Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The day I married into the Cui Family was certainly not an auspicious one.

Not only did my carriage break down on the road, but by the time my younger brother and I arrived at the Cui Family on foot, evening had already fallen.

Heavy snow weighed down the branches and pressed even harder upon our backs. Each of us clutched a small cloth bundle, looking for all the world like two beggars fleeing a disaster.

There was not a trace of the refined dignity expected of the Chen Clan of Gusu, one of the great Noble Families.

I trudged through the snow, leaving a trail of footprints as I entered the dilapidated Cui Family.

There were no formal matchmakers or traditional betrothal gifts, no grand sedan chair carried by eight men, and not even a decent wedding ceremony.

That night, the wedding hall held nothing but two red candles.

They were second-hand, streaked with blackened wax left over from some previous occasion.

They flickered and popped, the wicks crackling in the silence.

I didn’t even have a wedding dress. I wore only a dusty, grey padded coat. My brother looked even more pathetic; the knees of his trousers were torn from slipping on the icy road, exposing the stiff cotton batting inside.

I didn’t even perform the formal bows to Heaven and Earth, because that day, Cui Shao had been punished with thirty lashes of the whip.