Chapter 2

Inside that carriage, someone kept staring at me.

I hid in an abandoned shrine. Not long afterward, several people entered.

A contemptuous voice spoke.

“Don’t worry, my lady. The general only wants to ease his conscience.”

“I chose that woman’s corpse from the burial ground myself. Her build and age were exactly right.”

“He held those remains and wept for three days and nights. He won’t claim any random stranger as his sister. You can rest easy.”

Then another woman spoke, panicked.

“But she looks too much like her! Almost identical!”

“She cannot appear before him again. If she really is A-Yue, and what we did is exposed, neither of us will survive!”

Shen Zhiwan!

So that was it.

She had arranged the false corpse to deceive my brother.

I hadn’t imagined she would go that far.

I took a tense step back and made a sound.

Suddenly, she was in front of me, seizing my arm.

“A-Yue?”

I didn’t answer.

She sighed.

“You’re alive. That’s good. But you shouldn’t have appeared before Linyuan.”

“To protect the Xie family’s reputation, and yours, he told the court you had killed yourself rather than be captured and dishonored by the rebels.”

“The more terrible your death, the more they praised his family’s loyalty.”

“The emperor commended your chastity. That was why he gave your brother command of the army and bestowed our marriage.”

A warning edged her voice.

“If you’re alive, your very existence is evidence that he deceived the throne.”

“Please, consider this a plea from your sister-in-law. Don’t destroy his future.”

So they were married.

I gritted my teeth and refused to acknowledge her.

“I’m only a common fortune-teller, my lady. I don’t understand what you mean.”

“If there’s nothing else, I must return home for a funeral. Please excuse me.”

As I turned, she caught me again.

Her voice choked.

“A-Yue! I know it’s you!”

“You still blame me, don’t you? I never meant to take your place!”

Mid-sentence, she suddenly collapsed, screaming.

“Ah! My stomach!”

“It was all my fault! If you’re angry, take it out on me. Please don’t hurt my baby!”

I hadn’t touched her.

Even without seeing her performance, her sobs made me sick.

Ten years ago, she had used the same trick.

A few tears had persuaded my brother to abandon me to the rebels’ blades.

Now she was doing it again. She hadn’t improved at all.

Her cries were so absurd I could almost have laughed.

Then the bell rang, drawing closer.

“Wan’er!”

Linyuan rushed in and immediately gathered her into his arms.

“Wan’er! Are you hurt?”

She huddled against him, weeping.

“She looked so much like A-Yue. I only wanted to talk to her, but she pushed me.”

He turned and shouted at me.

“She’s pregnant, and you dared push her!”

So she had recognized me back at the carriage.

Ten years ago, the rebels had disfigured and blinded me. I had suffered every inhuman torment, crying for help that never came.

They, meanwhile, had prospered. Now they even had a child.

“She fell by herself,” I said calmly.

Linyuan’s voice was impatient.

“Wan’er is kind. Why would she risk her own child to frame a blind stranger?”

I curled my lip. I couldn’t be bothered to explain.

“If you’ve decided I pushed her, Lord Xie, take me to the magistrate.”

“I have only this worthless life. No power, no influence. Do whatever you wish.”

He laughed coldly.

“That would be too easy for you.”

“Guards! Bind her!”

“If Wan’er loses her baby, you’ll kowtow to her in apology until you die!”

The guards rushed me. One kicked the back of my knee.

My brother had once promised to protect me even at the cost of his own life. In the end, he had abandoned me.

Now he was the one hurting me again.

He picked Zhiwan up and hurried away.

“Don’t be afraid, Wan’er. I won’t let anything happen to our child.”

She kept sobbing.

“Don’t blame her. She’s blind and pitiful, and she looks so much like A-Yue.”

Linyuan snapped, “Don’t sully A-Yue’s name!”