Rebirth Of A Virtuous Wife Chapter 4 40 Jan 10, 2020

I think it's quite interesting that the people in the city are waiting for something bad to happen to Ah Nan. In return, Ah Nan is also quite thick-skinned to endure all the negative comments being pointed at her. Her character is quite entertaining because everything that she does is always unexpected and sometimes illogical (but logical…) :')

Warning: No mature content is shown in this chapter, just discussed.

Rebirth Of A Virtuous Wife: Chapter 4

One cannot oppose an Emperor's order. Though the imperial chancellor and his wife does not want to agree to the marriage, they still had to reluctantly begin the wedding preparations.

The wedding took place a month later. Both the people from the imperial palace and the Lu family were very nervous.

The Emperor and the Empress Dowager were especially worried. After all the struggles, they can finally find a Su Wang Fei. They were scared that she could be dying unexpectedly, so they ordered for many imperial guards to protect the daughter of the Lu day and night. This was to prevent any dangers that could possibly be awaiting.

Using that many people with such worries, those who knew about the situation all appreciated the effort of preventing the wang fei from passing away unexpectedly. Those who knew nothing thought that the Lu household was trying to rebel against the imperial family.

At the Lu manor, people were worried that Ah Nan could stop breathing at any moment. At the same time, they had to quickly prepare the wedding and assure that all the rituals needed were appropriately organised. It was a complicated process considering that they only had one month to prepare everything, so how could they have everything done at a satisfactory level? Moreover, the groom that Ah Nan was being married off to is no other than Su Wang. It was already a pain for the imperial chancellor's wife when she had to put together the appropriate amount of dowry for Ah Nan.

Those in the capital city were also very nervous.

From many years ago, everybody had thought that in this lifetime, Su Wang would definitely have to spend the rest of his life as a single man. With the announcement of his marriage now, they do not know whether the bride will be about to survive the marriage and successfully consummate it.

This is why every big and small casino in the city began to make a bet. The votes were relatively high for the bride from the Lu family not surviving the wedding.

There were even young ladies from other noble families who couldn't help but express sympathy for Ah Nan. Most of those noble young ladies were the ones that Ah Nan had met at the flower-admiring banquet in the palace. At that time, the difference in Ah Nan made them very uneasy and vulnerable. But a day after that when they heard about the marriage decree given by the Emperor, all the anger that they felt beforehand turned into sympathy and love. They felt very lucky that they did not look so different at the banquet, and as a result, did not grab the attention of others.

Not many people dare or dream to be married to Su Wang. This given opportunity to be related to the imperial family was not beneficial at all even if the chosen bride is from a poor family. If they want wealth, they would need a life to enjoy it, right?

In the current situation, Ah Nan did not dare to go anywhere since everybody was showing their concerns. She also heard some news about casinos making bets of her not being able to survive the wedding with the ratio being 1:100 (1 win, receive 100). Ah Nan wanted to cry and laugh.

"Xiao jie, the people outside are really too much. They dared to take your life as a bet! This should be reported to the imperial chancellor so that he can have people go shut down all those casinos," Ru Cui spoke up, feeling the injustice.

Ah Nan was sitting on a chair close by the window. She supported her chin with a hand as she watched Ru Cui pacing in the room in anger. She asked out of curiosity, "Ru Cui, do you think I can survive through this wedding?"

Ru Cui's face showed signs of uneasiness. She wanted to say "Yes" but the legend of Su Wang being wifeless was way too indestructible, causing her to utter no words even if she had wanted to.

Ah Nan sighed and did not make things difficult for the maid.

"Xiao jie, you don't have to worry. Ru Cui will forever keep xiao jie company. If something unfortunate does happen to xiao jie…Ru Cui will forever not get married. I will burn incenses and pray to Buddha for xiao jie," Ru Cui quickly displayed her loyalty.

Ah Nan rolled her eyes and glared, "Shouldn't a loyal maid die with the owner?" This was the definition of a true loyal maid.

"How could it be that way? Xiao jie, I haven't lived long enough yet," Ru Cui honestly responded with a foolish expression painted on her face. "Moreover, if I die, who will pray to Buddha for you? Xiao jie, how about I will go to the casinos and vote that xiao jie will be able to survive through the wedding, plus even will successfully consummate the marriage? Can I?" she tried to please Ah Nan.

