Chapter 1
The moment the words left my mouth, the banquet fell silent.
Then came the sharp crack of something breaking.
I followed the sound and saw shards of a wine cup tumble from Cui Qingyi’s palm.
His servant went pale and hurriedly offered him a brocade handkerchief.
“It’s nothing. My hand slipped.”
He took the handkerchief and closed it in his fist, his voice perfectly even.
The Cui clan was a distinguished family of a hundred years, its members officials across three dynasties. Cui Qingyi was its eldest legitimate son and a rare talent of his generation.
He had always been restrained and self-possessed, scrupulous in observing every rule of propriety. He never crossed a line.
The only exception left was me, his fiancée.
A marriage contract had tied our fates together, and later, beneath a crabapple tree, I had fallen in love with him at first sight.
From then on, I was forever pestering him.
If Liuhe Confectionery released a new pastry one day, I would carry a food box out to stop his carriage and insist that he try it too.
If I received a new flowing fairy skirt the next, I would dress with meticulous care, run to him, and turn in a pair of circles. Then I would lower my eyes shyly and ask him to admire me.
Cui Qingyi never scolded me. Even when I carried on too much,
he would only knit his brows and murmur, “What sort of conduct is this?”
I was beautiful, and any hint of frivolity in my behavior invited censure.
But I would only beam at him. “I only let you see me like this. We’re going to be married, aren’t we?”
I had firmly believed he cared for me and was merely bound by the rules instilled in him since childhood.
In my previous life, when Song Ying publicly mocked me for aspiring to a match far above my station,
I refused to accept it and quarreled with her.
In private, I even clutched Cui Qingyi’s sleeve and wept.
My crying made him sigh. He wiped away my tears while fumbling for words to comfort me.
Yet now, I had calmly declared that I would not marry him.
Song Ying froze, then pinched her handkerchief and said softly, “Stop lying. You cling so tightly to Lord Cui that you won’t even let anyone else look at him.”
Explaining myself to her would only waste my breath.
Cui Qingyi was here. I might as well settle matters with him face-to-face.
By the time I went looking, however, he had already vanished from the banquet.
Beyond the covered corridor, a Cui servant blocked my path.
It had always been this way. Upright and proper, Cui Qingyi would never become entangled with me in public.
He would only send a servant to summon me somewhere private and speak a few words with me there.
“Since the Cui family has accepted the marriage contract, I will not refuse to marry you. There is no need to test me like this again.”
Cui Qingyi stood wrapped in a fox-fur cloak, his face clear as glass and his eyes bright as stars.
Fine snow swirled down onto his shoulders.
I said, “Lord Cui, I was obsessed before. Since you do not love me, forcing you to marry me would only make us a resentful pair.”
“When did I ever say…” His voice softened. “Is this because I did not defend you just now? Are you angry?”
I shook my head, lowered my eyes, and bowed. “Tomorrow, I will ask Father to go to the Cui residence and dissolve the engagement. From this day forward, whom either of us marries will be no concern of the other.”
His face drew taut. “As you wish,” he said coldly. “Do not regret it.”
Cui Qingyi swept off with a flick of his sleeve, and I turned away as well.
Snow hissed through the air. A winter plum blossom, borne on the flurries, came tumbling toward me.
It landed directly by my foot. Caught unaware, I crushed it beneath my heel.
The frail petals scattered over the ground, their red glaring against the snow.
As I looked down, it felt as though even my soul were being dragged into a sea of blood.