Chapter 3: Memories of the Past

Before her parents had an accident, Lian Yueyao was living in a sweet life. Her parents doted on their only daughter, treating her like a precious treasure, afraid to let her go and worried about her every move.

Lian Yueyao was clever and bright from a young age. Her father personally educated her when she was two years old. Soon, he discovered her talent for painting and began teaching her. Seeing her exceptional talent in painting, her father specially hired a famous painter, Wen Chengxiang, as her teacher when she was three years old. This apprenticeship lasted for four years. Mr. Wen taught her wholeheartedly and told her that if she persisted, she would surely become a great artist. She studied diligently. However, everything changed when she was seven years old.

Her mother was pregnant when she was seven. It should have been a joyous occasion, but unfortunately, it turned into a nightmare. Her mother died in childbirth, and her younger brother did not survive either.

Her mother's passing was a great blow to her father, who fell seriously ill. Although he recovered from his illness, he unexpectedly succumbed to typhoid fever.

With her parents passing away, her world collapsed. She was taken back to the capital by her uncle and was arranged to live in her father's former residence, Lanxi Courtyard.

Less than a year after returning to the Lian family, her grandmother, devastated by her father's passing, also passed away. At that time, there were even rumors in the mansion that she was a jinx, which made her feel uneasy. However, her aunt, Mrs. Mo, punished those who spread the rumors and treated her as if she were her own daughter, even better than her own daughter, Lian Yuebing.

Although she had lost her parents, with her aunt's care and love, and an outstanding and handsome fiancé, her life was not entirely bleak. However, an inexplicable disaster destroyed everything.

The eldest daughter of the main branch, Lian Yuehuan, accused her of having an affair with someone, and she vehemently denied it. But she never expected that the old nanny, Gu Mama, would come forward and personally confirm her affair with someone, providing evidence.

At that moment, her shock surpassed her anger. She couldn't understand why Gu Mama, who had been her wet nurse, whom she had always trusted and treated well, would falsely accuse her and tarnish her reputation.

The matter of the affair was absolutely not something that could be spread. If it were to spread, it would bring shame to the Lian family. Therefore, at that time, the lady of the Lian family, Mrs. Mo, publicly announced that she had fallen seriously ill. It was indeed true; she had fallen seriously ill and was soon sent to a remote manor by Mrs. Mo.

Not long after, Aunt Su came to tell her that the Shen family had broken off the engagement because of her tarnished reputation. Now, the Lian family's reputation was also ruined because of her. She wanted to return to the capital to find out the truth, but she was closely watched and couldn't leave. After recovering from her illness, Aunt Su came to tell her that her uncle had selected a scholar to take the imperial examination in the capital as a match for her, in honor of her deceased father.

A few days later, she was escorted to the wedding ceremony in a sedan chair, and she became a bride in a strange and bewildering manner. At that time, she had doubts, but she was already like a puppet, unable to control her own actions.

On the wedding night, she met her new husband, a man of twenty-five or twenty-six, tall and sturdy. It was then that she learned that his name was Zhou Shu, and he was from Haicheng.

At that time, she didn't want to marry, didn't want to marry in such a mysterious way. She wanted to know why. But after the wedding, she resigned herself to her fate. She was married, she was already Zhou Shu's wife, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

She tried to adjust her mindset, thinking that she would focus on raising her children well in the future, and that would be her life. She would treat her past as a dream!

But just as she was coming to terms with it, she learned an unbelievable truth. The man she married, Zhou Shu, was not a scholar at all, but a merchant.

She, the eldest daughter of a prestigious family, had married a lowly merchant. How ridiculous. She wanted to return to the capital, to find out the truth. Unfortunately, she couldn't escape. Zhou Shu took her away from the capital as quickly as possible, saying he wanted to take her back to his hometown. On the way, she yearned to return to the capital and find out the truth, but she was closely watched and couldn't escape, living in a daze. She didn't know how long it had been when they finally arrived at their destination, and it was only then that she realized they had arrived in Haicheng, thousands of miles away from the capital.

