Chapter 1

Jiang Yue wore an apricot-yellow skirt and tunic. She had no other jewelry on her, only a pair of agate earrings that swayed gently as she walked.

I narrowed my eyes, staring hard at those earrings.

I had long since forgotten what happened so many years ago. Only a faint memory remained: those earrings had seemed familiar.

Now, as the scene unfolded before me a second time, everything fell into place.

Those earrings were mine. While Mother was still alive, my maternal grandfather had sent them from Quanzhou—imported trinkets for me to play with.

There had been eighteen pairs in all. I never noticed Father secretly taking one to please his mistress’s daughter.

I was only eight then. Naturally, it never occurred to me to ask how an orphan could afford such expensive imports.

And Jiang Yue had deliberately worn those earrings, and nothing else, to mock me, hadn’t she?

To mock my ignorance, my belief that my loving father and grandmother only wanted what was best for me.

Father looked at our clasped hands with a heartfelt smile.

“Good, good, good! From now on, you’ll call each other sisters. You must make sure my darling grows up safe and sound!”

His darling? Ha. He meant Jiang Yue.

“What’s your name?” I asked, pretending to be curious.

Jiang Yue cast a fragile glance at Father. He hurried to answer for her. “Darling, never mind what she used to be called. From today onward, she’s Jiang Yue. Yue, as in the moon!”

“Jiang Yue? Doesn’t that sound exactly like my name?” I forced out a cold smile. “Will anyone in this household be able to tell the real eldest daughter from some lowborn orphan?”

My name was Jiang Yue too, though written with a different character. Father had deliberately given her a name that sounded identical, so everyone would treat us alike. He had planned from the beginning for her to replace me.

That was why, in my previous life, everyone thought it perfectly natural for her to take and use everything of mine.

After all, she was Jiang Yue too!

Even the servants thought nothing of it, much less strangers who had never met us.

Wasn’t that how she first got involved with Pei Yu? He had called out, “Lady Jiang Yue,” and she had turned toward him amid a flurry of blossoms.

Her face flushed, then paled. She dared not speak, only pleaded with Father through her eyes.

Father frowned deeply and snapped, “Nonsense! The Celestial Master himself said so. How can she bear your misfortunes if she doesn’t share your name? We’re trying to deceive Heaven!”

I knew he would use that fraudulent Taoist as an excuse.

I held my breath until my face went white, pressed a hand to my chest, and slowly crouched down.

“Darling, what’s wrong?”

I gave Father a weak look. “Mother chose this name for me. It’s mine alone. No one else is going to have it!”

“The Celestial Master said she’d protect me from calamity, but she hasn’t done any protecting yet, and she’s already upset me so much my chest pains have returned. I don’t think she’ll ward off misfortune at all. She’s a curse herself, here to hurt me!”

I had been frail since birth. The slightest pretense of illness was enough to send everyone into a panic.

Nanny Ruan, who had come with Mother when she married, rushed over and gathered me into her arms. “My lord, look at the young lady! Perhaps we should reconsider this business of a stand-in. Why don’t we send—”

Things were going badly. If Father insisted, Nanny Ruan might insist in turn that Jiang Yue be sent away.

He could only take a deep breath and coax me. “All right, all right, darling. Why don’t you choose a name for her?”

I instantly recovered my vigor and stared coldly at Jiang Yue’s aggrieved face.

Having her name taken from her must have hurt.

She stared at me in astonishment. “Y-you were pretending?”

I lifted my chin and looked down at her. “What if I was? I’m the marquis’s eldest legitimate daughter. What can you possibly do to me?”

I clapped my hands. “I’ve got it. Jiang Shuang! Moonlight looks like frost on the ground, but one belongs to the sky and the other to the earth. However alike they seem, something on the ground can never become something in the sky. Just like you and me. We will always be worlds apart. Remember that!”

With that, I left without so much as glancing at Jiang Yue, who had staggered back a step.

No, that wasn’t right. In this life, she was Jiang Shuang. Frost on the ground.