Chapter 432 — Divergent
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Miao Zhi was slender, with jet-black hair and large apricot eyes that could flash with delight or fury. Yet a cutting sharpness showed through at the corners of her eyes and brows, spoiling her soft beauty and sharpening her features into distinct relief, so that she gave an impression of someone not easy to get along with.
Just now her willow brows were arched high and her apricot eyes glared wide, which only made that impression stronger.
"What fine young lord? Nothing but a worthless wretch living off the shade of his ancestors, eating and waiting to die!" Miao Zhi, held up on either side by two maidservants, only raised her voice the higher. "Father always says he dotes on me, and now he wants to marry me to a good-for-nothing who cannot even inherit the family estate. Can you really bear to watch me scrape by in some great mansion on a few hundred taels of income a year? When that time comes I won't even be able to look after myself. Who will you and my brother rely on then..."
Her father went pale with fright, stepped forward, and clapped a hand over her mouth. "My little ancestor, lower your voice. This marriage is bestowed by imperial decree. We have only cause to rejoice—how could we think of refusing? If the wrong ears hear this and it spreads, disaster will fall on the Miao family! Never mind your father—even your aunt in the palace could not save you!"
With a wrench, Miao Zhi tore her father's big hand from her mouth. "Father, tell me the truth. Did you go and beg for this match yourself, or was it bestowed from the palace?"
"Of course it was bestowed from the palace." Bringing it up put Miao's father in a foul mood as well. "Do you take me for a fool, marrying you to a second son?"
"That makes no sense!" Miao Zhi said in astonishment. "Doesn't the Empress Dowager always look on our aunt with disfavor? Why would she suddenly take it into her head to marry me to the second young master of the Yingzhenguo household? The Yingzhenguo household may be illustrious, but I have heard that its heir is a formidable man—the bandits and highwaymen who come and go as they please dare not even steal from their estate in our county. Tell me, as the wife of such a man's younger brother, would I dare so much as breathe deeply? When the family estate is divided, would I dare contend with him for a share?" She wept as she spoke. "Father, this is no honoring of me—this is shoving me into a pit of fire!" She plucked at his sleeve. "You must not marry me into the Song family, no matter what!"
"I know, I know," her father said helplessly. "But the decree has already been issued. There is no possibility of changing it. If you do not marry, what can be done?"
Miao Zhi lowered her voice. "There are so many sisters in this house. The noble ones in the palace and the Song family have never even seen me. Can't you marry someone else in my place?"
Miao's father was horrified. "Ridiculous talk! That would be the crime of deceiving the sovereign—the whole clan would be exterminated! Do you mean to destroy our entire family?" Fearing she would keep pestering him and say something even more outrageous, he flung off her hand and set his face. "Put such thoughts out of your head. Stay quietly at home and prepare for your wedding. If you dare make trouble, do not blame me for turning my back on you!" Then he turned to the maids and old women attending Miao Su'an. "If the sixth young lady goes missing, I will sell every one of your families—the women to the brothels, the men to the salt works!"
The maids and old women turned white with terror and assented, trembling.
Miao's father then summoned several sturdy old women and threatened them: "Guard the sixth young lady's rooms. If so much as a fly gets in, you may wait for the slave traders to come and haul you away!"
The sturdy old women dared not be negligent, and answered in chorus that it would be done.
Only then did Miao's father go to the main hall.