In Haicheng, she was settled in a beautiful cage. During that time, Zhou Shu doted on her and cherished her. He truly cherished her from the bottom of his heart, as if he would never pluck the moon from the sky.

He told her that he was enchanted by her at first sight and couldn't forget her, so he had falsely married her. At that time, she remained indifferent. To be liked by such a person was the greatest tragedy of her life.

When he was disheartened, she became pregnant. Zhou Shu was overjoyed when he found out, and he cherished her even more.

Over time, Zhou Shu's kindness and care gradually melted her cold heart. Although she still appeared cold on the surface, her heart began to waver. Regardless, she now had a child, and Zhou Shu was the father of her child. For the sake of her child, she had to compromise. She couldn't continue to live in a daze for the sake of her child.

However, just as she was trying hard to persuade herself to accept Zhou Shu and prepare to be a good mother, she received a truth that completely shattered her. She wasn't married to Zhou Shu, she was sold to Zhou Shu. Zhou Shu had a wife and children, she was just a concubine bought by Zhou Shu. Initially prepared to accept her fate, she fell into despair, completely despairing.

Zhou Shu's explanation of "equal wife" was truly ridiculous. What equal wife? In the official family, apart from the legitimate wife, all others are concubines. Moreover, not even being able to serve tea in the main courtyard didn't even qualify as a proper concubine. At most, she was just an outside mistress for pleasure.

Zhou Shu's favoritism made the women in the main house's backyard jealous to the point of madness. Her pregnancy made those women even more restless, including the legitimate wife. In her despair and distraction, she was manipulated by Zhou Shu's women. The child was manipulated away from her.

She was very sorrowful, but amidst the sorrow, she also felt a sense of relief. It's better without it, being born into a merchant's family was already lowly enough, let alone being a merchant's illegitimate child. She didn't want her child to bear such a lowly status, to face the disdain of others from birth, to never be able to hold their head high. She didn't want her child to never be able to call her "mother" with dignity.

Those women not only manipulated her child away, but also helped her get rid of future troubles. She could no longer get pregnant, no longer bear children for Zhou Shu. This was for the best.

Because of this, Zhou Shu went mad and killed the women in his backyard. Even the legitimate wife came to plead with her. In fact, she was very envious of them, she wanted to die, to be free from torment, to be free from it all. Unfortunately, she couldn't even die.

She couldn't understand, what was good about her? Why did Zhou Shu fall in love with her? Why could he go to such lengths, regardless of life and death, to obtain her (in ancient times, if a merchant falsely claimed to be a scholar and was caught, they would be severely punished). What was it about her that made Zhou Shu so infatuated? Looking in the mirror at that beautiful face, she thought maybe it was this face. She wanted to ruin this face, to ruin the face that brought her disaster. If she ruined this face, Zhou Shu would let her go.

She used a golden hairpin to cut her face, making several gashes. So, a face as beautiful as a flower and as delicate as jade now had many terrifying scars. She became a hideous monster that people feared.

She thought, no one would want to face a hideous monster. But what she didn't expect was that even as a hideous monster, Zhou Shu still wouldn't let her go. He even held her hand and said, "No matter what you look like, I still love you." Later, as he said, even if he became a hideous monster that people feared, Zhou Shu still loved her as before. Whenever he had free time, he would accompany her, talk to her, and discuss all sorts of things with her.

After trying to die countless times and failing, and even disfiguring herself couldn't make Zhou Shu let her go, she gradually became numb. She didn't want to live, but she couldn't die. She lived like a soulless puppet. She thought, endure it, one day she would be able to endure to death.

The doctor said she had pent-up emotions and needed to release them, otherwise she couldn't live long. Coincidentally, Zhou Shu had to go on a long business trip, so he took her out specifically to help her relax, as per the doctor's advice.

