Chapter 1
She was beautiful.
A face like a hibiscus blossom, brows like willow leaves, red lips and white teeth: even I could not help softening at the sight of her.
Compared with my sickly, haggard self, she was lovelier beyond measure.
No wonder both my brothers were so taken with her that they had forgotten their own sister.
But her words made my face burn.
I lifted my chin, feigning indifference. “Whichever brother is here.”
Xue Rao laughed, leaning against a vermilion pillar.
The gauze stirred gently beside her.
“They’re both here.”
Both?
I faltered and took two steps back.
Her frivolous behavior was bad enough, but how could she…
“What’s that noise? Who’s come to spoil my fun?”
While I stood there stunned, a man lifted the curtain and came to stand beside Xue Rao.
The crescent-shaped knife scar on the back of his hand looked vicious.
I found myself staring into a pair of careless, mocking eyes.
“Second Brother!”
Xie Yunzheng’s expression changed. He shoved the girl beside him away.
“Mingzhu? What are you doing here? Who let you in?”
He hurriedly straightened his collar, seized my arm, and strode toward the door.
“This isn’t a place for you.”
“If I can’t come here, why can you?”
I tried to shake him off, but his grip held. “Second Brother, you’re hurting me!”
Xue Rao came forward and steadied my shoulder. “Second Young Master, Third Miss’s wrist is turning red—”
“Get away, you fool.” Xie Yunzheng pulled me behind him.
He glared at Xue Rao so darkly that the tenderness I had seen earlier might have been an illusion.
“Who said you could touch her? What is Mingzhu’s standing, and what is yours? Do I have to teach you the difference?”
I wrenched my hand free. “I’m not leaving! Is Eldest Brother in there too?
“She said you were both here. Have you really… both been mixed up in those scandals…?”
Xie Yunzheng rounded on me, beside himself.
“Xie Mingzhu! Is that any way for a well-bred young lady to speak?”
He slapped Xue Rao across her lovely face.
Caught unawares, she fell to the floor.
“You should know better than to take a wretched servant’s words seriously. Would you doubt even your own brother?”
“Forgive me, Second Young Master. I spoke nonsense and upset the young miss.”
Xue Rao settled meekly onto her knees.
His fingers had left vivid red marks on her face. A thread of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
She apologized, yet the corners of her lips were still turned up.
“The eldest young master is a perfect gentleman, and the second young master is so noble. How could either of them be involved in such scandals with a servant like me?”
She knelt close to me. She still bore the marks of her injuries.
Xue Rao looked straight at me without wavering.
Her cheek was swollen and red. She looked pitiful.
“Please don’t hold it against me, Miss. Otherwise, won’t the second young master take my life?”
She edged forward on her knees.
Flustered, I could not meet her eyes.
I had deliberately repeated the stories Nanny Li and the others whispered about Xue Rao’s disgraceful conduct.
But I had never expected my second brother to hit her himself.
Or to call her a wretched servant with every breath.
Whatever else she was, Xue Rao was our family’s adopted daughter.
She had been born on the same day, in the same month and year as I, only two hours later.
By rights, she should have been the fourth young miss of the Xie household.