Chapter 1

My friend Xu Mingming wanted to get out and see what was happening.

I stopped her.

Mingming was furious. “You paid for his schooling and his examinations, and now he has found a more powerful patron and is belittling you.”

“That ungrateful wretch. I have to slap him today!”

I smiled. “If it truly is him, why should you have to dirty your own hands?”

Song Yin and I had grown up together.

He was intelligent and diligent, gentle and modest—a promising young man whom everyone praised, with boundless prospects ahead of him.

I could not believe a clever man like Song Yin would betray me.

After all, he ate my food and spent my money. He had known since childhood what betraying me would cost him.

Could the Princess of Qingyang truly be a branch high enough to make the risk worthwhile?

I lifted the curtain and looked toward the next carriage, my expression darkening.

I had bought that carriage for him. I had even paid dearly for the horse pulling it.

At that moment, its curtain rose as well. A striking face appeared, and behind it was a hand I knew all too well.

It was Song Yin.

I rubbed my brow.

“What do we do?” Xu Mingming asked.

“You can ask Song Yin that in a moment.” I arched a brow.

Xu Mingming threw her arms around me. “I knew our Jiaojiao would never swallow an insult.”

I had our matron drive ahead of their carriage and stop crosswise in the road. Then I sent her to disappear among another family’s convoy.

Before long, curses rang out behind my carriage as one driver blamed the next. It became quite lively.

I sat unmoved and listened.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the Princess of Qingyang and Song Yin both climbed down. Song Yin knocked on my carriage wall and called, “Would you please move? Your carriage is blocking the road.”

“Do you people even know how to drive? Have you no manners?” the princess demanded.

Heads crowded the main road, everyone watching the spectacle.

After all, both Song Yin and the Princess of Qingyang were well-known in the capital.

“My apologies. Our driver suddenly felt unwell. She will return shortly.” I stepped out and stood on the front of the carriage.

Every eye turned toward me.

Someone exclaimed, “It’s Mistress Xu!”

I exclaimed as well. “Song Yin, weren’t you away on business with the young marquis? Why are you here?”

My gaze shifted to the princess, and I looked utterly astonished.

“Your Highness?”

Song Yin’s face went white. He looked from the princess to me, and for once, quick-witted as he was, he had no answer.

“Is there a problem?” The Princess of Qingyang folded her arms. “Must I report to you whenever I go on an outing with a friend?”

There was no possibility that she did not know Song Yin had a fiancée.

I remained above them on the carriage and looked down. “Of course not. Your Highness need not explain your affairs to a common woman.”

Then I turned to Song Yin. “But I was asking my fiancé.”

The princess’s face flared red.

Laughter sounded from some carriage nearby.

“The young marquis had urgent business and asked me to accompany Her Highness on this outing. I had no time to tell you.” Song Yin stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Don’t make a scene.”

He wanted me to stay quiet so that he would not lose face or damage his future.

And somehow I was the one making a scene?

I raised my brows. “A man and an unmarried woman traveling alone together is improper. You should have returned to tell me and brought me along as chaperone.”

Song Yin turned deathly pale.

The laughter around us grew louder. Hidden inside their carriages, the onlookers laughed without restraint.

The Princess of Qingyang’s face was red as blood.

Just then, a young man rode forward. His features were refined, his bearing reserved and noble. Seated high on his horse, he was plainly no ordinary man.

“Clear the road first,” he said mildly. His gaze paused on my face before moving to the princess.

“Cousin, I wasn’t the one who blocked the road. She was!” Delighted to find a rescuer, the princess hurried over to wheedle him.