Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Sister, what are they talking about?”

My younger brother tilted his head, his clear eyes blinking. His simple-minded voice rang out with startling clarity in the snowy night, alerting the people inside the room.

With a loud thud, the window was pushed open, nearly hitting me in the head.

My brother hurriedly stroked my hair. “Rub the fur, don’t be scared. Sister is home to eat dinner-”

These were the soothing words I used to comfort him. My brother, who was now a head taller than me, had not only mimicked my tone but also my expression, though it came across as a bit foolish.

“There, it doesn’t hurt anymore, Sister.”

He gave my head another gentle rub.

From the gap in the window Cui Zishu had pushed open, a sneer emerged. “Look at that. A maid bringing a fool along. Does she really think the Cui Family takes in just anyone? In the past, they wouldn’t even be qualified to be servants for the Cui Family.”

As the legitimate daughter of the Cui Clan, the arrogance nurtured by power and wealth was innate to Cui Zishu, etched into her very bones.

But without that power, this arrogance and posturing became her original sin.

“Then you’re going to be disappointed. Right now, this ‘maid’ is your sister-in-law, and this ‘fool’ is your brother.”

She reminded me of one of my father’s concubines, Concubine Bai. She was the daughter of an official and was skilled in poetry and song. My father had doted on her excessively; she was always the first to pick from the food and clothing supplies before my legal mother and the other concubines could make their selections.

Later, for some unknown reason, my father stopped favoring her, and her quality of life naturally declined.

I still remember when she went to see the steward. She was dressed in iridescent Sichuan silk, a jade bracelet on her fair wrist, as she pointed at the steward and screamed, “What do you think you are? A mere servant, a slave, daring to embezzle my monthly allowance to curry favor with the Madam!”

The steward didn’t get angry. He simply looked at her askance. “A master who has lost favor is worth less than a servant. I’m not afraid of you laughing at me, but while I’m just a dog acting tough on behalf of my master, you don’t even have a master to rely on. It seems you’re worth even less than a dog like me.”

That was the first time I saw an expression of utter despair on her face.

Everything she had before was merely a gift from others, yet as time passed, she had come to believe she truly deserved it.