The Su Family Has a Daughter

Su Yuyao, the eldest daughter of the Chengyuan Marquis household in the Great Qing Kingdom, was only six years old. Her parents came from generations of upright scholars. Her father's side of the family was large, with uncles and aunts. Her grandparents doted on her, and her parents were deeply in love. By all rights, they should have been a happy family.

But her father was upright and fearless, willing to risk his life to remonstrate with the emperor, who valued him greatly. Yet he lacked the knack for navigating officialdom and currying favor, earning the envy of his fellow officials. One rainy night, assassins hired by an unknown minister beat him so badly that he was left unable to father children for the rest of his life. Her mother was so devastated that the baby she was carrying died in the womb. Her grandfather's old illness flared up, and he died despite treatment. In recognition of their past service, the emperor found an excuse to grant her father the title of Duke Chengyuan, bestow a first-rank noblewoman's title on her grandmother, and enshrine her grandfather in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Her uncle had been in business for years and amassed wealth beyond measure. But just a month after he left for the Western Regions, all word of him vanished. He left behind only her second aunt and a boy and a girl. While their father was home, the two children chattered away all day. Ever since he left, they had grown increasingly quiet, spending every day with their books and no longer caring about anything happening in the household.

Her uncle by marriage died in battle, and her aunt was branded a husband-killer and driven out of her marital home with her daughter.

By some twist of fate, the three people destined to be part of Su Yuyao's life had already arrived at her side.