Chapter 3

Cangwu was sent packing back to the lower realm with his delicate beauty before his ceremony had even finished.

He had longed to hold his head high, only to become the greatest laughingstock of all.

Before they left, the woman in his arms shot me a resentful, reluctant look. Then she turned toward Cangwu and looked ready to cry.

Taking his hand, she knelt before the Emperor and Empress and declared, fragile but resolute, that theirs was true love.

Never mind a few hundred years—even after a few thousand, she would never give up on Cangwu. She would make the Emperor and Empress accept them.

Her voice broke, but she stubbornly held her head up, refusing to let the tears fall.

Cangwu was so moved that his own eyes reddened.

Unfortunately for her, no one else present even gave her a proper look.

Quite a few people actually snickered.

We were all ancient creatures here. Whom did she think she was fooling with that innocent-flower act?

After Cangwu descended to the mortal world, I often visited Siming to eat melon seeds, drink tea, and get the gossip firsthand.

The woman Cangwu had brought back was called Song Ruiying. She was a cultivator in the lower realm, with some cultivation to her name, though not much.

I rolled her name around in my mind and clicked my tongue in wonder.

Ruiying, Ruiying. All that lush, glistening green.

Honestly, folks, I could practically smell the green tea already.

During his mortal trial, Cangwu had been his sect’s senior disciple. Song Ruiying was the little junior sister.

Siming had specifically looked up her Book of Fate. Her life was something of a legend.

Born the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy household and kept out of polite society, she had schemed to steal the legitimate daughter’s fiancé.

But their status was different, after all. She could only be carried into his household in a small sedan chair through a side entrance.

Unwilling to accept that fate, she heard that some of those legendary cultivators had come nearby to slay monsters, and fled without looking back.

What followed was painfully predictable: a hero rescuing a beauty, and love at first sight.

The unlucky cultivator she chose was none other than Cangwu, whose eyesight was about as good as his judgment.

Still, I had to admit Song Ruiying was lucky. Cangwu might be a lousy person, but his position was certainly exalted.

After watching a few days of Cangwu’s “character-building experience,” I could only marvel. The Emperor was the Emperor for a reason. He hadn’t endured two thousand years of mortal trials for nothing.

A few hundred years was brief to an immortal. To mortals, it was unimaginably long—particularly two mortals living in utter misery.

I finally understood why the Emperor had let them keep their memories. Not everyone could endure a fall like that.

Previously, Cangwu and Song Ruiying might not have been the most powerful people in the lower realm, but they had still been cultivators, far above ordinary mortals.

Now one hauled night soil while the other scrubbed chamber pots. They really were a perfect match, right down to the smell.

After forcing myself to watch for a few nauseating days, I decided to visit the Empress and look at something more pleasant.

Before I even reached the door, I heard her laying into the Emperor.

“That bastard son of yours inherited nothing but your useless brain.

“What a disgrace!”

The Emperor knelt on the floor, meekly agreeing with every word.

“Yes, yes, it’s all my fault. Don’t be angry. You’ll make yourself ill, and your bloodline is already acting up.”

The Empress kept scolding him.

“You’re both nothing but trouble.

“Let me make this clear: I can do without my son, but Qingqing is going to be my daughter-in-law.”

I paused outside the door and, in the end, didn’t go in.

An ache rose in my chest. I knew the Empress cared for me, but I hadn’t realized I meant so much to her.

Still, there was no way my engagement to Cangwu could continue. The Empress and I simply weren’t destined to be mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

It wasn’t as though she could conjure up another son out of thin air.