Translated by: Jellylynn

If you enjoy my translations, please support me by , recommending this novel to friends, and/or leaving a comment! Thank you.

Edited by: Lynn

This novel is to be only hosted on Foxaholic; copies found elsewhere are stolen or worse, plagiarised. 

Names mentioned in this chapter (which can also be found in the glossary):

-虞襄(yú xiāng)- Yu Xiang, the female lead

-襄儿(xiāng ér)- Xiang’er, Yu Xiang’s nickname. 

-虞品言(yú pǐn yán)- Yu Pin Yan, the male lead

-桃紅 (táo hóng)- Female lead’s main maidservant

-柳綠 (liǔ lǜ)- Female lead’s main maidservant

-常雅芙 (Cháng yǎ fú) – Yu Pin Yan’s prenatal betrothal, Duke Jingguo’s 2nd daughter

-虞品鸿(yú pǐn hóng)- Yu Pin Hong, Yu Pin Yan’s Third uncle legitimate son. 

-靖國公 (Jìng guó gōng) – Duke Jingguo

Yu Xiang didn’t know that Pei Shi and her son had been thinking about her. After drinking tea, she sent Ninth Princess and Fan Jiao Jiao off and asked the maidservant to push her back. 

Upon almost reaching the courtyard where she lived, a gentle and graceful voice came from behind, “Xiang’er, is it possible to have a talk?” 

Yu Xiang looked back, knitted her eyebrows and hesitatingly asked, “Chang Ya Fu?” 

She hadn’t seen her for three years. Chang Ya Fu’s appearance grew more and more enchanting. However, in front of Yu Xiang, she wasn’t as good looking as her and her gorgeous face looked somewhat vulgar.

Chang Ya Fu squeezed a smile and said again, “Xiang’er, is it possible to have a talk?” 

Yu Xiang roughly guessed what she was going to say and stroked the corner of her lips with her fingertips and said, “Let’s go then.” 

The three of them, master and servants, followed Chang Ya Fu to the small courtyard where she lived. However, they refused to enter the premises for a long conversation and only stopped under the big locust tree in the courtyard. They quietly gazed at the fog enshrouded mountains in the distance. 

Chang Ya Fu noticed that Yu Xiang didn’t intend to speak first, so she had to dismiss the servants in the courtyard and hinted at Yu Xiang’s two maidservants to stand farther away. 

Tao Hong and Liu Lu didn’t budge. 

Chang Ya Fu looked at Yu Xiang with pleading eyes. Yu Xiang waved her hands lazily and they retreated to the gate of the courtyard. They stood like a pair of door gods^[1], one on the left and the other on the right, and their eyes were fixed on their master. 

“If you have anything to say, just say it. I don’t have time to listen to you beating around the bush.” Yu Xiang raised her chin. 

Chang Ya Fu originally wanted to have small talks before entering the main topic. After hearing this, she immediately said, “Xiang’er, I’ll take off my mourning attire^[2] in another month. You do know that, right?” 

“I do.” Yu Xiang looked down and admired her bright red nails. 

“Can you help me pass this letter to your elder brother? At that time, those plans were all my father’s plans. As a weak woman, I was only at the mercy of others. My love for your elder brother is not half-hearted. He has to give me a chance to explain what happened after all the misunderstandings. You see, I am 19 this year. If he wants to break the engagement, I’ll never have the face to meet anyone in my life! You are also a girl, and you can always understand my pain. Elder sister shouldn’t have done that to you back then, elder sister has realized her mistake. Please help elder sister this time.” When she spoke of her grief, Chang Ya Fu burst into tears and handed a delicately scented envelope with both hands. 

“Sorry, I have not thought of getting married in my life. I really can’t understand your pain.” Yu Xiang blinked her feline eyes. Her expression was innocent and ignorant, but in her heart she was in a terrible mood. 

Chang Ya Fu’s sad expression turned slightly stiff. 

Yu Xiang’s lips curled up, pulled out a sarcastic smile and continued, “Don’t use this trick ‘of injury one-self to gain the enemy’s confidence’ on me. Someone like you want to marry my brother? Why don’t you look at the mirror to see if you are worthy or not? Did your father force you to be close with Third uncle’s di daughter and even called her sister? Did your father force you to be intimate with Third aunt as if both of you are mother and daughter? Did your father force you to exchange love letters with Yu Pin Hong at the Lantern festival? You have stepped one foot over the threshold of their family, and you still thought that our Marquis Yongle manor was unaware of it? You didn’t even think about what my grandfather did in those days. There are so many long term subjects under my elder brother. My elder brother remembered all those ugly things about you. On one hand, you are flirting with Yu Pin Hong. On the other, you held onto my elder brother and refused to let him go. You are not afraid to fall to your death with two feet in the air!^[3]”

Chang Ya Fu was so shocked that her tears went back into her eyes. 

