Chapter 3.1 - Daughter
Chapter 3.1: Daughter
Despite the many times she had looked at her face, Xue Fang Fei was still not used to it.
There was a crack at the side of the copper mirror, making the face reflected in the mirror to also have a cracked image. The face of the person reflected was distorted but she appeared to be 14 or 15 years old, the same age as the servant girl, Tong’er; and she was shockingly thin.
Xue Fang Fei recalled that when she was 14 or 15 years old, she definitely did not have this yellowish and sickly appearance. Saying that a chief assistant’s official daughter looked like this; one was afraid that it still would be better to be a lower ranked person instead. This face and her original face, which had been the number 1 beauty in Yanjing, really could not be compared.
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However, in the end, that face also did not have any good ending. It turned out beautiful women would suffer unfortunate fates1, just like how she had met her demise.
Xue Fang Fei’s train of thought couldn’t help but fly far away. She absolutely did not expect herself to still be alive. Or perhaps she should say that she had died but then came back to life. But it would do, to be Yanjing’s Jiang family’s Chief Assistant official daughter, Jiang Lî.
Jiang Yuanbai, as the Chief Assistant and the Emperor’s highly respected teacher, was blindly followed by the current court officials. Jiang Yuanbai was currently sitting in the upper position but he did not act high and mighty. On the contrary, he appeared ordinary and all his work was completed professionally. Due to this, in the middle of the imperial court, people seemed to want to be good friends with him; but nobody knew what their intentions were in the dark.
Jiang Yuanbai’s connections could be found throughout the whole royal court. Emperor Hong Xiao also treated him with extreme trust. Yet Jiang Yuanbai did not act conspicuously. Xue Huaiyuan once said, acting like a seemingly ordinary person was in fact also a type of behavior of an official. However, there wasn’t any doubt, Jiang Yuanbai was a high official. And Jiang Lî was also the official daughter of a respectable and famous family.
Though there was actually nothing great in this honorable Chief Assistant’s life. Jiang Lî’s birth mother came from a rich merchant family in Yanchao, Xiangyang. The Ye family was extremely wealthy. Solely from their jewelry store, Hong Xiang Lou, located in Yanchao, they could open fifty schools of the six-schools of philosophy. At that time, Jiang Yuanbai was not yet a government official. After some pondering, Old Master Ye quickly settled the marriage of the young miss Ye Zhen Zhen to Jiang Yuanbai.
Three years after getting married, Ye Zhen Zhen gave birth to Jiang Lî. Who would have thought, when Jiang Lî was one year old, Ye Zhen Zhen fell ill and passed away. Jiang Yuanbai then remarried to the Vice Imperial Censor’s2 di daughter, Ji Shuran. In the first year after getting married, Ji Shuran gave birth to Jiang Youyao. Jiang Lî was seven years old when Ji Shuran got pregnant with her second child. During a feast with many guests, in the presence of the madams, Ji Shuran was pushed down a flight of steps. Ji Shuran had a miscarriage; she lost a son and her body foundation was wounded. She wouldn’t be able to bear any more children.
Jiang Yuanbai was very angry. Luckily Ji Shuran pleaded on behalf of Jiang Lî for leniency. Although she was spared, Jiang Lî was sent to a temple.
However, Jiang Lî’s charge of harming the first wife and murdering the brother couldn’t be settled just by sending her away. When talking about the Jiang family’s second miss, the people in Yanjing would also remember her as already being so vicious at such a young age.
Actually, after the death of Ye Zhen Zhen, afraid that her stepmother would mistreat Jiang Lî, the Ye family sent over some people to bring Jiang Lî back to their family. If she was willing, she could go to Xiangyang to live with Ye family. Not even bringing the subject up to Jiang family, Jiang Lî herself stated that she was not willing. After being turned down several times over time, Ye family also no longer came.
Xue Fang Fei was also aware of the capital city’s idle gossip. She was just not expecting that the so-called vicious and ruthless Chief Assistant’s daughter was actually living in this difficult environment, especially when Jiang Yuanbai currently had an excellent reputation, while it was said that Ji Shuran’s heart was compassionate like a Buddha. Yet, towards Jiang Lî’s demise, she seemed to be not in the least bit concerned.
Perhaps, this was what they had planned.
For Jiang Lî to attempt suicide.
Originally, when Ye Zhen Zhen was still alive, Jiang family’s relationship with Marquis Ningyuan was pretty good. Marquis Ningyuan’s heir was born first, and by coincidence he was older than Jiang Lî by one year. Ye Zhen Zhen and the Marchioness thought, why not fix their engagement when they were still young. The two families’ status were well-matched, and both were experienced government officials. In the future, they could look after one another.
Stemming from a verbal pact, Marquis Ningyuan only found out after the marchioness properly wrote a marriage contract to give the Jiang family. Although Ye Zhen Zhen somewhat hesitated, she was also thinking of the possibility of being a family with the marchioness through marriage. The marchioness had a benevolent heart, having this kind of mother-in-law, her daughter would certainly be able to get along smoothly and steadily.
1: 红颜薄命 – lit. blushing face with poor fate, idiom meaning ‘beautiful women suffer unhappy fates’.:leftwards_arrow_with_hook:
2: Vice imperial censor (副都御使) – The Censorate was a supervisory agency that responded directly to the Emperor. Imperial censors investigated court officials in order to prevent corruption and illegal deals or activities. JSR’s father seems to be the second with highest power in the Censorate. .:leftwards_arrow_with_hook: