After the Abuse Novel Female Lead Heard Her Stepmother's Inner Voice - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am Shen Wanning, the eldest legitimate daughter of the General’s Mansion. Unfortunately, I inherited none of its valiant spirit. By nature, I am weak and yielding.

My stepmother, Yan Jinfu, came from the Shangshu Mansion. She was fierce by temperament, and at twenty-two, she married my father as his second wife.

Recently, I discovered that something was wrong with my stepmother.

These days, she no longer liked wearing the rich silks and brocades befitting an elegant noblewoman. Instead, she had changed into pale-colored clothes. She was thirty-two this year, yet dressed like this, she looked hardly older than me.

She entered our household when I was eight. Since childhood, I had grown up under her oppression, but lately, she had suddenly become a different person.

The loathing in her eyes had turned into affection. The corners of her lips were always curved in a smile, and I could often hear her saying strange things in her heart.

According to those words in her heart, she was currently unable to hold back an auntie smile.

But she was not my auntie. She was the mistress of the household.

She had been treating me quite well lately. Looking at her as though she had been possessed, I could not help but ask out of concern, “Mother, have you felt anything amiss recently? Do you need your daughter to accompany you to the temple outside the city to drive away evil spirits?”

She patted my hand and smiled. “Silly child, what is wrong with Mother treating you well now?”

Then I heard her inner voice again. “Boohoo, my precious girl is truly beautiful and kind. She remembers every bit of kindness I show her. If anyone dares call her a goody-two-shoes, I’ll slap the crap out of them.”

I frowned. “Mother, lately your daughter keeps hearing…”

Yan Jinfu looked excited. Her lips did not move, but I heard her thoughts again.

“My precious girl is about to have a heart-to-heart with me. Let’s go.”

Then she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the pavilion.

Her strides were wide and brisk, without the slightest trace of the refined young lady manners she had once prided herself on.

As she pulled me along, she turned back and instructed the maidservant, “Ruyi, go prepare some sunflower seeds, pastries, and candied fruit. The chilled crisp curd the small kitchen made yesterday was quite good. Bring some over for the young lady to try.”

Still somewhat dazed, I was tugged into the pavilion and seated on a stone stool.

She sat beside me, took a deep breath, and said, “Wanning, listen to your mother. You absolutely must not enter the palace.”

For a woman to enter the palace as a consort was an honor for her family, yet she was advising me not to go. It seemed I had overthought things. She had not changed after all.

After a long while, she said something even more shocking. “In any case, don’t look for a man with three wives and four concubines. Monogamy is better. Look at our household. Not a single concubine. How peaceful.”

Was that not because you were so fierce that Father did not dare take any concubines?

“But isn’t it normal for men to have three wives and four concubines?”

Yan Jinfu looked at me and let out a long sigh. “I don’t blame you. The fact that you think that way is all the feudal era’s fault.”

She fell silent for a moment, and her inner voice rang in my ears again.

“If I tell her directly that after she enters the palace, she’ll be bullied by the Empress, framed and punished to kneel for three double-hours until she miscarries, then become estranged from the Dog Emperor, be thrown into the cold palace, and finally hang herself… would that scare her?”

At those words, my heart trembled. A chill ran down my spine, and cold sweat broke out uncontrollably.

Those words in her heart just now… were they about me?

None of that could be true, could it…

“I’d better not tell her the truth. I’ll trick her for now, so she won’t think I’m insane.”

I already thought she was rather insane.

Yan Jinfu bit into a pastry that had just been brought over, then pushed the chilled crisp curd the maidservant had served toward me and said gently, “Mother has recently learned divination and can foresee the future. I calculated that after you enter the palace, you will meet a tragic end. That is why I am advising you not to go.”

So all those terrifying things she had just thought were summed up by her in one simple phrase: a tragic end.

For some reason, I actually found myself believing her.

“I don’t want to enter the palace either.” I tugged at the corner of my lips and sighed. “But once the late emperor’s mourning period is over, the new emperor will hold the selection. I am the only daughter in our household. If I don’t go, who will?”

“There are still two months, aren’t there…” Yan Jinfu murmured. “As long as you can find a good husband within these two months, that pedantic father of yours will also stop you from entering the palace.”

When she looked at me, there was none of her former sharpness in her eyes. Her gaze was gentle, and her sighing inner voice drifted into my ears.

“You’re the only delicate little sprout in this household. How could Old Shen bear to send you into the palace?”