In the drawing room of the private residence of Lu Yunting, Inspector-General of the Five Southeastern Provinces, the crisp, rattling sound of mahjong tiles being shuffled blended with the light laughter of wives and daughters.
Butler Lin stepped in to pay his respects and reported, “Madam, Miss Ye is awake and has come to pay her respects to you.”
The smile on the face of the Commander’s wife, Su Qin, froze for a fraction of a second. “Understood.”
Silence fell over the mahjong table as everyone watched to see how the mistress of the house would treat the daughter of her husband’s benefactor.
“Tell her to go back and rest; seeing her can wait until the Commander returns. Eight of dots,” she discarded a tile, throwing it down with a bit too much force. “No need to rush!”
Lu Xiu, the fourth young lady of the Lu family, muttered under her breath, “Benefactor’s daughter, my foot. She’s just a climber trying to latch onto a dragon and a phoenix.”
“A-Xiu!” Second Concubine Zhao Ruoyun hurriedly shot her daughter a warning look.
Lu Xiu refused to be silenced. “It’s true! Some country girl showing up with a piece of jade to force a marriage—who knows if she stole it or picked it up off the street!”
Third Concubine Jin Qinyi probed cautiously, “Madam, surely the Commander doesn’t mean to let A-zheng actually marry that country girl?”
“Who said I was going to marry a country girl?”
A crisp, cold voice cut through the air, accompanied by the heavy, echoing thud of military boots on the floorboard. Dressed in full military uniform, Lu Zhen strode past the slender figure standing in the doorway and swept into the living room, acting entirely as though the woman outside did not exist.
He strode right into Ye Mian’s field of vision—towering and arrogant, looking down upon her as if she were nothing more than an ant or a speck of dust in his eyes.
“Once she recovers, just pay her off with some money and send her away,” Lu Zhen said, walking up behind his mother and discarding a tile for her. “White board.”
“There’s no need for you to worry, Mother. Her clever little scheme isn’t going to work.”
Lu Zhen delivered these words with heavy finality, as if deliberately speaking loud enough for Ye Mian outside to hear.
“If only paying her off were that simple,” the Commander’s wife sighed. “You have no idea—when your father thought of Bocheng yesterday, his eyes even turned red. I haven’t seen him like that in years.”
“It’s a good thing he left the house early this morning, or I’d really be afraid he’d lose his head and settle the match for you two on the spot.”
“What is Mother worried about? You know as well as I do what Second Brother’s temper is like. Even if Father agreed, would Second Brother actually marry her?” Third Young Master Lu Yi spat out a sunflower seed shell with an air of complete detachment. “At worst, he’d take thirty military beatings. Second Brother can take it.”
Lu Zhen gave him a kick.
Lu Yi let out a dramatic wail, and everyone couldn’t help but chuckle, the heavy atmosphere in the room easing slightly.
“Oh! What a pity that Lu Yan is only eight years old, otherwise it would be fine if Lu Yan married her,” Second Concubine Zhao Ruoyun chimed in, trying to seize the opportunity to show her loyalty, though she had never been particularly good with words.
Under the table, Lu Xiu gave the second concubine a sharp kick, signaling her to keep her mouth shut.
Sure enough, the Commander’s wife’s expression darkened once more.
“This country girl isn’t all that old anyway. If you like, you could always take her as a child bride for Lu Yan,” the wife remarked.
The third concubine lowered her head and smiled faintly.
Ah… The second concubine looked as if she wanted to crawl into a crack in the floor from embarrassment, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Lu Xiu’s face burned even hotter, and she glared at her birth mother in utter exasperation.
This kind of scene was far too common in the Lu household. Lu Zhen and Lu Yi exchanged glances and excused themselves.
Finding it all rather tedious, Lu Xiu excused herself to use the washroom, letting third concubine’s niece, Jin Jingyan, take her place at the table.
Outside, Butler Lin wore an awkward expression, entirely unsure of how to relay the message.
Ye Mian’s father, Ye Bocheng, had once been the Commander’s adjutant. During the Wanbei Campaign fifteen years ago, Ye Bocheng had given his life to save the Commander. Deeply grateful for his loyalty, the Commander had pledged a marriage between their children on the spot, leaving behind a family heirloom jade pendant as a token.
Over the years, as the Commander fought across the country, the two families lost touch, and the old promise was buried by time.
