The Rebirth of the Vengeful Empress from a Military Family

Chapter IV: Old Madame Shen

Volume I: The Spring Breeze is Only a Stranger

Chapter IV: Old Madame Shen (沈老夫人)

In the early days of autumn, geese fly amidst the clouds in a neat formation to leave their cold Northern nests and migrate to the more mellow-weathered South. In the courtyard, the leaves that grew so verdant in the summer begins to wither now that fall has come. In the pond, the colorful fishes swim much more leisurely than they had before.

The young girl dons a double-lined crimson ensemble made out of silk, embroidered with patterns of clouds and geese. The robe outlines her lovely, slender figure. A dainty coral hairpin affixes her long, jet-black hair into a deer bun.

Bai Lu gently covers her mistress' body with a brocade cloak, telling her, "The Young Miss' illness is not gone yet, the Young Miss must take care to avoid catching a cold."

Shen Miao shakes her head.

She possesses a small frame and is shorter than both her Tang older sisters. When combining her round face with her normally timid nature, she appears to be only either eleven or twelve years old, a few years younger than her real age.

Today, however, is quite different.

Shuang Jiang gazes at her mistress and a faint feeling of strangeness sprouts in her heart.

Her Young Miss is pale-skinned, small, and delicate, but her face bore no smile now. She not be described as silly nor uncaring, but rather cold. She seems to look at the heavens with some nostalgia. She stands as she did before, but now exudes a faint aura of dignity, as if she gained a unique temperament overnight. A graceful air can be felt around her.

Shuang Jiang shakes her head, as if waving away the ridiculous thoughts her mind conjured. She faces her mistress with a smile and asks, "What is the Young Miss looking at?"

Since finishing her breakfast, Shen Miao has stood in her courtyard, dazedly watching the sky.

"I was simply wondering whether these wild geese passed through the Northwest Dessert as they travel southwards from the North," Shen Miao whispered.

The Northwest Dessert is the region Shen Xin guarded. First Madame Shen and First Young Master Shen are both there. The letter sent the month prior noted that although the Capital had just become colder, the leaves had already began to wither and a small amount of snow had already began to form.

"The Young Miss misses the Madame and the Master," Shen Jiang says, smiling. "The Master will come back after the new year comes and will be delighted to see that the Young Miss has grown taller now."

Shen Miao smiles, a trace of bitterness at the corner of her lips.

The Great General can only come back to the Capital once a year. How delighted will that Great General be when the first thing he sees after his return is that his shameless daughter has forced her way into a marriage and become a laughingstock?

Not only that, the man she wishes to marry is also a scum who wants to take advantage of the Shen's family military power in order to win the fight for the imperial throne. The battle for ascension is a messy affair that the Shen family wished to avoid, but her blind love dragged them into that swamp and led them into the tragic fate of annihilation.

Shen Miao snaps her eyes shut.

Six months is such a short span of time, yet so much can happen. Ever since she came of age, her marriage became a perpetual leverage that the East Courtyard can use against her. It seems that ever since this year began, the East Courtyard tore off their masks and revealed their monstrous nature, forcing her step by step into a horrible end she can never escape.