Chapter 1: The Daughter of a Noble Family
"I! Won't! Marry!"

The moonlight breeze blew across the lotus pond, causing tiny ripples.

The goldfish in the pond seemed to be frightened. It swung its tail and dived deeper into the water.

"This is not up to you. This is a decision made by the head of the family and the elders after collective discussion."

In the moonlight, a deep and angry voice overwhelmed the woman's soft yet strong voice.

The entire mansion was trembling at the middle-aged man's angry roar.

Listening to the argument between the master and the young lady...

Inside the mansion, there were countless servants praying silently.

I pray that the young lady will not continue to confront the master of the house, especially the young lady's personal maid!

In this era, the master's bad mood often causes the servants to suffer unprovoked disasters for no reason.

The master was angry but loved his daughter, so he would often torture her personal maid to "kill the chicken to scare the monkey"!
Other servants might also be scolded because of their master's bad mood.

In secret, many servants were cursing the young lady for being "ungrateful"!
Since ancient times, marriage arrangements have been made by parents and matchmakers!

The master of the house doted on the young lady too much, which led to the young lady actually daring to resist the marriage arranged by the master of the house. But at the same time, I don’t know how many people secretly sighed at the young lady’s good fortune.

Such a father and such a growing environment are what many women dream of but cannot even dream of!
In this world, free love is not mainstream.

Being well matched, parents' orders, matchmaker's words... are the norms for deciding one's other half in this world.

"You want to please the royal family, so you marry yourselves. Why do you want to sacrifice my happiness and make me marry Marquis Fu'an? Why?" The woman's voice was filled with anger and grievance...

The woman's name was Cui Shuyun, the daughter of the Cui family, a prominent family in Jiangnan.

His father, Cui Zongyan, was the leader of the second branch of the Cui family.

"Sacrifice? Sacrifice!"

Cui Zongyan laughed out of anger!

"If the head of the family didn't have a daughter of the right age, and if your father didn't have some face in the family, how could you have gotten such an opportunity? Now you're talking about sacrifice! What the hell!!"

Cui Zongyan pointed at Cui Shuyun's nose and was so angry that he was almost speechless.

Then he walked out in anger!

Cui Zongyan really doesn’t know what his daughter is thinking?

You have to know that he is Marquis Fu'an!
That’s the royal family of the Ming Dynasty!
Although the Cui family is a large family in the south of the Yangtze River, with dozens of direct descendants and hundreds of collateral branches, they directly and indirectly determine the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

But compared with the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, there is still a long way to go.

Cui Shuyun had no idea how many benefits her father had exchanged in private and how much favors he had given in order to get this opportunity.

The Cui family is a big family in Jiangnan. With so many members, it is impossible for all of them to have the same status. The Cui family has their own rules and hierarchy.

The eldest clan leader.

A group of elders composed of highly respected people in the clan.

Under the Council of Elders and the clan leader are the people in charge of different branches.

The first wife, the second wife, the third wife... these are the bloodlines passed down by the different legitimate sons of the old man of the Cui family who led the Cui family to become a powerful family in the south of the Yangtze River.

It is also the core of the Cui clan.

Because of the system of primogeniture, the patriarch of many large families is often the one who makes the decisions in the eldest wife's house.

The same goes for the Cui family.

The current patriarch is the one who makes the decisions for the eldest wife.

But the second branch of the Cui family should not be underestimated!

The second branch of the family where Cui Zongyan was once in decline, and Cui Zongyan was not the first heir to the second branch, but the third son. But Cui Zongyan worked hard and had good luck.

Cui Zongyan passed the county examination at the age of 15 and became a student; at the age of 18, he passed the prefectural examination and became a scholar... He failed in many examinations after that.

Cui Zongyan said that when one is in trouble, one must change, and when one changes, one will succeed.

Cui Zongyan failed the imperial examinations many times, but he stood firmly on Cui Zongji's side in the struggle for the succession to the eldest son's wife, acting as a vanguard. Later, Cui Zongji successfully became the successor to the clan leader after a struggle, and in return for his kindness, he stuffed Cui Zongyan into Yuzhang Academy.

After several years of study, the 30-year-old Cui Zongyan successfully passed the Jiangnan provincial examination and became a juren.

In the same year, Cui Zongyan passed the national examination, ranked 14th on the second list, and became a Jinshi.

Afterwards, with the support of the Cui family, Cui Zongyan slowly climbed up step by step.

Use the power of the court to give back to the Cui family, and then use the power of the Cui family to push yourself up.

Today, 46-year-old Cui Zongyan has risen to the rank of fourth grade and is an indispensable force for the Jiangnan Cui family in the court. He can even be said to be the spokesperson for the Jiangnan Cui family in the court.

