Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“Song Qing, do you still remember what I said before Father’s memorial tablet that day?

“I said I would take good care of you and Mother, and that I would ensure you both lived a good life.

“You’re just a young girl. That carriage was going so fast-how could you dare! You…”

Brother could not go on. He covered his face and crouched down, weeping silently with great restraint.

Listening to his suppressed sobs, my heart ached, and tears streamed from my eyes.

“Brother, Jiang Wanru has her sights set on you. She wants to claim you as her husband, which is why she’s set trap after trap to harm you.

“She knows you look down on her, so she will find ways to prevent you from taking the Imperial Examination, leaving our family with no way out.”

Brother’s tears stung me.

I wanted to protect him, but I hadn’t realized that he didn’t actually want my sacrifice and protection.

I should have trusted him; I should have believed that we, as siblings, could overcome these hardships together.

Brother didn’t ask me how I knew all of this.

He wiped his tears and stood up.

His eyes were filled with overwhelming hatred and disgust.

“Ah Qing, in your previous life, you must have suffered greatly, didn’t you?”

I looked at my brother in shock.

He gave a bitter smile.

“Lu Yuan said you were the one who approached him and asked them to protect me.

“When you woke up that afternoon, it was as if you had become a different person, abandoning your usual gentle and obedient nature.

“This is my fault for not believing you from the very beginning.

“Rebirth is too bizarre a matter. Aside from me, you must not speak of this to a second person.”

I told my brother everything about the previous life in detail.

When he heard that both Mother and I had been killed by Jiang Wanru, he closed his eyes tightly.

A moment later, when he opened them again, his gaze was clear and resolute.

Brother began to study like a man possessed.

As for me, I began to train my body like a woman possessed.

Every morning when Brother got up, he would spend half the day in the courtyard striking my Wooden Dummy.

Only after working up a sweat would he go to read and write.

My mother worried as she watched the rice barrel empty rapidly, and she extended her daily embroidery work by another hour.

Naturally, I did not attend Jiang Wanru’s banquet; I tore her invitation to pieces.

Early one morning, Jiang Wanru actually showed up in person with her retinue to block our door.

“Sister Song Qing, why didn’t you come to the banquet yesterday?

“Do you… do you think I’m ugly like the others do, and thus refuse to be my friend?”

Jiang Wanru bit her lip, her eyes red, putting on a pathetic, hypocritical act.

I nodded expressionlessly.

“Yes, you are too ugly. Looking at you makes my eyes hurt.”

Jiang Wanru clutched her chest and looked at me in disbelief.

When we met during the Qixi Festival last month, I had thought she was truly pitiful and had even comforted her softly.

She glanced behind me, and then her frail body swayed a few times, as if she were about to collapse.

“Sister Qing, I sincerely want to be your friend. Your words… they are like a dagger to my heart.”

“Ah Qing, who is it?”

A clear, gentle voice sounded from behind me.

Seeing my brother arrive, Jiang Wanru covered her eyes with a handkerchief and began to sob.

“Sister Qing, if you find me so ugly that I offend your sight, then… then I shall stay far away from you from now on.

“Here, this is the gift I prepared for you yesterday. Regardless of what happens, I still thank you for your help during the Qixi Festival.”

A maid shoved a box into my hands.

After giving me a mournful look, Jiang Wanru ran away crying.