Chapter 1

My sister looked up at Lu Jin, a trace of surprise in her voice.

“Didn’t you say you had found the person who saved your life, Master Lu, and wanted to break our betrothal?”

His gaze passed over my face, seemed to linger for a moment, then quietly moved away. His voice was distant.

“A life saved should never have to be repaid with a lifetime.”

“There are other ways to repay a kindness. To stake an entire marriage on it would be rash, wouldn’t it?”

“Besides… if we proved incompatible, gratitude might turn to resentment. Wouldn’t that betray the kindness that prompted the rescue?”

He turned toward me, clasped his hands solemnly, and bowed.

“Thank you for saving my life, Second Miss Xie. I shall never forget it. But marriage cannot be forced. If gratitude is used to compel it, kindness may turn to enmity and affection to resentment. I would not wish to see that happen.”

My sister paused, then frowned at me.

“Ah Yu, you saved Master Lu?”

I stood where I was, looking at that face, so familiar and so strange, with a tangle of feelings in my heart.

He looked nothing like the wretched figure I had once pulled from the lake.

He was a young man of exquisite beauty and uncommon grace.

When the Lu family first moved to the capital, that face had caused a sensation throughout the city.

Countless young ladies had thrown flowers and handkerchiefs his way.

I too had stolen a look from the crowd. But I only recognized him when I saw the jade pendant at his waist.

I had given it to him myself.

Three years earlier, while studying at an academy in Jiangnan, I had gone out with my classmates. I cast a fishing line into a lake and caught a person.

Submerged rocks had cut his face so badly that his features were obscured. He was a sorry sight.

My classmates were terrified. They said he must be a catfish spirit and urged me to let go.

I couldn’t bear to. I insisted on dragging him ashore and fetched a physician to treat his injuries.

As luck would have it, willow fluff was blowing everywhere those days.

I had been allergic to it since childhood and had to keep my face veiled all day. I never removed the veil when I saw him, either.

His injuries were severe, and the cost of his medicine mounted rapidly.

My monthly allowance was meager. In the end, I took off the jade pendant I carried and gave it to him. “Take this. If you run short of money, pawn it for medicine.”

Later, before he had fully recovered, his family or servants came and took him away.

I made no further inquiries, thinking only that I had done a good deed.

It never occurred to me that the bedraggled boy from the lake was my sister’s intended husband.

In their youth, my father and the Marquis of Yong’an had been close friends and had arranged a betrothal between their children.

The marquis later left for the distant frontier, and the match was put aside.

My sister herself had never been formally told of it.

In my previous life, things had unfolded much this way. Lu Jin came to our house with gifts, but I had already told him I was the pendant’s owner.

He recognized me as his rescuer, broke the betrothal on the spot, and asked to marry me instead.

My sister stood beside us without a word, her eyes lowered.

I was so full of joy then, so absorbed in my own delight, that I never noticed the loneliness that dimmed her eyes or her silent hurt.

Later, she set three conditions.

First, on her birthday every year, Lu Jin must personally bring a bouquet of pomegranate blossoms to her residence.

Second, if we ever had a daughter, the child must bear her name.

Lu Jin agreed to both.

As for the third, my sister only said, “I’ll name it another day.”