The Colors of Fate's Threads - Chapter 1

When I was six, I fell terribly ill.

After I recovered, I discovered a thread trailing from the back of every person I saw. Some were thick, some thin. They twisted and turned, joining people who had once had nothing to do with each other.

They came in different colors, too.

Black meant an ill-fated bond, like the one between my uncle and aunt. Red meant a good match, like the one between my father and mother.

Purple meant… the kind of relationship where two people weren’t married, but did everything married people did.

Like the empress and…

Ahem. Never mind. His Majesty had it hard enough.

Speaking of His Majesty, I adored him as a child. He had so many threads! From a distance he looked like a peacock with its tail spread, a magnificent sight. And there were almost as many colors as there were threads. The only shade missing was the true red of a good marriage. Everything else was there. What a dazzling display! No wonder he was emperor. His love life was remarkably busy.

I searched that colorful spiderweb for ages before I found one thread with a faint pink tinge. It was the closest thing he had to a decent match.

And so I, Wei Changning, the esteemed eldest daughter of the Duke of Wei, clung and pleaded and howled until I got my way: I insisted on taking an ordinary palace maid as my godmother. She had no family connections, no standing, and a thoroughly unremarkable face.

Mother objected at first. I grabbed the maid’s sleeve and cried at the top of my lungs. I cried as if mountains were falling and the world were ending. Even the emperor, high above us all, glanced my way.

One glance to last a lifetime…

A few years later, my godmother became a Noble Consort.

My imperial godfather granted me the rank of commandery princess, with an allowance equal to a princess’s. My godmother called me her lucky little carp, the matchmaker who had brought her and the emperor together. Seven parts of her affection were love, two were gratitude, and one was respect.

At last I had found my calling. Heaven had given me a gift for a reason: I would be the greatest matchmaker under heaven!

I went further and further down that road over the next few years. The most favored wives in the mansions of the capital’s great families were grateful to me. Rumor even spread that prayer beads I had used carried a blessing and could bring their owners excellent marriages. I made another fortune selling them.

By the time I came of age, I had an excellent family, a vast circle of acquaintances, passable looks, and a knack for making money. I topped the list of the capital’s ten most marriageable young ladies. Suitors from noble families wore out our threshold.

Mother and Father couldn’t choose between them and worried about offending the ones they turned down. I wasn’t worried at all. None of the threads behind those young men led to me. None was destined to be my husband.

Or so I thought.

It turned out even I could misread a match.

Prince Ying, the emperor’s own uncle, had helped put him on the throne. He used that service to secure an imperial decree marrying me to Xiao Rui, the son born to him in his old age.

I stared at the dozens of purple threads trailing behind seventeen-year-old Xiao Rui and fell into thought. An emperor’s decree could not be taken back. Not even my godmother could undo this marriage.

But there was no thread between Xiao Rui and me. Could it be that I simply couldn’t see my own? Was I really fated to end up with this bastard who only chased married women?