1
“Young Madam, all the masters of the marquis’s household are here.”
The frail old steward, gasping for breath, opened the ancestral hall door for me.
All the servants stood outside the Gu family’s ancestral hall. Only Jordan Miller, the steward, followed me inside.
In the dim ancestral hall, candle flames flickered, casting their light over row upon row of memorial tablets.
At a glance, there seemed to be several dozen.
The nearest tablet marked a birth and death date that meant its owner had lived only sixteen years.
I furrowed my brow slightly.
Was this the “best” marriage the kind, universally praised stepmother had chosen for me?
Seeing me fall silent as I looked at the tablets, Jordan Miller let out a sigh.
“Everyone in the marquis’s household—men and women, young and old—died on the battlefield.”
“Young Madam, if you don’t wish to stay, this old servant…”
The old steward looked worried, his brow furrowed, as though he was just waiting for me to say no so he could take me straight back to the Ministry of Revenue Minister’s residence.
After all, in the Great Li dynasty, a family with no heirs was considered terribly unlucky.
Even a woman who married into such a family would be scorned by the world. The famed Northern Defender Marquis’s household was no exception.
I tilted my head, met the anxious old steward’s eyes, and smiled faintly.
“Who says I don’t want to?”
How ridiculous. I was the only one in this entire household who got to call the shots.
This was freaking great.
Ignoring the old steward’s suddenly delighted expression, I raised a hand to straighten the deep-red wedding gown I wore.
“So… who am I marrying?”
Clang—
A memorial tablet suddenly toppled over.
2
“Ah!”
A cold gust swept through the silent, shadowy ancestral hall.
The old steward jumped in alarm.
When he saw which tablet had fallen, he froze for a moment, then burst into sobs.
“It’s the young master! Young Madam, the young master knows you’ve come to visit him!”
His cries were heart-rending.
I swallowed hard and stood rooted to the spot.
The old man, his beard and hair as white as snow, collapsed to his knees, weeping so hard that tears and snot streamed down his face.
“My lord, my lady, the Young Madam is here! The Co family has someone in the house again!”
“You may rest easy. This old servant and the Young Madam will keep the Co family standing!”
Jordan Miller collapsed to the floor, sobbing so hard he could barely speak.
I shook my head, pressing down the fear in my heart.
For generations, the Co family’s marquis household had been loyal and righteous. Now only an old steward remained to keep the house.
Even a bride who had just married into the family could be expected to hold the whole household together.
It was heartbreaking to hear.
I sighed.
Ignoring Jordan Miller, I stepped forward and picked up the memorial tablet.
The tablet felt heavy in my hands. Written on it were the words:
“Memorial tablet for my late elder brother, James Brooks.”
Without changing my expression, I set the tablet upright again, then turned to comfort the old steward:
“Jordan Miller, I checked. The tablet wasn’t placed securely, so the wind knocked it over.”
At that, the old steward stopped crying and knelt there in a daze.
After a long while, he gave a bitter laugh:
“That’s true. The young master has… This old servant lost control. I must have frightened you, Young Madam.”
Jordan Miller wiped his face with his sleeve, slowly stood, then bowed with his hands clasped before me:
“It’s getting late. I’ll have Jordan Reed escort you to your room to rest, Young Madam.”
I nodded and slowly left the ancestral hall, escorted by Jordan Miller.
Just as the ancestral hall door closed, at the very last instant—
I turned around.
In front of James Brooks’s memorial tablet, a hazy white figure was clearly standing there.
He fiddled with the tablet and muttered:
“This tablet of mine is so heavy. Could the wind really have knocked it over? Jordan Miller’s getting senile—he actually believed that.”
4
James Brooks told me that last night, he hadn’t deliberately pushed the tablet to scare me.
He couldn’t touch anything.
Until last night, when he heard what I said, he couldn’t help pushing his own memorial tablet.
“After you left yesterday, I couldn’t touch anything again.”
James Brooks blinked innocently:
“An Ning, I feel like if I stay with you, I can leave the ancestral hall.”
That familiar feeling welled up in me again. I looked up and stared straight at him.
“General James, we’ve never had any dealings with each other. How do you know my name?”
His face stiffened.
“Jordan Miller told me.”
A lie.
He’d just said he only found out last night that I’d married into the marquis’s household.
I snorted and ignored him.
Turning, I headed for the ancestral hall’s entrance.
“Are you coming or not?”
James Brooks quickly floated over. “Coming!”
With the maids watching, James Brooks and I went in and out through the ancestral hall’s doorway.
After trying many times, James Brooks found that he could leave the ancestral hall even without me accompanying him.
