Ren Yaoqi looked at Ren Yaohua with a surprised expression: “Third Cousin? He was looking for me about something?”

Seeing Ren Yaoqi’s expression, which seemed truly unaware, Ren Yaohua looked away: “How would I know? He probably just asked casually since you rarely appear in Grandmother’s courtyard.”

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaoqi smiled: “Third Cousin has always been courteous and proper.”

Ren Yaohua stroked her teacup, lowered her head in thought, then glanced at Ren Yaoqi again, her slightly furrowed brow seeming to contemplate something.

“What’s wrong, Third Sister?” It was rare to encounter Ren Yaohua in a gentle mood, so Ren Yaoqi smiled and waved her palm in front of her eyes.

Ren Yaohua was startled and couldn’t help glaring at Ren Yaoqi.

This was the first time Ren Yaoqi had made such an intimate gesture in front of her, and she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Ren Yaoqi’s smile remained unchanged as she tilted her head slightly to look at her: “What were you thinking about so intently?”

Ren Yaohua had originally wanted to say “None of your business!” but somehow, when the words reached her lips, they became: “Grandmother seems to intend to marry Fourth Sister to the Qiu family.”

As soon as these words left her mouth, she was startled herself and unconsciously raised her finger to touch her lips.

Reasonably speaking, such groundless speculation about a young lady’s marriage matters shouldn’t be spoken aloud, even if she knew about it, especially not to a sister with whom she had never gotten along.

Ren Yaoqi was also somewhat surprised; she hadn’t expected to hear such news from Ren Yaohua.

However, the Ren family’s desire to strengthen ties with the Qiu family had existed in her previous life. Old Master Ren and Old Madam Ren had indeed planned to marry Fourth Miss Ren Yaoyin, the legitimate daughter of the eldest branch, to Qiu Yun, the legitimate eldest son of the next Qiu clan leader.

However, in her previous life, their engagement somehow never came to fruition. After the Ren family’s decline, the Qiu family arranged another marriage for Qiu Yun with a lady from a prestigious family.

And Ren Yaoyin seemed to have become a noble concubine to Yun Wenting, the eldest son of the Yun family.

However, in her previous life, the Ren family originally had two candidates for Qiu Yun’s fiancée: one was Fourth Miss Ren Yaoyin, and the other was Ren Yaohua. Both were legitimate daughters, and among all the Ren family ladies, their ages were most compatible with Qiu Yun’s. They were also Old Madam Ren’s two favorite granddaughters.

As far as she knew, Old Madam Ren had initially seemed to favor Ren Yaohua more.

At the crucial moment, “Han Yunqian” had appeared as an unexpected variable. Ren Shimin had been very fond of Han Yunqian and had proposed marriage to the Han family without consulting the Ren family elders first. The Ren family ultimately felt that marrying Ren Yaohua to the Han family’s only son, Han Yunqian, was not a loss and agreed. Ren Yaoyin was then betrothed to Qiu Yun.

In this life, there was no sign of the Han family marriage, so had the Ren family already decided on Ren Yaoyin as Qiu Yun’s fiancée? According to seniority, shouldn’t Ren Yaohua’s marriage be discussed first?

Thinking of this, Ren Yaoqi looked at Ren Yaohua: “Why did you suddenly bring up Fourth Sister’s marriage?”

Only then did Ren Yaohua realize it was somewhat awkward for them to discuss such matters privately. Her face showed some discomfort, but seeing Ren Yaoqi’s serious and composed expression, Ren Yaohua didn’t want to appear inferior in front of this younger sister.

So she forced herself to remain calm and said matter-of-factly: “Second Aunt came to visit this morning and mentioned Second Brother’s marriage. First Aunt happened to be there too, so she discussed arranging Third Brother’s marriage with Grandmother. Somehow, First Aunt then brought up Fourth Sister, and Grandmother said not to rush Fourth Sister’s matter, that she had it figured out. That’s when Second Aunt mentioned the Qiu family. I was originally in the warm pavilion with Fourth Sister, and when I came out, I happened to hear these words. Later, seeing Fourth Sister also came out, I couldn’t continue listening and left with her. However, I didn’t hear Grandmother and First Aunt contradict what Second Aunt said, so presumably what Second Aunt said wasn’t wrong.”

Their grandfather Ren Yonghe and great-uncle Ren Yongxiang’s branch was the main lineage of the Ren family, living in the Ren family’s main residence.

Ren Yonghe and Ren Yongxiang had several other concubine-born brothers who had already established separate households outside the main residence. The brothers and sisters born to those uncles didn’t follow the same generational ranking as them and were only seen during the New Year and Mid-Autumn ancestor worship.

