Chapter 4

Mother finally swallowed her disgust and sent the Marquis of Wuling a formal message, choosing an excuse at random.

“Their birth charts are incompatible.”

I could see she wanted no further connection with that family whatsoever.

Father remained perfectly happy, doting on his newly acquired Eighth Concubine and giving no thought at all to his once-favored Fourth.

He merely nodded his agreement with Mother’s decision and raised no objection.

“As long as my daughter is happy.”

With that worry off my mind, I had time to go out for a stroll.

But the moment I stepped into the street, cucumbers filled my field of vision.

At a glance, even the peddlers and porters had four or five apiece.

Was there no clean, innocent man left in the world?

I wanted to wash my eyes out.

Unwilling to look at all those cucumbers, I found a little alley where my eyes could have a rest.

They got their rest. The next instant, someone dropped a sack over me from behind, and I soon lost consciousness.

When I woke again,

my hands were tied behind my back, and a cloth had been stuffed into my mouth.

I couldn’t move.

I looked around. Cobwebs across the rafters and the general ruin of the place told me I was in an abandoned temple.

In short, I had been abducted and taken out of the city.

Just then, something creaked outside.

Someone pushed open the door.

Exactly as I’d expected.

Who else could it be…?

Chu Lanzhi, whose proposal I had rejected a few days earlier.

I had thought it over. He was about the only person I had offended lately.

The only suspect.

Dark shadows lay under his eyes, and his smile was sinister.

The usual mask of polished gentleness was gone, replaced by a cruel smirk.

He was chilling from every angle.

He pulled the cloth from my mouth.

“Well, Miss Gu. We meet again.”

“You dared break off our engagement? Humiliate me in front of the entire capital?”

“Still calling me a dirty cucumber today?”

I rolled my eyes. With the things he’d been doing, humiliation was only a matter of time anyway.

I glanced above his head.

The cucumbers were still there in rows.

Only now they looked a little yellow, as though they were wilting. Dirtier than ever.

I nodded.

It seemed I had hit his sorest spot. He kicked the dry weeds from the ground like a madman.

“I don’t know how you found out, but after today, you won’t be an innocent noble daughter either.”

“After all, once a noble girl has lost her virtue, she’s no different from a brothel whore.”

“I won’t be too particular. I might still condescend to take you as a concubine.”

At those words, I could no longer contain my nausea. I turned aside and retched right in front of him.

“Bitch! You dare look disgusted?”

“Just you wait!”

My reaction seemed to have broken through his defenses.

After all, being called disgusting was rather embarrassing for a marquis’s heir.

He rubbed his hands, his gaze more repulsive than ever.

My heart sank.

I was done for.

My amateur fighting skills were enough for one or two petty thieves, but nowhere near enough against a man out of his mind.

And I was tied up!

Was this really how it would end for me?

Just then, the sound of a fight came from outside.

Chu Lanzhi walked toward the door, suddenly alert.

“Who’s there?”

A lazy voice drifted in from the doorway.

“Well, isn’t this lively?”

The temple door was kicked open. The newcomer wore brocade and had a handsome face, with beguiling eyes that tilted slightly at the corners.

As chance would have it,

I knew him.

Shen Changdu, Prince of Dingbei.

The capital’s most notorious rake.

A regular in its pleasure quarters.

Everyone knew his reputation. There wasn’t a brothel or music house he hadn’t visited.

Which made him the first man the great families ruled out when choosing husbands for their daughters.

I was finished.

These two were as bad as each other.

With them together, my prospects looked bleak.

I was already trying to decide whether biting through my tongue would be quicker,

or dashing my head against a wall.

On reflection, both sounded awfully painful.

I hadn’t even had a taste of a clean man yet… I didn’t want to die…

He stood in the doorway, looking thoroughly irreverent.

“The Gu family’s daughter?”

“How did you end up in such a state?”

I had always despised men like him, forever frequenting the pleasure houses.

We didn’t get along at all. Contempt was a fair word for it.

I had even failed to resist insulting him when I passed him in the street.

Getting him to drive Chu Lanzhi away for me now would probably be difficult.

I didn’t even dare look at the cucumbers above his head. There must be almost as many as Chu Lanzhi’s.

I kept my head low to spare my eyes.

At the sight of Shen Changdu, Chu Lanzhi’s expression changed.

But he held his ground.

“Your Highness, this is a private family matter. Please stay out of it.”

Shen Changdu raised an eyebrow, amusement in every line of his face.

Then he laughed.

“A family matter? Wasn’t your engagement canceled? What family would that be?”

“It looks rather like the abduction of an innocent woman to me.”

Chu Lanzhi bristled. That struck him where it hurt; the mere mention infuriated him.

“What, does the Prince of Dingbei have an interest in Miss Gu as well?”

Shen Changdu ignored him, his lovely eyes sweeping over me.

Assessing me.

He gave a sudden scoff and raised the blade in his hand.

“This abandoned temple is my territory. Don’t you know the rules?”

“Abducting someone on my ground? What happens to my reputation if word gets out?”

Chu Lanzhi ground his teeth, but there was little he could do.

Shen Changdu was notoriously dangerous. His character might be dubious, but he had fought on battlefields and killed enemies. His fighting prowess was not to be taken lightly.

“How about this, Your Highness?”

“You can sample the girl first.”

“Consider it a gesture of respect.”

I jerked my head up—and finally saw the empty space above Shen Changdu’s head.

Huh?

Where were the cucumbers?

Everyone in the capital knew Shen Changdu, Prince of Dingbei, spent his days among beauties and his nights in revelry.

Even if he didn’t have an entire cucumber patch above his head,

there ought to be a vegetable stall, surely?

How could it be so clear?

Had my ability stopped working?

No. That wasn’t it.

I looked at Chu Lanzhi. His great string of rotten cucumbers was still swaying in the breeze.

Then that meant…

…the rake famous throughout the capital was actually… an innocent little lamb?

Was it all an act?

My courage swelled at once. I straightened my back.

“Chu Lanzhi, I’m afraid that attempt to curry favor has hit a brick wall.”

“How so?”

I gave him a mysterious smile.

“Because His Highness has no idea how!”

“He’s got no experience!”

I had meant to set them against each other so I could escape, but I had overlooked the fact that Shen Changdu was a man.

And men took this sort of thing very personally.

Especially when a woman said he “didn’t know how” and had “no experience” in front of another man.

A grave mistake!

Sure enough, Shen Changdu gave a teasing smile.

With a swift motion, he slid the dagger he had been toying with back into its sheath.

The sound was crisp and dangerous.

Slowly, step by step, he came toward me.

“Young Lord Chu, you may go. Not a word of this to anyone. The Gu girl is mine.”

“Today I’ll show her whether I know how.”