“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 follow the example of Chang’e and Heng’e and jointly serve one husband to make up for this deficiency? What do you think, my lady?”
I wanted to respond with my three-word mantra “No way,” but An Jin had urged me not to conflict directly with the Empress. I could only suppress my anger and respond “properly,” “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? It must be just a coincidence!
When I met Xue Miaoyin face to face, I realized that there are no lucky breaks in this world. Xue Miaoyin, whom I thought would be my future sister-in-law, was arranged by our Great Qi Kingdom’s unreliable royal family to be my husband’s wife. The future of the Great Qi Kingdom was indeed a gray and bleak landscape.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Shock of an Arranged Marriage
The empress left Miaoyin and me in the imperial garden, essentially wanting us to “get along” first.
Miaoyin was somewhat bewildered. After I explained the situation, she opened her mouth wide, her eyebrows furrowed, her entire face twisting into the shape of the character “囧”. It turned out that the empress had mentioned arranging a marriage for her, and she had been pondering how to hint to this distant aunt that she already had a love interest. Yet, unexpectedly, she was matched with her beloved’s brother-in-law.
This pair was quite pitiful. What should have been a heaven-sent match was now about to face tribulation. My older brother had excitedly told me that Xue Yin was actually a girl. I pretended to complain a bit, which made him furrow his eyebrows in anger, causing me to secretly laugh. We had thought everything would naturally fall into place, just waiting for my brother to marry his wife, but now this unexpected turn of events had occurred.
