She turned her face and said coldly, “As the wife of the Assistant Minister of Personnel, please pay attention to your demeanor.”
I lowered my head. “Your Majesty’s instruction is correct.”
“My lady, I have a distant niece who is elegant, pure, and of good character and appearance, suitable for An’s Lord. Since you cannot bear an heir for the An family, why not jointly serve one husband to make up for this deficiency? What do you think, my lady?”
I wanted to respond with my mantra “No way,” but An Jin had urged me not to conflict with the Empress. I could only suppress my anger and say, “Everything is up to my husband.”
The Empress’s expression slightly relaxed, and she beckoned to two palace maids. “Please invite Miss Miao Yin.”
I was struck like thunder. This Miao Yin couldn’t be the one I knew, could she?
When I met Xue Miaoyin face to face, I realized there are no lucky breaks in this world. Xue Miaoyin, whom I thought would be my future sister-in-law, was arranged by our royal family to be my husband’s wife. The future of the Great Qi Kingdom was indeed bleak.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Shock of an Arranged Marriage
The empress left Miaoyin and me in the imperial garden, wanting us to “get along” first.
Miaoyin looked bewildered. After I explained the situation, her expression twisted into the character “囧”. The empress had mentioned arranging a marriage for her, and she was trying to hint to her aunt that she already had a love interest. Unexpectedly, she was matched with her beloved’s brother-in-law.
This pair was quite pitiful. What should have been a heaven-sent match, reunited after ten years, now faced tribulation. My older brother had recently excitedly revealed that Xue Yin was actually a girl. I pretended to complain, making him frown in anger, which amused me. We thought everything would fall into place, but now this unexpected turn of events occurred.
Ultimately, it was because of our involvement. I briefly explained to Miaoyin about the imperial physician’s diagnosis at the Xie Chen banquet that I might have difficulty bearing children and the entanglement with the Eastern Palace.
She felt the matter was suspicious and unlikely to be as simple as the Eastern Palace trying to steal a wife, with the empress assisting her son.