After failing to die so many times, she didn't try to die for a long time. It wasn't that she didn't want to die, she just wanted to find an opportunity to fulfill herself. She didn't want to be saved again. Maybe because time passed, the people around her also relaxed, including Zhou Shu.

On the boat, she looked at the raging waves of the river and smiled. She finally found an opportunity. No one could stop her, no one could save her, she could be free. As she leaped into the river, she thought, this time she was truly free.

Unfortunately, fate didn't allow her to be free, not even jumping into the raging river could drown her. In the end, she was saved by someone. The person who saved her brought her to a temple. Although she was alive, she lost all her memories.

Forgetting the past also meant forgetting the pain. In the days at the temple, she let go of everything. She wanted to become a nun, but the abbess said her worldly ties were not yet severed, so she couldn't be ordained. Even so, her days at the temple were good. Despite losing her memory, she hadn't lost her basic skills. She copied scriptures with beautiful handwriting and painted Buddha statues with exceptional skill. Both the scriptures and the statues were greatly liked by the ladies. With these two skills, everyone treated her well. She was content with her life.

If she could live out her life like this, it would be her good fortune. Unfortunately, fate didn't go as she wished. She met the old lady who came to offer incense.

As soon as she saw the old lady, dressed in luxury, surrounded by maidservants, and called "Madam" by everyone, all the memories she had deliberately buried rushed into her mind.

Once the floodgates of memory were opened, she couldn't maintain a calm state of mind. She had to make it clear why this had happened. Why did something good turn into a private transaction, why did the old lady betray her, why did she end up being sold to a merchant despite being told she was marrying a scholar.

She found a way to force the old lady to tell the truth. And the truth was so cruel. Mrs. Mo's kindness to her, treating her like her own mother, was all for the purpose of seizing the wealth of the second household.

Mrs. Mo believed that her father had accumulated a substantial fortune, but after her parents passed away, the money Mrs. Mo received was far less than she had expected. Mrs. Mo suspected that her parents had hidden the money. So she deliberately befriended her, treated her exceptionally well, and made her disregard money. As a result, all the money from the second household fell into Mrs. Mo's hands.

Fortunately, she had already been betrothed to Shen Jia, a family of scholars. Her father owed Shen Qian a life-saving favor, and Shen Qian's career was going smoothly. Seeing the benefits of this marriage, the Mo family still had some face-saving considerations for her.

The problem lay in her fiancé, Shen Conghao, who was too outstanding. Not only was he handsome and talented, but he was also renowned in the capital for his exceptional writing skills, earning him the title of the capital's number one young gentleman. Every woman who had seen him in the capital secretly admired him, and even the eldest granddaughter of the prime minister was infatuated with him. She even declared that if she couldn't marry him, she would rather become a nun and spend her life in seclusion.

The prime minister's family also valued her fiancé, and the Shen family also intended to form a relationship with the prime minister's family. As a result, she became a stumbling block. The Shen family and the Mo family reached a secret agreement to break off the engagement, with the Shen family providing compensation. This compensation included securing a promotion for her uncle, as well as arranging a marriage for her elder cousin to become the second wife of the Marquis of Luyang.

She was falsely accused of engaging in an illicit relationship, which was also the idea of the Mo family. She didn't understand why the Mo family would risk damaging the reputation of the Lian family to carry out such a plan. All she knew was that after the incident, the Mo family publicly announced that she was seriously ill, and not long after, she was reported to have died.

The Shen family had Shen Conghao mourn her for a year, and a year later, Shen Conghao became the top scholar in the imperial examination, and then the marriage with the Su family was arranged. With the support of the Su family, Shen Conghao's career went smoothly. At the age of thirty, he had already become a third-ranking official. Everyone in the court said that he was the most likely candidate to enter the cabinet in the future.

Whether it was the Lian family or the Shen family, everyone lived so comfortably, while she was pushed into hell by these people. She was unwilling, extremely unwilling. If she couldn't live a good life, she didn't want these people to live well either.