Everyone said Xiao Yao was lucky. Her grandfather was a low-ranking seventh-grade official, and her father had no official post. Yet the Anping Marquis in the capital insisted that his eldest son by a concubine become engaged to Xiao Yao. The families had already exchanged their betrothal documents, and preparations for her dowry had begun.
Half a month before the wedding, as Xiao Yao embroidered her wedding dress, her fiancé, Zhang Zhiang, walked into her room with her cousin in his arms.
Zhang Zhiang carefully held her cousin and said to Xiao Yao, "Your cousin is three months pregnant. Let's break off the engagement."
Xiao Yao was devastated. At some point, the needle and thread in her hands had fallen to the floor. The tiny pricks on her fingertips had become one enormous joke.
*
Xiao Xiuzhi also had a fiancé, named Yu Chengzhi. Since Xiao Xiuzhi never married him, the engagement naturally passed to Xiao Yao.
He was a good man, responsible and ambitious, and her mother-in-law was easy to get along with.
Even when outsiders gossiped about Xiao Yao's broken engagement, her mother-in-law would immediately go confront those sharp-tongued women.
Yu Chengzhi always brought Xiao Yao gifts. As the years passed, they gradually changed from flower cakes to titles of nobility, but one thing never changed: whenever Yu Chengzhi saw Xiao Yao, his face turned red.
It was not until their fifth year of marriage that Xiao Yao gave birth to their first child, a daughter.
*
When Xiao Yao passed the highest imperial examination and became its top scholar, she turned down every official who wanted to marry his daughter to her. Her story became a much-celebrated tale throughout the Sheng Dynasty.
But Xiao Xiuzhi never imagined that the heroine of this celebrated tale would be her cousin Xiao Yao, the very person she had looked down on and stolen her fiancé from!
If the Anping Marquis hadn't passed away, she wouldn't have been able to return to the capital with her husband, an official.
Back then, the Anping Marquis's principal wife had sent the newly married Zhang Zhiang and his wife far away to a provincial post. She had also sent Zhang Zhiang's birth mother, Concubine Chen, along with them. As soon as they arrived, Zhang Zhiang took one concubine after another, while Concubine Chen began throwing her weight around as Xiao Xiuzhi's mother-in-law.
At the funeral, Xiao Xiuzhi saw Xiao Yao and Yu Chengzhi among the visitors. She also saw the honor Xiao Yao enjoyed as the wife of a third-rank official, and the instinctive care Yu Chengzhi showed her.
Xiao Xiuzhi was consumed with hatred!
August 21, 2026. Synopsis recorded for posterity.
Theme: The courage to remain steadfast in love
