Chapter 1: The Half-Faced Bridegroom
In the second year of Xuantong, Jinling Zhou Mansion.
When night fell, red lanterns hung in the courtyard where the eldest young master Zhou Jinming lived, and the exquisite and gorgeous room looked more and more brilliant under the reflection of Western chandeliers.
In the room there is a mahogany openwork carved screen, next to the screen against the wall is placed a polished Western mirror, in front of the mirror is a rosewood table, on the table is placed a twig copper wine jug, and a few small and delicate pastries.
Sister Su wore a red wedding dress with a phoenix and a peony, and a hijab embroidered by Luan Feng and Ming Su, sitting uneasily on the marriage bed decorated with dragon and phoenix Chengxiang.
A month ago, Sister Su was an innocent peasant girl in the countryside of Jingxi County, Jiangnan Province, and her family of four lived a simple but happy life, but after the autumn, it rained continuously, resulting in flooding.
The family of four finally fled to the provincial capital of Jinling, where they lived on relief and begging, but their father and younger brother fell ill with malaria at the same time and died in less than two days.
In order to raise money to buy imported German drugs for malaria treatment in Zhouji Pharmacy, Sister Su was forced to sell herself, but fortunately she met a kind person like Master Zhou, who bought her at a high price of ten taels of silver, and specially designated her to do light work in her own room.
She thought it was luck from heaven, but it was the beginning of a catastrophe.
It turned out that Young Master Zhou bought her not as a maid, but as a concubine.
Although the eldest young master Zhou Jinming is kind to her, he has no name or distinction as a concubine, but he is just a plaything of a rich man, and he is no different from a woman in the dust.
Sister Su sold herself, she just wanted to be a maid, work hard in the Zhou Mansion, and when she had saved enough money for redemption, she would go home to reunite with her parents.
"Now natural disasters and man-made disasters are continuous, warlords have been fighting for years, Jiangnan Province is in chaos, and the Qing Kingdom is about to end! You are a girl in the countryside, even if you go to the government to complain, what waves can you make? Our second and third young masters are both doing things under the governor. In Jinling, the Zhou family is the king! ”
The fat aunt who was in charge of her reprimanded her fiercely in her ear, Sister Su didn't believe that the Zhou family was the king of Jinling, and no matter how powerful the Zhou Mansion was, it was always inferior to the governor of Jinling City.
"If it weren't for the eldest young master's disability, where would it be your turn to be a country girl as a concubine? If you dare to make trouble again, your life will not be guaranteed, and your father and brother will not be able to get out of Jinling City alive, you think about it carefully. ”
The fat aunt's intimidation successfully made Sister Su stop struggling, and she seemed to be tied into the marriage room as if she was a little resigned.
Sister Su was still stuffed with a handkerchief in her mouth, tears glistened in her autumn pupils, and her hands and feet couldn't move at all until the noise in the courtyard gradually quieted down, and her heart became more and more uneasy.
As the door creaked, there was a sound of footsteps in her ears, the footsteps were very strange, as if the weight of the two feet was different, light, heavy, mixed with the sound of metal hitting the floor.
Sister Su understood that the disability in the fat aunt's mouth should be a cripple on crutches.
The strange footsteps stopped in front of Sister Su, and sure enough, she saw a dazzling metal cane in the afterglow under the hijab.
"Hey, hey, hey." A piercing laugh like a crow's scream sounded, which was something that Sister Su had never heard in her life.
The cane was slowly raised, lifting her hijab, and the metal cane emitted a blinding glow.
The moment the hijab was removed, Sister Su's eyes widened in horror, and she almost fainted with fright.
It was a face that would make anyone tremble when they saw it.
The right half of the face is the same as an ordinary person, but the left half of the face seems to have been stripped of its skin, missing an eye, only a black pit in the eye socket, half of the lip is gone, revealing red gums, the bridge of the nose is half collapsed, and the white cartilage inside can be faintly seen.
Is this just a disability?
It's obviously a monster, not a human at all! As long as he is not blind, he can be frightened by the sight of him.
Sister Su's body trembled, and her mouth gagged by the towel let out a frightened cry.
She remembered that when she put a straw mark on her head and knelt on the side of the street to sell it, a carriage stopped in front of her on the road, and another pair of eyes stared at her behind the curtain on the carriage for a while, and then she was bought, she only knew that the person who bought her was Zhou Jinming, the eldest young master of the Zhou Mansion.
"You're afraid of me?"
A piercing sound like a crow's scream came from Zhou Jinming's mouth, and there was a scar on his slightly trembling throat, and it was obvious that his vocal cords were also seriously injured.
Sister Su was terrified and kept nodding.
"Don't be afraid, I'm also human, but half a face is missing."
Zhou Jinming smiled slightly, the intact right half of his face still looks like a handsome boy, but when he puts it together with the left half of his face, it can't be said to be weird.
He used a metal crutch to remove the towel that was stuffed into Sister Su's mouth, and the cold metal crutches pressed against her chin, "I took a fancy to you at a glance in the carriage, and sure enough, after wearing the bride's clothes, you became more and more beautiful." ”
"No, no, don't come near me!"
Sister Su screamed in horror, struggling as hard as she could, and her body was strangled by the ropes tied to her body.
"Don't worry, I won't get close to you, I just want to ask you, are you willing to marry me and give me a son?"
Sister Su blurted out: "No, I don't want to!" ”
"You hate me for being ugly? But you must know that our Zhou family is the richest man in Jinling, I am the eldest son of the Zhou family, you marry me and give me a son, that is, the eldest grandson of the long house, everything in the Zhou family belongs to our son, and it is also yours. ”
Sister Su shook her head desperately: "I don't want it!" ”
"Smack!"
Zhou Jinming was furious, and knocked heavily on Sister Su's head with a metal cane, and she felt a burst of Venus rising in front of her, and suddenly a warm liquid flowed down.