don’t know who she is.”
The man was unconcerned. “Who is she? Nothing more than a village woman, isn’t she?”
“Marquis Changwei’s Residence recently found its missing legitimate son. Have you heard about that?”
“I’ve heard a little.”
“She is the wife of Marquis Changwei’s legitimate son.”
Hao Chunniang’s voice was thick with sour resentment as she said this. There was no denying that she was deeply jealous of Su Nuanru.
When they were children, she and Scholar Qian had grown up together. She was pretty, and her father was the village chief, so she had always believed that she would marry Scholar Qian. Yet later, Su Nuanru came from the capital. Su Nuanru was prettier than she was, with a graceful figure and an educated, refined manner. All the young men in the village liked her.
Scholar Qian was no exception. Even that cold, hard man Huo Hanye had fallen for her.
After Scholar Qian married Su Nuanru, Hao Chunniang had no choice but to choose from among the remaining men. After weighing her options, she chose Huo Hanye, whom she had once looked down on. She had not expected that Huo Hanye would look down on her as well. She had to use certain methods to make him marry her.
Huo Hanye was cold-hearted and emotionless, without the slightest trace of romance. Before long, he had gone alone to fight at the frontier. He had never returned, leaving her alone to endure the loneliness of an empty bridal chamber. She also had to care for his elderly, sickly parents and his immature younger sister.
Every day, she watched Su Nuanru and Scholar Qian act sweetly toward each other, utterly wrapped up in each other. She was eaten up with jealousy. Yet Scholar Qian had eyes only for Su Nuanru and never spared Hao Chunniang a glance. No matter how she tried to sow discord, he seemed utterly devoted to Su Nuanru.
Fortunately, Huo Hanye later won several battles, earned military merit, and became a general. At last, Hao Chunniang could hold her head high in front of the villagers.
But she had enjoyed her triumph for less than half a year when Scholar Qian not only attained the rank of jinshi but also turned out to be the legitimate son of a marquis. In the future, all of Marquis Changwei’s Residence would belong to him. How could that not be far better than Huo Hanye, a peasant general with no powerful connections?
Why was Su Nuanru’s fate so good? Was it simply because of that face of hers?
At the thought, hatred appeared in Hao Chunniang’s eyes, and her fists clenched tightly.
The man’s eyes shifted as he considered this. “The legitimate son of Marquis Changwei’s household is already married? Then why did I hear that the Marchioness has recently been arranging a marriage for him?”
Hao Chunniang stared at him for a moment before grabbing his arm. “Are you sure?”
The man nodded. “Of course. My mother mentioned it a few days ago.”
Hao Chunniang’s heart leaped. “Then his first wife…”
The man curled the corner of his mouth. “It looks as though she has been abandoned.”
Hao Chunniang and the man exchanged a glance. At the same time, a vicious idea arose in both their minds.
“Since she has been abandoned,” Hao Chunniang said, “no one is protecting her anymore.”
The man lifted Hao Chunniang’s chin. “If we get rid of her for the heir, perhaps he will even thank us.”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
The man lifted the carriage curtain and glanced outside. The rain was pouring down, and the main street was completely deserted. It was the perfect time to act. He called out to the coachman, “Turn the carriage around.”
The coachman quickly stopped the carriage and turned it around.
Before long, Su Nuanru’s slender figure appeared in front of them again.
The man glanced at her graceful figure and felt a trace of regret. If she had not discovered his secret, perhaps he might still have been willing to show her some tenderness.
“Run her over.”
Su Nuanru was completely immersed in her grief. The sound of the rain was so loud that she did not notice the carriage approaching. By the time she realized what was happening and tried to move out of the way, it was already too late.
A tremendous force struck her from behind. Her entire body was sent flying through the air before she crashed heavily onto the stone-paved road. Her head happened to strike a stone as well. In an instant, it felt as though every bone in her body had come apart. Blood poured from her head as she looked toward the carriage that had hit her.
It was the very carriage she had seen moments ago. Hadn’t it already left? Why had it come back?
Just then, the carriage suddenly went out of control for some unknown reason. Hao Chunniang was thrown from it and landed not far from Su Nuanru. Once again, their eyes met.
Su Nuanru felt that she and Hao Chunniang truly were fated to cross paths. They were both from Qingshan Village, and the men they had married lived across the road from each other. Both their husbands had risen to prominence. The difference was that Hao Chunniang had not been abandoned, while she had.
Feeling the intense pain wracking her body, Su Nuanru sensed that something was wrong. Was she going to die? She had never imagined that she would die at the most miserable point in her life.
If Heaven gave her another chance, she would go back three years and never choose Scholar Qian again.
As these thoughts passed through her mind, Su Nuanru’s vision gradually blurred.
Hao Chunniang regretted everything terribly. She had been far too unlucky today. First, Su Nuanru had caught her in the act with another man. Then she had been thrown from the carriage when it went out of control. She had only just become a general’s wife—she had not lived nearly long enough yet!
As the pain gradually clouded her consciousness, only one thought remained in her mind:
If she were granted another life, no matter what means she had to use, she would marry Scholar Qian before Su Nuanru did. This overwhelming wealth and glory should have belonged to her!
[5]The Examination Hierarchy: The basic progression; Tongsheng → Xiucai → Juren → Jinshi jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3424866_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3424866_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
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