Yu Xiang flicked away the hand holding on the letter. She raised her eyebrow and said, “Back then, my elder brother had nothing, but my Third uncle was already a minister of the Ministry of government. Yu Pin Hong was a scholar and was praised by the emperor as a “talented youth”. It can’t be blamed that your Duke Jingguo manor would think that their family would become the Marquis. Don’t tell me that you like or love him, I would feel embarrassed for you. After all, it’s just一your selfish desires. If you had given my elder brother words of encouragement and treated him well at that time when my brother was in despair, I wouldn’t be so harsh to you today.” 

She lowered her head and took out an ingot of silver from her purse and thrusted it into Chang Ya Fu’s hands. She said earnestly, “Next year will be the 70th birthday of the Empress Dowager. The Emperor wants to grant amnesty for the Empress Dowager. My Third uncle’s family would definitely be able to return from exile, and you and Yu Pin Hong will be able to continue the relationship. I’m here to congratulate you in advance. I will help you pay the matchmaker’s silver. Don’t be courteous to me.” Yu Xiang said it with an extremely sweet smile. 

Elder brother was that exceptional, whatever wife he wanted he should get. Why must he purposely marry a vain and fickle woman? If she couldn’t treat and believe him wholeheartedly, or gave him strength during crucial times, and poured all her love on him, let him be happy all his life, then sorry, please leave! 

The girl was clearly smiling so beautifully. However, in Chang Ya Fu’s eyes, she was more hateful than an evil spirit. Although she had known that she was bad-tempered and difficult to deal with, she didn’t expect that she would attack herself with such rude and vicious words. But what she said was all truth, which made Chang Ya Fu unable to refute. She only felt that her clothes had been stripped and her body was exposed in full view of the public. But if she didn’t look for Yu Xiang, who else could make Yu Pin Yan listen to her? She also had no choice! 

Chang Ya Fu was stupefied as she held that five liang of silver, her fingertips violently trembled. She thought that Yu Pin Yan didn’t know what she had done, but he knew everything and treated her as a joke. 

Treating her as a joke was fine, if he wanted to watch her for the entire life was fine, she must not let the Yu family cancel the engagement. Otherwise, the reputation of Duke Jingguo manor would be ruined and she would have no face to meet people again. Moreover, Yu Pin Yan was currently in an eminent status as a commander. It would even be right to say that his power spread through the empire. After this engagement was cancelled, where could she find a better husband than Yu Pin Yan? Instead of being a joke of the whole Han Dynasty, she would rather become a joke of Marquis Yongle manor, and then settle the humiliation she faced today once she had a firm foothold in the future. 

Yu Xiang saw the strong reluctance in her eyes, but she didn’t care about it. She waved to beckon Tao Hong and Liu Lu. However, they did not expect that, all of a sudden, many insects fell from the tree and cascaded all over her face and head. A voice of resentment came from above her head, “How dare you humiliate my elder sister. I will let you taste my power!” 

^[1] 门神(ménshén)- Door god, also known as threshold guardian, are divine guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folk religions that is used to protect against evil influences or encourage the entrance of positive ones. They are usually in a divine pair. Credit: Wikipedia

^[2] 孝服/丧服(xiàofú/sāngfú)- Mourning clothes/attire. Chinese mourning behaviour has included a formal recognition of the genealogical distance between the mourner and the deceased and has marked five or more categories of genealogical distance:- (1) by distinctive mourning clothing worn at a funeral and (2) by the length of the period during which a mourner is considered to be officially in mourning. There is a difference in colour of the mourning attire for different generations, such as white cloth for one of the same generation as the deceased and maternal relatives and sackcloth for the deceased’s children and daughter-in-law. Wikipedia: Traditional Chinese Mourning Categories and Baidu

^[3] 不怕两脚踏空摔死自个儿(bùpà liǎng jiǎotà kōng shuāisǐ zìgěr)-One isn’t afraid to fall to one’s death with two feet in the air. Fig. basically saying that she’s not afraid of getting caught with her feet on two boat by having an affair/to have a foot in both camps; to have a bet each way; to be having an affair

Previous | TOC | Next