The fifteenth year of Yong’an, the seventh day of the twelfth month.
The ancestral hall of the General’s Residence of Zhenyuan was as cold as an ice cellar. White lanterns beneath the eaves swayed in the wind, making everyone in the courtyard look as if they were cut from paper.
When Song Mingtang woke up, she was kneeling on the green brick floor.
Her knees hurt.
Her back hurt.
Her head hurt even more.
Worst of all, a woman in a sapphire-blue brocade jacket stood before her, a gold filigree phoenix hairpin tucked into her hair. She wore the benevolent face of a mother who claimed to be “doing this for your own good.”
“Mingtang, if you agree today, you can remain the eldest legitimate daughter of the General’s Residence. If you refuse, all our ancestors here in the ancestral hall will bear witness.”
Song Mingtang blinked.
Great.
Her stepmother, Wen Suwan, wanted her to agree to break off her engagement to Xie Huaijin, heir to the Duke of Anguo’s estate, and hand the match over to her half-sister, Song Wanrou.
The reason was touching, too.
Song Wanrou’s reputation had been ruined “after she fell into the water,” and Young Master Xie was “willing to take responsibility.” The two were “in love.” And since Song Mingtang, as the eldest legitimate daughter, held the title of older sister, she ought to make this sacrifice for her younger sister.
And what would happen after she did?
She would be hastily married off to a poor scholar. He seemed refined on the surface, but Wen Suwan had already bought him off. After the wedding, he would swallow her dowry and force her to sign a document severing ties with her family. When the Song family’s old crimes came to light, she would be made the scapegoat and die more savagely than the worst reviews in a comment section.
Song Mingtang lowered her eyes to her fingers, purple with cold, and suddenly laughed.
The laugh was soft, but it left everyone in the ancestral hall stunned.
Wen Suwan’s brow twitched. “Mingtang, what are you laughing at?”
There is a reason for the low rating. Even if it is a palace, a foreigner walks into the general's palace with a group of guards??? Why don't you wait outside first for the servants to pass the news, and then go into the living room? Just like that, a group of men came into the backyard? This is ridiculous
After seeing Chapter 81, didn't she want to be an ally? Why do you need to ask more clearly?