Chapter 2

Without his family’s protection and support, Liang Zhiyan was only an ordinary man.

At his usual rate of spending, the travel money I had given him would last perhaps half a month.

He had been raised in luxury. The cloud brocade he wore cost a fortune per bolt; even his everyday tea was the exceptionally costly Dragon Well from West Lake.

To avoid attracting attention, he had taken little money or valuables from home.

Very soon, Liang Zhiyan would learn what it meant to scrimp and save, and to find his purse empty.

He had once told me, “My illustrious family and all its wealth mean nothing to me. None of it compares to the time Lingyi and I spent in that little southern town.”

He had lived there for a mere three months.

Three months of ordinary life could seem a novel adventure. Three years—or thirty—spent worrying about money might be more than he could bear.

The Liang family sent no one after him. After a long journey, he and Zhao Lingyi settled in Lancheng.

To make a living, Zhao Lingyi went out every day to treat patients. Once, she had been proud and aloof, refusing to attend the wealthy. Now his expenses were so great that she had to swallow her pride. Anyone who paid enough could have her services.

Liang Zhiyan had his pride, too. Living off Zhao Lingyi was naturally out of the question.

Back in the capital, his paintings had always been praised as works of transcendent beauty.

Even an aristocrat as haughty as he now sold paintings and calligraphy to earn his bread.

But out in the streets, people picked over his work and criticized it without restraint.

Once, someone might have paid a fortune for a single piece of his calligraphy.

Now ordinary people on the street said his paintings were not worth twenty copper coins.

Perhaps, in that moment, he too wondered what remained of him without the Liang name.

Their first quarrel erupted on Zhao Lingyi’s birthday.

She had caught the fancy of a wealthy merchant’s son while treating him.

On her birthday, the young man sent countless gifts of fine silks and precious jewels. He even arranged two full hours of fireworks above the largest restaurant in Lancheng.

Everyone in the city saw the magnificent display.

In fact, this had happened in my previous life as well, only then it was after Zhao Lingyi had left the capital alone.

The merchant’s son had stayed by her side, soothed her unhappiness, and taken her sightseeing.

Now that she and Liang Zhiyan had successfully eloped, he had simply appeared a little earlier.

She gazed up at the fireworks with a radiant smile. Liang Zhiyan hurried over just in time to see it.

He rounded on her. “You used to say my station didn’t matter—that whether I was a nobleman’s son or a common peddler, your feelings would never change. And how long has it been? Already you despise me for being poor, for not being able to give you a life of luxury. Now you want someone richer, is that it?”

With that, he smashed the little porcelain doll in his hand onto the ground and walked away.

Zhao Lingyi chased after him. Back in their courtyard, they broke into an argument.

No matter how she explained, he refused to believe there was nothing between her and the wealthy young man.

He had used the money from selling his work to buy her a porcelain doll for her birthday. Beside all those silks and jewels and a sky ablaze with fireworks, it seemed so paltry, so ridiculous. His pride was wounded.

Her accusations only chilled his heart further.

She complained that he left early and came home late every day, no longer patiently keeping her company as he once had. When people made things difficult for her while she was seeing patients, she had no one to whom she could tell her troubles.

But Liang Zhiyan answered coldly, “If it weren’t for you, would I ever have sunk so low?”