Ming Ying had a graceful figure and skin like cream. Originally a “Slender Horse,” she was fortunate enough to be bought out by the Pei family’s Eldest Master, Pei Xiaoyun, who kept her in his chambers to serve him.
Her heart was filled with gratitude, and she resolved to rely on him for the rest of her life.
He loved listening to pipa music and watching dances, so she would dance all night in the cold wind. He had strange habits in bed, so she would endure the shame to serve him.
But all her admiration for her master was stifled by his words: “Who do you think you are? Don’t forget your station.”
She knew her status was low and dared not have improper thoughts. As long as he could still tolerate her presence, it was enough.
One day, she overheard him promise his childhood sweetheart, the County Mistress: “I pity her for being delicate and helpless. I’ll elevate her to be a concubine. Just treat her like a cat or a dog. Don’t make things difficult for her and upset yourself.”
So she was just a cat or a dog, not even considered a person.
That night, as thunder roared and rain poured, she suffered a postpartum hemorrhage during childbirth. She heard a servant say to the physician, “The Eldest Master left instructions before he departed. If the birth is difficult, you must save the child in her womb.”
Ming Ying’s tears turned cold.
The man’s coldness and hypocrisy made her see the light.
Even if she was born more lowly than others, she didn’t want to be his plaything for a lifetime.
She smashed the pipa she used to please him and left.
The Pei family’s Eldest Master, Pei Xiaoyun, always frequented a certain villa, staying for the entire night each time. Some teased him about keeping a beauty in a gilded cage, but he would only smile. “Just a pleasing plaything.”
When his marriage to the County Mistress was arranged as planned, he brought Ming Ying back to the main residence. He would marry his principal wife, and she could be a concubine. Given her status, becoming a concubine was a blessing of immense fortune for her.
He knew she was being bullied and tormented in the inner courtyard. While he stood up for her, he also told her, “You’re too delicate. Just endure it for a while.”
That was just her nature. She could bear hardship and swallow her tears. A little coaxing was all it took to make her feel better.
After a three-month trip away from the capital to the south, he returned to find she had given birth to his child.
But he couldn’t find a trace of her. Everyone in the household said she had died from a postpartum hemorrhage during a difficult birth, and that even her bones had been buried.
He didn’t believe it. He searched for her like a madman but found nothing.
In the many nights that followed, she was no longer by his side, leaving only a cold, lonely bed.
Three years later, Pei Xiaoyun traveled south again. His maternal cousin was getting married, and as he was on an inspection tour of the Jiangnan Circuit, he was invited to a celebratory drink. The residence was filled with the festive sound of gongs and drums.
When the bride’s round fan was lifted, he was stunned to see the face he had longed for day and night. Ming Ying had become another man’s wife, standing alive before him, holding his cousin’s hand, her new makeup radiant, her cheeks like peach blossoms.
When the newlyweds came before him to offer a toast, he stared intently at Ming Ying’s face.
Ming Ying offered the wine cup with a gentle smile. “This is the first time my husband and I have met you, so we are naturally a bit unfamiliar. It is I who should offer this toast.”
The warm wine slid down his throat, burning Pei Xiaoyun’s heart with bitterness.
On their wedding night, armed officers stormed the residence, forcibly tearing the new couple apart.
He gripped Ming Ying’s hand tightly and, in front of her husband, forced her into the wedding bed adorned with mandarin ducks. “First time meeting? My dear cousin-in-law has already borne me a child, and you still say you don’t know me?”
1v1 / SC / A disclaimer that the male lead is a huge jerk in the early stages, as seen in the synopsis.
