The postal relay station on the outskirts of the capital in July was scorching, filthy, and foul-smelling, with mosquitoes swarming unchecked.
“Is she still not ready?” Su Ye, the Heir of the Marquis of Yong’an, swiped his sleeve at the insects constantly buzzing around him, his expression one of extreme impatience.
The attendant beside him shrank back. “The maid said she is still bathing.”
“Bathing?” Su Ye’s eyes widened in shock. “They said she was bathing an hour ago! Does she intend to scrub off several layers of skin? With that filthy hide of hers, she wouldn’t be clean even if she washed forever!”
“Keep your voice down, Heir. It would be bad if the Eldest Miss heard you,” the attendant whispered a reminder.
So what if she hears? It’s the truth.
But Su Ye only thought it; the words didn’t actually tumble out of his mouth.
He couldn’t even understand why someone who was supposed to die at the border was coming back. Worse, the Emperor himself had issued an oral decree, allowing his father to exchange his recent military merits to bring her back, all so she could serve Master Yun Ji in her capacity as the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yong’an’s household.
A military slave acting as the legitimate daughter of the Marquis’s house—Su Ye felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of dung over his head.
If it were Yao’er who was the legitimate daughter—his own sister—how could he possibly feel this way? He certainly wouldn’t be waiting here for three hours because a horse had been startled!
From a window at the corner of the second floor, Su Rui took in the sight of her biological brother’s enraged face and the hatred in his eyes. She heard every single word clearly.
As it turned out, in the heart of the brother who had promised to protect her forever when they were children, she was now a person so filthy she made his stomach turn.
Yet he seemed to have forgotten exactly how she had become that “filthy military slave.”
It was they who had forced her, who had coaxed her into it!
Five years ago, at a spring banquet, Princess Changning’s fiancé—whose marriage had been bestowed by the Emperor—was caught in an act of adultery. The woman fled, but she left behind an undergarment embroidered with Su Rui’s name.
She was pinned to the ground in public by Princess Changning. Her younger stepsister testified that the undergarment belonged to Su Rui. Her stepmother delicately mentioned that Su Rui had been missing for two hours after claiming she needed to relieve herself. The Princess’s fiancé slapped her, testifying that she had seduced him, and knelt to beg the Princess’s forgiveness.
No one listened to her cries of innocence. Just like that, she became a shameless, wicked person who had ruined a marriage granted by the Emperor. She was sentenced to be a military slave and exiled to the border.
Her brother, Su Ye, called her cheap and self-destructive.
Her father, the Marquis of Yong’an, said the dust had settled and there was no way to reverse it. For the sake of the Marquis’s reputation, he told her to endure it for a while until he found an opportunity to bring her back.
And so she waited. She endured.
Year after year, through the turning of the seasons, she waited until the moment she took her own life to avoid being defiled.
Fearing that her suicide would bring trouble to her family, her soul drifted back to the Marquis’s manor. Only then did she learn they had never intended to save her; they had abandoned her long ago.
Her younger stepsister, Zhou Yao, had changed her name to Su Yao and become the legitimate daughter of the household. Even the people who had tormented Su Rui at the border had been sent by them, all to ensure she died early so this “stain” could be erased, allowing Su Yao to use their father’s military merits from suppressing a rebellion to negotiate a good marriage.
She watched as they occupied the positions belonging to her and her mother, using her mother’s dowry while the entire household lived in harmony.
Driven by overwhelming resentment, she lived again.
Relying on the knowledge from her past life, she had risked death that night to climb into that room. She bribed a traveling storyteller to spread rumors to the capital that she had spent the night with the reclusive Master Yun Ji, a scandal that shook the man on the Dragon Throne.
Forcing the Marquis of Yong’an to trade his military merits for her return was her own demand.
She would not let them have their way!
In this life, she would not die silently in a military camp only to have her corpse scavenged by wild dogs. She would return to the capital with a high profile and solidify her status as the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yong’an.
She would take back everything that was hers and leave nothing for anyone else.
Therefore, she had intentionally used a hairpin to scratch the horse, causing it to bolt, and specifically demanded that the Heir of the Marquis’s house come to fetch this “disgraceful military slave.”
Glancing up at the setting sun, Su Rui turned and walked downstairs.
