In the second year after their marriage, Wen Nianzhi's mother arrived with a young woman named Fang Ruxue.
She said Fang Ruxue was her niece from her maiden family, and whenever Wen Nianzhi was away, Fang Ruxue had been the one looking after her.
So now that she was moving in with her son, she had brought Fang Ruxue along, afraid she would struggle to adjust.
Wenren Luoshui thought the commandery princess's residence the emperor had bestowed on her was quite spacious. One extra person hardly mattered.
Unfortunately, Fang Ruxue wasn't one to behave herself.
Whenever she had nothing to do, she made a point of parading herself before Wenren Luoshui.
When Wenren Luoshui brought cooling mung bean soup to Wen Nianzhi's study, Fang Ruxue just happened to appear alongside her, carrying mung bean soup she had simmered herself.
With a cloying air of innocence, she even told her, "I've been looking after my cousin all these years. I'm afraid your mung bean soup might not suit his tastes, sister-in-law."
Wenren Luoshui: ...
She had merely asked the kitchen to make mung bean soup out of affection for her husband. Everyone in the residence drank the same soup. What was there to suit or not suit his tastes?
Once could be a coincidence. Twice could be a coincidence.
But when they ran into each other every single time, calling it a coincidence became rather far-fetched.
One evening, while lying in Wen Nianzhi's arms, Wenren Luoshui jokingly told him that if all else failed, he might as well take Fang Ruxue as a concubine.
She swore to heaven that she had only been joking.
Yet it was as though she had flipped some switch inside Wen Nianzhi.
He sat up and spoke to her in all seriousness.
"Since you feel that