Chapter 2

# Chapter 2

Nothing escaped my father.

I hated Gu Jinxin because he had wasted my entire life.

He could have spoken plainly and let me understand. I had my pride; I would never have troubled him again. Instead, he had smothered me beneath fine words and lofty duties, making me labor for the Gu family like a beast of burden. Behind my back, he blamed me for his father’s death and called me cold by nature, unfit to be human.

He wanted the virtue and the victimhood both.

Shameless.

Lowering my eyes, I said softly, “Father, I had a dream. In it, I married Gu Jinxin and lived an absurd, wasted life. That alone would mean little-but I also dreamed of the fate awaiting the realm.”

My father’s eyes brightened.

He could never have imagined that within a few years, catastrophe would fall upon the aristocratic clans. In my previous life, his keen judgment had allowed us to flee in time. But the houses we knew had scattered and perished, and when we finally returned, the capital had become a different world.

Given a second chance, I would prevent that tragedy.

Confined to the inner household, there was much I could not do. My father could.

He admired Zhuang Zhou and believed in the mystery of the butterfly dream. He would believe mine.

Father and I spent day and night in his study discussing what was to come.

Meanwhile, Gu Jinxin’s reputation in the capital collapsed. Having offended the Song family, he found every other old clan’s doors closed to him. He then took it upon himself to propose to a young woman named Meng Qingluo from Clay-Tile Lane.

The news did not surprise me.

Meng Qingluo had been his most favored concubine in my previous life. Together they had three sons and a daughter. Whenever Gu Jinxin returned from court, he loved to sit in her rooms and talk. He used to say that Qingluo’s fragrance could ease every sorrow.

He likely never knew that the perfume his beloved Concubine Meng wore was dragon-lotus incense, worth a fortune for a single vial.

When Marquis Gu heard what his son had done, he came home from court, drew his riding crop, and lashed Gu Jinxin.

“Wretch! I sacrificed every scrap of dignity I had to win you a bride from a great clan, yet you refuse her and insist on crawling back into the mud. Do you have any idea how many years it took me to claw my way out of that pit?”

Marquis Gu had been born to a humble family. It had taken him more than forty years of war to earn his title. No one understood the hardships of the common-born better than he did.

Tall and poised, Gu Jinxin caught the whip in one hand. “Father, I know exactly what I am doing. The great clans will not endure. Wait a few years, and you will understand. Besides, a man should marry a woman of virtue. I cannot bring into this house someone who brings death to her elders. Ah Luo is fitted to home and hearth, and she has wisdom of her own. She will be the perfect wife.”

By then, a crowd had gathered. Countless people heard every word.

So did I.

Marquis Gu choked with rage. A bleak smile twisted his face. “It seems I am the useless one, to need lessons from my own son. Ha… ha, ha-”

His laughter stopped. His body went rigid, and he toppled from his horse with a heavy thud.

Gu Jinxin stared in disbelief, then threw himself down and cradled his father. His face contorted as he screamed, “A physician! Fetch a physician!”

The street descended into chaos.

I looked at the pill in my palm and ordered a servant to take it to the Gu residence, explaining that it was medicine for an afflicted heart.

The servant returned soon afterward, furious. “That Young Master Gu is no decent man. The moment he heard it came from the Song family, he refused even to look at it and ordered me away.”

“Did you explain what it was?”

“Clearly. Gu Jinxin said we meant him harm.”

I should have expected it. He was obstinate, insecure yet arrogant, and so deeply prejudiced against me that no measure could contain it. I simply had not imagined his heart could be narrow enough to let his own father die.

Then let us hope his spine was strong enough to bear the disgrace of killing that father.

What a pity for Old Marquis Gu.

When I returned home, Father raised his brows in surprise. “Why are you back? Weren’t you going to win Marquis Gu to your side?”

I shook my head. “Too late. His son angered him to death.”

Father’s eyes widened. “That wretch! Thank heaven you did not marry him.”

Indeed. Thank heaven.

In my former life, I had borne the weight of Old Marquis Gu’s death and suffered beyond words.

Now it was Gu Jinxin’s turn.

Let him walk beneath that burden. Let him taste the misery I had endured.

That was the meaning of my rebirth.