Year nineteen of the Dejing era, winter.

“Young Master Li, Suzhen is here. Are you angry that Suzhen stayed at her cousin’s house for a few days, so you found this group of women to come irritate me?”

A young girl lay sprawled on the roof eaves, tears in her eyes as she stared at the young man in the courtyard below, along with the five young women sitting beside him for matchmaking meetings.

The young master with a face like carved jade trembled, spilling his entire cup of tea onto the young lady sitting across from him. The woman cried out, and she and the other ladies all stood up, glaring angrily at the girl on the eaves.

“Feng Suzhen, it’s you again, you ugly girl! Let me tell you, I, Li Chen-shi, will absolutely never acknowledge this engagement!”

With a lioness’s roar, a middle-aged woman emerged from the inner room, hands on her hips as she looked up at the girl on the eaves.

Suzhen sighed, thinking to herself: Auntie Li, this engagement was clearly forced upon my Feng family by your Li family.

When her family had newly moved to Huai County, her father and Young Master Li’s father had been drinking together. After three rounds of wine, seeing her father’s worried expression, Uncle Li had asked the reason. Her father then told him that her mother had just given birth to a daughter, and all the neighbors were hovering around their house, apparently plotting something.

Since the father was a great beauty, how could his daughter be ugly? Uncle Li became excited, thinking that these common folk must be coming to the Feng family to arrange childhood betrothals. The early bird catches the worm—he immediately recommended himself.

Uncle Li was the county magistrate of Huai County. Could her father refuse? He could only reluctantly agree with some pushing and pulling.

The next day, Uncle Li and Auntie Li came to visit their home. Upon seeing her mother, they were “shocked” beyond words, saying her father had deceived them. Although she also felt her father had indeed been deceptive, no one forced you to be deceived.

Moreover, she never thought her mother was ugly—otherwise, how could her father dote on her so much? She just had slightly small eyes, a slightly flat nose, slightly thick lips, and some pockmarks from smallpox on her face.

From a genetic standpoint, she didn’t necessarily have to inherit her mother’s features. Though later facts proved she indeed inherited somewhat.

While Suzhen was reminiscing about the past, Young Master Li glanced at his book boy, Xiao Si. Xiao Si silently pulled out a small bow from his chest, picked up a stone from the ground, placed it on the bow, and aimed at her.

Suzhen was quickly hit, crying “Ah!” as she tumbled down from the wall. In the moment she fell, she saw Young Master Li’s lips curve in a smile, bright as spring flowers, clear as autumn moon.

To win a beauty’s smile, she thought she could accept this.

But—

She rubbed her head, grimacing: “It hurts so much. How did that dead Xiao Si’s aim become so accurate?”

“Ever since you were five years old and grabbed onto his young master’s clothes and wouldn’t let go, he’s been practicing protection. After aiming for twelve years without hitting, it would be strange if he wasn’t accurate now. Also, you’re not in pain—I’m the one in pain. If I weren’t here, would you have deliberately fallen down to make Li Zhaoting laugh?”

The young man who had been beneath Suzhen lifted her up and set her down, speaking expressionlessly.

Suzhen wanted to pat the boy to comfort him, but unfortunately, she was only chest-high to him and couldn’t reach his shoulders, so she had to give up. She smiled ingratiatingly: “Leng Xue, I’ll buy you candied hawthorn to eat.”

“No.”

Leng Xue refused almost immediately.

“Why?”

“Since childhood, every time you buy me food, you use money borrowed from me, and you’ve never paid it back.”

“…”

“I’m your family’s young miss. How can you be so stingy? Doesn’t my father pay you enough wages?”

“The old fox already owes me eighteen years of wages. Thanks to Madam’s occasional subsidies, I can save some private money. Except for Madam, there isn’t a single good person in your Feng family.”

Suzhen sighed. Who did this child learn to be so stingy from? Talking about money hurts feelings so much. Therefore, when he later became one of the secret crushes of young ladies in the capital, and together with someone called Wuqing, Tieshou, and Zhuiming, was selected into the Six Doors as a civil servant, and people even gave them a nickname called “The Four Famous Constables of the Capital,” she was truly puzzled.