Bought Bride No More

It has been ten years since I was sold to the Ji household as a child bride. I have long grown used to being the obedient, sensible Xiao Yi, wrapped in Ji Shu’s gentle care and exclusive favor. On my seventeenth birthday, I skipped the bustling county magistrate’s daughter wedding feast and simply cooked two bowls of longevity noodles, waiting for someone who might never come back. Yet when Ji Shu returned, worn out and drowning in guilt, I caught the panic flickering in his eyes—and suddenly smiled. The Ji family once bought me for the price of one ox. Now, I will use that very sum of silver to buy back my own life. I mean to leave this courtyard that has trapped me for a decade, head for a far wider world, and become master of my own fate. This is not hatred. It is awakening. It is the most powerful rebellion against destiny from Xiao Yi, a child bride bound by old customs.