Seeing the maids’ increasingly strange looks, I hurriedly stopped.
“All right, if we keep at it, we’ll be rude.”
Seeing how awkward I was, James Brooks couldn’t help bursting out laughing.
I glared at him, and only then did he quickly stifle his laughter and bow with his hands clasped.
“I was in the wrong. Please forgive this lowly one, Young Madam.”
The handsome young general bent at the waist, his bright, starry eyes beneath sharply arched brows.
He smiled at me, pleading for forgiveness.
My face grew a little warm. I adjusted my sleeve and tried to keep my composure.
“It’s fine.”
James Brooks laughed and turned to leave.
I watched him go, smiling too.
My smile quickly faded. I said softly,
“Look into the affairs of the Marquis of Northwatch’s household, especially James Brooks.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the maid Taylor Turner replied.
05
On the day I returned to my parents’ home, James Brooks happily hopped into the carriage and sat beside me.
Behind the carriage was another carriage filled with betrothal gifts for the bride’s family, arranged by Jordan Miller.
When he saw me looking at him, James Brooks blushed slightly.
“I’m your husband, so of course I have to go with you.”
The carriage stopped in front of the Wu Residence. Just as I’d expected, no one had come out to greet us at the gate.
James Brooks looked at me anxiously. I smiled, unconcerned.
As the saying goes, a stepmother means a stepfather, too.
That was true in ordinary households, and it was true of the Ministry of Revenue Minister’s residence as well.
When I was five, my mother had been dead for less than half a year when my father brought home a new wife.
Back then, I stood among the crowd, watching my father sit high on a fine horse, beaming with joy.
His happiness was impossible to hide. In the wedding sedan behind him sat his young bride.
Drums thundered and firecrackers boomed all around me, while I trembled with hatred.
As my mother lay dying, she clutched the corner of my father’s robe with her withered fingers.
Her face was deathly pale as she pleaded:
“Alex Carter, I know you’ve always looked down on my family for being poor and unable to help you advance your career. I don’t expect you to remain unmarried after I die.”
My mother held my hand tightly with one hand and pulled me toward my father.
She gasped for breath several times before finally choking out:
“I only ask you to wait another three years, until our daughter is grown. Consider it repayment for all I did to help you prepare for the examinations.”
Tears filled my mother’s eyes as she looked at my father and begged.
To keep my father there, she had nearly hauled herself halfway out of bed.
I saw half of my father’s face concealed in shadow—dark and utterly expressionless.
Only after a long while did he murmur, “Yes.”
His voice was soft, but my mother still heard him.
She sighed in relief, a smile blooming at the corners of her mouth, then slowly fell back.
The hand gripping mine went limp and dropped to her side.
My mother knew my father didn’t value her or love me.
My maternal grandfather died young. All his money had gone toward my mother’s dowry, and she in turn spent it all supporting my father’s studies and helping him make connections.
The whole family’s money was spent, only for it to raise a savage wolf who turned cruel once he gained power.
She was afraid that after she died, my stepmother would make things difficult for me.
So before she died, she set her pride aside and begged desperately to give me a chance to breathe.
In just six short months, my father had forgotten everything.
A wolf’s heart and a dog’s nature—that was all there was to him.
06
On the way to the garden pavilion, I happened to see the steward of the Wu residence escorting a long-bearded man out.
I only glanced at them once, then lowered my head and stepped aside.
James Brooks had been ignoring the man, but the moment he saw him, his expression suddenly turned awful.
Perhaps because my father still wanted to save face, he came to the banquet celebrating my return to my husband’s family.
After silently finishing the meal, my father set down his chopsticks and said in a low voice:
“You’re more or less the mistress of the marquis’s residence now. Your status and position are different from before.”
“This family raised you for so many years. If we need anything from you in the future, you must never refuse.”
I looked up and saw my father’s cold expression, his brow tightly furrowed.
He didn’t even want to pretend there was any affection between father and daughter.
My stepmother acted as if she hadn’t heard a thing, silently staring at the dishes before her.
My younger half-sister, Avery Brooks, looked at me expectantly, unable to keep herself from speaking up.
I obediently lowered my head.
“Yes, Father.”
Back at the marquis’s residence, James Brooks—unusually—didn’t go flying around everywhere.
“Ning, do you recognize the man we saw when we entered the residence?”
I was startled. Seeing how serious James Brooks looked, I answered:
“He might be one of my stepmother’s cousins. I’ve seen him around the residence a few times before.”
After thinking for a moment, I added:
“My stepmother’s surname is Avery Reed. Her parents are Avery Anderson, the Minister of War.”
James Brooks was silent for a moment, then nodded.