CH 1

On an autumn’s day in September the world was filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest. But in the Jingting Hou Ye Fu, the sound of breaking porcelain rang out from the Marquis’ study room. Looking more like a street hoodlum than like a dignified marquis, a man yelled epithets continuously.

“In this capital city of Beijing, he dares to offend my Ban Hua! I will kill him!” 

“Father, don’t be angry. I, your son will go out and find someone to beat him up.”

“You tell someone to beat him up and I will find the emperor to clean him up .” 

” Isn’t this enough? ” yelled Yin shi, the marquis’ wife, kicking open the study door. She looked at the father and son who were creating a ruckus and scolded sharply,” Or do you think the rumours outside are not bad enough yet? “

Both Jing Ting Marquis and his son abruptly fell silent. The Marquis retracted his leg which had been stepping on a chair arrogantly, as his son, Jingting Hou Shizi (Hou Shizi – Viscount; Marquis’ heir), Ban Heng, pulled down his rolled up sleeves.

On that fine September day, Yin shi stared blankly at her fan trying to reign in her anger. She went straight to a chair and sat down ignoring the broken porcelain pieces on the ground. Some maidservants who followed her into the room immediately started picking them up with their hands.

The gentle clinking sound of the porcelain being cleaned up made her feel more angry. Throwing a fierce glance towards the father and son duo, she suddenly slapped down on the table in front of her, making the teacup on it jump.

“It’s just a person taught by a small family. Once he passed the Imperial Examination, he says that he wants to withdraw the marriage acting like he was forced by my Houfu (Marquis’ Household) to marry my daughter. What sort of trick is this?”

“Mother, mother,” Ban Heng leaned in front of Yin Shi and said with an ingratiating smile on his face, “Don’t be angry. A three-legged toad may not be easy to find under the sky but two-legged men are everywhere. If our family wants to take care of him, we just have to speak a few words. Don’t let such things anger you.” 

” I don’t want to be angry, but have you ever seen such a farce? “

Any mother whose precious daughter’s engagement was broken three times couldn’t help her bad mood. Yin shi has only one son and one daughter. Although the marquis was absurd and lazy, he was not a womanizer and there were no concubines in the household.

When her daughter was born, she had set a childhood engagement with a bosom friend’s son but who knew that the son would die at three years old.

At the age of thirteen, her daughter had been betrothed to Xie Qilin, the second son of Zhongping Count’s house (Bo Ye Fu). Who knew that just as she reached the age of marriage, Xie Qilin suddenly found “True Love” in a brothel and eloped with his “True Love”. Rumors spread through the whole capital that her girl was such a fool that she couldn’t compete with even a brothel woman. Otherwise, why would the son of an honorable family prefer to elope with a woman who couldn’t be seen in public rather than getting married to her daughter?

Later, although Xie Qilin was found and brought back, the marriage between the two fell through. Since then, the two families have stopped communicating with each other and almost fell to the state of becoming enemies.

This time, the incident was even more absurd. This Shen Yu was a distant branch relative of the Shen family which could barely be regarded as a distinguished family in Dongzhou. After coming to the capital, he had fallen in love with her daughter at first sight. He and his family had all but cried and begged them multiple times for an engagement. As a result, no sooner did they agree than he had turned his back on them.

When Shen Yu broke the engagement, though he had said on the surface that he was not worthy of their house’s daughter, but inwardly, he had disdained her daughter as not a good match thinking of her as a beauty with no brains, consumed by luxury and laziness.

Why didn’t he say that earlier, when he hadn’t yet achieved the rank of Tanhua? Only now did he despise her daughter’s extravagance. So what if they were willing to let their daughter be extravagant?! They had money in Jingting Hou Mansion. 

While here the three members of the Ban family were so angry that they couldn’t even swallow, over there, the jilted protagonist was still sleeping soundly.

Ban Hua was dreaming a very long dream. When she woke up, she couldn’t tell whether it was dream or reality. It was only when she sat up and saw the pearl curtain hanging outside that she suddenly realized that she had been dreaming.

By the way, what had she dreamt about just now?

It seemed that she had been jilted again and someone had overthrown the emperor. Her father lost his rank after he offended the new emperor and then the whole family lived a bitter life.

God! How terrible were those days in her dream when she couldn’t compare jewelry with others and had to wear rough, penitent clothes! How boring was life when she couldn’t see the sullen faces of those who wanted to scold her behind her back, but had to be respectful to her on the surface? 

