Hating a Highborn Marriage

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It was rumored that General Shen Feibai was destined to bring misfortune to his wives. He had supposedly caused the deaths of three fiances in succession, so families of equal standing would not dare marry their daughters to him.

Approaching thirty, he could only spend a hundred taels of silver to marry beneath his station, taking the daughter of a county magistrate as his wife. Shen Feibai was more or less satisfied with her. At least she came from a family of scholars.

On their wedding night, Shen Feibai lifted the red veil and saw the bride's eyes, full of adoration, nervousness, and caution. But he felt no tenderness toward her, and consummated the marriage.

II.

Jiang Xue didn't understand. Her husband had brought her into the household and married her, so why did the servants dislike her? Why did her sister-in-law look down on her?

She was the lady of the house, yet she had to work hard to please them.

Only when her mother died and she wanted to return home for the funeral did she understand, after her husband produced a deed of sale and said, "I won't allow it."

The marriage contract had been nothing more than a deed of sale.

Angry and anxious, Jiang Xue finally hurled the bundle in her trembling hands at his face. "I'm going back to my family. I haven't taken a single cent from your household."

Shen Feibai inspected her luggage in all seriousness and saw that it contained only her personal clothing.

He said with a hint of mockery, "Fine, you haven't stolen anything from my household. But every piece of clothing you're wearing was bought by me.

You should behave yourself and be grateful to me. I made you my wife instead of taking you as a concubine. With me, being a concubine was the only place you deserved."

III.

Jiang Xue saw Shen Feibai for who he really was. From then on, she put away her fine clothes, earning money by weaving and copying books in the General's Mansion while enduring the grief of sleeping with him night after night.

Jiang Xue no longer thought of herself as Shen Feibai's wife, and never again asked about anything concerning him. She treated herself as nothing more than a concubine.

In the fourth year of their marriage, Shen Feibai went to war. News from the front said the general had been ambushed during an attack, leaving no body behind and no trace of him.

When Jiang Xue heard the news, she was overjoyed and left the General's Mansion that very night.

The general's supposed death was only a scheme Shen Feibai had devised to lull the enemy into complacency. After winning a great victory, he returned to the capital, but the familiar figure was nowhere to be found in the residence.

In the end, Shen Feibai gave up fame and fortune and searched for four years. At last, he found his wife, who had a child by her side who looked remarkably like him.

Theme: Love requires equality