I Forced the Brooding Scholar to Marry Me—and Regretted It - Chapter 1

In my previous life, I was going door to door collecting rent on the street my family owned when I saw Shen Mo painting in the bitter wind, dressed in a faded robe.

I was absolutely stunned.

Where had this lovely young man come from? He looked as fresh as a lotus rising from the water.

Red lips, white teeth, long lashes that curled ever so slightly—and those soft, alluring eyes.

His face was a hundred times more breathtaking than even his beautiful paintings.

My head went hot. I could think of only one thing.

So this was why the wastrel young masters in storybooks went around abducting pretty girls!

I condemned their behavior. I did. But that did nothing to stop my foolish little heart from pounding.

Especially after I learned that his family was poor, that his mother had fallen ill in the freezing weather, and that he desperately needed money to save her life.

My heart beat faster still.

I was Zhao Tang, the only child of the richest family in the entire county town.

You might say money was all I had.

I made up my mind on the spot.

“Young scholar,” I told the handsome fellow, “surely you wouldn’t want your poor, hardworking mother to go without treatment because you can’t afford it?”

And then I took him for myself.

I really did force him to marry me.

The wedding finery stretched for miles. In robes lavishly embroidered with gold and silver thread, Shen Mo entered the Zhao residence before everyone’s eyes, marrying into my family.

And with that, I robbed him of his dream of sitting the examinations in the capital and serving at court.

After his mother recovered, she disowned him. She said she would rather have no son at all than one so spineless, so eager to curry favor with the rich and powerful.

I nearly said, Then you shouldn’t have taken the medicine!

Did she know how much it had cost?

Shen Mo had nursed her for a whole week without even undressing to rest. By then, even his wedding robes no longer fit.

His waist looked slimmer than ever.

A gust of wind could have blown him away like a scrap of paper.

But when I saw his reddened eyes, when I watched him kneel outside her door and knock his forehead against the ground three times before leaving, I swallowed my words.

After that, I expected him to resent me at least a little.

Instead, he never once neglected his duties after joining our household.

For decades, we treated each other with perfect courtesy.

I was the Zhao family’s only heir, and childbirth was a perilous business for women. So we simply adopted a boy and a girl, twins from our clan.

Though neither child shared his blood, Shen Mo taught them with painstaking care: reading, writing, keeping accounts.

He managed our social obligations and cared for our elders with the same unfailing competence.

As a woman, going out into the world to do business was difficult enough.

But with Shen Mo keeping everything at home in order, at least I had no worries there.

My parents, who had once feared trouble in my marriage, could hardly stop smiling.

They bragged about us to anyone who would listen.

It nearly drove our rivals, the Qians, mad.

You see, the moment I fell for Shen Mo, I had rushed straight over to the Qians to break off my engagement.

And that settled things between me and my childhood friend, Qian Feng.

“I know you don’t want an arranged marriage either. You’re always arguing with me. You’ve probably been sick of the sight of me for years.”

I winked at him and told him to go find his true love.

His surname might have meant “money”—a little vulgar—but Qian Feng himself was learned, accomplished in both scholarly and martial pursuits, and quite the elegant young gentleman.

For some reason, he was turning bright red.

He pointed at me, unable to get a word out, then swept away in a fury.

After that, somehow, the Zhaos and the Qians became sworn enemies.

In time, my parents passed away, their minds at ease.

I thought that when our own time came, Shen Mo and I would share a grave as we had shared a bed. Surely that would make our life together worthwhile.

But as he lay dying, old and frail, he said, “If there is another life, I would rather we never meet again.”

Only then did it strike me.

By bringing him into a merchant household, I had destroyed his ambition to serve at court and help bring peace and prosperity to the realm.

He had resented me all these years after all.

And then I opened my eyes again.

There were Shen Mo’s handsome features before me. I stopped the servant who was about to march up and declare, “A mere scholar like you should be grateful to submit to the Zhao family’s young mistress!”

I pulled the money pouch from my waist and weighed it in my hand.

A few dozen taels of silver, give or take.

Full of enthusiasm, I went over.

“Young scholar, I’d like to buy your paintings.”