Chapter 1

For as long as I can remember, I have been notorious for my wickedness. I had plotted and schemed for a very long time.

At last, thanks to a life-saving favor, I was about to marry into the Gu family, the Duke Dingguo’s household.

On my wedding day, my elder sister tore away my disguise in front of every guest.

“Lu Yao has been competitive since she was little. If she sees something I have, she wants to snatch it from me.”

“When it comes to scheming, I can’t hold a candle to her.”

“But Young Master Gu is an upright, honorable man. He doesn’t deserve to be deceived by her for the rest of his life!”

“That year, Lu Yao didn’t happen to be in the epidemic-stricken region and save you by chance!”

“She planned every step of it long ago!”

After she finished speaking, my elder sister drew a dagger and pressed it to her own throat.

“Yes, I don’t have her knack for scheming.”

“But I would rather die than stand by and watch everything I love fall into her hands, one thing after another!”

Gu Jingchuan seized her wrist and wrenched the dagger away.

I clutched the marriage document, still wanting to explain everything.

He sighed first.

“I agreed to marry you because I thought that, once you got your wish, you would leave Yunchu alone.”

“If one of you sisters was bound to be disappointed, I would rather it be you.”

“The one who forces others is the one who deserves to be punished.”

I stood there, frozen. My personal maid suddenly leaned close to my ear.

“Second Miss, your birth mother has passed away.”

My seventeenth birthday should have been the day I shone brightest.

Instead, I had lost my marriage—and my mother was dead.

I smoothed the marriage document and returned it to Gu Jingchuan.

“Young Master Gu, your character is as pure as jade. Lu Yao is not worthy of you.”

“Our betrothal ends here.”

I had never been soft-hearted, after all.

And I would never stake my entire future on someone else.

1.

The wedding gown had been specially bestowed by the Emperor after Gu Jingchuan petitioned the palace on my behalf.

But when it finally reached me, the waist was narrower than the measurements I had given, and the hem fell several inches too short.

An imperial gift could not be altered with needle and thread. I had no choice but to starve myself.

For two whole months, I dared eat only a bowl of congee and half a bowl of rice each day.

Even when I got dizzy standing up, I refused to take another bite.

I had been waiting for this very day.

Waiting to set the phoenix coronet on my hair and cinch the sash tight as I walked into the wedding hall.

Waiting for the guests to fill every seat and marvel—

“Second Miss looks even more striking in that gown than Eldest Miss.”

Everyone in the capital knew that the refined Lu family had raised one oddity: me.

If my elder sister earned one compliment, I had to win back two. She showed herself at the Empress’s birthday banquet; I turned around and took first prize at the Empress Dowager’s Hundred Flowers Banquet.

If Mother gave her a country estate, I pressured Father into giving me one too.

Sisters at odds, fighting over everything—we had long been a laughingstock in the capital.

Only recently had the way people spoke of me begun to change a little.

“She’s about to marry, I suppose. Second Miss Lu has been much better behaved lately.”

“At the poetry gathering a few days ago, Eldest Miss took first place, and she didn’t even write another poem to outshine her.”

That “Women’s Top Scholar” poetry contest was held only once a year. I had won the top prize two years running. One more win, and I could enter the palace as a female official.

I had planned to compete for the title a third time, but Gu Jingchuan came to see me.

“Come with me to Hongluan Temple today. Let’s pray for our marriage.”

The temple stood beyond a hundred and eight stone steps. Hand in hand, we climbed, bowing once with every step.

I had stolen the Duke’s heir—the man Lu Yunchu had loved for years.

In that moment, I felt I had won completely.

Besides, Gu Jingchuan really was a rare, decent man.

Even though I had “stolen” this marriage, he always treated me with consideration and respect. Once, I had jumped onto his back in front of everyone. He scolded me for misbehaving, yet caught me firmly with both hands. I casually mentioned wanting osmanthus cakes, and from then on he never came to see me empty-handed.

The men of the Gu family did not take concubines after marriage. If their wives’ families were poor, they even allowed their brides to bring their parents to live with them and care for them.

I had dreamed of marrying into a household like that.

But with only one last step to go, my elder sister ruined everything.

Lu Yunchu wept, her shoulders trembling as she pointed an accusing finger at me before the crowd.

“Yao’er secretly read the letters Young Master Gu wrote to me. That’s why she rushed to Jiangnan ahead of me.”

“The so-called life-saving favor was a scheme from beginning to end.”

“She stole my marriage right out of my hands!”

Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked at me, as if she had endured for more than a decade and could bear it no longer.

“Ever since we were children, you’ve had to compete with me in everything. Our parents always said you were younger and told me, as your elder sister, to give way.”

“But this is the one time I won’t step aside.”

“Yao’er, don’t blame me.”

She and Gu Jingchuan had studied together for several years as children.

One was a talented young lady from a distinguished family; the other, the heir of a ducal house.

They were close in age and a perfect match standing side by side.

At the Emperor’s childhood birthday banquet, the Empress had even called them up and asked them to play the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden, painting a Longevity Scroll together.

So everyone assumed Gu Jingchuan would marry Lu Yunchu sooner or later.

Even my sister had believed it beyond doubt.

A year ago, Jiangnan was struck by a sudden flood.

Gu Jingchuan went there under imperial orders to oversee disaster relief, but contracted an epidemic disease.

At the height of his illness, he wrote two farewell letters.

One was an apology to his parents, saying he would not be able to fulfill his filial duty.

