Chapter 1 A Dream of Yellow Millet
“Qingci, Lian’er is your half-sister. Your parents-in-law agreed to your marriage to her as a concubine. As the daughter of the Marquis of Nanping, if you don’t even have this much tolerance, you might as well divorce her as soon as possible.”
In the secluded backyard of the Qiao family, Yu Qingci, dressed in a plain white dress, sat motionless in front of the dressing mirror, seemingly oblivious to her husband Qiao Yuantao's accusations. The room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
At the entrance, a young couple dressed in bright red wedding attire stood there. The man was full of vigor, but his gaze toward his wife was extremely impatient.
"Hmph! Stop acting like you're half-dead. I'm not buying it. Whether you like it or not, Lian'er is already a member of the family. From now on, you sisters should get along well. Your health has always been poor, and you'll need her to take care of you a lot in the future. I've brought her here to see you, so don't be so shameless and act all high and mighty."
Yu Qingci cast a cold glance at him, then lowered her eyes. She no longer held any hope for this man, and she didn't want to respond to a single word, no matter how cold and heartless his words were.
"Husband, please don't say that about my sister. She must be unwell to have missed our wedding. It's not that she doesn't like me, right, sister?"
Yu Lian spoke in a sweet, delicate voice. Today, she was a newlywed, adorned with jewels. Her already young and delicate face appeared even more shy and bashful in her wedding dress, making it impossible to look away.
Qiao Yuantao seemed to have taken Yu Lian's words to heart. He softened his expression and said to Yu Qingci:
"Lian'er is the most sensible one. Don't just sit there, come and see Lian'er."
When Yu Lian heard her husband say that Yu Qingci should come to see her, she felt very smug and stood there steadily, looking at Yu Qingci with a defiant gaze.
Yu Qingci seemed to snap out of her daze. She looked over expressionlessly, a mocking smile playing on her lips:
"Today is the joyous occasion of my sister's marriage. My husband has been urging me to give her a generous gift. I've prepared it."
After she finished speaking, she looked at a wooden box on the dressing table. Two pairs of eyes immediately turned to look at her, their eyes filled with greed.
Qiao Yuantao snorted and said, "You're smart enough to take this. Lian'er, go and get it."
Yu Lian couldn't wait to hear this, and immediately stepped inside, saying in a soft, sweet voice:
"What gift did you prepare, sister? Let me see it quickly."
But when she reached out to pick up the wooden box, Yu Qingci stopped her.
Yu Lian said with a wronged look in her eyes, "It seems that you are reluctant to give me a gift. Do you resent your husband for marrying me? But I am only trying to help you."
My elder sister has been married to her husband for ten years, yet she has been unable to bear him a single child. Mother, in order to salvage the reputation of our family's daughters, arranged for me, her younger sister, to marry into this family so that I could carry on the family line.”
As she spoke, she turned her head and glanced shyly at Qiao Yuantao, then lowered her head and touched her stomach with her hand.
Now that she's married into the family, she doesn't need to hide her pregnancy anymore.
The mother Yu Lian mentioned was not Yu Qingci's biological mother, but Qiao, her father's second wife.
Yu Qingci felt even more resentful when she saw her stroking her belly in a pretentious manner. She had been pregnant for ten years after marrying into the Qiao family, but when she was pregnant with her first child, her mother-in-law made her stay by her side to establish rules. As a result, she was overworked and miscarried after three months. Instead, her mother-in-law blamed her for not taking good care of herself and not being able to raise a child.
She later became pregnant again, but when she was five months pregnant, her spoiled sister-in-law pushed her and she miscarried. The Qiao family refused to even call a doctor in order to keep the matter a secret.
That incident almost cost her her life, and it completely damaged her health, making it impossible for her to conceive again.
Yu Lian walked closer and gave Yu Qingci a charming smile, swaying her waist to deliberately reveal a palm-sized jade pendant tied around her waist.
The jade pendant was of warm and lustrous color and exquisitely carved. Yu Qingci immediately recognized it as something her mother had left her.
She had always treasured it like a precious gem. A few years ago, her husband took it from her, saying he would return it to her after she had played with it for a while. But she couldn't get it back no matter what she did. Unexpectedly, he gave it to Yu Lian instead.
It turns out they had been colluding for several years.
Seeing that she was staring intently at the jade pendant at her waist, Yu Lian couldn't help but laugh smugly:
"Does this jade pendant look familiar, sister? It's a token of love that my husband specially gave me. So even though I know it was originally your beloved possession, I can't part with it and return it to you. You won't be angry with me, will you?"
