On the third day of the third month in the third year of Yongzhen during the Shangsi Festival1, Linglong Mountain, located in the southern suburbs of the capital, was already covered in fresh greenery. High-ranking officials and nobles flocked here for a spring outing, and for those with children of marriageable age, it was an opportunity to meet each other, often resulting in a few marriage matches.
In a pavilion halfway up the mountain, a young girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, leaned lazily against a railing, her posture and expression as languid as a cat, making anyone who looked at her feel an odd sense of relaxation. Every so often, a breeze would blow, lifting her loosely hanging bangs, revealing a stunning face for brief seconds. However, as soon as the wind passed, her face would be hidden again, making the fleeting glimpse seem almost like an illusion.
Her servant girl noticed this and couldn’t help but grumble, “Why won’t Miss let me style your hair nicely? It’s already lost half its charm. On an ordinary day, it wouldn’t matter, but today you’re supposed to meet your future husband.”
Mu Wan casually flipped through the novel in her hand and replied, “There are many people out for a stroll today, including a good number of imperial clan members and other dignitaries. It’s better to be cautious.”
She actually disliked the stifling feeling of having her forehead covered, but she had once personally witnessed a wealthy merchant’s daughter forcefully being dragged away to be made concubine by a powerful official simply because of her beauty, even though she was about to get married. That was her first personal experience with the harsh realities of an imperial society after she had transmigrated, and from that moment, she had been very careful to keep a low profile.
There was no choice—merchants had a low status in this era. No matter how rich, they could still become prey to the powerful at any time. If something really happened, she didn’t believe her opportunistic father would protect her.
As such, until she gained enough power, it was wiser to remain inconspicuous.
Fortunately, the day when she finally could dress and style herself as she pleased wasn’t too far off. Her fiancé’s family, the Count of Zhongyong family, had recently risen to prominence in the capital. Once she married into that family, she would finally be able to do whatever she wanted.
Yunling had been with Mu Wan since childhood and naturally understood her young miss’s reasoning. However, when she thought about Mu Wan’s engagement, she grew indignant. “But people are all gossiping about how the second young miss is as beautiful as a celestial being, with grace like floating willows, perfectly suited for Sixth Young Master Li, while they call you arrogant, uncultured, and plain-looking…” The loyal servant girl became angrier as she spoke. “It was clearly a marriage Lady Xu arranged for you! Now they’re saying it should go to the second young miss instead!”
“You see, Miss, this servant thinks today should be the day we let Sixth Young Master Li see for himself that the second young miss is nothing compared to you!” she said passionately, though her young miss, to her dismay, remained uncooperative.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but look towards the path leading up the mountain. “Speaking of which, why hasn’t he arrived yet? Could it be that the Madam is up to something again?”
‘Isn’t that obvious?’ Mu Wan thought to herself. Since Shen-shi2 and her daughter had already set their minds on ruining her engagement and had done so much, how could they not make trouble at this last juncture?
Shen-shi was Mu Wan’s stepmother, and the second young miss of the Mu family, Mu Rou, was only half a year younger than Mu Wan. From this fact alone, one could glimpse the tangled grievances of the previous generation in the Mu family.
In modern times, if a wife became pregnant and the husband cheated, they could easily divorce. But in this ancient era, where men could have multiple concubines, any woman daring to do such a thing would be considered outrageous.
Mu Wan’s mother in this lifetime, Xu Qinglan, had been an unconventional woman since childhood. Born into a renowned medical family, she had no interest in medicine but loved business instead. Later, she met Mu Xingde, the son of a wealthy merchant, who was also Mu Wan’s father in this lifetime. They admired each other and ended up marrying, working together to expand the Mu family’s business.
If this were a novel, their story would probably end with them living happily ever after. However, in reality, three years into the marriage, when Xu Qinglan was pregnant and resting at home, Mu Xingde returned from a business trip with a younger, more beautiful woman—who soon became pregnant as well.
Xu Qinglan didn’t tolerate this as women of her time typically would. Instead, after giving birth to Mu Wan, she immediately divorced Mu Xingde.
