Su Qing'er and Madam Wu sat in the room for most of the night.
The oil lamp cast a small, dim circle of yellow light across the table, stretching their shadows long. Madam Wu had spent the entire night weighing the pros and cons of the marriage with Marquis Jing'an's Manor, but Su Qing'er's attitude had been clear from the very beginning—she would not marry him.
Xie Tianci possessed nothing but a handsome, affectionate exterior, and while Marquis Jing'an's Manor appeared to have high social standing, it had long since lost any real power.
Marquis Jing'an held only an idle post in court, and Xie Tianci himself was neither accomplished in academics nor martial arts, spending his days idling in taverns and pleasure districts.
She had seduced Xie Tianci in the first place only because he was her legitimate elder sister's fiancé. Stealing him away was an achievement in itself; she had relished Su Jinyu's public humiliation when the engagement was annulled, as well as the capital-wide gossip about how the concubine-born daughter was more favored than the legitimate one.
But she had never once intended to actually marry him.
With her capabilities, she believed she could climb much higher. Entering a prince's manor or even the imperial palace was not out of the question.
Yet now, her father had relented, and Marquis Jing'an's Manor had made their stance final. She suddenly realized she was trapped in a pit of her own digging, unable to move forward or take a step back.
Beside her, Madam Wu murmured under her breath, “Marrying in would at least make you a concubine of a Marquis's manor...” Su Qing'er did not respond. She sat by the window, staring out at the thick, heavy darkness of the night. Outside, the moon was mostly obscured by thin clouds, leaving only a blurry silhouette hanging on the edge of the sky.
In the neighboring courtyard, the light in “Su Jinyu's” room was also still lit.
She had already heard the outcome of the discussions in the main hall today and was not surprised. Since the Xie family had come to propose to Su Qing'er, it meant her father had already given his tacit approval. Whether Su Qing'er married or not would not affect the continuation of the alliance of interests between her father and Marquis Jing'an's Manor.
What she had to consider now was another matter—the Emperor's imperial draft was not far off. Held once every three years, all unmarried noble ladies of age from every household had to be registered.
She was currently eighteen, the legitimate daughter of the Minister's manor, and had just had her engagement annulled. Meeting all the criteria, she would inevitably be included in the registry.
She disliked the idea of a life where every step in the imperial harem had to be calculated. With her temperament, she was not suited to endure the daily constraints and hardships of the palace.
But if she wanted to escape before the draft, she had only two paths. Either she could fall gravely ill, confining herself to bed until the selection period passed, or she could secure a marriage alliance before the draft, as women who were already betrothed did not have to participate.
“Su Jinyu” weighed these two paths over and over in her mind, but neither seemed easy to pull off smoothly.
She stood up, walked to the window, and pushed open one of the shutters. The night breeze rushed in, carrying the scent of the courtyard's vegetation and lightly rustling the stray hairs at her temples.
The wind stirred the papers on the windowsill, making a soft rustling sound.
She looked down at the jade bracelet on her wrist. Its body gleamed with a warm, pale green light under the moon.
Su Qing'er sat by the window and thought for the entire night.
The oil lamp burned out and was refilled once. Outside, the ink-black sky gradually faded to deep blue, which then bled into a thin layer of grayish-white.
Watching the morning light slowly creep onto the windowsill, she finally came up with a plan.
Xie Tianci was easily swayed by others and cared deeply about his reputation. His insistence on marrying her was less about genuine affection and more about salvaging his own pride.
On the day of the annulment, Su Jinyu had left him completely speechless in public. The entire capital was whispering that the heir of the Xie family was a useless fool who couldn't even handle a sheltered young lady from the Minister's manor. He had been holding in his anger ever since. Proposing to her now was his way of using this marriage to reclaim his lost dignity.
If he insisted on marrying her at this critical juncture, it would only confirm to the public that they had been secretly seeing each other all along and that the annulment was a deliberate attempt to humiliate the legitimate daughter. His reputation would only worsen.
By the time Su Qing'er figured this out, the sun had fully risen. She got up, changed into a simple, plain outfit, and headed to the front courtyard's study on her own without waiting for a maid to announce her.
Minister Su was flipping through official documents at his desk. When he saw Su Qing'er enter, he looked up. Before he could say anything, Su Qing'er stood before the desk with her hands at her sides and spoke in a steady, moderate tone, “Father, I have given it some thought. It is not suitable to discuss marriage with the Xie family at this time. If Heir Xie insists on proposing to me at this juncture, outsiders will surely say that he and I had a long-standing affair and were secretly meeting. My reputation would be utterly ruined, and the Minister's manor would inevitably become the target of gossip once more. If this marriage is finalized now, it will likely bring nothing but harm to both myself and our household.”
Minister Su's hand froze mid-air as he turned a page. He looked up at his concubine-born daughter, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment, as if re-evaluating the weight of her words.
After a moment, he put down the documents. When he spoke, his tone was slightly heavier than before. “You certainly know how to look out for yourself.”
Su Qing'er kept her eyes lowered and did not reply. Minister Su glanced at her again but ultimately said nothing more, merely waving his hand to dismiss her.
Su Qing'er bowed, turned, and walked out of the study. The door shut behind her with a soft click. Standing under the corridor, she took a deep breath of the cool morning air. The sunlight angled down from the edge of the eaves, spreading a warm band of light before her feet.
...
At noon, Su Qing'er had someone spread a few words to the taverns and teahouses that Xie Tianci frequently visited.
Within half a day, the entire capital was filled with rumors: Heir Xie had annulled his engagement to the Su family's legitimate daughter, only to turn around and marry their concubine-born daughter. It was said that the Minister's manor had already relented, but she was destined to only be a concubine. Soon after, others whispered that the Su family's concubine-born daughter was incredibly scheming, having carried on a secret affair with the heir for over a year before the annulment, and that the legitimate daughter's broken engagement was entirely a trap set by her younger sister.
These rumors spread like wildfire through the capital. By the time they reached Xie Tianci's ears, they had been highly embellished, painting him as ungrateful, disloyal, and thoroughly despicable for the way he handled the annulment. Now, he was even bringing the concubine-born daughter into his home, deliberately trying to humiliate the Minister's manor.
Xie Tianci's face turned green when he heard this in a teahouse. He immediately got up to argue with those spreading the rumors, but the words had already been unleashed, and there was no taking them back.
Marquis Jing'an's Manor sent word that very night, stating that the marriage would be temporarily put on hold until the storm blew over.
Su Qing'er was sitting by the window combing her hair when she received the news. Hearing the maid's report, she did not show any smugness. She merely placed the comb on the vanity and looked at her reflection in the bronze mirror.
“To catch a wolf, one must be willing to risk the bait...”
She had succeeded, but she also knew that Xie Tianci had not truly given up; he was simply waiting for the gossip to die down.
She had to finalize her arrangements to enter the palace before he could harbor such thoughts again. Only then would Xie Tianci give up entirely.
She turned around and placed the comb back onto the vanity. The bronze mirror reflected the silhouette of her profile, standing out with striking clarity in the morning light.
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