Seeing Yu Qingci's face turn ashen, Yu Lian became even more smug and took a step closer, saying:
"Speaking of which, your short-lived mother was abandoned by your father and grandmother long ago, so your status is not even as good as mine as an illegitimate daughter. Don't pretend to be my elder sister in front of me anymore."
These provocative words did not enrage Yu Qingci. She withdrew her gaze, a strange smile flashing across her lips, and slowly opened the wooden box in her hand. Her cold voice rang out again:
"It's just a piece of jade, of course I won't be angry. I felt the firecrackers outside weren't lively enough, so I'll add some more festive cheer for you."
As she spoke, she grabbed the inner fuse with one hand and glanced at the two of them provocatively.
Yu Lian was bewildered by the strange expression and movements on her face and involuntarily took a step back:
"What's this?"
Yu Qingci's smile grew even more sinister: "Of course it's—gunpowder."
Yu Lian stared wide-eyed in astonishment: "Fire, gunpowder? What do you mean, sister?"
Yu Qingci stepped forward and said, "Since you all want me dead so badly, then let's all just die."
When Qiao Yuantao heard her utter the word "gunpowder," a bad premonition suddenly welled up in his heart, and he stepped forward to stop her.
"What are you doing? Qingci, calm down, don't do anything foolish!"
Yu Qingci's smile became increasingly eerie.
Just as Qiao Yuantao was about to approach and snatch the item from her hand, Yu Qingci pulled the fuse with force.
A loud bang was heard!
In an instant, flames erupted everywhere, and a series of screams echoed through the air, lingering for a long time.
The entire backyard was soon engulfed in flames...
Yu Qingci seemed to feel no pain from the fire. Her body became light, and she slowly floated out of the sea of fire, hovering in mid-air.
She saw her parents-in-law and sister-in-law running in panic to the backyard. Seeing the sea of fire before her, they were all crying desperately but dared not take a step forward. A relieved smile appeared on her face.
Without your proud son and without my dowry, your future will surely be very difficult. Knowing that you will not have a good life, I am at ease.
Great Rong Dynasty.
On the official road outside the capital, a caravan was moving slowly forward, surrounded by guards in uniform. The insignia of the Marquis of Nanping on the ornately decorated carriages was very eye-catching in the sunlight.
Yu Qingci lifted the carriage curtain and leaned out the window to look outside; she maintained this position for a long time.
She seemed to have a very long dream in which she married a treacherous man shortly after arriving in the capital, was tortured in her husband's family for ten years, and finally died with those men; her mother was framed and killed, and her younger brother had his wings broken at a young age. The fate of the three of them was so tragic.
Is this what people call a fleeting dream?
But she had never drunk the millet wine. Even if it was a dream, it was too real, so real that it felt like she had experienced it herself, so real that it chilled her to the bone.
In their dream, they didn't know that the reason their grandmother agreed to let their father take them back to recognize their ancestors was so that she could marry off Yu Qingyan, the daughter she had given birth to in place of Qiao Shi.
However, this marriage meant she would become a widow and live a life of celibacy.
Yu Qingyan's fiancé, with whom she had been betrothed since childhood, died on the battlefield. Qiao Shi did not want her daughter to marry him and become a widow, so she devised a plan to have her marry in place of her. When her mother learned the truth, she did not hesitate to confront her grandmother and cause a scene in the inner quarters.
In the end, her mother sacrificed herself to become a concubine to save her, and Qiao's daughter, Yu Qingyan, had no choice but to marry him while holding her deceased husband's memorial tablet.
Qiao held a grudge against the mother and daughter. In retaliation, she plotted to make Qiao Yuantao, the son of her half-brother, have an affair with her, forcing Qiao Yuantao to marry him.
That family had always been extremely obsequious to Qiao Shi, the aunt who had married into the wealthy family. Under Qiao Shi's scheme, Qiao Yuantao successfully married her. A few years later, they helped him secure a position as a seventh-rank official in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, which officially gave him an official title.
From then on, Qiao Yuantao's family became even more grateful to the Qiao family and obeyed their every word.
He knew that the Qiao family hated Yu Qingci and her daughter very much. In order to please the Qiao family, he was extremely cold and indifferent to Yu Qingci after the marriage.
Other members of her husband's family followed suit. On the second day after she married into the Qiao family, her mother-in-law found an excuse to hand over the management of the household to her. For the sake of her reputation as a virtuous woman, she foolishly used her dowry to support the entire family for a full ten years.
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