However, she didn’t take Mu Wan with her. For one, in this era, children belonged unconditionally to the father. For another, Xu Qinglan had no intention of letting Shen-shi profit from the situation. She and Mu Xingde might have loathed each other and could choose to part ways, but Mu Wan was Mu Xingde’s child, and Mu Wan was entitled to her share of the Mu family’s fortune.
Thus, Mu Wan grew up in the Mu family from childhood. When she was an infant, Xu Qinglan set up a separate household within the fence of the Mu family’s manor and stayed to raise her daughter. Later, as Mu Wan grew older, she purchased a separate residence where Mu Wan could stay whenever she missed her.
No one in the Mu family dared to express any dissatisfaction with this arrangement, because Xu Qinglan was extremely talented in business. After her separation from Mu Xingde, she continued to thrive on her own, managing the business so successfully that many crucial channels remained under her control, ones the Mu family could not bypass.
Therefore, whether out of guilt or fear, Mu Xingde never dared to mistreat Mu Wan. Even though Shen-shi and her daughter caused trouble, they could never surpass her.
Three years ago, Xu Qinglan passed away unexpectedly during a business trip. Since she was no longer married, her body could only be returned to her family for burial. Mu Wan accompanied the funeral procession back to her mother’s hometown and observed mourning for three years, only returning to the capital a few days ago.
Upon her return, she became well known. To be precise, ever since her fiancé Li Yichen, the Sixth Young Master of the Li family, ranked third in last year’s imperial examinations, the younger members of the capital’s high society began paying attention to her.
When Mu Wan thought about it, she had to admire her mother’s investment foresight. Who would have imagined that Li Yichen, once just one of the many nephews of a low-ranking frontier general, would rise so rapidly in five short years to become the Sixth Young Master of the Zhongyong Count Manor?
The key was that, despite coming from a family of military officials, Li Yichen passed the imperial examination. He was a man excel in both literary and martial arts. Now he served in the court, and even a fool could see that his future was bright. Rumor had it that an imperial Junzhu had even expressed her admiration for him.3
So, it was no wonder people paid attention to the once-unknown Mu Wan. With Li Yichen’s current status, her marriage to him, a mere merchant’s daughter, seemed like an ambitious overreach.
And yet the Li family showed no sign of withdrawing from the engagement. As a result, people praised Li Yichen’s integrity all the more. At the same time, their attitude also highlighted how fortunate she, a mere merchant’s daughter, was.
Her stepmother Shen-shi could not bear to see her daughter remain beneath Mu Wan. With Xu Qinglan now gone, she must think that Mu Wan no longer had any support. As a result, Shen-shi began plotting, convinced that since the Li family agreed to join a marriage tie with the Mu family, it would be more proper to choose a more suitable girl. And in her eyes, that more suitable girl was naturally her own daughter, Mu Rou. Thus, during Mu Wan’s three-year absence from the capital, the mother-daughter pair schemed continuously.
More time passed, and yet Li Yichen’s figure remained absent. Yunling, whether to comfort herself or Mu Wan, muttered, “This marriage was set by Lady Xu and Old Madam Li and has nothing to do with the Mu family.”
“These past years, Old Madam Li never failed to send you gifts on festive occasions. This year, as soon as you returned, she sent an invitation to meet, even mentioning the need to discuss the wedding date. Sixth Young Master Li wouldn’t dare go against his grandmother.”
Mu Wan remained noncommittal. Shen-shi’s confidence likely wasn’t without basis, and Mu Wan vividly remembered her second sister Mu Rou’s smug expression before leaving home this morning.
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- Shangsi Festival or Double Third Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated during the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar.
- Shi (氏): In China, a woman continues to use her surname upon marriage. She’d be called both Mrs/Madam/Lady [husband’s surname] and [her surname]-shi.
- Junzhu (郡主): Princess of the Third Rank. A title usually granted to the daughter of a qinwang (prince of the first rank).
Oooo, another really interesting novel.