The carriage drew up outside the Ning residence.

Uncle Chai was waiting at the gate with the others to receive them.

A servant brought out the mounting stool, and Ning Chen handed Yudie and Zisu down from the carriage.

"Let me introduce you. My women. Yudie and Zisu."

Yudie's smile was serene, gentle as still water.

Zisu's smile was radiant, sweet the moment it broke.

Uncle Chai and the others bowed. "Greetings, Miss Yudie. Greetings, Miss Zisu."

"Zisu, Yudie, this is Uncle Chai. He has always looked after me, and he is the household's steward."

"Greetings, Uncle Chai."

Zisu and Yudie said it softly, with a graceful bow.

Uncle Chai smiled until his eyes narrowed to slits. The Fourth Young Master really did have a gift — these two girls looked like they had stepped down from heaven.

"This is Gu Yichun. The household's safety is his to answer for."

With the introductions made, Ning Chen said, "Come on, let's go home."

Uncle Chai looked deeply awkward. "Fourth Young Master, which door do these two young ladies take?"

He had been there last night when Eunuch Quan delivered the edict.

The place of principal wife was being kept for the Ninth Princess.

And only a principal wife could enter by the main gate.

Yudie and Zisu were certainly to be concubines from now on... to walk in by the main gate would be overstepping.

In this world a concubine's standing was low, not much above a servant's.

To put it unkindly, even when a household was found guilty and the punishment spread to the family, it never reached as far as a concubine.

Yudie said quietly, "Ning, dear, why don't we take the side gate?"

She would never put Ning Chen in an awkward spot.

Ning Chen did not hesitate. He took Yudie's hand in one of his and Zisu's in the other.

"This is my house, Ning Chen's house. So long as she is a woman of Ning Chen's, she walks through the Ning family's gate... what happens outside is not mine to answer for, but inside this house,…