“Miss Yuqiu, my young master says that in this lifetime he will never see a fallen young lady from a ruined family who can’t even maintain her dignity.”
At the gates of the Xie residence, the fashionable, Western-styled young maid looked at the woman before her with undisguised mockery, her eyes sweeping her up and down.
Dressed head to toe in coarse cloth washed pale from wear, there was no trace left of the once-renowned noble daughter. She looked nothing more than a shabby, impoverished girl.
The maid lifted her chin arrogantly and continued in an affected tone, “Madam also said that given the current situation, the engagement between the Xie and Lin families no longer counts. You’d best not come here again. If someone sees you, it’ll only bring trouble to yourself and to the Xie family.”
“However, Madam heard your mother is bedridden. Here’s one hundred yuan. Take it and use it for her treatment. Consider it the last bit of goodwill between the Xie and Lin families.”
With that, the maid casually scattered the stack of money onto the ground, then looked at the once mutually devoted fiancée of her young master with blatant ridicule.
Lin Yuqiu trembled as if plunged into an ice cellar. Even her fingertips felt frozen stiff, and her chest was so cold it seemed to have lost all sensation.
She stared blankly at the scattered bills. They looked thin and light, yet sharp as blades, slicing her already pitiful self-respect to shreds.
She swallowed, her throat burning with a searing, metallic bitterness.
After a moment.
Her slender, resilient neck lifted slightly, her jawline tightening into a delicate yet stubborn curve.
She raised her hand and decisively tore the silver pocket watch from around her neck. The chain scraped across her skin, leaving a faint pink mark at the side of her neck, but she showed no reaction.
Handing the watch to the maid, her voice colder than late autumn dew yet crystal clear, she said, “No need. Tell Madam Xie I came to return the token of our engagement to Xie Qingwei.”
“And please reassure her I won’t come again.”
With that, she turned and left.
The maid quickly picked up the pocket watch, wiped it off, and slipped it into her own pocket. Watching the straight, stubborn figure walking away, she sneered disdainfully.
“Already reduced to wearing coarse cloth and probably unable to afford a proper meal, yet still putting on airs like some noble young lady. How laughable.”
Only after walking out of Xie Alley did a single tear silently slip from the corner of Lin Yuqiu’s eye.
It trailed down her pale, delicate cheek and soaked into her collar, spreading into a small dark patch.
She looked up at the sky. Though the sun shone brightly, she felt not a trace of warmth.
She had thought that being cast aside by the Xie family could no longer hurt her. The death of her eldest brother, the disaster that befell her father and brother, her mother’s illness she had cried until she was numb.
Yet she hadn’t expected that the boy who grew up with her, who had promised to protect her for a lifetime, would still make her shed tears.
A bitter smile touched her lips. She closed her eyes and swallowed down the crushing despair.
Her background was now considered politically problematic. In these special times, no one was willing to help her.
But she could not fall.
Her mother was still lying in the hospital, likely to wake at any time. She needed someone by her side. She would have to return to the hospital first and think of a solution later.
At the corner of the street, she failed to notice a group of men suddenly blocking her path.
“My delicate Miss Lin, were you off to see that young master from the Xie family?”
A flippant male voice sounded above her head. Lin Yuqiu looked up at the face and felt the world spin. Hatred surged violently from her chest.
Just days ago, it was this very face that had led a group into her home smashing, looting, taking her father and brother away, driving her mother into such distress that she collapsed. He was the culprit who destroyed her family.
She looked at the man’s wolfish eyes, the vicious scar slashing across his closely cropped temple, the menacing aura about him, and the group of watchful accomplices behind him.
It was not hard to guess that another household would soon suffer.
Suppressing her inner panic, she spoke with boundless fury: “Shen Lichuan, how exactly did our Lin family offend you for you to persecute us like this? Where have you taken my father and brother?”
Shen Lichuan kept his hands in his pockets, sizing her up casually and brazenly, his eyes filled with greed.
In the past, Miss Lin had been the most famous young lady in Rong City. He hadn’t even dared glance at her twice one look felt like desecrating a fairy maiden.
Now that fairy had been cast down to earth nothing more than a little white rabbit waiting to be slaughtered, prey in every man’s eyes.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped closer and closer, eyes blazing with unrestrained desire.
“I heard your mother’s paralyzed. The once high-and-mighty Miss Lin who looked down on small families like ours has to beg for help now.
Judging by you, did that fiancé from the Xie family dump you? Refused to help?”
“These rich folks have had their good days.”
“Just wait. Your future husband will avenge you and have the Xie family confiscated too.”
Lin Yuqiu’s face paled, but she sneered. “And what kind of good person are you? You’re the real culprit.”
Unbothered by her insults, Shen Lichuan suddenly grabbed her wrist. Her skin felt soft and smooth in his grasp, but before he could savor it, she yanked her hand back.
The next second, that very hand struck his face hard.
He showed no anger. Instead, he seemed dazed by the slap. The faint fragrance from her lingered at his nose subtle yet intoxicating.
Seeing this, Lin Yuqiu retreated sharply and turned to run, only to find her path deliberately blocked again.
On the bustling street, she glared at Shen Lichuan. “What exactly do you want?”
He smiled faintly. “I originally intended to spare the Lin family. But your father looked down on me—called me a toad lusting after swan’s flesh. Isn’t Xie Qingwei just born better than me, more educated? What else made you fall for him? Now that you’re cornered, where is he?”
“Marry me. Your mother will be my mother. I’ll take care of her for you.”
Disgust flooded her. Warily avoiding him, she said coldly, “Get lost.”
She turned to flee again.
Shen Lichuan lost patience. He strode forward, seized her wrist, and dragged her toward an alley. “Believe it or not, I can notify the neighborhood office right now and have you sent to the countryside for labor reform just like your father and second brother. Living worse than pigs and dogs!”
“But I can’t bear to let a soft, delicate thing like you go cheap to those mud-legged peasants.”
Lin Yuqiu suddenly bit down hard on his hand. Her teeth trembled, but she bit with all her strength, piercing skin and flesh.
Shen Lichuan cried out in pain and let go.
She immediately ran in the opposite direction.
Like a wild dog maddened by her lingering scent, he licked the blood from the bite mark and narrowed his eyes with certainty. “Catch her. Bring her to my house. From today on, the pampered Miss Lin belongs to me she’s my wife.”
His men rushed after her in a swarm. Lin Yuqiu stumbled as she ran, her body shaking violently. Her voice broke yet remained stubbornly persistent as she cried for help, not daring to slow even a step.
“Help!”
“Help—”
At that moment, a military jeep drove past her.
She only caught a glimpse of a stern face through the window before fleeing blindly ahead.
Her hair had fallen loose around her shoulders, one shoe lost in her escape. Barefoot on the rough dirt road, she ran for her life.
Inside the vehicle, the man in pine-green military uniform watched her disheveled figure through the window.
When she suddenly turned her head, her face burst into his line of sight.
Dressed in plain coarse clothing, brows faintly knit, terror lingering in her eyes, pale cheeks still streaked with drying tears.
Like a small deer in the mountains fleeing from a predator.
Through the window, the man’s gaze abruptly locked onto her clear yet delicate face, his eyes freezing in place.
He sat straight as a pine, his aura steady and restrained, sharp and formidable. Only his tightly focused gaze betrayed a piercing intensity as it silently fixed on that fragile yet unyielding figure.
Then his thin lips pressed together. Expressionless, he gave a low command to the guard at his side:
“Get out and see what’s going on.”
“Yes, Regiment Commander.”