Second Aunt was the mistress of the East Manor, separated by a wall, the eldest daughter-in-law of their great-uncle, from the Su family of Yunyang City.

Second Brother Ren Yilin was Second Uncle’s concubine-born son. Second Aunt Su Shi had no sons, having only given birth to Ren Yaoting, who ranked seventh among the Ren family ladies. However, Su Shi was generous and had arranged several beautiful concubines for Second Uncle, resulting in two concubine-born sons.

Su Shi came from a prestigious family and had a reputation for virtue, so although she had no sons, her situation was much better than Third Madam Li Shi, who was also childless.

“Isn’t Second Brother’s fiancée still in mourning?” Ren Yaoqi asked casually.

She remembered that Ren Yilin’s marriage had been arranged two years ago with the second daughter of a scholar named Liu from Jizhou, which was considered a good match.

The wedding was originally scheduled for April this year, but just after the first month, Ren Yilin’s fiancée’s grandfather died, requiring a year of mourning. Scholar Liu had previously spent money to secure a position as assistant prefect in Mozhou, but had to return home for mourning less than two months after taking office due to his father’s death.

Misfortunes never come singly. Recently, news came from Jizhou that during his father’s mourning period, Scholar Liu had gone out drinking with friends at a brothel. To avoid acquaintances, he had panicked and somehow fallen into a river and drowned.

Miss Liu’s one-year mourning period wasn’t over, and now three years of heavy mourning were about to begin.

Ren Yilin was already seventeen this year, and Miss Liu was also sixteen.

“This servant heard that the East Manor has been in complete chaos. Concubine Yuan goes to Second Master and Second Madam every day, crying and complaining, saying that Miss Liu has bad luck—she killed her grandfather and father before even marrying into the Ren family, making her a jinx. She’s clamoring to break the engagement and find another bride for Second Young Master.”

The one answering was Wujing, Ren Yaohua’s personal maid, who knew more about these matters than either of her mistresses and couldn’t help interjecting.

After speaking, she looked nervously at Ren Yaohua, afraid she might blame her for being talkative and improper.

Although Ren Yaohua frowned, she said nothing and just lowered her head to drink tea.

Ren Yaoqi smiled slightly at Wujing.

Wujing breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Ren Yaohua wasn’t stopping her from continuing and that Fifth Miss also wanted to hear more. Somewhat pleased, she continued: “Second Madam has always treated Second Young Master and Fourth Young Master as her sons, so naturally she’s anxious now. Although our Ren family is divided into East and West manors, major decisions are still made by the Old Master and Old Madam of our West Manor. So the Second Old Madam of the East Manor sent Second Madam to ask Old Madam for advice.”

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaoqi just smiled and lowered her head.

Old Madam Liao of the East Manor and Old Madam Qiu of the West Manor had never gotten along since their youth. For other matters, Liao Shi would be eager to make her own decisions and keep things separate from the West Manor. But for something requiring a breach of faith like this, she naturally hoped the West Manor would help her decide, so she sent Second Madam to find Qiu Shi.

At this time, everyone in the Ren family should be hoping to break the engagement with the Liu family. Originally, the Ren family had chosen the Liu family’s daughter only because of Miss Liu’s father’s scholarly status. When Scholar Liu had secured his assistant prefect position, the Ren family had contributed considerable effort.

The Ren family had built their fortune through commerce—every investment must yield returns.

Now that Scholar Liu, this “promising talent,” was dead, and the Liu family had no other useful value, this marriage had lost its worth.

Ren Yaoqi remembered that in her previous life, the Liu family engagement was ultimately broken, but Miss Liu was also a woman of strong character. Shortly after the broken engagement, she hanged herself.

Thinking of this, Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help looking at Ren Yaohua.

The Ren family treated other families’ daughters as objects, discarding them at will, but didn’t this eventually bring retribution upon the innocent Ren family daughters?

“What’s wrong?” Seeing Ren Yaoqi staring at her in a daze, Ren Yaohua frowned.

Ren Yaoqi came back to her senses: “Oh, I was thinking that Miss Liu is truly pitiful.”

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaohua was silent for a while, then said quietly: “How many pitiful women are there in this world besides Miss Liu? It all depends on fate. What can one do if fate is unkind?”

Ren Yaohua’s voice carried a hint of melancholy, though it was unclear whether she was thinking of her mother Li Shi’s difficult struggles in the Ren family’s inner quarters over the years or contemplating her unknown future destiny.

Ren Yaoqi looked at Ren Yaohua with a complex expression.

She had once believed in fate, too, but in this life, she didn’t want to believe in it.