I had grudges too.
I resented my mother for always protecting my younger siblings while ignoring my survival. I resented my father for drinking and gambling every day, losing our entire family fortune.
But what could I do? I was the eldest daughter. My siblings needed to live—and the Shen family's betrothal gift could feed our family for several years.
"Yuan'er, Mama knows you're unhappy... but when you go to the Shen household, you must never see him!"
On the night before my wedding, mother leaned close to my ear and warned me seriously.
I nodded. That night, I secretly burned all the paintings that Scholar Xu had made of me. The pearl he once gave me—I tucked it into my hair, bringing it with me to the Shen household as my only keepsake.