I Forced the Brooding Scholar to Marry Me—and Regretted It - Chapter 3

I thought that once Shen Mo accepted the money, my plan to secure a powerful patron in this life was more than halfway to success.

I was still dreaming of the Zhaos becoming imperial merchants when my maid, Xiaocui, began shrieking in my ear.

“Miss, trouble! Your father wants you! He says some man of yours has come to the door!”

She lowered her voice. “Master says Young Master Qian is still here, learning the household rules from your mother. You’re to hurry over and get rid of the other man.”

I rubbed my temple.

My head felt twice its usual size.

Wait. Who?

What other man?

In our previous life, business dinners had been unavoidable after I married Shen Mo. I often got home around midnight and told him not to wait up.

He insisted on keeping a lamp lit and staying awake until I returned.

Sometimes a trace of perfume clung to my clothes. He never got angry. He would only say mildly:

“Were you discussing business at Yuhua House today, my wife? There’s a male courtesan there called Bixi. This is the scent he always buys from our incense shop.”

His expression would be serene, his voice gentle.

Flickering candlelight made his beautiful face all the more radiant.

A haunting sort of beauty.

It made every hair on my arms stand up.

My friends in business said I was far too faithful. Shen Mo was only a husband who had married into my family. What could he do?

What the hell did they know?

A man as brilliant as Shen Mo could read a whole story from the smallest clue.

I feared that if I set up a lover in a house somewhere, the place would burn down that very night.

Shen Mo would lament the unpredictability of life, offer a few bland remarks—and watch my face the whole time.

As though the slightest hint of grief on my part would send him rushing over to grind the man’s bones to dust and scatter them.

…

So I made myself presentable in a hurry after Xiaocui’s announcement.

The moment I reached the main hall, I froze.

Shen Mo sat on a wooden chair in a plain white padded robe, his head lowered as he sipped hot tea.

When he noticed me, he instinctively started to rise.

Father grabbed me and dragged me into the side hall.

“Tang, you’re about to get married! How could you go tempting a beauty like that? Of all the men you could have chosen—Shen Mo?”

He was every bit as famous in Yu County as I was.

Only I was famous for the wrong reasons, and he for the right ones.

He had begun his studies at three, written compositions at four, and been able to compose verses on the spot by seven.

Then his father fell ill, and the family fortunes collapsed. After that came years of mourning.

He couldn’t even afford his teacher’s fees. Several good years had gone to waste.

Otherwise, how would I ever have had a chance to seize him for myself in our last life?

A prodigy like that would have had people queuing up just to give him money. I’d never have made it to the front.

Father, in any case, held scholars in considerable awe.

“Don’t try to deny it. Every storybook you read has a handsome young fellow just like him on the cover!”

He sounded utterly certain.

They said no one knew a daughter like her father.

He was making even me feel guilty.

I hastily explained that I only wanted to sponsor Shen Mo’s journey to the capital for the examinations. It was easy to send charcoal to someone freezing in the snow; harder to add flowers to brocade already covered in them.

Father hadn’t expected me to be so farsighted.

He asked once more whether I had any romantic interest in Shen Mo, then rubbed my hair with his large, rough hand.

When he spoke again, he was very serious.

“Tang, if you truly love Shen Mo, your mother and I can take back the wedding invitations, even though they’re already sent. I’ll kneel before the Qians if I have to, so my daughter can marry the man she chooses. We can’t walk beside you forever. What matters is that you live happily.”

My nose stung.

I looked at the gray creeping into his temples.

“Father! I really don’t love Shen Mo. Qian Feng is perfectly lovely.”

Father let out a breath of relief, then promptly changed tack and began working on me.

“Don’t turn into one of those faithless wretches from the stories. Qian Feng is his family’s only son, after all. He makes marrying into our family sound easy, but that old fool Qian Kangyou broke two switches beating him for it.”

“The boy only recovered a little yesterday, and he came straight over to wait for you. He truly loves you.”

What?

I blinked.

Suddenly I remembered how deathly pale Qian Feng had been when I’d broken off our engagement in the previous life. I’d thought he was simply shocked that I’d found true love.

He’d actually still been recovering from his injuries?

He always put on a brave face. Never said a thing.

When he was hurt, he just stared at me with those wet puppy eyes.

I’d thought he was hungry!

How was I supposed to know he actually loved me?

All at once, I felt like one of those scoundrels in the storybooks who toyed with people’s hearts.