Chapter 2

Shaowei was a bastard, many said so, including her own mother, so Shaowei secretly agreed.

Shaowei was born in a mountain stronghold located in Taishan Commandery; this stronghold was called Tianlang Zhai, Tianlang Star was regarded as the position of plunder and robbery among the stars, and this stronghold gathered over a hundred bandits and thieves who had occupied it and committed evil for many years, so the name of this stronghold and its people were truly deserving of each other.

The bandit chief of Tianlang Zhai claimed to be a descendant of a famous general of the pre-Qin era; after the Great Qin fell apart and the state perished, he drifted to the land of Lu. This man was named Qin Fu, and he was Shaowei's biological father.

Shaowei's mother was just her mother; no one in the stronghold knew her origin, identity, or surname; she had been captured.

When Shaowei grew a little older, she once secretly asked her mother about her origin and hometown, but her mother did not answer.

It was not until Shaowei was eleven sui that she learned her Mother's identity.

That was the winter month of the twelfth year of Tianhe; wind and snow howled throughout Taishan Commandery, and sky, mountain, and earth were all white.

The "Ling Family Army," which had received orders from the Liu Family Emperor, was undefeated in battle and unconquerable in attack, striking terror into all who heard of it, surrounded Tianlang Zhai.

On the day the great army surrounded and suppressed them, Shaowei was thrown into the sheepfold by her father early in the morning as punishment; it was the sounds of slaughter in the stronghold that woke her from unconsciousness.

Shaowei was shocked and bewildered; as soon as she understood what had happened, she immediately rushed out of the sheepfold—her Mother was frail and surely could not protect herself!

Those black-armored soldiers were a stern and chilling sight Shaowei had never seen before; the sharp blades in their hands seemed to have cut open the heart-vein of the entire stronghold, and crimson blood flowed unceasingly as if overflowing from underground.

Shaowei ran heedlessly and finally found her mother amidst the chaos; she was carried out and laid in the snow, making no sound again.

Shaowei had practiced martial arts since she was four or five sui, and for some secret reasons, her strength was far greater than that of ordinary children; the soldiers who observed military discipline and did not harm women and children had not guarded against her, and one soldier nearest the corpse was actually flipped over and knocked into the snow by her.

Shaowei, wearing coarse cotton clothes wrapped in multicolored wolfskin, was like a little wolf guarding the corpse of a she-wolf, her eyes red and fur bristling, wanting to tear and fight those soldiers to the death.

"You must be mistaken!" This voice came from a half-grown child standing to one side; he appeared to be of the same age for elementary study as Shaowei, wearing a black cloak, with two guards attending him at his side.

He said to Shaowei, who was like a madwoman: "The Ling Family Army does not harm women and children, and besides, we are here to save her!"

In this gap, two soldiers, acting on the boy's indication, seized her two arms from behind; as Shaowei struggled, her gaze fell on her mother again, and her resistance suddenly stopped.

Her mother's fatal wound was in her abdomen; a short knife had pierced her withered and frail body, and the owner of this knife was precisely the man Shaowei was unwilling to call father.

Her mother's eyes were pitch black and hollow, her face bluish-gray and stiff, the blood at the corner of her mouth had already congealed; Shaowei, accustomed to seeing the dead, knew this meant her mother had already died before these soldiers arrived.

Qin Fu had killed her Mother.

Then she would also go kill him!

Shaowei suddenly struggled again, her towering hatred greater than before.

However, there was no need for Shaowei to kill him; with the arrival of a generalissimo, Qin Fu's head was also brought over.

This generalissimo was the current Grand Marshal, Marquis Ling Ke.

Ling Ke squatted down to examine the corpse on the ground; a faint sigh of guilt almost imperceptible vanished in the wind; after a moment, he removed his own cloak and covered the female corpse with it.

When Ling Ke stood up, he looked at Shaowei, who actually required two soldiers to restrain her, and asked while scrutinizing her: "Little one, who are you, and what is your relationship to the Feng Family's young lady?"

Shaowei raised a pair of bloodshot round eyes, and for a moment was bewildered.

—The Feng Family's young lady?

……

Before that, Shaowei had never been allowed to leave the stronghold; her environment of growth was closed and barbaric.

Shaowei took only a small bird with her; it was a parrot with snow-white feathers, a tuft of goose-yellow crest feathers on its head, and a patch of pale yellow on each cheek.

It was a small bird Shaowei had saved; because after it recovered, it spread its wings, held its chest high and raised its head, and cocked one slender claw in a smug manner that was very amusing, full of self-satisfaction, so Shaowei named it "Zhan Zhan."

