At Nian Chujiu’s words, Gu Jiangzhi’s face flushed red and white in turns. He felt as though he had suffered the gravest injustice imaginable. He had never expected the affection of their youth and the five years he had spent waiting to be reduced, in Miss Nian’s eyes, to a matter of profit and calculation. She didn’t understand his predicament at all!
He opened his mouth. His throat worked, and his eyes gradually reddened. After a long moment, he finally forced out the words: “So in your heart, I, Gu Jiangzhi, am really such a despicable person?”
“Otherwise?” Nian Chujiu replied. Her voice was not loud, but it was clear and cold. “The wedding date was approaching, and only after my entire family relocated to the capital did your family suddenly go back on your word. You think the Nian family has no influence in the capital and can do nothing to a newly elevated marquis household like yours.”
How could Gu Jiangzhi not know that his family was in the wrong? His mother’s words resurfaced in his mind.
“Letting that Nian girl become your concubine is already our Marquis Manor honoring old ties! They should be grateful!”
“A twenty-year-old old maid. Other than our Gu family, who would want her? She should know her place!”
Gu Jiangzhi’s face burned with shame, as if an invisible slap had struck him across the cheek.
Of course, Nian Chujiu understood her own situation perfectly. She was already twenty years old. In peaceful times, if she chose not to marry, then so be it. The Nian family could afford to support her. But the wars had only recently ended, and the new dynasty had just been established. With the population depleted, the imperial court had issued a strict decree: every woman over fifteen was required to marry. Failure to do so could implicate three generations of her family, or result in being forcibly matched by government marriage brokers.
That blade hung over the heads of all unmarried women.
The Gu family had counted on precisely this. They believed that, given so little time, the Nian family would never be able to find another suitable match in the capital, someone of equal status whose background they truly understood.
Despicable.
In the end, Nian Chujiu could not restrain herself. She stepped forward, her gaze as cold as winter water. It was enough to make Gu Jiangzhi instinctively retreat.
“You planned this from the start. First, use the threat of a broken engagement to throw the Nian family into panic. Then offer me the position of an ‘Honored Concubine’ as if it were a favor. If I refuse, you’ll withdraw your sponsorship and have the authorities arrest my entire family on charges of ‘vagrants defying the law.’”
She took another step forward, forcing him back another half-step. “And if even that fails to make the Nian family submit…”
Her eyes bored into his. “Then you’ll frame us for supporting rebel forces and have the entire Nian family thrown into prison!”
Gu Jiangzhi’s eyes widened. Both angry and alarmed, he blurted out, “Miss Nian, what kind of people do you think my family is?!”
He truly had liked Nian Chujiu. The kind of affection he felt was that of a young man gazing at someone dazzlingly out of reach. She shone so brightly, yet his admiration had always been mixed with a sense of inferiority. He often wondered how anyone in the world could be so beautiful.
But he was also afraid of her. She was calm, intelligent, and the Nian family’s treasured jewel. He had never dared dream of possessing her. Then, somehow, they had become engaged. When he heard she had agreed to the match, he had been so overjoyed he could not sleep all night.
Year after year, the war delayed their wedding. Now, just when everything was finally about to be settled, new complications had arisen. Yet no matter how hard Gu Jiangzhi tried, he could not understand how he could appear so evil in Nian Chujiu’s eyes. His heartbreak mixed with embarrassment, anger, and the humiliation of being looked down upon.
“Chujiu,” he said, “you think too little of me!”
Watching his expression, Nian Chujiu became certain that, at this point in time, Gu Jiangzhi still knew nothing about the elaborate trap the Gu family had already laid.
Her expression turned serious. “If you wish to earn respect, then act honorably. Our engagement still stands, yet your family is already negotiating another marriage alliance with a more prestigious household. No matter where one goes, such conduct is called breaking faith and betraying one’s word. It is contemptible.”
Gu Jiangzhi felt guilty, but he was also annoyed. Miss Nian really had a talent for accusing people unfairly! She spoke as if the Gu family controlled everything with a single hand. As if the Gu family could do that!
In the end, he thought, it was because Miss Nian came from a merchant family. Her perspective was too narrow, her vision too short-sighted. All she ever seemed to care about was calculating gains and losses.
The newfound “broader outlook” that had come with the Gu family’s elevation to nobility gained the upper hand. His tone took on the air of someone dispensing wise advice from a higher vantage point.