This dream was really unlucky and the earlier she forgot it the better.

“Xiangjun,” her maid came into the room crying, with tears running down her face, “Shen Tanhua came to break the engagement.”

Ban Hua’s soft waist suddenly straightened up “Break the engagement?” Her nightmare came true!

If her father lost his title as Jingting Hou, then her younger brother wouldn’t be Jingting Hou Shizi, and she would no longer be an honoured Xiangjun. How will she live a leisurely life of eating, drinking and playing in the future while riding horses and admiring flowers?

Life was so short anyway. Would she only get these few years of enjoyment?

She didn’t remember much about that dream but she remembered clearly how miserable she was after she was no longer a Xiangjun. Thinking of this, she immediately set aside her sorrow, put on shoes and clothes and ran to the main yard.

“Xiangjun, your hair!”

Fortunately, the mouths of the people in Jingting Hou’s household were tight. Otherwise tomorrow, the hot news in the capital would become “Jingting Hou’s daughter became so crazy because of her broken engagement that she was running around the house madly with  clothes askew.”

Actually… This was also Jing Ting Hou ’s first thought after seeing his daughter.

“My good girl,” Jing Ting Hou, who saw his daughter running into his study room with her hair and clothes disheveled, burst into tears and cried, “Good girl, let’s forget about getting married. Tomorrow, Daddy will go and buy you a dozen handsome gigolos who are skilled in literary arts or martial arts and good looking. You can choose whichever one you like! ” All men in this world were pigs, causing his daughter to become like this.

At this time, Jing Ting Hou had excluded himself from the category of men. 

Ban Heng glanced at his sister in envy. He didn’t even have a single concubine and he didn’t see anyone rushing to give him an attendant. It’s also an elegant thing among the literari to have ” red sleeves adding fragrance ” when they read books at night.

“Don’t even think about it,” Yin Shi glared at her son, squinting her eyes. “You stay at home and study properly.”

“I.. I didn’t think about anything.” Ban Heng stammered, feeling very wronged. He obviously didn’t do anything, but why was his mother nagging.

“You were born from my stomach. As soon as your eyeball turns, I know exactly what you’re thinking.” Seeing her daughter like this, Yin shi’s heart was already half softened. She really wanted to tear Shen Yu into pieces with her bare hands but she was worried that her emotions would affect her distraught daughter even more. So she had to restrain her emotions and carefully persuade her with calm words.

“Just now, the words that your father said were muddled, but …” Yin shi patted her daughter’s back, realizing that she was trembling, and then whispered softly, “There are many more men in this world. Even if you can’t find someone suitable, never mind. You have a share in the family’s shops, farms and wealth, you have money and rank, you don’t have to be afraid of being ill treated. “

Ban Hua rubbed her head against Yin shi’s body and said in a small voice:” I am not sad because that guy broke off the engagement. I’m just a little scared because I had a very strange dream. “

” What dream? “Yin shi secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that their daughter didn’t care about the broken engagement.

“A new emperor ascended the throne and he removed father’s title …”

“Removed the title ?!” Ban Heng bounced up “Who is this new emperor? We will kill him first.”

“I can’t remember , “Ban Hua said after thinking for a long time,”but he should be a very powerful man. “

” You don’t remember who the other person is, but you remember how powerful he is? “Ban Heng scoffed, “This is too unreliable. “

” Can a dream still be taken seriously? Can anyone be emperor? “Yin shi knocked on Ban Heng’s back to prevent him from annoying Ban Hua,” Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Dreams are all fake. Isn’t our family good now? “

” Your grandmother is the eldest princess, who dares to mess with us? “Yin shi lifted the standard of their biggest support, the Eldest Princess Dening, to appease her daughter’s fears ” Wouldn’t they be afraid of being scolded by their ancestors? ” “

” But the new Emperor is not of the Jiang family.” Ban Hua said, blinking her eyes. Her beautiful pupils overlaid with a layer of mist, looked particularly pitiful,” The man who ascended the throne was a sinister courtier who harbored deep designs. “

“Hiss,” Yin Shi took a sharp breath and glanced at the door. The maidservants in waiting had withdrawn and now only the four of them were in the house “You can’t speak this kind of drivel outside.”

