The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Censor's Banquet
Chief Censor Gao Wenjing had a gentle voice and a long grey beard, and he poured the wine himself.
"A man's wedding should not be quiet," he said, and held out the cup to Biyan with both hands. "Three cups, Minister. For a bridegroom, it is the custom."
The banquet hall was full of lanterns and ministers.
Zhiruo sat at the women's side of the table in a borrowed red jacket, with her hands folded in her lap, and felt every eye in the room.
Gao's wife was sitting across from her.
She was round and kind-looking, with a silver comb in her hair, and she had not stopped smiling at Zhiruo since the soup.
"Xiuwen," she said, and her smile widened. "How you have grown. Show me your hands, child. I want to see whether you still prick your thumbs."
Zhiruo laid her hands on the table.
They were small and square, with the roughness of years of scrubbing across the knuckles.
The silence at the women's side went on one breath too long.
"These are not the hands of a Grand Secretary's daughter," said Gao's wife slowly.
Zhiruo lifted her chin.
"No, Madam Gao. The Minister's house keeps an old custom. A new wife works with her own hands in her husband's kitchen for the first month, to honor his ancestors."
She had invented it on the spot.
Across the room, she saw Biyan's head turn.
"Does it?" said Gao's wife.
"It does," Biyan said, crossing the floor to stand behind Zhiruo's chair. Her voice was perfectly cold. "My late father's rule. Granny Mo has her scrubbing pots, and she is better at it than my scullery maids."
She set her hand on Zhiruo's shoulder.
It was a warm and weighty hand.
It rested there a heartbeat longer than the pretense needed.
Zhiruo felt it all the way down to her feet.
"A charming rule," Gao's wife said.
Gao himself had gone very still at the head of the table.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend