“Fifth Sister, think about what you’re saying.” Seventh Miss slowly stood up.
Her face usually wore a faint smile. Even when not speaking, she appeared approachable.
But at this moment, Seventh Miss’s tone was cold as ice.
Or colder than ice.
“You just said that you and Cousin don’t have mutual feelings, that you’re unwilling to marry into the Xu family. But have you considered whether my heart holds Cousin? What, do you think only you have the ability and status to marry someone you have mutual feelings with, while others lack the ability and status to be selective—that having a prestigious family come propose should make them grin from ear to ear?”
Fifth Miss covered her cheek, completely stunned.
“Let me make this clear to you, Fifth Sister… I don’t care about Duke Pingguo manor’s wealth. The dowry I’m owed, the madam won’t shortchange me by a single penny. All I require from the Yang family is just this.” Seventh Miss stared at Fifth Miss, an indescribable satisfaction rising in her heart. “My heart isn’t large. I eat according to my appetite. What isn’t mine, no matter how much I want it, isn’t mine. I won’t covet it!”
She paused, shaking her head slightly to dispel the faint sorrow in her heart. “Since childhood, the madam’s affection for you has been plain for all to see. If you have something to say, why not speak frankly with her instead of asking me for ideas, playing at this ‘sisters switching places’ scheme… If the madam knew, what would she think of me, Fifth Sister—have you considered that?”
She looked at the still-shocked Fifth Miss and shook her head again.
The anger in her heart slowly subsided.
Human nature is selfish, and Fifth Miss had already trapped herself in a dead end—how could she think of so much?
“I… we… Mother…” Fifth Miss suddenly raised her head to argue. “I’m the one who doesn’t want to marry. By status, naturally it would fall to you! How could Mother…”
Seventh Miss took a deep breath.
She mobilized all her willpower to calm herself down.
She sat back down beside Fifth Miss.
“Fine, let’s say you persuaded Mother, Cousin doesn’t come propose, and the marriage between the Xu and Yang families falls through. What will you do then? Do you think Mother will betroth you to Young Master Feng? Fifth Sister, you know very well that even if he becomes the top scholar, even if he becomes a powerful official who can overturn heaven and earth, Mother will never let a relative from the second branch marry her own daughter. It would be like stabbing a knife in her heart—she couldn’t be hurt more! What can you do? Will you elope?”
Fifth Miss’s expression changed immediately.
“I don’t want to hear it!” She turned away almost frantically and covered her ears. “I… I just don’t want to marry into the Xu family!”
Young girls always harbor the fantasy that things will work out when the time comes, thinking that once they get through the current difficulty, one day their beloved will return on colorful clouds to marry them.
Seventh Miss felt a trace of sympathy.
She slowly continued: “Even if Mother agreed, you heard Young Master Feng’s words—do you think why would Young Master Feng marry you? If his status and position were already worthy of you, there would be plenty of families in the capital proposing marriage. With the grievances between Mother and him, why would he marry you? Wouldn’t that make things even more awkward?”
“Besides, Fifth Sister, your heart holds him, but does his heart hold you? After that one meeting years ago, how many years have passed? If his heart held you, he would have found someone to relay a message, at least told Ninth Brother and me… Fifth Sister, you’ve always been clever—how can you be so blind about this?!”
Though Fifth Miss tightly covered her ears, the gaps between her fingers had gradually loosened.
Instead, a stubborn expression appeared on her face.
“You think… Yang Qi, you think I haven’t thought about everything you’re saying?”
She bit her lower lip. “But I just like Young Master Feng—I’ll just be shameless then. I’ll tell you directly: I just like Young Master Feng. Until I hear news of him, I won’t give up! Call me shameless or willful—I won’t change my mind! I… I just like Young Master Feng! If you look down on me, then look down on me. I just like him!”
Still at that tender age after all, unwilling to give up even a shred of fantasy about the world.
Seventh Miss looked at Fifth Miss’s expression and suddenly remembered events from years ago.
Back then she was about Fifth Miss’s age, having just finished high school. She moved out of the orphanage and, relying on years of meager savings, rented a small room in an unfamiliar city.
So poor she didn’t know where the next meal would come from.
As soon as she settled in, she found work washing dishes at a nearby small restaurant. Washing one or two thousand bowls and plates a day, her already undelicate hands shed skin twice in a month, becoming rough beyond recognition.
The hand cream at the roadside supermarket cost nine yuan per tube. She hesitated for a week before gritting her teeth to buy it. The cashier shook her head and sighed while ringing it up, looking at her hands.
During those days, all her expectations for life, all her hopes for herself faded. Before her eyes were only mountains of bowls and plates—wash one basin and another would come. The pressure of survival pressed solidly on her shoulders, forcing a young girl to grit her teeth just to barely hold her shoulders up.
But precisely because she had those days of poverty, through university and into society, working diligently and scheming painstakingly, she finally freed herself from poverty’s shadow.
Looking back at that summer of her youth, she felt it was a precious gift.
Suffering more hardship and setbacks when young wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The Grand Madam didn’t understand this principle. The Grand Master was too lazy to discipline Fifth Miss. So it could only fall to her.
She smiled faintly.
“Fine, you won’t change your mind.” She leaned back against the bed pillar, looking at the red handprint on Fifth Miss’s face. “Then tell me—what do you plan to do?”
Fifth Miss couldn’t answer for a long time.
To marry Feng Jin, she had to find him first, and he had to be willing to marry her.
This path was impassable.
Not marrying Xu Fengjia meant confronting the Grand Madam. But without confessing she wanted to marry Feng Jin, she couldn’t produce sufficient reason to persuade the Grand Madam.
Yet confessing she wanted to marry Feng Jin would be like stabbing several sharp knives into the Grand Madam’s chest—that would be genuine unfilial behavior.
Slowly, large tears gathered in her eyes.
Seventh Miss calmly rose from the bed, speaking softly.
“Who you like or don’t like is your business. How you make a fuss with the madam is also your ability. You’re the madam’s biological daughter—no matter how much you fuss, she’s still your birth mother. However you torment the madam, she can only blame herself for sins in a past life, for not giving birth to a good daughter—one who enjoyed all the Yang family’s wealth but doesn’t plan to do even the slightest thing for the Yang family.”
“You!” Fifth Miss flushed red with anger, straightening up to point at Seventh Miss. She shouted half a sentence but couldn’t continue.
“I’m putting it plainly today,” Seventh Miss’s brow darkened. “However you want to make a fuss, suit yourself. However you want to force what isn’t yours, also suit yourself. But if you drag Ninth Brother and me into this, making the madam think I’m delusional, trying to steal your match…”
She didn’t finish the sentence.