Ban Hua knew that her mother would not believe in the dream she had dreamt. In fact, she herself even doubted the dream. “In the dream, I dreamt that I was jilted. As a result, when I woke up just now, the Shen surnamed guy really did break off the engagement. So … what if it is true? “

” Well, what should we do? “Ban Hua, who had been a dandy brought up in luxury since childhood, looked nervously at Yin shi,” Madam, why don’t we secretly find a place to hide some gold and silver jewelry? “

” Father, how can you believe my sister? She’s been jilted several times before. Just because of this, do you believe that her dream is true? That’s too funny. ” Ban Heng waved his hand, ” Sister, you think about it again. In your dream, was there any other major event? “

” You’re talking nonsense! ” Ban Hua raised her finger and poked Ban Heng’s forehead. The priceless blood red jade bracelet on her arm flashed and almost dazzled Ban Heng.

“I’ll think about it,” Ban Hua withdrew her hand and smoothed her messy silken black hair. “Let me think about it again.”

The marquis looked nervously at his daughter, hoping that the dream was false.

“By the way, I remember one thing that happened in my dream. Not long after I was jilted, Xie Qilin fell off a horse and lost an eye.” Since the other party had eloped with someone else after getting engaged to her, she had lost face. So Ban Hua remembered this incident very clearly as it helped to relieve her anger a bit.

“You’re really my daughter! Whoever offended you, you didn’t let him live well even in your dream.” Ban Huai stroked his beard in satisfaction. “That sly Xie surnamed kid is not a good thing!”

“Yes! “Ban Heng echoed,” “I’ll make sure to trouble him everytime I see him.”

Yin shi sneered and said: “But every time you pick a fight with him, you suffer instead.”

“That Xie Qilin is a literary person and has studied a lot. Not to mention how sly and cunning he is. Every time he can reverse right and wrong with his eloquence and I can’t say anything to him, ”Ban Heng said,“ but I don’t suffer anymore. No matter how bad his mouth is, I don’t feel any pain. But he still feels pain if I punch him.”

In Ban Heng’s logical world, being scolded was no loss, but to be beaten can be called a loss. As for reputation and such things, for this Ban family’s young master, it is as inconsequential as a cloud in the sky.

“My Good daughter, when did that sly Xie surnamed kid lose his eye in your dream?” Ban Huai, like Ban Heng, didn’t care about reputation at all. Since he grew up, he had never heard anyone praise him after all.

“On the second day after Shen Yulai broke the engagement.”

“That’s tomorrow?”

On an autumn’s day in September the world was filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest. But in the Jingting Hou Ye Fu, the sound of breaking porcelain rang out from the Marquis’ study room. Looking more like a street hoodlum than like a dignified marquis, a man yelled epithets continuously.

“In this capital city of Beijing, he dares to offend my Ban Hua! I will kill him!” 

“Father, don’t be angry. I, your son will go out and find someone to beat him up.”

“You tell someone to beat him up and I will find the emperor to clean him up .” 

” Isn’t this enough? ” yelled Yin shi, the marquis’ wife, kicking open the study door. She looked at the father and son who were creating a ruckus and scolded sharply,” Or do you think the rumours outside are not bad enough yet? “

Both Jing Ting Marquis and his son abruptly fell silent. The Marquis retracted his leg which had been stepping on a chair arrogantly, as his son, Jingting Hou Shizi (Hou Shizi – Viscount; Marquis’ heir), Ban Heng, pulled down his rolled up sleeves.

On that fine September day, Yin shi stared blankly at her fan trying to reign in her anger. She went straight to a chair and sat down ignoring the broken porcelain pieces on the ground. Some maidservants who followed her into the room immediately started picking them up with their hands.

The gentle clinking sound of the porcelain being cleaned up made her feel more angry. Throwing a fierce glance towards the father and son duo, she suddenly slapped down on the table in front of her, making the teacup on it jump.

“It’s just a person taught by a small family. Once he passed the Imperial Examination, he says that he wants to withdraw the marriage acting like he was forced by my Houfu (Marquis’ Household) to marry my daughter. What sort of trick is this?”

“Mother, mother,” Ban Heng leaned in front of Yin Shi and said with an ingratiating smile on his face, “Don’t be angry. A three-legged toad may not be easy to find under the sky but two-legged men are everywhere. If our family wants to take care of him, we just have to speak a few words. Don’t let such things anger you.” 

” I don’t want to be angry, but have you ever seen such a farce? “

Any mother whose precious daughter’s engagement was broken three times couldn’t help her bad mood. Yin shi has only one son and one daughter. Although the marquis was absurd and lazy, he was not a womanizer and there were no concubines in the household.

When her daughter was born, she had set a childhood engagement with a bosom friend’s son but who knew that the son would die at three years old.