“Miss Nian, you’ve spent too long sheltered in the inner quarters and don’t understand the situation outside. The new dynasty has only just been established. A family’s status now determines its future, even its survival. Everything is different.”
His family had arranged a new marriage for him with Lu Zhaohua, the legitimate daughter of Marquis Jinliang Manor.
General Lu possessed deep-rooted influence within the military. Through that connection, Gu Jiangzhi could secure a post in the Eastern City Military and Police Office. The instant he thought of that position, an uncontrollable gleam ignited in his eyes. It was the instinctive excitement of a man brushing against the edges of power. To oversee law and order in an entire district was a post of genuine authority.
“Trust me,” Gu Jiangzhi continued earnestly, his voice almost coaxing. “Once I’ve established myself, I’ll be able to look after you and protect the Nian family.”
Wasn’t his agreement to marry someone else all for their better future?
Taking a deep breath, he looked at her with sincere fervor. “Miss Nian, what we shared in our youth is something no one else can compare to. Don’t let this distance come between us, all right?”
Nian Chujiu’s lips curved faintly. They had known each other since childhood and later became engaged. Though there had never been any earth-shattering passion between them, there had once been a familiarity and trust that set them apart from ordinary acquaintances. She had to admit that Gu Jiangzhi had once been somewhat sincere toward her.
But compared to the bloodstained schemes the Gu family had already set in motion, that bit of sincerity was lighter than paper and worth even less.
In her previous life, after her father and brothers were executed, the women of the Nian family were sent to the Imperial Entertainment Bureau.
Gu Jiangzhi “rescued” Nian Chujiu, installing her as a hidden mistress. With nowhere left to turn, she knelt before him and handed over the last of the Nian family’s concealed businesses and account books. All she asked was that he use his connections to save the other Nian women from their misery.
He had “done his best.” He had “saved” four of them.
From that moment on, her mother’s life and the lives of her three sisters-in-law rested in Gu Jiangzhi’s hands. With gentle menace, he warned her: “Chujiu, you have to be obedient. If you’re not obedient, how will they survive?”
She didn’t even have the status of a concubine. She became his secret possession, hidden from the world. A plaything who had to live at his mercy and submit to whatever he desired. He locked her away in a separate residence and claimed her in the most degrading ways imaginable. When the mood struck him, he even demanded that she imitate courtesans’ manners and invent new ways to entertain him.
Only later did Lu Zhaohua reveal the truth: The hands that had pushed the Nian family into the jaws of death were none other than the Gu family’s.
Only then did Nian Chujiu learn what had really happened. And that very night, Gu Jiangzhi set a fire that burned Lu Zhaohua alive in the cold eastern wing of the estate.
Gathering her thoughts, Nian Chujiu felt a bone-deep chill despite the oppressive summer heat. Given a second chance at life, she intended not only to save herself, but to save Miss Lu as well.
Suppressing her emotions, she continued the conversation casually. “So has your wedding date already been set?”
Gu Jiangzhi’s face reddened. “It’s set for the eighth day of the tenth month.”
Silence fell over the main hall. Even the deafening chorus of cicadas outside seemed to vanish.
The eighth day of the tenth month. The very date that had once been chosen for their wedding.
Nian Chujiu lowered her eyes. Her long lashes cast pale shadows across her wan complexion. When she spoke again, her voice held just the right hint of strain and bitterness. “I understand.”
Seeing her force herself to remain composed, Gu Jiangzhi’s heart softened. “Miss Nian, my feelings for you are as clear as the sun and moon!”
“Once I’m married, I’ll bring you into my household within a month.”
“Then we’ll never be separated again.”
“Miss Nian, don’t concern yourself with empty titles, all right?”
Listening to his shameless words one after another, Nian Chujiu felt her palms itch. She wanted to hit him.
In her previous life, she had indeed raised her hand and slapped him across the face. Then she had publicly broken with him, declaring in ringing tones: “A daughter of the Nian family would rather be a poor man’s wife than a marquis’s concubine.”
She had further demanded that he return their engagement contract within three days, rejecting him completely and without hesitation. It had been satisfying. But it had also driven both herself and her family onto a dead-end road.
This time, Nian Chujiu would not make the same mistake. She needed to maneuver. She needed to stall. She needed the Gu family to delay their fatal strike. Only then would she have time to approach Marquis Jinliang Manor and place the truth of Gu Jiangzhi’s prior engagement before Miss Lu. More importantly, she needed to find a new, trustworthy husband in the capital as quickly as possible.