Chapter 3

I did not take the carriage home.

Instead, I walked slowly through the streets.

Holding an umbrella over me, Qingzhu chattered, “My lady, you are courting the cold by walking in the snow again. Now that Young General Hua is no longer here to keep an eye on you—”

She broke off abruptly and swallowed the rest, casting me a cautious glance.

I had not heard that name in a long time.

I faltered, then continued as though nothing had happened, though my steps grew faster and faster.

Only when I could walk no farther did I stop, breathing in short, shallow gasps.

Qingzhu caught up and brushed the snow from my shoulders. “My lady, Young General Hua has been gone for so many years. You should let him go—”

Before she could finish, a soft, delicate sob came from an alley beside us.

Then a man spoke.

“Yueru, do not cry…”

It was Shen Huaiting.

“You are the only woman I love. Meng Suichao means nothing to me!”

“But she is your wife.”

“So what? You are the only one in my heart. She may have the title, but I have never shared her bed. All of Shengjing knows I despise her. A woman on her second marriage hardly has half the dignity of a marchioness—”

A woman on her second marriage.

Those words drained all color from Qingzhu’s face. Her eyes widened.

She was probably wondering when Shen Huaiting had learned the truth.

After all, my father had concealed my first marriage so thoroughly that no one in Shengjing knew.

Before she could make sense of it, the Third Prince stormed into the alley with his men, beside himself with rage. “You adulterous pair! How dare you carry on behind my back!”

“And you, Gu Yueru—you are pregnant, yet you still sneak out to meet another man! Is that bastard in your belly his as well—”

Before he finished, Shen Huaiting punched him in the face.

The thud of fists striking flesh followed, mingled with a woman’s screams.

I watched in silence and made no move to intervene.

The Shen family was a military house. The Third Prince and a handful of servants could never hurt him.

But I had miscalculated.

When it was over, I slowly entered the alley.

Gu Yueru had been taken away. Shen Huaiting alone leaned against the wall.

He showed no surprise when he saw me.

In the shadows, his eyes shone with startling brightness.

“You heard again?”

I nodded. “I did.”

“There is nothing between her and me—”

He stepped out of the shadows, his entire face coming into view. Looking strangely awkward, he began to explain.

But my eyes were drawn to a cut on his left cheek.

It was not long, but it was deep, and blood still flowed from it.

My heart convulsed. I pressed a handkerchief to the wound, panic filling my eyes. “Call the imperial physician! Quickly!”

He froze, then frowned. “It is only a small wound—”

I dragged him home, refusing to hear another word.

The imperial physician came and treated him. When he told me the scar could not be repaired and would probably remain for life, I sat before Shen Huaiting in a daze and stared at him for a long time.

His brow tightened, and he tried to leave.

I caught his wrist.

“It hurts so much, Shen Huaiting. Why does it hurt so much?”

Without warning, I collapsed against his chest and began to sob.

I could not stop. My grief was absolute.

As though I had lost the most precious thing in my life.

Shen Huaiting went still, then instinctively tried to comfort me. “Do not cry. It truly does not hurt.”

He thought I was crying because he was hurt.

I was not.

I was crying because no one would ever resemble my young general again.

Never again.