Chapter 11: The Couple

Inside the Nonghua Courtyard, it was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

The maidservants all held their breath, their footsteps light and slow as they served tea and water.

Zhou Yuanshen sat upright on a chair in the main hall, lifting his teacup to take a couple of sips. He wore a dark robe, looking as if the night had extended from the doorway to drape over him.

The main hall suddenly felt much colder.

Perhaps the night wind blowing in was too chilly.

"Tell them to withdraw," he finally spoke after a long pause. His voice was steady and flat, as cold as frost.

Cheng Zhao gave Suyue a meaningful glance.

Her dowry maids were all well-trained and immediately retreated silently outside the curtains.

"...I originally told you to stay here with peace of mind, and wait until the situation becomes clear in the future," Zhou Yuanshen said slowly, holding his teacup.

His meaning was ambiguous.

Cheng Zhao sat in the seat next to him, turning her face slightly to look at him. "Lord Duke, the Cheng family has no daughters who remarry. The idea of 'helping you divorce and remarry' truly feels like a bolt of lightning from the blue."

She understood the underlying meaning of Zhou Yuanshen's words.

Cheng Zhao had received her imperial mandate and had clashed with Mu Jiang in the Shou'an Courtyard; she was now too deeply involved in the Zhou family. It would be somewhat difficult for her to leave quietly in the future.

She had disrupted the arrangements Zhou Yuanshen had made for her.

Zhou Yuanshen raised his eyes and looked into hers.

"So, you have accepted your fate?" he asked.

Cheng Zhao replied, "To be the 'Wife of a Super-rank Duke' is an excellent fate. It is something I could only dream of."

A trace of mockery seemed to flash in Zhou Yuanshen's eyes.

Cheng Zhao had no intention of playing games during their first proper conversation. Even if the truth was unpleasant to hear, she wanted her words to match her actions, to be accountable to herself.

The highest point a woman could seek in her life was to become the wife of a super-rank duke, and Cheng Zhao had achieved this before she was even twenty.

While she wouldn't say she went through "untold hardships," it was something the vast majority of noble ladies could never attain in their entire lives. She could not possibly give it up.

Zhou Yuanshen's eyes returned to a state of calm.

He let out a soft sigh.

Setting down his teacup, he reached his hand out to Cheng Zhao.

Cheng Zhao was taken aback.

She was very surprised and froze for a moment. However, she reacted quickly; the hesitation lasted only a split second before she gently placed her hand in his palm.

Zhou Yuanshen led her into the bedroom.

The next day, when Cheng Zhao woke up, Zhou Yuanshen had already left.

"...The Lord Duke got up at the beginning of the Yin hour. He woke up so early. You were still sleeping soundly," Suyue said in a low voice.

Nanny Li looked at Suyue. "Do not speak out of turn. You must be more careful from now on."

Suyue complied.

Cheng Zhao got out of bed, washed up, and changed her clothes. Nanny Li combed her hair, dismissed the young maids, and whispered to Cheng Zhao, "Congratulations, Madam."

Nanny Li collected the virginity cloth; she would deliver it to the Second Madam later.

They had consummated their marriage last night.

It was an unexpected joy.

Nanny Li had thought that the Lord Duke would insist on waiting until the Secondary Wife conceived an heir before coming to the Nonghua Courtyard.

Just like the request for the imperial mandate, when an opportunity comes, it cannot be stopped.

Cheng Zhao gave a soft hum of acknowledgment.

Nanny Li looked at her in the mirror and felt that she wasn't being shy, but rather a bit depressed.

"...Are you unhappy, Madam?" Nanny Li asked.

"He won't come to the Nonghua Courtyard often in the future, will he?" Cheng Zhao said.

Nanny Li was stunned for a moment, then smiled. "Is it because it hurt? Are you scared? I told you last time, you suffer a bit the first time, but it won't be like that afterward."

Cheng Zhao shook her head.

Facing the mirror, she fell into another long silence.

Regarding the consummation last night, she had initially been somewhat apprehensive, her heart inexplicably racing.

His large hand had scooped up her waist.

Cheng Zhao's heart sank.

Then she became very flustered. She wanted to turn her head to look at him, but Zhou Yuanshen lifted her hair, covered her exposed face with it, and pressed her head down onto the pillow.

The oil lamp inside the bed curtains was dim. With her vision blocked by her own black hair and her head pressed into the pillow, all she could see was pitch black.

