Sisters Swap - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When the imperial court’s decree for the arranged marriages came down, my legitimate elder sister began sighing in despair, and I knew at once that she had been reborn too.

In our previous life, she had happily climbed into the bridal sedan and become the exalted, pampered Princess Consort of the Prince Regent.

Afterward, however, she spent her days sunk in gloom and died before she was even thirty.

Out of curiosity, I asked, “Is the Prince Regent truly no good?”

“No good? He’s worse than no good!”

My legitimate sister spat, “He’s nothing but a silver-painted wax spear, pretty to look at but useless in practice!”

As she spoke, she picked up her handkerchief and started crying again.

“If he can’t perform, what does that have to do with us?” I tried to comfort her.

My legitimate sister blushed scarlet and said that since I had never been married, I could not possibly understand.

How could I not understand?

In my previous life, I had been married as well.

To show how much he valued talented men, Father relied on his status as Chancellor and forced me, a concubine-born daughter, into marriage with the current Zhuangyuan Zhang Rang.

Zhang Rang was admittedly good-looking, but he prided himself on being lofty and pure, and he was stubborn by nature. As a result, he did rather poorly in officialdom.

Father looked down on me, his concubine-born daughter, and naturally could not be bothered to help him.

Zhang Rang and I were ill-suited in temperament, and neither of us could stand the sight of the other. When a poor couple has nothing, every little thing becomes misery, and our days were complete chaos.

Later, he simply took a concubine. In three years, she bore him two children, and he deliberately used it to humiliate me.

All those things from the past were truly unbearable to look back on.

My legitimate sister grabbed my hand, her eyes filled with earnest hope.

“The court’s decree cannot be disobeyed. Since you do not like Zhang Rang anyway, little sister, why don’t I marry him instead? You can take my place and become the Princess Consort of the Prince Regent. What do you say?”

My legitimate sister had a soft and gentle nature. If she married the Prince Regent again, the same as in our last life, I feared she would still be unable to escape a fate of washing her face with tears and dying in sorrow.

How could I watch her step into that pit of fire again? I agreed at once. “All right!”

My birth mother came from humble origins and passed away when I was still young.

Father’s mind was entirely on his career at court, while my legitimate mother disliked me and told me not to appear before her eyes.

Only my legitimate sister treated me well.

She would give me the clothes she no longer wore. When I was punished and made to kneel, she would plead on my behalf. When I was bullied, she would scold those maids and old women who flattered the powerful and trampled the weak.

But most of the time, my legitimate sister could not look after me.

She had to study the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, as well as poetry, books, and etiquette, so that she could become the model of a noble young lady as soon as possible.

As for me, as long as I had food to eat, clothes to wear, and no one bullied me, I was perfectly content.

Whether a man loved me or not, whether he was willing to touch me or not, I did not care at all.

And so, my legitimate sister and I were married off on the same day. Hidden beneath our bridal veils, each of us climbed into the other’s bridal sedan.

From that day onward, we exchanged names.

I was called Shen Shuyue, and she was called Shen Wanxing.