Lady Hui

Hui Niang was an ordinary girl from Xinghua Village. Her parents died when she was young, and the neighbors took her in, planning to have her marry their son and continue the family line once she grew up.

When she was fourteen, the old couple who had raised her died, leaving behind only their son, who was engaged to her but had not yet held a wedding. She called him Brother.

The man was a scoundrel. Without a matchmaker, a betrothal, or a proper wedding, he took Hui Niang to his bed while his parents were still in mourning.

They lived in a relationship that was neither husband and wife nor brother and sister. In the blink of an eye, Hui Niang turned eighteen.

That year, the man returned from a trip with a bloodied young man.

The man said the youth wore fine silk and jade at his waist, so he must come from a wealthy family. He planned to nurse him back to health and then use the favor to demand repayment.

Hui Niang was timid and obedient. Following the man’s instructions, she carefully tended the youth’s wounds every day.

But when the youth woke, his legs were ruined and he could no longer walk. He had also forgotten everything about his past.

The man’s plan to cash in on his kindness had come to nothing, and he no longer wanted to keep the invalid. He drove the youth out and left him to fend for himself.

Hui Niang could not bear it. She often sneaked to the mountain cave where he sheltered, bringing him food and clean clothes.

Before long, the man of the house found out.

She had expected the short-tempered man to fly into a rage.

Instead, after learning what she had done, he watched her in the room for half the night,

then told her that the young man should father a child with her.

They had been childless for years. He always blamed Hui Niang’s weak constitution for their failure to have a son,

but that day he finally told her the truth: he had been born with weak fertility and could hardly get a woman pregnant.

Hui Niang was timid and meek, so of course she refused, but he was set on it.

He dragged her to the mountain cave where the youth was sheltering, shoved a packet of medicine used to breed cattle into the youth’s mouth, then left the cave by himself...

Theme: Protect yourself.