Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The eunuch’s shrill voice as he proclaimed the imperial decree still rang in my ears.
I reached out and accepted the decree naming me Princess Consort Chen.
Xie Rujue’s face had gone deathly pale.
Not long ago, he had been mocking me.
“You little country bumpkin, you really are lucky. To think you happened to be here for an imperial decree. Come on, receive it with me. I’ll let you broaden your horizons.”
And now, this decree was for me, not for the Xie Family.
It was Xie Rujue who had basked in my reflected glory and gotten to see an imperial decree.
Everyone came forward to congratulate me.
Xie Rujue’s sisters exchanged complicated looks with him, then surrounded me and offered their congratulations.
Madame Zhou, the mistress of Marquis Manor, sighed and told me to put the imperial decree away safely. Then she went off to settle the two senior matrons the palace had left behind.
They were responsible for teaching me the rules, lest I fail to understand royal etiquette in the future.
Xie Rujue finally snapped back to himself. His face was filled with the humiliated fury of someone who felt he had been deceived.
His gaze turned to me, and he demanded angrily,
“Li Caicai, when did you hook up with Prince Chen? How dare you, behind my back, with an outsider…”
“You disgraceful wretch! Hold your tongue.”
Madame Zhou cut him off and gave the two matrons an apologetic smile.
The steward hurriedly stuffed a few silver ingots into the matrons’ hands to buy their silence.
They all wanted to smooth things over.
But I could not let it pass without answering back.
Those two matrons would certainly be questioned when they returned.
If I did not explain, then I would truly become a shameless woman who had seduced Prince Chen while still entangled with Xie Rujue.
I said coldly, “Xie Rujue, have you forgotten? Three years ago, when I came to Marquis Manor, I told Madame Zhou that I would trade the marriage contract for three years of living here. Once I turned sixteen, I would leave of my own accord. I gave the marriage contract to Madame Zhou long ago. You were the one who refused to believe it and imagined things on your own. Now you are slandering me and Prince Chen. What exactly are your intentions? Apologize to me!”
Xie Rujue looked as if he had been struck by lightning.
He had always been arrogant and conceited.
In the three years I spent at the Xie Residence, he never believed that I truly wanted to break off our engagement.
He thought it was my strategy, retreating in order to advance.
That was what he thought.
That was also what the brothers and friends around him thought.
Even Madame Zhou had thought so at first.
She guarded against me at every turn and refused to let me appear before Xie Rujue.
Only later, after she realized that I truly had no such intention, did she lower her guard.
Only Xie Rujue’s sisters truly believed I had no feelings for him.
I spent every day with them. We studied together, practiced calligraphy together, ate together, got scolded by our tutors together, suffered through our lessons together, talked about gossip in the capital, and even discussed which young men from which families were handsome. We were good sisters who had endured hardship together.
They did not like Xie Rujue as a brother. They felt his romantic scandals had damaged their reputations, so they did not think I would go looking for trouble by falling for a gentleman who already had several women in his heart.
And indeed, I did not like him.
As soon as I entered the capital, before I went to acknowledge my relatives, I asked around about Xie Rujue’s reputation.
Even the waiter at a teahouse could give a vivid account.
“Xie Shizi has a young lady who grew up with him. That girl clings to him terribly. No matter how Xie Shizi tries to drive her away, she won’t leave. But Xie Shizi doesn’t like her. The one Xie Shizi likes is Miss Zizhu of Zhaoyue Tower. She’s a beauty like an immortal descended to earth. She was originally the daughter of an official family too, but unfortunately fell into the pleasure quarters. Xie Shizi can only avoid suspicion with her, yet she is deeply in love with him. To this day, she still hasn’t received a guest…”
At the time, I felt that a man like that could not be taken.
I was young then and could not explain the reasoning. It was only instinct.
But now, after studying and learning to understand principles, I had thought the reasoning through.
What I disliked was that every girl who appeared beside Xie Rujue ended up carrying a stain on her name. If that happened to every single one of them, then it certainly was not those girls’ fault. It was Xie Rujue’s.
He was the sort of person who acted lofty and arrogant, always assuming that everyone around him wanted something from him.
He had grown a pair of eyes for nothing. He could see only himself, never anyone else.
When you meet someone like that, you should run as far away as you can.
In the past, for the sake of staying alive, I could not run.
Now, at last, I could. I would never again suffer his petty insults.
Xie Rujue’s face was ashen. His stiff lips forced out a few unwilling words.
“I don’t believe it! You’re lying! I’ll go ask and find out the truth. Li Caicai, don’t think you can hide this from me.”
Someone as conceited as him would suffer a great loss one day.