The sense of humiliation in that moment cut into her heart like a knife.

She only remembered his hands.

The hand holding her waist, the hand pressing down on her head—they were clearly large and scorching hot, yet they felt colder and more indifferent than ice.

The joy Cheng Zhao had felt from receiving her imperial mandate and hosting the banquet at the Shou'an Courtyard was instantly wiped away.

The path of wealth and honor that came with the mandate was unexpectedly so difficult to walk. If she wasn't suffering here, she was being humiliated there.

Yet, Cheng Zhao did not cry.

That little bit of uneasy shyness in her heart was shattered to pieces by this "consummation."

After finishing her washing, Cheng Zhao went to the Jiangyun Courtyard to pay her respects to her mother-in-law.

The Second Madam was very happy.

The virginity cloth had been sent over beforehand.

Dismissing all the servants, the Second Madam smiled and said to Cheng Zhao, "From now on, your status is perfectly clear."

The Lord Duke had publicly punished Mu Jiang, spent the night in the Nonghua Courtyard, and consummated the marriage with Cheng Zhao. This was an acknowledgment of Cheng Zhao's status as his "official wife."

Without these rituals, a wife wouldn't be like a wife, a concubine wouldn't be like a concubine, and the inner chambers would be a mess. That was why the scandalous farce at the Shou'an Courtyard had occurred.

Every man hoped for peace in his inner chambers.

Seeing that Zhou Yuanshen had accepted Cheng Zhao, the Second Madam also felt a weight lift from her mind.

From now on, everyone could live their days in peace.

"If you are lucky, you might even give birth to the legitimate eldest son," the Second Madam added with a smile.

At that point, everyone would truly "return to their rightful places," and Mu Jiang wouldn't be able to stir up any trouble.

Cheng Zhao looked at the Second Madam and couldn't help but smile.

The Second Madam asked, "What are you smiling so foolishly about?"

Cheng Zhao replied, "Because Mother said I am 'lucky,' rather than telling me to 'try hard and win glory'."

The Second Madam said, "...You girls from noble and scholarly families just love to nitpick words. You mustn't do this in the future; I really hate it."

She often spoke her mind freely and was picked on by her eldest sister-in-law because of it; then, when she complained, her mother-in-law would use the opportunity to assert her authority.

The Dowager Madame even said that she hoped she could rid herself of the roughness of a general's daughter and properly behave like a highborn madam—that she was cultivating her.

If she resisted, she was considered ungrateful and unable to appreciate good intentions.

In reality, they just disdained her.

Now Cheng Zhao was also nitpicking her words, but... it didn't seem to annoy her.

"My mother-in-law and eldest sister-in-law really weren't educating or cultivating me; they were simply mocking me with pure malice," the Second Madam suddenly realized in a moment of clarity.

With the contrast of Cheng Zhao's "nitpicking," the uncomfortable feeling the Second Madam had never been able to clearly articulate finally became clear.

Nitpicking words also carried an attitude; there was a clear boundary between goodwill and malice.

"Yes, I will listen to Mother from now on," Cheng Zhao said sincerely.

The Second Madam breathed a sigh of relief.

She had breakfast together with Cheng Zhao.

The Second Madam was very optimistic.

This was because she underestimated Mu Jiang, and because she did not know that the Dowager Madame wanted Zhou Yuanshen to carry on the lineage for two branches of the family.

The reason the Dowager Madame didn't let the Second Master inherit the title, but chose Zhou Yuanshen instead, was because she had intended from the very beginning for Zhou Yuanshen to leave descendants for both branches.

—The Second Master could not do this. If he were to carry on both lineages, it would mean choosing the Eldest Madam. That would be truly unseemly, and the Eldest Madam might not even be able to bear children anymore.

The Second Madam might never be able to hope to live in the Chengming Hall in her entire life.

Of course, Cheng Zhao had just as little hope; she was even worse off than the Second Madam.

"Mother, how did you marry into the Zhou family back then?" Cheng Zhao suddenly asked.

The Second Madam said, "Your father-in-law served under my father, and he never won against me in a spear duel. Later, he finally won once and told me to marry him. I kept my promise and accepted my defeat in the bet."

Cheng Zhao: "..."

No wonder the Dowager Madame doesn't like you; it turns out you weren't chosen by the Dowager Madame herself either.

As mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, we can truly be called "fellow sufferers pitying each other."