When Cheng Yujin knew, she didn’t stop Cheng Yumo. Cheng Yumo was sitting in a carriage, crying all the way home. She kept sobbing, feeling that her life was too bitter. Heaven was unfair. Why did it favor her sister so much?
Halfway, she was stopped by Huo Changyuan. Cheng Yumo didn’t know how to describe his face at that time. She only remembered that Huo Changyuan apologized to her and said that he would give her an explanation.
At that time, Cheng Yumo was dazzled by excitement. Later, after she became Marchioness Jingyong, she recalled the scene of that day, and found out that Huo Changyuan’s expression at that time was clearly admitting the fate between them.
After the death of the scheming woman, the suffering young miss finally got together with her beloved general. But the reality wasn’t a stage drama. After the story ended, how was their life?
In the years after their marriage, Cheng Yumo could not tell how miserable her married life was. After all, Huo Changyuan pampered her, and Huo Xue-shi gave her enough face. To outsiders, her life was like a flower on a brocade, or a sun soaked in a honey jar: perfect and beautiful. But Cheng Yumo always felt that she was living under Cheng Yujin’s shadow. And the remnants of Cheng Yujin’s memories were left everywhere in the manor.
Huo Changyuan couldn’t forget his first wife who died young, and the manor’s servants couldn’t forget the perfect deceased Madam. Even Huo Xue-shi always disliked Cheng Yumo’s inability. In Huo Xue-shi’s words, it was: “You cannot even do such a simple thing. When your elder sister was here, I don’t have to worry at all, and it only took two days for her to finish the arrangement.”
Cheng Yumo smiled bitterly. Yes, because such a perfect woman like Cheng Yujin has once existed, she would always get compared no matter what she did.
In the years after her marriage, Cheng Yumo endured unspeakable aggrievance. Later, she woke up to find herself back to her younger self before everything happened. Cheng Yumo cried with joy. Great, nothing has happened. She had to go and tell Huo Changyuan the truth early. With this, she didn’t have to kneel before Cheng Yujin(1) and didn’t have to endure others comparing them. More importantly, she didn’t have to look at Huo Changyuan stroking the embroidery pattern left by Cheng Yujin day after day, silently remembering his deceased wife.
She wanted to thoroughly purge Cheng Yujin’s existence from her and Huo Changyuan’s life.
Cheng Yumo thought that she had succeeded. Huo Changyuan promptly broke off his engagement with Cheng Yujin and took her as his fiancee instead. Both grandmother and mother accepted her engagement, and even grandfather gave her one thousand silver taels for her dowry. This has never happened in her previous life.
Cheng Yumo came out of the side building with satisfaction, but unexpectedly bumped into Cheng Yujin.
When caught off guard, people didn’t have time to hide their thoughts and inadvertently revealed their true feelings. It was also at this moment Cheng Yumo realized that she has never escaped from Cheng Yujin’s shadow. Perhaps Huo Changyuan and the people of Jingyong Marquis manor would no longer have Cheng Yujin in their memory. But in Cheng Yumo’s heart, her deceased sister would always be a huge mountain she couldn’t cross over.
Cheng Yumo’s expression turned stiff. After she realized, she quickly tried to control her emotions. She showed the face a younger sister should have and smiled at Cheng Yujin: “Elder sister, you are here.”
Cheng Yujin nodded lightly: “Yes.”
The atmosphere soon turned awkward again. Cheng Yumo desperately tried to bring back the scene. She glanced at the box in Cheng Yujin’s hands and deliberately asked nonchalantly: “Elder sister, why are you carrying that by yourself? Where is your servant girl?”
Du Ruo was about to step forward to apologize, but Cheng Yujin reached out and stopped her movements. Cheng Yujin then said: “This is my own intention. Du Ruo injured her waist and is inconvenient to carry things. Anyway, it is just an empty box and is not heavy. I can bring it myself.”
Cheng Yujin once again arranged everything properly and easily. All right, everyone always praised Cheng Yujin for being sensible and generous, as if Cheng Yumo was the ignorant child. At this moment, Cheng Yumo seemed to return to her previous life, and a surge of hostility suddenly burned in her heart. She tried to control the expression, pretending to chat with Cheng Yujin pleasantly: “Really, ah. Elder sister truly treats your servants well. Since elder sister said so, how can this younger sister bear seeing you bring back things by yourself? Let this younger sister help you take that box back.”
When Cheng Yumo reached her hand to the food box, Cheng Yujin immediately took a step back: “No.”
Cheng Yumo’s hand stopped in the air stiffly. She looked at Cheng Yujin in surprise.
Cheng Yujin quickly calmed down and said: “It’s just a food box, I can bring it myself. No need to bother you. I am the elder sister, and I should take care of you. Your body isn’t healthy, and you cannot be tired.”
Cheng Yumo clenched her palms unconsciously. Elder sister should take care of her younger sister; Cheng Yumo grew up listening to these words. When she still lived in her natal family, she never thought anything was wrong. But after getting married, Cheng Yumo realized that this sentence had become an invisible barrier. Her sister’s limelight had become something that she could never be able to break through.
Suddenly, an unknown desire engulfed Cheng Yumo’s mind. As if she was deliberately competing with Cheng Yujin in her previous life, she said: “Elder sister, what are you talking about? You and I were born on the same day and the same hour. You are only a few dozen minutes older than me. Why should you always take care of me? Even if your servant girl is injured, she shouldn’t let you bring things personally. Zhu Xin, go and help elder sister bring the box.”
Cheng Yujin frowned. She wondered what kind of strange medicine did Cheng Yumo eat today. Whenever she gave out benefits for her younger siblings before, she never saw Cheng Yumo said that they are of the same age and Cheng Yujin shouldn’t relent for her. Why did she suddenly so persistent today?
Cheng Yujin has always used her own thought to gouge other people’s minds. She immediately suspected whether Cheng Yumo was also aiming for Old Master Cheng’s remaining fortune. Was she perhaps trying to let her servant girl checked if there was anything in the food box?
Unfortunately, there was.
(1) Second wife is considered lower status than the original wife, even if both are technically legal wives. So after she married in, Cheng Yumo had to kneel and give Cheng Yujin’s memorial tablet a respectful greeting.