Ah Nan pretended to be angry and hit the maid a few times. How could she have used such a carefree speech and even attempted to use Ah Nan's life as a bet? Giving the maid a small beating was just to help her release some anger.

With so many people voting that she will not be able to survive, Ah Nan was inwardly feeling irritated.

Due to Ah Nan's marriage, the other married daughter's of the imperial chancellor returned to the Lu manor. Even her brothers, who live outside the manor, returned. As the brothers were much older, they weren't very close to Ah Nan. Any words of comfort were hard to be expressed into words, so they could only show their support with actions by returning. Ah Nan's three older sisters were the fastest. One by one, each of them helped Ah Nan prepare herself mentally, with intentions of saying that no matter how difficult the situation was, Ah Nan should stay persistent to not ruin the reputation of the imperial chancellor.

Ah Nan with an expressionless face: Why did they have to come back? Was it because they wanted to see when Ah Nan will die?

One month was really too short. Ah Nan was unable to self-embroider her own wedding dress. She was also not that skilful, so it was really impossible. Luckily, the Lu family has their own embroidering lady. Speeding through day and night, the wedding dress for the wang fei had to be done. On the other hand, the imperial chancellor's wife was so busy that her legs were almost never resting. When the wedding day was almost approaching, she realised that there was still something that she hasn't done yet.

Ah Nan was called into the imperial chancellor's wife's room. A book was secretly shoved to Ah Nan as the imperial chancellor's wife said in a small voice, "Read this by yourself when you have time. This would usually be something that your birth mother would say to you, but your birth mother passed away too early. I've raised you since little so I will teach you instead. If there's something that you don't understand…don't ask anyone else. Over time, you will slowly understand…"

In an instant moment, Ah Nan noticed the imperial chancellor's embarrassment.

When Ah Nan returned to her room, she opened the book.

The book turned out to be shunga.

Ah Nan carefully flipped through the book. She couldn't believe that the ancient shunga illustrated many exaggerated sex positions. She wondered and felt sceptical whether in reality a woman could bend herself like the way it was shown in the book; the way the woman was rotating could have her spine broken or her ligament stretched. Nonetheless, she couldn't deny the fact that the illustrator did a great job as the colours were very lively and the postures shown were very bold. Even the most private part of a human body was drawn in great detail so that the reader can easily understand what was being conveyed.

If it were any other upright young ladies who were reading the book, their faces would've already turned red with no intentions to read any further. But Ah Nan casually turned the book into something to kill time. Whenever she left, she would hide the book under her pillow and whenever she was in the mood she would flip through it again for fun.

Through all the frantic preparations with gongs and drums playing, plus through what felt like an endless countdown that everybody was doing to see when Ah Nan's life would be shaken, and through the high levels of nervousness that the imperial family and the Lu family were feeling —the wedding ceremony finally happened.

Additionally, Ah Nan peacefully lived until the wedding day, dressed in a lavished red dress, covered with a red veil over her head, then walked to the wedding sedan by the imperial chancellor's wife.

Fun Facts:

→ In Chinese culture, even in this modern time, the bride would usually be given some dowry from her family before she is married (they're usually things that could be helpful to the bride after she is married, or are things that kind of show-off to the groom's family in regards to the family's wealth). The dowry could be pretty much anything. Back in ancient times, dowries were very important for brides because it represents their importance and status at their paternal home. The more dowry, the better. Additionally, those sitting on different social hierarchy will be given a different value of dowry. For example, daughters from aristocracy would have more expensive dowry compared to a daughter from an ordinary family.

In the story, the imperial chancellor's wife had a hard time choosing an appropriate dowry for Ah Nan because she is being married to a prince, so her dowry, of course, should be super valuable and grand so that they do not embarrass their own family, and also not offend the imperial family (if Ah Nan's dowry was cheap, that would be indirectly saying that the imperial family is cheap too).

→ Shunga (春画) is actually a Japanese term for erotic art influenced by the Chinese. In Vietnamese, it is known as xuân cung đồ, which literally translates as spring palace picture, the same literal meaning as the Japanese term. The Chinese author used 的春/宫图 (de chūn/gōng tú) to name the book.