Chapter 1 Prologue
It was another cold winter, and heavy snow for several consecutive days had submerged the entire Bianjing. The Yongyi Marquis Mansion, covered in ice and snow, was as cold and gloomy as the coldest month of winter.
The East Garden was filled with a strong herbal scent.
Main house.
The old woman lying on the bed looked at the maid and opened the window that had not been opened for a long time. The window frame made an old creaking sound, just like her in her twilight years, the window frame was broken, and she was in her twilight years.
"What's that sound?" Perhaps because he hadn't spoken for too long, his voice was cut and extremely harsh.
When the maid by the window heard this, she was stunned at first, then turned and walked out of the main house.
When she received no response, her cloudy pupils moved slightly.
Yes, who in the entire Yongyi Marquis Mansion still takes her seriously?
The maids changed one after another, but no one liked this old lady who had difficulty walking and lived without dignity.
When she was seventeen, she married into the Yongyi Marquis's mansion. A little over a month after their marriage, her husband led his troops to war. Half a year later, he died on the battlefield, his body wrapped in his horsehide.
From then on, she guarded the chastity arch for the rest of her life for the sake of her husband's family and her own family's reputation.
When she was young, she was devoted to Buddhism and managed her husband's family. Who in Bianjing would not praise her when talking about the eldest daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Yongyi?
Her family also advised her many times to adopt a son from her husband's clan so that she would have someone to rely on in the future.
She has lofty ambitions, how could she raise someone else's son?
She also thought about leaving herself many ways out, but she didn't expect that her confidants would die one by one before her, and in her old age she would even have no one to talk to.
The younger generations in her husband's family respected her on the surface, but cursed her to be immortal behind her back.
The maids who served in her courtyard avoided her like the plague.
Thinking of all these things, the old man chuckled hoarsely.
"Madam, why did you wake up so early today?" The girl's pleasant voice added a touch of color to the dull main house.
The old woman looked at the girl walking towards her, the only child whose name she remembered.
"Yuer."
The girl's almond-shaped eyes were surprised when she heard the old lady's voice and she sat down beside the bed: "Old lady, you can actually speak!"
"What's that noise outside?" the old woman repeated.
Yue'er's clear eyes were filled with joy. "Today is the Little New Year. The Lord has returned from Longxi to burn incense for the ancestors. The whole palace is bustling with activity."
"Grand Master?" If the old woman remembered correctly, there had been no Grand Master in the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion since the death of her short-lived husband.
Even if my brother-in-law inherited the title of Marquis Yongyi, everyone in the mansion would only call him Marquis, and not the Grand Master.
"Yes, it's the old marquis's eldest brother who returned from Longxi with his wife, children, and grandson." Yue'er said in a much lower voice: "But I heard it from Madam Zhang in the front yard."
Listening to the lively and interesting noises coming from afar, the old man's eyes became numb.
The old marquis’s eldest brother.
When did this Marquis Yongyi have an older brother?
"Old lady!" Yue'er exclaimed when she saw the old woman on the bed about to get up.
The skinny hands tightly grasped the girl's fair wrists: "Where are they?"
Yue Er looked into those cloudy eyes and blurted out, "In the ancestral hall."
"Take me there." The old man's voice was hoarse and pleading: "Yuer, take me there."
I don't know if she wanted to find out who the great lord Yue'er was talking about, or if she remembered the unwillingness of having to spend her life in absurdity because of too many shackles, but she stood up with Yue'er's support.
The old man stumbled out of the main house.
There is a white light in front of my eyes. How can I describe it as depressing?
She rarely leaves the house these years due to her mobility issues.
Once upon a time, her courtyard was full of flowers even in winter, but now there is no way to go except the narrow path leading to the outer courtyard.
The young girl supported the hunchbacked old man and walked out of the East Garden step by step, as if they were going to the end.
Walk straight along the bluestone slab to the bottom of the west side, where you will see a brown wooden door with a brass ring. Looking up, besides the "Ancestral Hall" plaque, you can see a large branch sticking out from the top of the wall, with two shriveled jujubes hanging on the branch, which are particularly eye-catching.
It took the old man a full half hour to walk this distance.
The noisy sounds beside him also shifted direction. Apparently, the excitement of the "ancestor worship" was over. The old man's weathered hands tightly grasped the brass ring of the ancestral hall's door, and he walked tremblingly towards the Qin Family Ancestral Hall, which he had not stepped into for six years.
Yue'er was a little uneasy, she let go of the old woman's hand: "Old Madam, do you want to come in?" As soon as she entered the mansion, she was arranged to take care of the old lady in the East Garden. Everyone in the mansion called her the Old Lady. No one liked her and thought she had no future and was unlucky.
I don’t know what the relationship between this old man and the Yongyi Marquis’ Mansion is, and why he wants to live there in his retirement.
Although she had doubts, Yue'er felt at ease living with this old man and there was no intrigue, so she stayed in Dongyuan.
At this moment, she looked at the lifeless old man in front of her and felt indescribable fear, especially his cloudy eyes, whose hostility seemed to burn her skin.
She seemed to be able to sense that the old man in front of her had an unusual relationship with the masters in the mansion.
"Go ahead." The old man sighed softly, "Thank you for helping me get here."
Yue'er was afraid and wanted to go forward to help the old man go back, but she felt that the old man probably didn't want to go back, so she glanced around, quickly picked up a wooden stick from the side and handed it to the old man.