The gates of the relay station opened, and Su Ye finally saw Su Rui emerge.
After five years, she had grown taller and changed significantly.
Though she had been a slave, there wasn’t a trace of it on her. Even her skin was neither dark nor coarse.
Her complexion was so fair and delicate it looked like it would bruise at a touch. Her figure was curvaceous, her waist slender enough to be held in one hand. She wore thin, form-fitting clothes that left nothing to the imagination, while her red lips carried a smile. Her naturally charming peach-blossom eyes were even more alluring when slightly curved, and the small beauty mark at the corner of her eye felt like a hook for one’s soul.
Su Ye had never been to the battlefield, but he knew what kind of place a military camp was.
There were only a few ways for a military slave to live well.
Fallen to the status of a military slave, Su Ye thought she would have preserved her purity even if it meant suicide. But the result…
He struck the staring attendant beside him to the ground with a slap and cursed, “You shameless thing! Go and change your clothes this instant!”
“What is wrong with my clothes?” Su Rui spread her hands. Her attire was not revealing in the slightest.
Su Ye was momentarily speechless. How could he put it into words?
There was nothing wrong with the clothes; the problem was her.
“If I tell you to change, change!” He marched forward in a rage, reaching out to grab her hand and drag her back inside, but he stopped the moment he was about to touch her.
He didn’t want to touch her.
Su Rui watched him, a cold sneer on her lips. “It’s getting late. Let’s return to the manor first.”
Approaching the carriage, Su Rui stood by the mounting stool. She raised her hand, turned her head, and looked at Su Ye. “We haven’t met in five years. Won’t you help me into the carriage, Brother?”
Logic dictated he should.
But Su Ye felt only resistance and disgust.
Seeing her like this made his anger flare even more. If not for the Emperor’s order, he wouldn’t want to bring her back at all.
Seeing him unmoved, Su Rui didn’t expect him to be. She simply said nonchalantly, “No matter what, we were born of the same mother and share the same blood, Brother.”
The word “Brother” was exceptionally clear, piercing Su Ye’s heart like a thorn.
Was she saying that no matter how lowly and filthy she was, she was still his sister and he couldn’t cast her off?
Was she intentionally trying to sicken him?
Su Ye looked up, but Su Rui had already entered the carriage. A maid stood by the vehicle, looking at him with a cold face.
That person had been sent by the Emperor. Su Ye couldn’t do anything in front of her. He could only swallow his resentment, flip onto his horse, and begin the journey back to the city.
As they passed through the streets, the sounds of gossip were constant.
Su Ye kept his head down, teeth clenched. As soon as they reached the gates of the Marquis of Yong’an’s manor, he dismounted and rushed inside, ignoring Su Rui.
Su Rui stepped down from the carriage on her own and walked past the screen wall. The current Marchioness, Lady Liang—who was also Su Rui’s former aunt—waited inside with her daughter, Zhou Yao.
They were unwilling to wait outside the gates, fearing the loss of face.
“Rui’er, you’re finally back. For the past five years, Mother has dreamed of you every night.” Marchioness Lady Liang stepped forward to grasp Su Rui’s hand, her eyes brimming with tears, looking for all the world like a mother heartbroken for her child.
The Marchioness’s acting was as superb as ever.
Su Rui’s mother had passed away when she was five. Seeing that she and Su Ye were young, her widowed aunt had entered the Marquis’s manor to care for them, accompanying and looking after her like a mother. When her maternal grandfather suggested that her aunt become her father’s successor wife, she had been overjoyed.
For ten years, Lady Liang had treated her even better than her own biological daughter, indulging her in everything. Until the moment the blade was revealed five years ago, Su Rui had still believed Lady Liang’s vague words were an attempt to protect her.
If she hadn’t heard Lady Liang talking about her years of patient scheming as a spirit after her death, she would never have believed a person could act for so many years.
Su Rui pulled her hand away, avoiding the touch. Lady Liang’s hand grasped empty air. Her expression stiffened for a split second before she quickly smiled again. “Your grandmother is still waiting. From now on, we mother and daughter will have plenty of time to talk slowly. First, go and see your grandmother.”
“Alright,” Su Rui agreed with a smile, though there was a hidden depth in her eyes.
Before the mother and daughter could think further, Su Rui had already headed into the main hall.