A marriage edict couldn’t tie her down. Therefore, she wouldn’t get involved with whatever Fu Yanlin wanted to do or who he wanted to love.

She left too quickly, so she didn’t see Fu Yanlin gazing at her back with a complicated emotion within his eyes.

“Cousin?”

It was when he heard Lin Ruoyou softly calling him that he withdrew his gaze, glancing at her worried expression.

“She’s….. not angry right? If cousin feels awkward about the matter of taking me as a concubine, let’s just forget about it…….”

Her pearly white teeth nibbled on her lips as she slowly lowered her head down.

Fu Yanlin frowned and lifted her chin up. Sure enough, her beautiful eyes were glistening with tears.

He lightly scolded her, “What are you afraid of? I’m here, don’t be scared. It’s just that I won’t be able to grant you a position as the official wife. I’ve wronged you.”

Lin Ruoyou promptly shook her head, “As long as I can be with cousin, I don’t feel wronged.”

Fu Yanlin sighed, embracing her in his arms and gently comforting her, “I understand, please stop crying.”

Originally he planned to marry his cousin. Her gentle personality was to his liking, his parents were fond of her too. He thought she would be his wife. Who knew an imperial edict would destroy his plans.

One year after the new emperor succeeded the throne, the imperial government became unstable. The court split into two sides: one was led by the prime minister, the Prime Minister Faction. They were mostly senior veterans. The other one was led by Master Mu, the Newcomers Faction. They were mostly young officials.

His paternal grandfather’s side had followed the old emperor when he was conquering the lands, so they were much closer to the prime minister. Though he and his father didn’t indicate which faction they belonged to, his father and Master Mu didn’t agree with each other. Therefore he naturally wouldn’t want to marry the Mu Family’s daughter.

However he didn’t expect that Master Mu would shamelessly ask the emperor for a marriage proposal, forcing him to take Mu Huanqing as his wife.

He was absent the night of consummation and when the newly wed couple was supposed to offer tea to the elders to show that he didn’t care about the Mu Family’s daughter. Just because she was married to him didn’t mean that his residence would lean towards the bride’s political faction. He, Fu Yanlin, was not someone who could be coerced into doing something when he didn’t want to.

He purposely estranged himself from Mu Huanqing, yet discovered that she didn’t want to get close to him either. When the two’s eyes met, she did not have the shyness of a girl, but looked at him evenly and calmly.

However, he did not believe her. Mu Cangying was a crafty man. He would never do something that didn’t help him. Thus, having his daughter marry into the Marquis residence must serve some purpose.

Mu Cangying wanted to draw the Marquis residence onto his side and make the Prime Minister’s faction suspicious of him? He and his father would not grant the Mu Family this wish.

Fu Yanlin’s counterattack was three days later, when he accepted a new concubine. After all, how could the Emperor manage his decision to take a concubine? Of course, when accepting Lin Ruoyou, he didn’t notify Mu Huanqing at all.

However, Mu Huanqing was not at all surprised. In her heart, she knew that had she not taken the position of official wife, Fu Yanlin would’ve taken Lin Ruoyou as the main wife. She was very clear that everyone in the residence was looking at her good play.

For this reason, her mother-in-law had specially called her over, persuading her by saying that men having multiple concubines was normal. On the surface, she was comforting her. However, in reality, she was warning Mu Huanqing to not take this matter to the Emperor or else no one would look good. The first daughter Fu Rong also took this opportunity to beat her down, saying how she should not be jealous or do anything terrible out of jealousy.

Mu Huanqing was not only not angry, but respectfully repeated their words. “Mother-in-law and sister-in-law are right. My father had five concubines! Father-in-law also has four concubines. Not only that, but I’ve heard that our Marquis’ taste is similar to the other officials. There’s a minimum of four or five concubines for most officials. Our Marquis residence cannot be any less. With so many talents and boundless prospects, the Marquis should have at least six concubines to suit his position.”

When you try to one-up Mu Huanqing but you don’t succeed…