My Cousin Is So Courteous

With her coming-of-age ceremony approaching, Jiang Shiyu was sent from her family’s home in Jiangnan to the Song household in the capital. She knew perfectly well that she had come at her grandaunt’s behest, to strengthen the marriage alliance between the Jiang and Song families.

After her grandaunt’s husband died, the title passed to the eldest Song son. But her grandaunt was not his birth mother, and her own young nephew was only eight.

Worried for her future, her grandaunt came up with a beauty scheme.

Jiang Shiyu became the beauty at its center.

At first, Jiang Shiyu really did intend to win the eldest Song son over. But he saw right through her, and his eyes held nothing but indifference or distaste.

If she couldn’t warm his heart, Jiang Shiyu decided, she would find another way. The capital was full of wealth and opportunity, and there had to be a place for a young woman like her.

So she turned her sights on her grandaunt, persuading her to set up a jewelry shop together in the capital.

By the time the eldest Song son realized the woman who had always followed him was gone, he saw her again at a banquet for foreign envoys. She was confidently and briskly describing jewelry and jade ornaments to the envoys in their own language, no longer putting on an affected act.