Naturally, Cui Zongyan's status in the Cui clan gradually improved. After his eldest brother's accidental death, he even surpassed his second brother Cui Zongjing to become the heir to the second house, and eventually became the boss of the second house.

Cui Zongyan had a wife and a concubine, and had two sons and one daughter, namely the legitimate son Cui Ronghe, the legitimate daughter Cui Shuyun, and the illegitimate son Cui Rongtian.

As the legitimate daughter of the wife, and the only daughter born with the blessing of Cui Zongyan in the year when he successfully passed the imperial examinations, Cui Shuyun grew up in a honeypot. She did not have to study hard and practice martial arts every day to inherit the family business like her eldest brother Cui Ronghe, nor did she have to be a low-key person like her second illegitimate brother Cui Rongtian, who had to wait for opportunities.

Without inheritance rights, there are no conflicts of interest and no responsibilities.

Cui Shuyun lived a very carefree life every day.

Unexpectedly, she heard the bad news today that her father was going to marry her off!

She married into the royal family of the Ming Dynasty!

Although Cui Shuyun is still unmarried, she is not the kind of person who turns a deaf ear to what is happening outside.

What's more, there is the influence of the Cui family.

When she was a child, she witnessed her grandmother setting rules and enforcing them for her mother, and she even suffered a lot as a result.

When she grew up, she witnessed her mother setting rules for her sister-in-law!

When the daughter-in-law becomes a mother-in-law, she is ruthless to the new daughter-in-law.

Cui Shuyun is still frightened by those scenes!

Sympathy for one's own kind makes Cui Shuyun want to avoid being asked to follow the rules by her mother-in-law in the future.

At one point, Cui Shuyun even thought about not getting married.

But Cui Shuyun knew that this was impossible.

Neither father nor mother would agree.

It was not until last year, when her second brother Cui Rongtian got married, that Cui Shuyun finally had an epiphany.

My eldest brother, as the eldest son, my father and mother described him as a virtuous lady.

But this virtuous lady did not have an easy life.

The second brother, Cui Rongtian, had no say in his biological mother. As a bastard, his father only used him as a tool for marriage. His eldest wife was from the boss of his father's boss.

I learned from my close friends that this second sister-in-law is very famous in the capital.

A famous libertine.

Therefore, although she was the legitimate daughter of a second-rank minister of the Ministry of Personnel, she eventually married Cui Shuyun's second brother, a bastard from a fourth-rank family.

This is because his father Cui Zongyan wanted to go further and had something to ask for.

Otherwise, she might not even be able to get a bastard son from a fourth-rank family.

People all say that that loose woman has ruined her life.

But Cui Shuyun saw another side of it.

That is the advantage of "marrying down" - the husband's family dare not control you too much!
The virtuous eldest sister-in-law has a hard life, but the dissolute second sister-in-law lives a very wanton life.

Although Cui Shuyun did not want to and did not dare to ruin her reputation and become a promiscuous woman, bringing shame to the Cui family, her father and mother, she had already made up her mind to "marry down"!
This way, if her husband's family asks for something, they won't dare to bully her.

She can live a good life!

Moreover, Cui Shuyun believed that her loving father and mother would agree to such a small request.

But Cui Shuyun never expected that her father Cui Zongyan would tell her that he would marry her into the royal family, and make her Marquis of Fu'an!
This……

It really cost Cui Shuyun her life.

Zhu Chengwu, Marquis of Fu'an, is the eldest son of the current queen and the third son of the current king.

The current queen is the king’s third queen.

As the legitimate son, Zhu Chengwu, Marquis of Fu'an, was qualified to inherit the throne.

Moreover, the chances are not small.

More importantly, Fu'an Marquis Zhu Chengwu is one of the most outstanding martial arts talents in the Ming royal family - the Zhu clan.

It is said that at the age of 25, he was already a top-notch master.

It is said that it was precisely because of his obsession with martial arts that Marquis Fu'an, who was 25 years old at the time, still had no wife!
In terms of power and status, Cui Shujun is a member of the Ming royal family, the third son of the king, the eldest son of the current queen, and the Marquis of Fu'an. She can't even catch up with him.

In terms of fighting power, Cui Shuyun, who had never been exposed to martial arts, was no match for the top masters and could only be beaten.

Once she marries Marquis Fu'an, if she is subjected to domestic violence or bullied by her husband's family, Cui Shuyun doesn't know what to do!
I can't even run away!
My mother’s family can’t be a support either!
This is completely contrary to Cui Shuyun's ideal of "marrying down".

This is "marrying high", and it is high to the extreme!
Cui Shuyun felt like crying but had no tears.

Although this is the glory and wealth that many people dream of, it is not what Cui Shuyun wants.

In a moment of excitement, she went against her previous image of a good girl and had an argument with her father.

Looking at the back of her father who left angrily, Cui Shuyun seemed to see her own miserable life in the future.

(End of this chapter)