She had only come to the capital to buy medicine. A snow ginseng root costing three hundred taels was the only thing that could save Aunt Lan's life.
But by a twist of fate, the Marchioness insisted she become the widow of her deceased son. She put on mourning clothes and a white flower, and even knelt in the mourning hall, only for the dead man to come back to life. The Marchioness was overjoyed and announced, "This is your betrothed wife." From then on, Shen Ning was trapped in an impossible situation.
Worse still, that man, Xie Zheng's uncle, the Third Master of the Marquis's household, was the one she had loved and lost. He thought she had left him for money; she thought he had forgotten their promise. After they met again, he sent her a note with a cold message: "You left for money back then. Now I've come for medicine. We're even."
Shen Ning clenched the note without explaining. She did not know that someone had intercepted the letter she wrote to him. She did not know he had waited a year for her, and that he had been turned away every time he visited Qingping Manor, all three times. She did not know he had saved three hundred taels from his salary and buried them beneath a plum tree on the hill behind Bao'en Temple.
Everyone in the marquis's household scrutinized her. Madam Xie forced her to learn household management and become a concubine. Wen Yu gave her fake ginseng to humiliate her in public. Her legitimate elder sister, Shen Rong, spread rumors that she had been unfaithful. And after getting drunk, Xie Zheng blocked the doorway and shouted, "You are my betrothed! I won't let you leave!" Xie Yan's carriage waited in the night, waiting for her answer.
She would not leave. She had not found the snow ginseng yet. She had not gotten to the bottom of what happened to that letter. And she still had a concubinage contract left by her birth mother, with the words "Never to be made a principal wife" written on it. The word she hated most in this life was "concubine."
A farmer's daughter, a daughter born of a concubine, a widow, a fake fiancée. Everyone else had been choosing for her. This time, she would choose for herself.
