Spring Fills the House

Staring into the pitch-black room, she almost thought something was wrong with her eyes. It took her a long while to adjust, only to realize the problem wasn’t her vision—she had simply been locked in a dark chamber.

She had no idea what time it was, nor how long she had been unconscious. All she remembered was that eerie silver mask and those chilling, merciless eyes.

Her name was Ning Qian, daughter of Ning Qian, the chief salt merchant of Huizhou. Salt merchants had always maintained close ties with the authorities, and her father was good friends with the prefect of Huizhou, Du Zongfu. When their first children were born, the two families pledged them in an arranged marriage. And so, as soon as Ning Qian came of age, she was married into the Du family.

No one could have predicted that bandits would intercept the wedding procession and carry off the bride. Recalling what those bandits had shouted, Ning Qian instinctively shrank into the corner. Thinking back, she couldn’t help sighing over her fate. She had only wanted to celebrate her marriage and enjoy some revelry on her honeymoon, yet she had somehow ended up in another world. Thankfully, in this new life, she lacked neither food nor clothing—far better off than the heroines in some transmigration novels who had to struggle just to fill their stomachs.

Yet being a wealthy young lady had its own disappointments. Take marriage, for instance—in this era, where everything was dictated by matchmakers and parental orders, what say did she truly have? Her family loved her, yes, but life rarely unf