Lately, things had been unusually peaceful. That little bitch Lin Qing Shuang had not stirred up any trouble either, leaving Wang Ruofu, the principal wife of the Sheng Family, in an excellent mood. With time on her hands, she had taken to tending flowers.
Just then, she saw her eldest daughter, who had only left a short while ago, hurrying back with an old maid and a young servant girl in tow. Without saying a word upon entering, she poured herself some water and gulped it down before turning to leave again.
"What's going on?" Wang Ruofu asked, completely baffled.
Seeing her eldest daughter about to head out again, she slapped the table. "Get back here! Have you become impossible to manage?"
Sheng Hualan jolted, then listlessly turned around and came back to sit at the table.
"What happened?"
Sheng Hualan lowered her head without speaking.
"Look at you, bottling everything up. When you marry into another family someday, won't they bully you to death?" Wang Ruofu was already irritated by the sight of her. After scolding her once, she saw that her eldest daughter still would not speak and glared at the old maid and servant girl behind her. "You tell me. Everything was fine when you left—why did you come back so soon? Did someone bully Hualan?"
The old maid sighed. Seeing that Hualan still kept her head lowered without giving any sign, she had no choice but to speak.
"Madam, we had only just accompanied Eldest Miss to the market when we encountered a... a scholar. He claimed to live in Wang Family Village, ten li south of the city. He was eighteen this year, his parents had died early, and he had given himself the courtesy name Ziyan to establish his household. With no one to