My Lady Says She Wants to Marry Me - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lu Youming stood dejectedly in the rain, watching Su Wanrou depart under the protection of seven or eight people. She let out a long sigh. How did it come to this? I was just saving a person.

Lu Youming walked along the bluestone path, thinking about Su Wanrou—her newly acquired “prospective” fiancée. If nothing went wrong, she would have a “wife” very soon.

Lu Youming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Having a future wife out of nowhere seemed like something that would make anyone happy—except for her.

The specific “she” in this context revealed Lu Youming’s secret: she was a genuine woman, currently living as a woman disguised as a man.

Lu Youming sighed again. As a modern person, she was truly unaccustomed to the lifestyle of the ancients, and now she was expected to marry a wife.

“Sigh, it’s not like I can tell her I’m a woman. If word gets out, she might really be forced to live in the mountains forever,” Lu Youming felt as if she had aged several years from mental exhaustion.

The dynasty she was currently in did not exist in any history she knew. This era had endured decades of chaos before a new nation was finally established. The founding emperor spent twenty years driving the barbarians out of the Central Plains to create the current Great Sheng Dynasty. Through the efforts of two generations, the Great Sheng Dynasty was moving toward a golden age; the common people were becoming prosperous, and social customs were gradually becoming more open.

However, no matter how open the customs were, the strict boundaries between men and women still existed. After what happened today, in everyone’s eyes, that young lady could only marry her savior. Lu Youming currently moved about the world as a man, and she was registered as a male in the official government household records.

Since Lu Youming had no intention of abandoning her “male” identity yet, Su Wanrou had no choice but to marry her. She only hoped the girl’s family would be influential enough to simply negate the whole matter.

In this ancient society, everyone was restricted by the class system. At least a male identity allowed her to live a slightly more comfortable life without worrying about the ill intentions of others.

Lu Youming returned to her small home. She lived in Apricot Blossom Village at the foot of Wangcheng Mountain and made a living by hunting. Her ability to settle in the village was entirely thanks to the Taoist priest who saved her—Priest Puzhen of the Chongzhen Temple.

Priest Puzhen had found her floating in the river while he was gathering herbs in the mountains. Luckily, the priest followed the principle that “the dead should be buried,” so he fished her out of the water. Afterward, she recovered in the temple’s infirmary for three or four months before her health fully returned.

It was only later that she realized she had traveled through time. She played the classic “time-traveler’s trick” and claimed she had amnesia. Originally, Priest Puzhen wanted to accept Lu Youming as a lay disciple, but she couldn’t stand the thought of three meals a day without meat and tried to refuse. The priest smiled and told her that without the status of a lay disciple, she wouldn’t be able to obtain a household registration.

In the end, Lu Youming bowed before the priest’s whisk. What else could she do? Circumstances were stronger than people. The priest handled the household registration for her under a male identity, and she settled down at the foot of Wangcheng Mountain.

The condition was that she had to go up the mountain to practice martial arts with the other priests and chant scriptures—properly fulfilling her role as a lay disciple. The priest had no desire to pry into her background; he simply treated her as an ordinary, good disciple.

Fortunately, Lu Youming was quite skilled at hunting. Her traps were well-set; every time she went out, she was guaranteed a catch. Over six months, she managed to save several hundred taels of silver. She also regularly sent supplies up to the temple. Although Priest Puzhen didn’t lack for anything, he appreciated Lu Youming’s thoughtfulness.

When Lu Youming returned to her detached courtyard and opened the door, a large wolfhound lying on the ground straightened its neck to look at her. Seeing its master return, it retracted its neck and closed its eyes to go back to sleep, maintaining an aura of cold indifference.

Lu Youming boiled a pot of water to clean herself, changed into a clean robe, and sat by the window at her desk, counting her silver. As she counted, she sighed again. She patted her chest to comfort herself. “It’s fine. Even after marrying a wife, I’ll still have plenty of money left. As long as I’m careful, no one will discover my true identity.”

The “cheating” laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty stipulated that any male over twenty who remained unmarried would be fined one tael of silver annually, with the amount accumulating each year. Females who remained unmarried by sixteen were fined six hundred coins. If one remained unmarried for three years past the age limit, the government would directly arrange a marriage or force them into labor service.