When going down the mountain, the boy wearing the black cloak stepped into the stirrup and mounted his horse in the snow; on horseback he said to Shaowei in an unrestrained and casual manner: "You need not be afraid; just rest assured and follow me to Chang'an to see my uncle and aunt; Marquis Lu and his lady are kind-hearted people and will surely not make things difficult or mistreat you."

Shaowei, with tears not yet dry in her eyes, did not look at him, only straightened her back even more, so as to appear more fearless.

The bird, kept warm in the wolfskin coat Shaowei held against her body because she was afraid of the cold, curiously poked out a little head, but Shaowei violently pressed it back.

Shaowei felt that being afraid was extremely shameful, so she hid her unease and fear, and also planned to hide her rough and sharp claws. But she truly did not know how to get along with the family she was about to meet; she had no experience of getting along well with family, or indeed with anyone.

Shaowei's mother was surnamed Feng and named Pearl; she was the only daughter of Marquis Lu Feng Xi, a founding merit of the current Great Qian dynasty; Marquis Lu and his wife had no sons, only this one daughter, so naturally she was raised with all kinds of doting love.

Twelve years ago, Great Qian had been founded for only eight years; the rebellions of the various vassal kings were far from over, and the world was not yet peaceful; that year happened to be the death of the founding emperor, and during the transition of the throne, banditry and chaos ran rampant everywhere—Feng Pearl was caught in an accident that year and plundered by scattered rebel soldiers.

Afterwards, among the guards and servants Feng Pearl had brought, the only surviving maidservant cried and apologized to Marquis Lu and his wife, saying the young lady had fallen off a cliff together with the carriage and horses. The maidservant said this and then committed suicide on the spot, following the young lady.

Marquis Lu and his wife were deeply struck; the Marchioness's hair turned white overnight, and after washing her face with tears and being ill for a long time, her eyes were blinded just like that.

After twelve years, Marquis Lu and his wife learned of their daughter's news again; they thought it was recovering what was lost, but unexpectedly it was an even more thorough loss.

Moreover, Feng Pearl had fallen into a bandit den during her life and suffered torture, and finally died so miserably... The Marchioness was filled with hatred and grief to the extreme, biting her teeth and shedding tears as she held her husband's hand, only saying: "Marquis, you say how Doudou must have been afraid these years, how she must have missed her family? And how she must have looked forward day and night to seeing her Father and Mother again? Since Doudou could not return home to meet us, I will go see Doudou; perhaps upon seeing her Mother, my Doudou will not be so afraid..."

What more, Feng Zhu had fallen into a bandit den in life and suffered torture, finally dying so miserably... Lady Hou was filled with utmost resentment and grief, biting her tooth, shedding tears, pulling her husband's hand, saying only: "Marquis, how Doudou must have feared these years, how she must have longed for home? How she must have day and night hoped to see her father and mother again? Since Doudou could not return home to meet us, I shall go meet Doudou; perhaps seeing Mother, my Doudou will not be so afraid..."

That night, the Marchioness passed away.

When Shaowei was brought back to Chang'an, she saw the white-haired Marquis Lu in the mourning hall with white silk fluttering.

He was a very dignified old man, holding a black wood tiger-head cane in his hand; looking at Shaowei standing in the hall, after a long while, he said to her: "From now on, you shall call me Great Uncle; this is your home."

Shaowei recalled the rules and etiquette she had secretly learned on the way; somewhat clumsily but properly, she bent her knees and knelt down, hands clasped and touching the ground, her forehead touching the back of her hand: "Acknowledged."

But this "Great Uncle" of Shaowei's, which sounded neither humble nor arrogant, was not uttered many times; Marquis Lu seemed unwilling to see her, and within less than two months, Marquis Lu passed away due to severe illness.

And while Marquis Lu was seriously ill, the capital Chang'an launched an unprecedented turmoil and bloodbath sufficient to change the fate of the dynasty—

In the thirteenth year of Tianhe, the first month of the year, the eighteen sui Crown Prince Liu Gu was executed for the crime of treason; his mother, the Ling Empress, subsequently committed suicide in the Jiaofang Dian.

Marquis Ling Ke was the Ling Empress's brother; he defended his sister and his nephew, but was also suspected of being a rebel; subsequently, ministers impeached Ling Ke for colluding with the Xiongnu; seeing the evidence before him, the Ren Emperor was furious and ordered Ling Ke to be executed by slicing at the waist; hundreds of Ling family members were implicated.

Afterwards, some deputy generals of the Ling Family Army rose up in succession to demand truth and justice; the Court tried its best to suppress them; Ling Ke's confidant deputy generals in the army were also bloodbathed, and the dead, injured, and exiled were countless.

