Chapter 3

“It wouldn’t work.” I shook my head helplessly.

It wasn’t as though I had never considered running away. But without my household registration papers, I couldn’t even get through the city gates. Where could I go?

“Then are you really going to stay here and become Master Cui’s concubine?”

I took out a handkerchief, wiped the pear juice from my hands, and gave a self-mocking smile.

“He has no interest in me. Mother is being naïve. She really thinks every man can be won over by a pretty face. I suspect the more I bother him, the more he dislikes me.”

“Before long, they’ll see what we’re after and throw us out. Once we’re back in Jinling, Mother will lower her sights and see which rich merchant bids the most. At least I’ll be his wife.”

I saw the situation clearly enough. We had only been staying here a short while, and I had already annoyed Cui Zheyu.

At first, he had been very cool toward me.

I couldn’t say when it had changed. But every time he saw another of my clumsy attempts to charm him, a strange sharpness would creep into those unreadable eyes. It sent a chill down my back.

He was probably laughing at me. He simply didn’t want to expose us and embarrass the Shen family.

If I went on making a fool of myself in front of him, sooner or later he would ask the duchess to send us away.

“I want another pear.”

Putting those troubling thoughts aside, I looked up at the laden branches and licked the corner of my mouth.

“They’re too high. Wait here, Miss. I’ll find a long branch to knock some down.”

Xiaocui jumped a few times with her arms stretched up, but couldn’t reach them. She ran off to find a branch.

I waited a while. She still hadn’t come back.

I couldn’t stand it any longer. Eyeing the tall pear tree, I gathered my skirts and decided to climb up myself.

It turned out I had a talent for climbing trees. I wrapped my arms around the trunk and scrambled up in no time.

The height didn’t frighten me. I sat on a branch, picked a pear, and ate it contentedly.

Soon I was finished. I tossed away the neatly stripped core with a flourish, only to discover that getting down was another matter.

Left foot first, or right?

Never mind. If I could get up, surely I could get down. I let out a breath, hugged the trunk, and tried to slide lower. My foot slipped, and I fell straight down.

Oh no. If this didn’t kill me, it would cripple me. Terrified, I clenched my teeth and forced the scream back down my throat.

The next instant, the pain I expected never came.

I landed in a strong pair of arms and knocked their owner flat on his back.

It was Cui Zheyu.

Our noses collided. For an instant, our lips touched. I stared, stunned, at the handsome face so close to mine. When I came to my senses, I scrambled up to run.

Cui Zheyu caught my arm and pulled me back against him, his dark eyes fathomless.

He slid a hand into my hair, supported the back of my head, and leaned closer.

“Trying to provoke me again?”

His breath brushed my face, neither warm nor quite cool.

“I wasn’t—” I began to protest, but before I could finish, Cui Zheyu kissed me.