Yang Aijin, Yang Ailian
"Husband, we...!!!"
Zhou Yao raised a hand to stop her and continued, "Beautiful twin sisters like you must come from an extraordinary family. You must have had some unspoken reason for deliberately disguising yourselves as ugly before."
"I hope we can be honest with each other and keep nothing from one another. After all, we're legally married now. I'm your husband, and you two are my wives. We should tell each other everything we know and leave nothing unsaid."
"Yes, husband, you're right. Husbands and wives should be honest with each other and keep nothing from one another," one of the sisters replied.
Zhou Yao nodded, then asked, "I'd like to know your names. Where are you from? Who else is in your family?"
"Husband, my name is Yang Aijin. I'm the older sister. Her name is Yang Ailian, and she's the younger one. We're from the Central Capital."
"My father was the former vice minister of personnel of the Great Zhou State, but a treacherous man brought him to ruin. The Court of Judicial Review confiscated our family's property, and my father and brothers were all beheaded."
"We were only ten then. We were taken to an army camp to wash clothes, cook, and do other such work. It wasn't until we turned fifteen that government officials sent us to the countryside for men to choose as wives."
"But no man chose either of us, because we were both small and frail and didn't look capable of doing heavy labor or farm work. We also deliberately disguised ourselves as ugly to keep the other men from choosing us."
"But if you hadn't chosen us today, husband, we would have been sent to an army camp to serve as military prostitutes, because we'll both turn sixteen in a few days."
"The laws of the Great Zhou State say that any woman who is still unmarried at sixteen will be sent straight to an army camp to serve as a military prostitute."
"We had both given up hope. We would have died before letting anyone send us to an army camp. But heaven opened its eyes and let us meet you, husband, and that also allowed us to escape that hell on earth." The older sister, Yang Aijin, poured it all out in one breath.
"Yang Aijin! Yang Ailian! Those really are wonderful names, and you truly live up to them. 'Jin' symbolizes wonderful, beautiful things and nobility, while 'Lian' symbolizes the purity and sanctity of a lotus that rises from the mud unstained."
"I imagine that was what your father meant when he gave you those names, wasn't it?"
Hearing Zhou Yao's words, Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian blushed and lowered their heads, too embarrassed to look at him.
"Since you two have told me your names, I'll introduce myself too! My name is Zhou Yao. I'm an orphan. My parents passed away a long time ago, and I'm the only person in my family. I've made a living by hunting since I was little."
"From a certain point of view, we're all orphans now. It's just that our circumstances are different."
They heard their husband say his name was "Zhou Yao." Zhou was the imperial surname, and anyone who bore it was no ordinary person. Even so, the sisters did not ask any further.
"Do you know who framed your father and caused your family's property to be confiscated?"
"Husband, I... I..." When Yang Aijin heard her husband Zhou Yao ask that, her face showed her difficulty. She was clearly struggling within.
At that moment, the younger sister, Yang Ailian, hurriedly said, "Husband, on the night before disaster struck our family, the two of us were just going to find our father to play."
"Outside my father's room, we heard him say that the current second prince had taken a fancy to us and had asked our father to let us marry him as concubines. My father refused him outright, so the second prince bore a grudge and framed him. That led to our father and brothers being beheaded and our family's property being confiscated, leaving our family broken and our loved ones dead."