Crown Prince Liu Gu had long been known for his virtue; the Ling Empress, though of humble birth, also advocated resting with the people; Marquis Ling Ke had followed the Ren Emperor's side since he was Crown Prince; over these years, he had swept away who knows how many obstacles for the Son of Heaven; the Ling Family Army under his command was undoubtedly the Great Qian's treasure sword protecting the nation—

Precisely for this reason, voices of injustice for the Deposed Crown Prince Liu Gu and the Ling Family rose unceasingly within and without the Imperial Court and even among the Liu Family Royal Clan; many ministers and royal relatives were imprisoned because of this, but this still could not make those voices disappear.

The Ren Emperor, who had always been wise and benevolent, gradually revealed a violent temper; the impact and price of this upheaval had surpassed everyone's imagination, but no one dared to stop, not even the Son of Heaven.

To stabilize the situation, they could only stop it with killing.

The investigation and bloodbath lasted for several months; those implicated inside and outside Chang'an City reached nearly thirty thousand; this was nearly a shocking number; Great Qian's capital, court situation, and even military affairs led by the Ling Family Army were all severely impacted.

The occurrence of this great calamity was close to the time Shaowei entered the capital; and it can be imagined that the time it truly began to brew must have been even earlier.

Or rather, when Shaowei saw Ling Ke in Tianlang Zhai, his deadly situation had already been destined.

Or perhaps, when Shaowei saw Ling Ke at Tianlang Zhai, his dead end was already sealed.

The child who followed Ling Ke at his side, carefree and casual yet with a hint of wantonness, who called Ling Ke "uncle"—Shaowei had learned his identity on the road: he was Liu Qi, the youngest son of Ling Empress and the full brother of Deposed Crown Prince Liu Gu.

Perhaps because he was young, or because the Ren Emperor still felt a trace of kinship in his heart, at the request of several royal clan princes and princesses, the Ren Emperor finally waved his hand helplessly and sent this Sixth Prince to Cangwu Commandery, far from the capital.

Autumn leaves ended with this upheaval; when winter arrived, Chang'an City this year showed a touch of emptiness and desolation.

Shaowei, who had not stepped out of the Hou Mansion gate since entering the capital, did not care much about those great matters, nor did she have the leisure to care.

After Marquis Lu Feng Xi passed away, the one who inherited the marquisate was Shaowei's uncle Feng Xu—Feng Xu was originally the son of Marquis Lu's elder brother; in the early years of war and chaos, Marquis Lu, who came from a poor village, had been protected by his brother and sister-in-law at the cost of their lives, so he doted on the son they left behind. After Feng Zhu "died," Marquis Lu, following the clan's proposal, formally adopted Feng Xu as his son and petitioned the court to establish him as heir apparent.

This uncle Feng Xu treated Shaowei with great kindness and tolerance, but this could not put an end to much malicious mockery. Those nominal brothers and sisters of the Feng family called her a disaster star, saying she had first caused her mother's death, then caused her grandfather and grandmother's deaths, and was a bastard born with the foul blood of bandits in her bones.

Feng Xu's wives and concubines bore him seven children in succession, and Shaowei disliked every one of them.

The two elder sisters always looked down on her. One was bold and direct; upon seeing Shaowei she would raise her sleeve to cover her nose and then click her tongue, saying, "How is it that one always smells a stench of wolf and beast on her?" The other always observed Shaowei in a hidden, silent way, but her lofty gaze was even harder to bear than the former's.

There were also two twin brothers who had just turned ten. Everything they wore and used had to be identical, and even their way of disliking Shaowei was always exactly the same. One day, one of them stepped on Shaowei's foot, and the other hurriedly followed suit to step on a foot too. But the first one said he had clearly stepped on the left foot, so he also had to step on the right foot once to be fair. The second one then shouted loudly that he would have to step on the left foot again later—

Watching the two, like a pair of piglets, arguing and discussing heedlessly, Shaowei's temples throbbed wildly. She gritted her teeth and gave each of them a slap.

This was the first time Shaowei had struck someone in the Feng family. Both brothers were struck dumb, and after a while they cried out loud, one after the other.

Shaowei, only two years older than them, looked at the one who cried first with disgust: "Truly useless, you cried several more times than him."

The child immediately clamped his mouth shut, enduring his sobs, his shoulders heaving.

Shaowei tilted her head slightly and said to him: "Truly unlucky, your face seems even more swollen than his."

The child, who had finally managed to hold back his crying, cried even louder.

Shaowei looked at the other child and raised her hand: "I suppose I should hit more fairly, to satisfy you both?"

