Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Back then, after my engagement was broken off, I honestly wasn’t that resentful.

People climb toward higher places, just as water flows downhill.

If Xie Yun wanted to find a better branch to perch on, I had nothing to say.

His mistake was that after finding someone new, he still had to step on me, the one he had cast aside.

At the time, when he returned to the capital, he brought a young woman with him.

She came from a wealthy household and was the cousin of one of the Crown Prince’s concubines. She had come to the capital to seek out that concubine, hoping she would help arrange a marriage into a prominent family.

Xie Yun had been sent out on official business and happened to bring this young woman back to the capital along the way. Somewhere along that journey, she became the woman in his heart.

He quickly broke off his engagement with me and proposed to her.

The Crown Prince also intended to promote Xie Yun, so he approved the marriage.

That young woman was Wang Runhe.

Once, we bumped into each other on a market street, and I reached out to steady her.

Xie Yun immediately pulled Wang Runhe into his arms and shielded her. In a cold voice, he said to me, “I thought you were a straightforward person. I never imagined you would stoop to such filthy tricks. If anything happens to Runhe, I will never let you off.”

Then he turned around to comfort Wang Runhe.

Wang Runhe looked at me, her eyes flickering, but she offered no explanation.

The two of them murmured to each other as if no one else were there.

I was disgusted.

But after weighing the contents of my purse, I did not act rashly.

After my parents died of illness, I was no longer as well liked as I had once been.

The friends and relatives who had been close to us before became even less willing to let me visit after they learned that Xie Yun had broken off the engagement, afraid I would ask them to borrow money.

So I spent two copper coins to hire a quick-footed little beggar. I had him wait specifically for Xie Yun with a basin in hand. When Xie Yun passed by, the boy dumped an entire basin of dirty water over his head.

“Dumbass, enjoy my foot-washing water! Hahaha! That’s what you get for taking freebies without paying!”

The little beggar ran off.

Xie Yun wanted to chase him, but with Wang Runhe behind him, he had no choice but to explain to her.

“I never did anything like that. He mistook me for someone else.”

Wang Runhe flew into a terrible rage.

Xie Yun had to humble himself and coax her for ages before she calmed down.

But from then on, Wang Runhe became suspicious of everything, and Xie Yun’s authority in her heart was never quite the same.

Inside the imperial palace.

I led Wang Runhe through the vast palace grounds.

Wang Runhe suddenly said softly, “Miss Li, I wronged you in the past.”

The corner of my mouth curved faintly in mockery. I said evenly, “Madam Wang, which matter are you referring to?”

Wang Runhe fell silent.

Probably because there were far too many.

After Wang Runhe learned of my existence as Xie Yun’s former fiancée, she was never at ease.

On one hand, she hurried to set a wedding date with Xie Yun.

On the other, she sent people to bang on my door in the middle of the night.

Several drunk men would stand outside my house, grinning shamelessly as they knocked on my door and smashed wine jars. They made a loud scene as if no one else mattered, angering the neighbors on both sides and dragging my reputation down with them.

I worked during the day and snatched sleep whenever I could. At night, I kept my eyes wide open, too afraid to sleep, terrified that someone might actually break in. I kept a kitchen knife pressed under my pillow at all times.

I thought, This can’t go on.

So I went to the chief bailiff at the yamen and told him I was willing to rent him the side room of my house at a low price, so long as he could keep me safe.

The bailiff agreed.

That very day, he moved in with his wife and invited a group of bailiffs over for drinks in the afternoon.

That night, the gang of drunken men came to knock on my door again.

The bailiff happened to be there with a whole group of fellow bailiffs, and they seized every last one of them and sent them to the prefectural yamen. One interrogation was all it took to trace the matter back to Wang Runhe.

Wang Runhe was summoned, asked a few questions, and then Xie Yun came and took her away.

Xie Yun said to me, the victim, “You have no family left in the capital. Why not leave the capital and return to your hometown? This is not a place where a lone woman like you should stay.”

In front of the bailiffs, I slapped him hard across the face.

“Does this capital belong to the Xie surname? Do I need to look to your mood to decide where I may stay? You can’t even manage your own fiancée, yet you have the nerve to meddle in everyone else’s affairs?”

Xie Yun was furious, his fingers clenching into a fist. But in the end, mindful of his dignity, he flung his sleeve and left.

Wang Runhe’s expression, however, eased. A certain smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. She leaned close to my ear and said softly,

“Seeing you like this, I actually believe now that you and my betrothed had no private affair. But since I have already offended you, I will not leave behind a hidden danger. If you know what’s good for you, leave the capital obediently. Don’t stay here as an eyesore. Today, you managed to call in bailiffs. What about tomorrow? The day after? Are you going to hide inside that house for the rest of your life? As long as you step outside, I will always have a way to make you vanish without a sound. If you don’t believe me, feel free to try.”

The Wang family was rich and powerful.

I heard that during those days, dowry goods from Jiangnan were being unloaded at the docks in an endless stream. Some were for Wang Runhe, and some were gifts for the Crown Prince.

She truly did have the means to make me disappear without a sound.

Later, the few times I went out, I encountered thugs and ruffians who harassed me, and thieves who tried to steal from me.

There was no way to report matters like that to the authorities.

But I knew the person causing trouble behind the scenes was Wang Runhe, and that Xie Yun had tacitly allowed it.

Later still, when the court selected female officials, I signed up. A palace-guarding poem of mine stood out from the rest, and I became a female official.

The day I entered the palace was also the day of Wang Runhe and Xie Yun’s wedding.

First, I sent someone to deliver a box of cockroaches, throwing the gift registry area into chaos as they spent a long while catching cockroaches.

Then I sent someone else to return all the letters Xie Yun had once written to me. I heard the Wang family’s faces changed on the spot.

Xie Yun went through with the marriage in a sorry state.

The next day, when he came looking for me, I had already entered the palace.

From then on, neither he nor Wang Runhe could cause me trouble again.

Time passed in a rush.

Now, the woman who had once been so unbearably arrogant was apologizing to me. I only found it ironic.

Wang Runhe lowered her head and said quietly, “Miss Li, back then, I was deceived by Xie Yun. In truth, my days in the Xie Family have not been easy.”

The corner of my mouth lifted slightly. “Hearing you say that makes me happy.”