The other was for my elder sister, urging her to choose another husband.

I secretly read the letter, then slipped away without telling my family and went to the epidemic-stricken region.

Risking infection, I stayed by his side and nursed him myself.

My reputation was so poor that at first he would not let me stay.

“An unmarried man and woman alone together—it is improper.”

I blocked the doorway and lied, saying I had gone to pray for my birth mother, run into trouble on the road, and had nowhere else to go.

“People are dying of the disease outside the city every day. If you send me away, you’ll be forcing me to die on the road back to the capital.”

I remembered how, as a boy, he had found a fledgling fallen from its tree and carried it back to its nest in his cupped hands.

He could not bear to abandon even a bird. Surely he would not have the heart to turn me away.

For the next month, I cared for him without ever changing out of my clothes.

I even dared to taste the medicine first whenever a fresh dose arrived.

The medicine saved his life. It also softened his attitude toward me.

After he recovered, he offered to take me as his sworn younger sister. I refused on the spot.

“I waited on you day and night for so long. My reputation has already been ruined.”

“If you have any conscience, you’ll marry me as compensation.”

“If you refuse, I’ll make sure the whole world hears what happened during that month!”

Once, while I was giving him his medicine, I slipped a candied fruit into his mouth as usual and teased him on purpose.

“Sweet?”

“I got my rouge on it.”

Gu Jingchuan froze for a moment, then laughed and shook his head. He tapped my forehead with a curled finger.

“Fine. I suppose I’ve fallen into your hands.”

When we returned to the capital, Father raised the family rod and threatened to break my legs.

I opened the imperial edict of betrothal right in front of him and watched him fall to his knees in alarm—

Chapter 2

I also saw the last trace of color drain from Lu Yunchu’s face.

At the time, I was unbearably pleased with myself.

It had all been worth it: I had forced Gu Jingchuan to exchange his merit in disaster relief for that imperial marriage decree.

The closer the wedding day came, the more attentive he became.

I even thought that an unripe melon might not be sweet when first picked—

but once you truly tasted it, surely its sweetness would come in time.

At that moment, Mother held my elder sister and wept, taking all the blame upon herself.

“It’s my fault for favoring my younger daughter and letting Yunchu suffer all these years!”

“She has been sensible since she was little, always giving way to her younger sister.”

“This is the first time she has fought for something for herself.”

Father, too, lowered his voice and apologized before the Gu family.

“Yao’er has been jealous and competitive since childhood. She truly is not worthy of the Duke’s household.”

“If the Gu family wishes to break the betrothal, I will personally go before the Emperor and accept punishment!”

I looked at Gu Jingchuan, clinging to one last shred of hope.

“But what I did for you in Jiangnan was real. Not one bit of it was false.”

The dagger had cut into his palm, and his blood stained the wedding gown I had embroidered with my own hands.

When he looked up again, his eyes were so cold they seemed unfamiliar.

“I agreed to marry you because I thought that, once you got the betrothal you wanted, you would stop ruining Yunchu’s reputation.”

“If marrying you cannot even buy Yunchu some peace—”

“Then what would be the point of marrying you?”

So he had been willing to take me as his bride

only because he wanted to remove the greatest source of trouble from Yunchu’s side.

Gu Jingchuan had never liked me.

2.

I had once valued that marriage document more than my own life. In the end, I still returned it with both hands.

“Young Master Gu, you are noble and unsullied, a man of impeccable character. Someone like me could never aspire to you.”

“Let’s pretend this betrothal never existed.”

I let go so decisively that Gu Jingchuan was taken aback.

He hesitated to take the document, so I forced it into his palm.

The Gu elders who had come to escort the bride changed color.

“This was a marriage decreed by the Emperor. How can you undo it with a single sentence?”

Father angrily ordered his men to tie me up and drag me to the palace to answer for my offense.

Mother hurried to stand in their way.

“If Yao’er has behaved foolishly, it is because I gave birth to her. A daughter not taught well is the fault of her mother!”

“If she must appear before the Emperor, I will go with her!”

In the uproar spreading through the courtyard, someone in the crowd suddenly reminded them:

“The imperial edict says ‘a daughter of the Lu family.’ It never specifies which one.”

“If Lu Yao hadn’t barged in, Yunchu and the Heir would have been the perfect match.”

The marriage I had wagered my reputation on, fought desperately to win—

with just a few words, they transferred it to Lu Yunchu.

The wedding gown was taken off me and placed on my elder sister.

It fit her perfectly at the waist and shoulders, and the hem just brushed the floor.

Only then did I see the truth: that gown had never been made to fit me.

I was left in nothing but my undergarments, so wretched I wanted to run away at once.

But there was something more urgent to do for my birth mother.

Lu Yunchu deliberately blocked my way.

I stared at her. “The betrothal, the wedding gown, the groom—all of it is yours now. What more do you want?”

She looked me over as if I were a mad dog finally stamped into the mud.

“I didn’t wait for you to give them up.”

“I took back what was mine.”

“Lu Yao, from now on, don’t even think about snatching anything from me again.”

Not long after, wedding music rang out across the Lu estate once more. Red silk still hung all over the courtyard.

I ran in the opposite direction, away from the wedding colors filling the grounds, and rushed to the small room where my birth mother lived.

She was still wearing her old, faded clothes. Her face was covered in old scars, without a trace of color.

My trembling hand reached for her cheek. Her skin was already cold.