Unwilling to Bend to Yuan
Jiang Xuesui would secretly read romance novels about love and passion, but she couldn't agree with the behavior of those scholars and beauties. Since they were noble ladies, they shouldn't lock themselves in embroidery towers day and night studying those deliberately sour books like Biographies of Exemplary Women, Biographies of Filial Daughters, Admonitions for Women, and Instructions for Women. In Great Zhao, from noble ladies to common women, there were many ways to pass the time. It wasn't like in those books, where women acted as if they had never seen a man in over a decade, going mad at the sight of one, swearing eternal vows, privately betrothing themselves, even abandoning parents and family to elope. That wasn't a beauty; that was a heartless fool. The man she eloped with wasn't a talented scholar either, but a lustful, ill-intentioned flower thief. So whenever Jiang Xuesui read such a novel, she would complain to her maids that the pair of lovesick scholar and lady were just two idiots, and the lady's parents were surely the greatest victims and fools in the story.
It wasn't that Jiang Xuesui didn't understand love; she knew exactly what kind of relationship she wanted. She was born into a wealthy, high-ranking family, lacked for nothing, and her father was the Emperor's trusted Grand Secretary. She didn't have to scheme like Wen Yuanhuan to marry above her station, trading her lifelong happiness for others' respect. Nor would she demean herself like Xie Nongyu, who begged for Wen Qiao's affection by pretending to be a gentle, refined lady, always trying to be thoughtful so Wen Qiao would remember her kindness.
The lover Jiang Xuesui favored would be a jade-faced, upright gentleman who shared her heart and matched her family background. That would avoid many troubles and prevent gossip. It was important that she liked him, and equally important that he was worthy of her. She hadn't met such a person yet, which was why her heart remained closed.
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