A Servant's Daughter-in-Law Can Be a Wife Too

After winter set in, Chang Ying'an, the Yang family's child bride, fell seriously ill.

The Yang family was deeply displeased. They suspected she was destined to die young and feared she would leave them without an heir, so they simply broke off the engagement and sent her away to work as a maid.

The entire Yang family served as household slaves to the Marquis's household, so Chang Ying'an was assigned to work there too, to repay the cost of the meals she had eaten over the years.

She was petite and delicate, with a red mole between her brows, slightly pale eyes, and softly curled black hair. Everyone who saw her mocked her unusual looks and the fact that she had no family to rely on, saying her future would surely be tragic.

Chang Ying'an paid them no mind. Instead, she worked even harder, hoping to earn enough to buy her freedom and spend her life with her beloved.

*

Marquis Zhao Shu had a face as cool and refined as a scholar's, handsome as a piece of fine jade, but beneath that exterior he was cold and heartless.

When news arrived that his fiancée had died of illness, Zhao Shu felt no stir of emotion. He only kept his eyes on Chang Ying'an, standing behind the household slaves.

She was like a little flower beaten by the rain, and every inch of her made him sigh in admiration.

But she was the child bride of one of his household slaves. To take her for himself would be despicable, and contrary to the lofty refinement he prided himself on.

Not long after, Zhao Shu had an outrageous dream. In it, Chang Ying'an was his wife. They lived on a street by the river, and she was spoiled and quarrelsome, packing up and returning to her parents' home at the slightest disagreement.

The dream was so vivid that it felt as if he and Chang Ying'an had truly been married for years.

So he wasn't stealing another man's wife. Perhaps Chang Ying'an had been meant to be his wife all along, and it was this household slave who had stolen her from him.

Even if the dream was false, why couldn't a slave's wife become his own?

*

When Chang Ying'an first entered the marquis's household, her future looked bleak.

A little over three months later, everyone was politely calling her Miss Chang, and even the household's most overbearing Third Young Lady praised her beauty.

The Yang family's haughty faces gradually turned fawning.

Rumors had already spread throughout the marquis's household, but Chang Ying'an ignored them. Counting the money in her purse, she happily thought she would soon be able to leave and spend her life with her beloved.

Theme: Believe in yourself.