After the Abuse Novel Female Lead Heard Her Stepmother's Inner Voice - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Within two days, matchmakers began coming to the estate with marriage proposals.

Father was still angry, so naturally he refused to receive them. As a result, Yan Jinfu handled everything herself.

She sat there looking at the pile of proposal letters, rubbing her forehead.

“These matchmakers really can talk. If these men are truly that wonderful, even I would want to marry them.”

Standing not far away, I heard her and nearly made the pear soup in my hands tremble. She really… dared to think anything.

Yan Jinfu looked up at me. Her almond-shaped eyes lit up, and she quickly waved me over.

I walked to her. She took the pear soup from my hands, then stuffed the letters she was holding into them instead. “These young masters all come from noble families, are eight chi tall, and possess talent enough to fill eight pecks. Which one do you choose?”

I lowered my head and looked at the stack of letters. For a moment, I had no idea how to choose.

“Wanning, they all say marriage is decided by parents and arranged by matchmakers, but these matchmakers can talk the dead back to life. If I actually believed their nonsense, then all that anti-fraud knowledge I learned over the past two years would have gone to waste.”

“Anti-fraud?” She was saying things I could not understand again.

“These things are all made up to sound nice.” Yan Jinfu took the letters from my hands, tossed them aside, and looked at me seriously. “Before you marry, don’t you want to meet your future husband? Ideally, get to know him a little?”

“How would I meet him?”

Yan Jinfu thought for a moment. “In a couple of days, Red Dust Pavilion is holding the Courtesan Contest…”

My heart lurched at the words, and I hurriedly cut her off. “Mother, have you lost your mind? We can’t go to a place like that.”

“If I took you there, Old Shen would chop me in half with one stroke.” She tugged at the corner of her mouth. “What I mean is, after the Courtesan Contest, the courtesan will perform music for the Flower God beneath the Ancient Flower Tree in the north of the city. Every noble young master in the capital will be there. When the time comes, who wouldn’t you be able to see?”

Red Dust Pavilion’s music was said to be the finest under heaven, and I very much wanted to witness it for myself. But such an occasion was not suitable for women to attend.

As if seeing through my thoughts, Yan Jinfu winked at me. “I prepared two sets of men’s clothing.”

Once I married, I would never again have the chance to hear Red Dust Pavilion’s music.

I nodded and agreed.

Yan Jinfu let out a long sigh in her heart. “If only we could wear these men’s clothes to the brothel and watch the Courtesan Contest.”

In a panic, I grabbed the back of her hand and reminded her again, “Mother, you can’t even think about going to Red Dust Pavilion.”

Yan Jinfu stared at me with her eyes slightly widened and said nothing.