Just last night, an old acquaintance of the Commander, Zhou Haisheng, had shown up with the young lady in tow. The memory of his old comrade rushed back, filling the Commander with sudden emotion. He had kept the girl in the estate and instructed his wife to take good care of her.
As for the marriage itself, the Commander had left his intentions unstated, leaving everyone in the household intensely hostile toward Ye Mian.
Lu Zhen was the eldest son and the prospective Inspector-General of the Five Provinces; every single concubine in the residence dreamed of planting one of their own people by his side, the Commander’s wife included.
Yet, ever since his first love, Su Yanyan, perished at sea, Lu Zhen had shelved all thoughts of marriage for the past three years, refusing to speak of it at all.
With nothing settled, the sudden appearance of Ye Mian made her an absolute interloper in the eyes of the mistresses.
Still, she was the daughter of the Commander’s benefactor. The wives might dislike her, but he could never afford to treat her with open disrespect.
Every word of the conversation inside had drifted clearly to Ye Mian’s ears. Before Butler Lin could even speak, she said, “It was my own lack of foresight. I was only in such a hurry to pay my respects to Madam that I forgot I was still carrying sickness with me.”
“I’ll head back first. Once I’ve recovered my health, I’ll come again to pay my respects.”
Seeing how reasonable she was being, Butler Lin’s tone softened considerably. “Shall I have someone escort Miss Ye back?”
“No need, why trouble you further? Baizhi and I know the way.”
Butler Lin didn’t press the matter.
Baizhi supported Ye Mian as they walked back. Fearing the young lady would exhaust herself, she stopped to rest along a covered veranda. Seeing no one around, she tried to comfort her: “Miss, don’t be sad. The Commander will see justice done for you.”
“What justice would I need?” Ye Mian gave a faint smile.
“The Commander’s wife clearly has no intention of acknowledging your marriage,” Baizhi protested with indignation.
“And when have I ever asked for it?” Ye Mian’s expression remained serene. “Being able to escape from home and find the Commander through Uncle Zhou was already winning our first gamble.”
“If I can use my father’s grace to stay in Haicheng and study medicine, that would be an even better outcome.”
“Bringing up the betrothal from back then was merely a way to solve an immediate crisis. With an official engagement on the table, that damned match my uncle picked out for me no longer holds any weight.”
After her grandfather passed away, her gambling-addict uncle had arranged to marry her off to the foolish son of the president of the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce. That man had unsavory intentions toward Ye Mian; marrying him would have been no different from jumping into a fiery pit.
When Ye Mian caught wind of the plot, she feigned submission, slipped a packet of sleeping powder into her uncle’s household’s food, and fled the moment they were knocked out cold.
Terrified of being dragged back, she and Baizhi had disguised themselves as beggars, begging their way across the war zones all the way to Haicheng. Holding the token, they tracked down her father’s old acquaintance, Uncle Zhou, and finally gained an audience with the Commander.
Unfortunately, the timing was wrong. Their hurried meeting yesterday was cut short when the Commander had to leave on urgent business, and no one knew when he would return. After breakfast this morning, she had gone to see the Commander’s wife, only to be turned away.
The mistresses refused to see her, but the servants in the estate were remarkably polite and accommodating.
It seemed the Commander’s attitude toward her remained ambiguous.
As Ye Mian fell deep into thought, Baizhi whispered beside her, “Miss, what if the Commander makes you marry the young commander?”
Before Ye Mian could laugh at her naive notion, a chilling sneer rang out from behind them.
“In your dreams,” Lu Yi scoffed. “The women who want to marry my older brother can line up from the Lu family all the way to the Waitan docks. Every last one of them is drop-dead gorgeous, brilliantly talented, and from immensely wealthy or powerful backgrounds. Who do you think you are—some country girl—to think you deserve him?”
“If you’re trying to leverage a bit of past grace to climb the social ladder, I advise you to go sign on as a child bride for my fifth or sixth brother instead. Give it time, and who knows, maybe they’ll give you a proper title down the road.”
“How can you say such awful things!” Baizhi blazed with anger.
“Just as expected of country folk, utterly devoid of manners. Even a servant dares to talk back in front of her betters,” Fourth Young Lady Lu Xiu snapped coldly. “Yueying, teach her some manners.”
She jerked her chin at the maid standing behind her.
“Yes, Fourth Young Lady,” Yueying stepped forward, raising her hand to strike.