The child, terrified as if seeing a ghost, cried loudly, covered his face, and ran away.

What Shaowei disliked most were her two male cousins, and among them, the second male cousin Feng Xian was the worst.

Shaowei attended school with them. One day, Feng Xian snatched Shaowei's clumsy beginner's calligraphy and spread it around to mock her: "To think she's twelve years old, and still doesn't write as well as I did when I started school at five! Like a pig-killing knife hacking and slashing wildly—truly, the writing reflects the person!"

Those who often beat people know that once beating someone sets a precedent, it becomes a custom—

Shaowei pounced to take back the bamboo slips, kicked Feng Xian three steps away, and overturned and smashed his desk. Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, and with the teacher's trembling forefinger fixed on her, accompanied by the sounds of "You... you... you..." in heartfelt reproach, Shaowei left, and never went to class again.

Feng Xu came personally to persuade her. Out of self-respect, Shaowei turned her head aside and stubbornly said she disliked writing and reading. Seeing he could not get through to her, Feng Xu sighed and left.

Things like this—there were many things Shaowei was forced to "dislike." Gradually, she became known as a coarse and wayward person who was unwilling to learn anything.

This coarse and wayward child rarely stepped out of the Hou Mansion gate. First, there were many royal clan nobles and powerful figures in the capital, and since the Deposed Crown Prince's calamity, everyone was on edge; the Feng family feared her temperament would bring great disaster.

Second, Feng Xu had a serious, heartfelt private long talk with Shaowei. He tactfully told her that her identity was not suitable to be publicized.

His words were veiled, but Shaowei understood—her existence was evidence of her mother Feng Zhu's suffering and humiliation, and would also tarnish the reputation of the Hou Mansion and her late grandfather and grandmother.

Feng Xu also told Shaowei that this was for her own good. She could not even accept a few childish, thoughtless words from her siblings at home—how could she truly bear the rude guesses, criticisms, and strange looks of the world? True fear of public opinion was beyond her imagination.

Finally, Feng Xu looked guiltily at the girl before him: "Shaowei, Uncle knows this is not your fault. Truly, I have wronged you... But this was also your grandfather's instruction before he passed."

Shaowei turned her head aside again.

Outside the window, the sky was clear and bright. The dazzling sunlight streamed into the room, but it did not fall upon the thirteen-year-old Shaowei.

She was someone who could not bear the light; shadows were her cage.

After Feng Xu left, Shaowei sat alone for a long time. When she grew tired of sitting, she drew her legs up onto the hu bed as well, crossed her arms and hugged her knees, rested her head in the crook of her arm, and sat in a daze with no decorum whatsoever.

A small yellow-and-white shadow flew in from outside the window. Shaowei watched the half earthworm in its beak and still murmured in a trance: "I've said it many times, I don't eat this."

Zhan Zhan seemed to hear an unhappy tone in the girl's voice, no longer as violent as before. Circling around her with the earthworm in its beak, it made sounds imitating human speech: "Hit someone! Bad person!"

Shaowei's posture remained unchanged: "No one hits me here. They can't beat me."

Shaowei sat in a daze and asked: "Zhan Zhan, is this what family is?"

"Family!" Zhan Zhan flapped its wings, threw that section of earthworm onto Shaowei's head: "Family! Eat! Eat!"

Shaowei instantly felt disgusted and screamed, jumping up from the stool: "Are you looking to die! I said! I don't eat this!"

A commotion of chickens flying and dogs jumping ensued in the room... This statement seemed ambiguous. Even if Zhan Zhan were willing to comply, Shaowei absolutely could not agree—it should be birds flying and people jumping instead.

After that, Shaowei no longer left her small courtyard, and rarely saw the Feng family members again, until something happened in the winter month of that year.

Everyone, finally meeting again in an ancient-style romance long novel!

A few reading tips written here: 1. This story is set in a fictional world, with a background roughly referencing the Han Dynasty (not specifically Western Han or Eastern Han; this era background still has traces of matrilineal continuation, women do not bind their feet and there are not so many Confucian ritual constraints, and have a certain social and political status and influence). It is only a reference background, so please do not substitute real historical figures.

2. This time I want to challenge myself by writing a girl with a bit of a personality "flaw." Calling it a flaw may not be accurate; anyway, she should be a girl with intense emotional colors, so I cannot place her in the traditional "strong female lead" category defined by the market. Also, to avoid controversy, I won't label it as a strong female lead.

3. Wishing everyone happy and smooth reading!!! (This is the most important point)

4. Regarding updates, I will strive for daily updates hehe~

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(Chapter End)