"Let's go." The old man spoke again.
Yue'er nodded, turned around and ran away from the ancestral hall.
The old woman walked into the ancestral hall, holding a wooden stick. The air was filled with smoke from the incense that had just been burned. She staggered slowly, as cautiously as if she were entering the mansion of Marquis Yongyi, and she felt uncomfortable pain in her legs.
Walking into the ancestral hall and looking at the rows of tablets of the Qin family, the awe and respect I had before disappeared at this moment.
At this moment, voices of conversation were heard from the back of the ancestral hall.
Perhaps there was some time between the two people's conversation, and the person who spoke was angry.
"Yes! You married my sister-in-law for the sake of mother, the Marquis of Yongyi's mansion, and the whole family. We all owe you this, but we later let you go. You lived the life you wanted, spending your life with your beloved. But why did you come back?!"
"ah!?"
"Can't you spend your old age in Longxi? Why do you have to go back to Bianjing? You brought your current wife and your children and grandchildren back with you, but where will you put your sister-in-law? She's not dead yet!"
After a moment of silence, a cold voice sounded again: "Aren't you dying? I..."
The sound of the tablet falling to the ground sent a chill down the spines of the two people who were talking. They walked out quickly and their faces changed when they saw the hunched old woman.
Yongyi Hou reacted first: "Sister-in-law, you..."
The words got stuck in his throat, and the always ruthless old Marquis Yongyi became frightened in front of the old woman.
A lifetime of lies is thought to be coming to an end, but it is exposed in the twilight years of the deceived person.
The other old man looked into the old woman's eyes, and there was still coldness in their eyes.
How could Xie Rongying not remember those cold eyes?
When I lifted the veil on the wedding night, what caught my eye were those cold eyes and the words they spoke.
"Our marriage was ordered by our parents, and there is no other personal connection. It is your responsibility to bear children for the Qin family. Living in harmony in the future will be the best gift we can give to our parents."
Except for staying in her courtyard on their wedding night, this man never set foot in her room again until he led his troops to war. During this period, she saw this man only a few times.
In the tense atmosphere, the old woman came to her senses, thinking about her absurd and shackled life, and laughed, her laughter was hoarse and low.
"In May of the ninth year of Chengde, the emperor issued an edict ordering the young Marquis Qin to lead his army into battle. In November of the same year, in the depths of winter, news reached the border that you had died on the battlefield. From then on, I became a widow in the Marquis of Yongyi's mansion, a position I have held for fifty years."
Those originally lifeless eyes became sharp, and the hoarse voice spoke clearly: "In the end, my husband is not dead, and he has children and grandchildren?"
"Our marriage is a transaction. You are so smart, don't you know what benefits your Xie family will get by marrying into the Qin family? Today, the Qin family and the Xie family are still standing in Bianjing and have many disciples. What does sacrificing you and me mean?" The old man's tone was still full of resentment, anger, and unwillingness.
"Brother, please stop talking." Old Marquis Yongyi was furious. He knew that the things that would happen next would not be easy to resolve. The Xie family was not something that anyone could shake today.
Instead, the old woman smiled and walked a few steps towards the Qin family's tablet with her wooden stick, stopping only when she was very close to the tablet.
She said, "Sacrifice you and me? Sacrifice what? Sacrifice your position as the legal wife? Or sacrifice your beloved, so that your children and grandchildren will never be able to enter the Qin family's ancestral hall as legitimate heirs?"
As she said the last sentence, she tilted her head slightly to look directly at the old man and questioned, "So you, Qin Junyi, should live with your beloved until old age, surrounded by children and grandchildren, and enjoy the happiness of family life, while I, Xie Rongying, should die childless and alone in your Qin family's courtyard?"
"Why?" The old woman said as she slowly retracted her gaze, her eyes falling on the rows of tablets in front of her. She laughed sadly: "Why...haha..."
In an instant, the old woman swung the wooden stick in her hand and hit the tablet in front of her. The sound of the tablet falling instantly made the backs of the two people behind her stiffen.
"It's just a piece of wood, but it shackles me for my whole life!"
“Why?!”
She seemed to be talking about the tablets that she had knocked down, and also seemed to be talking about the chastity arch that had shackled her throughout her life.
The old man was shocked by the old woman's anger and stepped forward to stop her frightened movements. However, the terminally ill old woman had amazing strength. While stopping her, she knocked over the candlestick and set the sacrificial curtain on fire. Because the tablet was just a piece of dry wood, the fire started.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the old Marquis Yongyi strode out and said, "Someone come! Come quickly!"
Soon, many people came to the ancestral hall.
The sounds were chaotic and seemed particularly small under the fire.
When the old Marquis Yongyi wanted to re-enter, he saw that the fire was getting more and more intense. The two figures behind the flames were twisting together, and he could vaguely hear the creepy laughter.
“Hahaha…why…why…”
His pupils shrank slightly, and he roared, "Quick! Put out the fire!"
The broken beam crushed the old woman's spine, and the burning made her more awake. Looking at the terrified old man beneath her, she smiled grimly: "I wonder if you still remember what I said to you."
In addition to the raging fire in the old man's pupils, there was also the woman he hated most in his life. Time had erased the woman's appearance but could not erase her viciousness.
She used up her last bit of strength to say, "Don't talk about generosity in front of me, and don't give me a chance. I will really kill anyone who makes my life difficult!"
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