Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Cui Zishu was right. The wedding was actually supposed to have taken place a year ago, but the Cui Family’s troubles began right around then. Master Chen had used that as an excuse to postpone the marriage, wanting to wait and see how things played out.

He hadn’t expected to witness the total downfall of the Cui Family.

A year ago, the Chen Clan of Qinghe was framed. Old Master Cui and Old Mistress Cui committed suicide to atone for the perceived guilt. Cui Shao was initially placed under house arrest while awaiting his sentence; two weeks later, he was stripped of his official rank. Shortly after that, the Cui Family’s assets were confiscated by the state, and Cui Shao and his younger sister, Cui Zishu, were driven into this dilapidated courtyard.

Master Chen couldn’t bear to let Miss Chen suffer such a life. Most importantly, Cui Shao had been sentenced to castration.

That proud, aloof Cui Shao-who had risen to the rank of Grand Secretary at such a young age-had been reduced to a broken man.

From that moment on, the once-flourishing Cui Family was utterly ruined.

There was no hope of them ever rising again.

The cold moon that once hung high in the sky had fallen into the mire, where anyone could trample over it.

While the Chen Clan of Gusu didn’t have a heritage as deep as the Chen Clan of Qinghe, they were still among the Noble Families. To avoid being criticized for breaking a promise, Master Chen had me marry into the family in place of Miss Chen.

I agreed without a second thought. Even if I hadn’t wanted to, I had no other choice.

I was merely an illegitimate daughter born of a drunken whim between Master Chen and a dancing girl. I was lower than a concubine’s daughter-nameless, without status, essentially a maid at best.

Perhaps my future would have involved being married off to some retainer or a family servant, or perhaps becoming a concubine myself, wasting away a lowly life in misery. Or maybe I would have died young of a broken heart, just like my mother.

If the Cui Family hadn’t fallen, I would never have had the chance to become Cui Shao’s wife.