At the age of thirteen, her daughter had been betrothed to Xie Qilin, the second son of Zhongping Count’s house (Bo Ye Fu). Who knew that just as she reached the age of marriage, Xie Qilin suddenly found “True Love” in a brothel and eloped with his “True Love”. Rumors spread through the whole capital that her girl was such a fool that she couldn’t compete with even a brothel woman. Otherwise, why would the son of an honorable family prefer to elope with a woman who couldn’t be seen in public rather than getting married to her daughter?

Later, although Xie Qilin was found and brought back, the marriage between the two fell through. Since then, the two families have stopped communicating with each other and almost fell to the state of becoming enemies.

This time, the incident was even more absurd. This Shen Yu was a distant branch relative of the Shen family which could barely be regarded as a distinguished family in Dongzhou. After coming to the capital, he had fallen in love with her daughter at first sight. He and his family had all but cried and begged them multiple times for an engagement. As a result, no sooner did they agree than he had turned his back on them.

When Shen Yu broke the engagement, though he had said on the surface that he was not worthy of their house’s daughter, but inwardly, he had disdained her daughter as not a good match thinking of her as a beauty with no brains, consumed by luxury and laziness.

Why didn’t he say that earlier, when he hadn’t yet achieved the rank of Tanhua? Only now did he despise her daughter’s extravagance. So what if they were willing to let their daughter be extravagant?! They had money in Jingting Hou Mansion. 

While here the three members of the Ban family were so angry that they couldn’t even swallow, over there, the jilted protagonist was still sleeping soundly.

Ban Hua was dreaming a very long dream. When she woke up, she couldn’t tell whether it was dream or reality. It was only when she sat up and saw the pearl curtain hanging outside that she suddenly realized that she had been dreaming.

By the way, what had she dreamt about just now?

It seemed that she had been jilted again and someone had overthrown the emperor. Her father lost his rank after he offended the new emperor and then the whole family lived a bitter life.

God! How terrible were those days in her dream when she couldn’t compare jewelry with others and had to wear rough, penitent clothes! How boring was life when she couldn’t see the sullen faces of those who wanted to scold her behind her back, but had to be respectful to her on the surface? 

This dream was really unlucky and the earlier she forgot it the better.

“Xiangjun,” her maid came into the room crying, with tears running down her face, “Shen Tanhua came to break the engagement.”

Ban Hua’s soft waist suddenly straightened up “Break the engagement?” Her nightmare came true!

If her father lost his title as Jingting Hou, then her younger brother wouldn’t be Jingting Hou Shizi, and she would no longer be an honoured Xiangjun. How will she live a leisurely life of eating, drinking and playing in the future while riding horses and admiring flowers?

Life was so short anyway. Would she only get these few years of enjoyment?

She didn’t remember much about that dream but she remembered clearly how miserable she was after she was no longer a Xiangjun. Thinking of this, she immediately set aside her sorrow, put on shoes and clothes and ran to the main yard.

“Xiangjun, your hair!”

Fortunately, the mouths of the people in Jingting Hou’s household were tight. Otherwise tomorrow, the hot news in the capital would become “Jingting Hou’s daughter became so crazy because of her broken engagement that she was running around the house madly with  clothes askew.”

Actually… This was also Jing Ting Hou ’s first thought after seeing his daughter.

“My good girl,” Jing Ting Hou, who saw his daughter running into his study room with her hair and clothes disheveled, burst into tears and cried, “Good girl, let’s forget about getting married. Tomorrow, Daddy will go and buy you a dozen handsome gigolos who are skilled in literary arts or martial arts and good looking. You can choose whichever one you like! ” All men in this world were pigs, causing his daughter to become like this.

At this time, Jing Ting Hou had excluded himself from the category of men. 

Ban Heng glanced at his sister in envy. He didn’t even have a single concubine and he didn’t see anyone rushing to give him an attendant. It’s also an elegant thing among the literari to have ” red sleeves adding fragrance ” when they read books at night.

“Don’t even think about it,” Yin Shi glared at her son, squinting her eyes. “You stay at home and study properly.”

“I.. I didn’t think about anything.” Ban Heng stammered, feeling very wronged. He obviously didn’t do anything, but why was his mother nagging.

“You were born from my stomach. As soon as your eyeball turns, I know exactly what you’re thinking.” Seeing her daughter like this, Yin shi’s heart was already half softened. She really wanted to tear Shen Yu into pieces with her bare hands but she was worried that her emotions would affect her distraught daughter even more. So she had to restrain her emotions and carefully persuade her with calm words.