Lu Youming naturally didn’t want that. She hadn’t expected that while nagging about marriage wasn’t illegal in modern times, in ancient times, it involved fines and forced marriages to maintain population density and social stability.

However, the customs of the Great Sheng Dynasty did not forbid divorce by mutual agreement. After a divorce, both men and women were free to remarry as they chose, and no one would gossip about it. This was good; when the time came, she and Su Wanrou could part ways without scandal. Lu Youming decided she would eventually discuss a “fake marriage” with Su Wanrou.

But when she thought about another person in the house, she looked at her quiet study and felt a sense of unease. A single sigh revealed her helplessness.

Meanwhile, having returned to her maternal grandfather’s house, Su Wanrou had just changed her clothes when she was summoned to the main hall.

Her father had returned to Jinling Prefecture despite his busy schedule. When Su Wanrou heard that her father wanted to see her, her gaze paused. She turned her head with interest to look at the servants following behind her. She wondered: Did her “dear father” know that she had fallen into the river and been saved by a strange man? She was quite curious.

Su Wanrou’s father, Su Shaojun, was just forty years old. He sat in the hall filled with rage. Sitting in the seats of honor were Old Master Shao and Old Madam Shao.

The moment Su Shaojun saw Su Wanrou, he slammed his palm onto the square table. The sudden bang startled everyone, and a teacup was knocked to the floor.

“You rebellious daughter! Kneel down this instant!” Su Shaojun glared at her with eyes full of fire. Su Wanrou blinked, her tone weak yet stubborn. “I do not know what wrong I have committed to deserve kneeling.”

Su Shaojun looked at his daughter—outwardly frail but inwardly proud—with resentment. “Shaojun, let Wanrou change her clothes first,” Old Madam Shao said, unable to bear seeing her granddaughter being mistreated, and stopped Su Shaojun.

Su Shaojun took a deep breath, raised his hands toward Old Madam Shao, and said respectfully, “Mother is right.”

Old Madam Shao gave Su Wanrou a look, signaling her to leave quickly. Su Wanrou performed a formal bow and left, completely ignoring her exasperated father.

Old Madam Shao watched her granddaughter leave and felt a sense of relief. She tossed her handkerchief onto the table, openly expressing her dissatisfaction. “Son-in-law, are you dissatisfied with my Shao family?”

Su Shaojun hurriedly stood up. “How could Mother say such a thing? I wouldn’t dare have any dissatisfaction.”

Old Master Shao paused while drinking his tea. “Wouldn’t dare?” Doesn’t that mean he still is? He looked up at Su Shaojun, but the latter avoided his gaze. Old Master Shao immediately understood Su Shaojun’s stance, and Old Madam Shao understood it too. She looked at Su Shaojun; this was no longer the son-in-law who relied on the Shao family to rise in status years ago.

Old Madam Shao’s expression darkened as she spoke decisively, “My Shao family will never watch you marry Wanrou off to a fifty-year-old widower.”

Old Master Shao set down his teacup and looked at Su Shaojun in silence. Having been a high-ranking official for decades, even though he had retired, his authority was no less than before.

“Wanrou’s fate is unique. Marrying Lord Zhou is already the best choice,” Su Shaojun argued.

“I think you mean your best choice,” Old Master Shao said, truly disgusted by this son-in-law who was blinded by power and status.

Su Shaojun’s face looked embarrassed, yet he still didn’t dare look his father-in-law in the eye. However, the words in his heart slipped out: “Is it possible you really want Su Wanrou to marry a rustic mountain villager?”

During their argument, a maid quietly stepped forward to pour tea for Old Madam Shao, and whispered that the Young Miss was very satisfied with the person who saved her.

With that one sentence, the shock and anger in Old Madam Shao’s heart diminished significantly. If Su Wanrou were truly married off to a man nearly the age of the Old Master, the Shao family’s reputation would be cursed to death.

“That ‘rustic villager’ saved your daughter’s life,” Old Master Shao said with a heavy expression, cutting off Su Shaojun as he tried to speak further.

“I wish he hadn’t,” Su Shaojun thought, but that was a sentence he couldn’t say aloud in front of the Old Master.