chapter 7
My brother and sister-in-law had arrived.
My brother cupped his hands to Tang Su. After a few moments of smooth pleasantries, he said, “Your Highness may not know that my little sister has long been betrothed to the Nan family’s young master. I fear…”
Tang Su propped up his chin with aristocratic ease.
“Surely the Chief Secretary does not imagine that will make me give up.”
My brother wore his usual inscrutable smile.
“Your Highness is about to inherit your title. Stealing another man’s beloved is hardly the conduct of a gentleman.”
Tang Su said nothing. He merely laughed, the meaning of it unclear.
My brows drew tight.
Unease stirred in my heart.
Then I saw another party standing at the gate, having arrived in a great hurry.
Tang Su knew my deepest wound better than anyone.
He had brought my parents to control me.
“Wretch!”
Mother gritted her teeth and slapped me before everyone.
“How dare you secretly pledge yourself to a man? How did I raise such a shameless daughter?”
Loose strands of hair fell across my forehead.
I held my cheek and smiled bleakly.
“When did Mother ever raise me?”
The woman’s lashes and lips began to tremble. She was struck speechless.
At that, a graceful figure slowly emerged from the carriage.
“Sister Ningshu, never mind that you lured my betrothed all the way here. How can you say such a thing to your own mother?”
Tang Su folded his arms and drew a clear boundary between them.
“Tsk. Miss Shen is confused again.”
“From the moment we met on Magpie Bridge, I made it clear that I wanted to marry Ningshu.”
“Your surname is Shen, yet you took the Zhou family’s Second Miss title for yourself. I have not even settled that account with you.”
Exposed without mercy, Shen Miaoyi went pale.
Tang Su walked to my side and quietly took my fingertips.
In a voice only I could hear, he said, “Everything that happened in our last life was my fault.”
“I will never let you suffer again.”
My lips curved in mockery.
“Is that so? Then why did you bring them here?”
As the words left me, I pinched the thin flesh on the back of his hand and twisted hard.
Tang Su immediately hissed in pain.
Everyone looked over.
I cupped my hands to my brother.
“Brother, the Young Prince is forever taking liberties with me.”
“I refuse to marry such a man.”
Mother was the first to speak.
“If you had not seduced him first, why would he take liberties with you?”
“Do not think I am unaware that you meant to ensnare the Young Prince even before you left the capital!”
It was a cruel thing to say.
I had heard such words countless times, yet pain still stabbed through me.
“Mother!” My brother’s eyes widened.
Abandoning all concern for filial propriety, he rebuked her.
“You say nothing when another family’s daughter entangles herself with an unrelated man. Why speak this way of your own flesh and blood?”
Shen Miaoyi stepped forward gently.
“Brother…” She tugged at his sleeve. “Aunt only wants what is best for Sister Ningshu.”
My brother’s expression chilled.
“Miss Shen is the descendant of a decorated hero. I, Zhou, would not dare claim kinship with you.”
“I hope you will cherish your reputation, as well as the reputations of the late General Shen and Madam Luo.”
For the first time in her life, Shen Miaoyi’s eyes flooded red when the wings of her dead parents failed to shelter her.