“Just now, the words that your father said were muddled, but …” Yin shi patted her daughter’s back, realizing that she was trembling, and then whispered softly, “There are many more men in this world. Even if you can’t find someone suitable, never mind. You have a share in the family’s shops, farms and wealth, you have money and rank, you don’t have to be afraid of being ill treated. “

Ban Hua rubbed her head against Yin shi’s body and said in a small voice:” I am not sad because that guy broke off the engagement. I’m just a little scared because I had a very strange dream. “

” What dream? “Yin shi secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that their daughter didn’t care about the broken engagement.

“A new emperor ascended the throne and he removed father’s title …”

“Removed the title ?!” Ban Heng bounced up “Who is this new emperor? We will kill him first.”

“I can’t remember , “Ban Hua said after thinking for a long time,”but he should be a very powerful man. “

” You don’t remember who the other person is, but you remember how powerful he is? “Ban Heng scoffed, “This is too unreliable. “

” Can a dream still be taken seriously? Can anyone be emperor? “Yin shi knocked on Ban Heng’s back to prevent him from annoying Ban Hua,” Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Dreams are all fake. Isn’t our family good now? “

” Your grandmother is the eldest princess, who dares to mess with us? “Yin shi lifted the standard of their biggest support, the Eldest Princess Dening, to appease her daughter’s fears ” Wouldn’t they be afraid of being scolded by their ancestors? ” “

” But the new Emperor is not of the Jiang family.” Ban Hua said, blinking her eyes. Her beautiful pupils overlaid with a layer of mist, looked particularly pitiful,” The man who ascended the throne was a sinister courtier who harbored deep designs. “

“Hiss,” Yin Shi took a sharp breath and glanced at the door. The maidservants in waiting had withdrawn and now only the four of them were in the house “You can’t speak this kind of drivel outside.”

Ban Hua knew that her mother would not believe in the dream she had dreamt. In fact, she herself even doubted the dream. “In the dream, I dreamt that I was jilted. As a result, when I woke up just now, the Shen surnamed guy really did break off the engagement. So … what if it is true? “

” Well, what should we do? “Ban Hua, who had been a dandy brought up in luxury since childhood, looked nervously at Yin shi,” Madam, why don’t we secretly find a place to hide some gold and silver jewelry? “

” Father, how can you believe my sister? She’s been jilted several times before. Just because of this, do you believe that her dream is true? That’s too funny. ” Ban Heng waved his hand, ” Sister, you think about it again. In your dream, was there any other major event? “

” You’re talking nonsense! ” Ban Hua raised her finger and poked Ban Heng’s forehead. The priceless blood red jade bracelet on her arm flashed and almost dazzled Ban Heng.

“I’ll think about it,” Ban Hua withdrew her hand and smoothed her messy silken black hair. “Let me think about it again.”

The marquis looked nervously at his daughter, hoping that the dream was false.

“By the way, I remember one thing that happened in my dream. Not long after I was jilted, Xie Qilin fell off a horse and lost an eye.” Since the other party had eloped with someone else after getting engaged to her, she had lost face. So Ban Hua remembered this incident very clearly as it helped to relieve her anger a bit.

“You’re really my daughter! Whoever offended you, you didn’t let him live well even in your dream.” Ban Huai stroked his beard in satisfaction. “That sly Xie surnamed kid is not a good thing!”

“Yes! “Ban Heng echoed,” “I’ll make sure to trouble him everytime I see him.”

Yin shi sneered and said: “But every time you pick a fight with him, you suffer instead.”

“That Xie Qilin is a literary person and has studied a lot. Not to mention how sly and cunning he is. Every time he can reverse right and wrong with his eloquence and I can’t say anything to him, ”Ban Heng said,“ but I don’t suffer anymore. No matter how bad his mouth is, I don’t feel any pain. But he still feels pain if I punch him.”

In Ban Heng’s logical world, being scolded was no loss, but to be beaten can be called a loss. As for reputation and such things, for this Ban family’s young master, it is as inconsequential as a cloud in the sky.

“My Good daughter, when did that sly Xie surnamed kid lose his eye in your dream?” Ban Huai, like Ban Heng, didn’t care about reputation at all. Since he grew up, he had never heard anyone praise him after all.

“On the second day after Shen Yulai broke the engagement.”

“That’s tomorrow?”