chapter 3

The real culprit behind the drugging was never found, and the incident became an unsolved mystery in the Lu Residence. No one suspected me.

After all, if I had administered the drug, why would I knock him unconscious just when my scheme was about to succeed?

I became a sheltered maiden awaiting marriage, spending each day in my room sewing my bridal gown. Fortunately, the body’s muscle memory remained, and I learned quickly.

My betrothed was the second son of one of Father Lu’s friends in the merchant world. In modern terms, it was a commercial alliance between two well-matched families.

While preparing for the wedding, I considered running away. After a calm and thorough analysis, however, I chose to lie flat and accept my fate.

I had neither talent nor useful skills. I would probably end up begging beneath a bridge.

Besides, if I was Nobody A in this novel, my fiancé was Nobody B. He appeared only a handful of times in the book, usually to help the hero and heroine along in their romance.

Ye Yi, the Ye family’s legitimate second son and the male lead Ye Jue’s younger brother, was innocent by nature and loved traveling through mountains and rivers. The novel mentioned that he eventually completed a geographical travelogue.

If I married him, I could wander the world at his side and see every beautiful mountain and river.

Even his name sounded lucky to me. Ye Yi—yeah.

I fell asleep dreaming of that wonderful future, only to plunge into the bottom of the sea. Seaweed wound tightly around my neck and dragged me into a dark abyss.

I kept telling myself dreams meant the opposite. If I sank into the sea in a dream, surely it meant I was about to rise to heaven in real life.

When suffocation finally woke me, I found myself staring into eyes as dark and fathomless as ink.

The iron vise around my throat proved my interpretation had not been entirely wrong. I was indeed about to go to heaven.

Ruthless Lu held me by the throat, his voice as cold as a demon’s. “You think that because you fooled everyone else, you can fool me?”

Me: unable to breathe.

Ruthless Lu: “What game are you playing? You drug me, then pretend to be some chaste and virtuous maiden?”

Me: about to die.

Ruthless Lu: “Very well. You’ve got my attention.”

The hand around my throat released. I opened my mouth wide and gulped fresh air into my lungs.

“Speak.” He did not waste words.

“Bro…” For the sake of survival, I explained between gasps. My throat felt as though a knife were lodged inside it. “Brother, I drugged you because I’ve admired you for so long. I couldn’t bear—”

His hand clamped down again. Gloom rolled off his entire body. I clawed at his wrist as the flesh of my face swelled from the lack of air.

I forced the words out, each one crushed and broken. “But I… I thought… someone like Brother… should not… be deceived by… by such tricks.”

Ruthless Lu’s thumb lingered against my neck, stroking it. At last it came to rest over my artery and stayed there for a long time.

The feeling of approaching death gradually receded, though I continued to drag in desperate breaths.

“At least you know your place,” Ruthless Lu said.

I had to leave. I had to get as far from him as possible.