Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The first time I saw Yun Jian, my parents were chasing me with rattan canes.

“You little slut, I’ve wasted so many years raising you for nothing!”

“If we don’t sell you, where is our family going to get the money for your brother’s wedding?”

I managed to run a short distance before my mother grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back to the street corner.

She seized my shoulders and pinned me to the ground.

Taking advantage of the opening, my father swung his cane ruthlessly, lashing me until my flesh was raw and bleeding. My face was pressed against the sharp gravel of the road, the stones carving thin scratches into my skin.

The agonizing pain was so intense I nearly blacked out, my eyes rolling back in my head.

In that moment of paralyzed despair, I remembered the day my parents heartlessly forced me to drop out of school. My father had been crippled while working, and the family had no money to survive.

They chose to pull me out of school-even though I was the top student at the academy year after year-yet they repeatedly instructed my illiterate older brother that he must never stop his studies.

Because the Great Jin dynasty valued culture and literature, a man who dropped out midway would find it difficult to arrange a good marriage later in life.

I had knelt before my father then, tears streaming down my face as I told him I could work harder after school, transcribing books to earn money. I usually copied half a book a day, but I promised I could do better; I could copy a whole book in a day.

“In the Great Jin, women can also become officials. Once I pass the imperial examinations and become a scholar, you and mother won’t have to work so hard…”

My father slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side.

“You don’t have the luck for that life.”

I knelt in the heavy snow all night.

The next day, as my brother headed to the schoolhouse clutching his books, he gave me a mocking kick.

“It’s only because the Great Jin has that bullshit law about both men and women being allowed to take the civil service exams that you women are getting more and more restless.”

The moment he kicked me into the snow, I heard my mother’s doting voice telling him to watch his step so he wouldn’t slip.

Now that my brother had reached marriageable age and remained single, my parents were desperate again. They wanted to sell me as a slave to a wealthy family in exchange for money.

I don’t know which strike it was, but a cane hit the corner of my mouth. In an instant, my flesh was torn, and blood splattered across my cheek.

The sharp sting cleared my head for a second, but in the next, my father’s cane didn’t fall again.

A sturdy manservant blocked him. “My Young Master is passing through. He cannot abide filth.”

Through the numbness of the pain, I looked over.

A luxurious, elegant carriage was approaching from not far away. The wind caught the carriage curtain, and the first thing I saw was a long chain of jade lotus flowers entwined in ink-black hair.

It was pure, cold, and the jade had a soft, polished luster. I had worked as a clerk in a jewelry shop on West Street for a while; even the accessories of government officials’ wives and sons rarely displayed such exquisite craftsmanship.

As the carriage drew closer, I saw the person inside clearly. Cold, arched brows and pale, lonely eyes-even his elaborate ornaments couldn’t compete with his striking features.

His servant’s warning had come a little too late; my father hadn’t been able to pull back his cane in time. A small spray of blood from my back landed on the corner of the carriage curtain.

The man frowned and looked over, his gaze resting on me for a moment. The ethereal beauty of a moon reflected in water and the desolate chill of mountain snow seemed to melt into that single glance.

Would he help?

I held my breath inwardly.

Instead, I saw his lips move slightly. “Filthy.”

The servant broke into a cold sweat. He hurriedly tore down the soiled curtain and tossed it onto the ground like a piece of trash.

Fearing they would have to pay for damages, my parents scrambled to their knees to beg for mercy.

Once the carriage had driven far off, my father kicked me twice in a rage, the rattan cane falling with even greater force. “I’ll beat you to death, you restless, money-losing brat!”

I curled my body into a ball. The faint sounds of passersby whispering drifted into my ears.

“I heard that man is a close relative of the neighboring Prefect.”

“Then why did he move to Changling?”

“I know why. They say the Little Young Master has suffered from headaches since he was a child. He heard there are ancient herbal remedies in Changling.”

Eventually, my father grew tired of the beating. He let my mother support him as they walked back home, leaving me at the street corner like a dead dog.

As the sunset glow washed over me, I moved slightly.

Numbly, I reached out my hand and gripped a stone that the carriage had just rolled over. I would not be a slave, and I would not live a lowly life to satisfy anyone’s wishes.