Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Xie Yun’s gaze froze on my face, as if he could not believe I would say such a thing.
He lowered his head slightly and said bleakly, “So you still remember.”
Three years ago, the Xie Family came to break off the engagement.
At the time, my parents had died one after the other, and I had become an orphan.
Xie Yun, meanwhile, had received an opportunity to leave the capital on official business. Once he returned, a promotion would be waiting for him.
Because I was an orphan, I was no longer good enough for him.
The Xie Family offered two options.
Either we broke off the engagement, and from then on Xie Yun and I would marry whomever we wished, with nothing more to do with each other.
Or they would switch the groom. It would be all the same if I married the Xie Family’s concubine-born son, Xie Qun.
The Xie Family felt they had already been more than benevolent.
After all, Xie Qun had been born to a beautiful concubine. He was strikingly handsome and had once received praise from an old commandery princess. For an orphan like me, he was more than enough.
But I cared more about what Xie Yun thought.
The one I had been betrothed to was Xie Yun, and the two of us had once gotten along well.
I did not want to think of him as someone who would betray his word.
Calmly, I asked, “Is this the First Young Master’s intention? I want the First Young Master to tell me himself. Otherwise, I won’t accept it.”
The Xie Family members smiled with certainty. “The First Young Master anticipated that you would say as much, miss, so he left a letter for you to read. The young master said that times have changed and circumstances have shifted. You are an intelligent person, miss. You should know how to read the situation.”
I opened the letter and read it.
It was indeed Xie Yun’s handwriting, marked with the seal he alone used.
His letter was very brief: Part in peace, bear no resentment, hold no longing. May you paint your brows anew and find another worthy match.
I accepted the letter.
And I had made my choice.
I said, “Then break off the engagement.”
The Xie Family members were somewhat stunned.
They had thought I would choose Xie Qun.
Xie Qun looked at me in surprise as well, then gave a clear laugh and bowed with easy grace.
“Does Sister Lüxue not trust me? If you are willing to marry me, I will certainly treat you well.”
He was a few months younger than me.
In the past, whenever I met with Xie Yun, he would tag along.
I said coolly, “For someone who has broken faith, regaining trust is harder than climbing to the heavens. Today, your Xie Family abandons me for the sake of prospects. Tomorrow, you will abandon me again for some other reason. Trusting you once was my blindness. Trusting you twice would be my idiocy. Please leave. From now on, all ties between us are severed. Men and women will marry as they please, and we will have nothing more to do with one another. If we meet again someday, we will treat each other as strangers.”
After that, rumors flew everywhere, saying I was fated to bring ruin to all my kin, and that was why the Xie Family had broken off the engagement.
I struggled to survive, took part in the selection for female officials, and placed first. I secured a path as a female court official and became a Palace Drafter in the Palace Bureau of Governance, drafting edicts for Her Majesty the Empress and organizing documents.
The Xie Family, however, became implicated in the Crown Prince’s embezzlement case.
Naturally, the Crown Prince would not be severely punished. That meant someone had to be found as a scapegoat.
The Xie Family became the scapegoat pushed out to take the fall.
Xie Yun went from a meritorious son of the Xie Family to its guilty sinner in the blink of an eye.
He had already knelt before the palace gates for three days, but no one dared pass on his message or submit a memorial for him.
Only then did he kneel at Shenhua Gate, where those of the inner palace came and went, and stop me there.
I looked down at him from above, my gaze neither sad nor pleased.
“You once told me to read the situation, young master. I have always kept that lesson in mind and have never dared forget it.”
I walked around him and continued on my way.
Xie Yun raised his voice. “I will divorce my wife and wait for you to come back. You leave the palace at twenty-six, so I will wait until you are twenty-six. I only ask that you pass on my request to meet Her Majesty the Empress.”
My steps halted. I found it somewhat unbelievable. “You will divorce your wife?”
“That’s right!” Xie Yun said firmly. “I know I wronged you back then. I am willing to change and make amends. Lüxue, I hope you can forget past grievances, and that you and I can renew our former bond.”
“Hahahahahaha!” I threw my head back and laughed so hard that tears nearly came out.
“Xie Yun, I thought you were merely ordinarily disgusting. I didn’t expect you could be even more disgusting than that. What kind of person do you take me, Li Lüxue, for? And what kind of person do you take Wang Runhe for? What do you think you are? Madam Wang, did you hear that? He wants to divorce his wife and marry another. Do you still intend to spend your fortune to save him?”
Wang Runhe slowly walked out from beside the red palace wall, her icy gaze fixed on Xie Yun.
A flicker of panic crossed Xie Yun’s face. His pale, dry lips forced out two words. “Runhe…”
Wang Runhe passed him without looking sideways, as if he did not exist at all.
Xie Yun rose and staggered after her, enduring the pain in his knees, but the guards stopped him outside the gate.
He hissed in anger, “How could my wife be here?”
I gave a soft sneer, the corner of my mouth curving in mockery.
“Madam Wang was worried for the safety of your Xie Family and was willing to part with a thousand taels of gold just to seek an audience with Her Majesty the Empress. I came out today to bring her into the palace. But tell me, do you think Madam Wang will still plead for peace on behalf of your Xie Family now?”
“Li Lüxue, you set me up!”
“You brought this death upon yourself.”