Volume One, Chapter Two: With Me Here, She Won't Get Through the Door

“Isn’t that so?” Lu Changqing said with a look of disdain. “Rest assured, after merging the two households, I will naturally be in Miaoyan’s room on the first and fifteenth of each month. But when she’s unwell, I will still come to visit you and Yuan’er and Yao’er in the second household. You should be grateful!”

Fang Qianxue recalled the scene she had just seen in her mind—how she would rush forward to fight Xu Miaoyan, then be confined by Lu Changqing. Soon after, Lu Changqing would tell everyone that Fang Qianxue had gone mad with jealousy.

No, she still had to protect her two children. She could not be confined, nor could she be driven mad.

So she held back.

“Have you forgotten the promise you made before my grandfather?” She truly hated that woman who appeared gentle but had a heart as venomous as a serpent’s, yet she hated Lu Changqing’s broken word even more.

He had knelt before her grandfather back then, promising never to take a concubine and to care only for her, begging her grandfather to marry her to him.

His words still echoed, but his heart had changed.

“I have not gone back on my word, nor have I taken a concubine,” Lu Changqing’s handsome face flushed as he recalled the past. “From now on, Miaoyan will be your sister-in-law. When you see her, you must pay her respect, and you must also make sure Yuan’er and Yao’er behave properly.”

Supporting herself on her maid’s arm, Fang Qianxue slowly sat back down. “Since you have made your decision, what are you and Miss Xu still doing here? Please do as you wish.”

Although rumors of merging two households occasionally reached her ears, these mostly happened in remote places. Here, at the capital under the emperor’s watchful eye, if Lu Changqing truly did this, it would be a devastating blow to the upright image he had cultivated over the years.

“Miaoyan, let’s go!” Lu Changqing glared at her, then helped Xu Miaoyan away in a huff.

About the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the maid Sui Qiong hurried in, beaming. “Madam, don’t be upset. Tonight, Miss Xu is staying in the Old Madam’s Songsheng Residence, and Second Master is in the study. They’re not staying together.”

“Unless that Miss Xu disagreed,” Fang Qianxue said, stroking the Sanskrit hairpin in her hand, one palm resting against her forehead.

She had worn this hairpin since she was three years old, and only now did she recall some vague memories from before then.

When she was young, she could understand the swallows’ chatter from the beams and told her parents. Grandfather Fang Qingshi invited a revered monk to divine her fate. The monk said she was born with the destiny of a phoenix girl, but the Fang family would face a great calamity within twenty years, and if the phoenix girl revealed herself too early, she would be killed.

Grandfather Fang, the Grand Tutor, had the monk craft this Sanskrit gold hairpin and warned her to wear it always. Since then, Fang Qianxue never heard strange voices again.

“How does madam know this?” Sui Qiong wiped the sweat from her brow. “I heard our Second Master is the one-sided lover here. That Miss Xu doesn’t want to marry him. No wonder — he’s already thirty this year, and how old is Miss Xu?”

Fang Qianxue sneered.

In this world, men in their forties could still marry girls of fifteen or sixteen. Didn’t her elder brother Lu Changli fall into that age bracket?

Lu Changli was an inspector who, while patrolling Jiangning, had received help from Xu Miaoyan. Together, they reported the Prince Yong’s rebellion, gaining great merit. In the course of their dealings, they privately pledged marriage. But unexpectedly, Lu Changli suddenly fell ill and died.

In truth, the engagement between Lu Changli and Xu Miaoyan had never been officially acknowledged; neither family’s elders knew.

“Madam, why not speak to Miss Xu? Offer her a sum of silver to leave,” Cuishuang suggested, bringing over a cup of calming tea.

“Send her away?” Fang Qianxue shook her head. “If she truly wanted to leave, she wouldn’t have followed Second Master back.”

According to the original story, that’s exactly what she did.

Hearing from the maid that Xu Miaoyan was unwilling, Fang Qianxue truly believed she did not want to marry into the Lu family. She tried to buy her off with three thousand taels of silver, but Xu Miaoyan turned around and went to Lu Changqing to complain with feigned grievance.

Because of this, Lu Changqing despised Fang Qianxue even more.

“What then?” Cuishuang fretted on behalf of her mistress. “Madam, will you really watch that woman come in and overshadow you?”

“She won’t get through the door while I’m here,” Fang Qianxue said, wrapping the golden hairpin in a handkerchief before tucking it away in her makeup box.

She had always been the type to choose to shatter like jade rather than endure humiliation. Five years of marriage meant nothing if Lu Changqing abandoned her; she would not suffer quietly.

“Have Yuan’er and Yao’er gone to sleep?”

“Don’t worry, madam. The young master and young miss are asleep. They didn’t hear what you and Second Master just said,” Cuishuang sighed softly.

Fang Qianxue felt somewhat reassured and took a deep breath. “Be more careful these days. Don’t let strangers near the children. When I find a way, I will take them away.”

“Ah?” Sui Qiong was shocked. “Madam wants to take the young master and young miss away? How can that be?”

If the Fang family were still around, madam could return to her natal home when wronged, but now the Fang family no longer existed.

“Lower your voice—I have a plan.”

Lu Changqing would soon be driven mad trying to please that woman. If she didn’t leave, was she waiting for him to raise a blade against the two children?