Volume One, Chapter One: Opening My Eyes to Ten Years Later
Incense curled lazily, the lean and solid shadow of a man pressing heavily against the delicate figure of a woman. Crimson lipstick was entirely dissolved between parted teeth, swallowed deep within. The rich scent of agarwood enveloped the heated chamber. A slender jade hand pressed against the intricately carved bedpost, tightly clutching the drapery.
“Gently…” the exquisitely beautiful woman whispered in plea.
In the next moment, the man’s merciless voice struck sharply: “Zhao Zhao, you belong to me.”
Xie Mingyue’s mind was a blur, yet she murmured in resistance, following her instinct: “No.”
At that, the movement between lips and teeth ceased abruptly. As the heavy restraint was withdrawn, a chill swept over her.
A slight shiver ran through Xie Mingyue, instantly awakening her.
“Qi Jinshan?”
The moment she glimpsed the man’s face, all her panic transmuted into fury.
So it was he who had pressed her against the bed and kissed her so deeply.
“Let go of me!”
How dare he…
Seeing the resistance in Xie Mingyue’s eyes, a faint anger surfaced beneath Qi Jinshan’s calm brow.
“Zhao Zhao,” he murmured tenderly, the intimate name twisted to a cold edge at his lips, “you must remember your place.”
“What place?” Xie Mingyue, still lost in shock and anger, was utterly confused.
The coldness in Qi Jinshan’s eyes did not fade. “No matter the time, you are the wife of Qi Jinshan.”
What nonsense was this? Wasn’t she engaged to Qi Xiuyu, his younger brother?
Surprised, Xie Mingyue clutched the quilt and suddenly realized she was dressed in a sumptuous imperial tribute silk undergarment, lying upon an unfamiliar intricately carved bed. Everything in the room was utterly strange.
She was a maiden yet to be wed, yet here she lay exposed before her fiancé’s elder brother—while her mouth still bore the strong, deep scent of Qi Jinshan’s cold, woody fragrance.
Her entire body flushed a faint pink with shame. Seeing Qi Jinshan’s piercing gaze upon her, she felt both fear and anger. Unable to call out, she could only whisper a rebuke: “Qi Jinshan, what are you doing… ah!”
Noticing her rejection, a furious blaze surged inside Qi Jinshan’s chest, scorching and wild in his eyes. He seized her slender, rosy ankle dangling over the bed’s edge and pressed her back into the depths of the drapery.
The scorching breath brushed her tender skin. Xie Mingyue shivered violently, unable to hold back a soft sob.
Upon tasting her tears, the fire in Qi Jinshan’s eyes instantly extinguished.
“Wife,” he murmured lowly.
Xie Mingyue, overwhelmed with shame and anger, struck him once. “Who are you calling wife? Don’t!”
That single blow seemed to snuff out all Qi Jinshan’s fervor. His gaze darkened as he fastened her undergarment and covered her with the quilt.
“Rest well.”
Having spoken, he closed his eyes, suppressed all emotions, resumed a detached demeanor, and disappeared behind the ornate folding screen.
“Wife!”
Once he had left, the maid Wu Tong hurriedly slipped around the screen.
Seeing the radiant, gentle Xie Mingyue, joy filled Wu Tong’s eyes.
Had her lady finally agreed to grow close to the master?
But just now, when the master left, his face was still full of displeasure.
“You are… Wu Tong? How have you changed so much?” Xie Mingyue blinked in surprise at her once youthful personal maid, now matured.
Barefoot, she ran to the dressing table and stared at the weary but beautiful reflection in the mirror, her heart skipping a beat.
She had only just turned sixteen yesterday—how had she grown so mature?
“Wu Tong, what year is it now?”
“The thirtieth year of Yuanqing, the fourteenth day of the fourth month…” Wu Tong replied blankly, sensing her lady’s oddness.
She pursed her lips and brought over a bowl of medicine.
“Please take your medicine quickly, madam. The imperial physician confirmed that the vomiting of blood you experienced a few days ago was caused by the throat-damaging powder you took. Though it was poisoning, once the blood is purged, you will be fine.”
Xie Mingyue had no heart for medicine.
She had slept through ten years—waking at twenty-six after being sixteen.
Suppressing the panic deep within, she forced calm and asked, “Did I marry Qi Xiuyu?”
Wu Tong’s face turned pale as she hastily waved her hand. “Please don’t mention the heir. If the master hears, there will be no end to their quarrels.”
Thinking of the stern face of her lord, she shivered silently.
Lowering her voice, Wu Tong said, “You are now the master’s wife. You have been married ten years. How could you keep mentioning the heir? Besides, the heir was once engaged to you…”
Xie Mingyue’s almond eyes widened. Qi Jinshan’s words were true!
She suddenly rose, slumping with weariness. “How did I come to marry him…”
She had clearly been Qi Xiuyu’s fiancée, and Qi Jinshan was his elder brother…
No wonder he had handled her so familiarly just now. Yet ten years ago, the man she despised most was Qi Jinshan.
Staring at her twenty-six-year-old reflection, she sat back down by the bed. “Help me change. I want to return to the Xie family.”
In this absurd predicament, her only desire was to go home and see her mother—to ask for the truth.
But Wu Tong hesitated before speaking: “Madam, have you forgotten? When you were sixteen, a wicked servant confessed that when you were born, your mother delivered a stillborn and a baby girl. The servant secretly swapped her own daughter for the stillborn. The girl switched was you. You have been disowned by the Xie family.”
“What? That’s impossible!”
Xie Mingyue touched the top of her head. Her mother had a birthmark shaped like a flower petal on her crown, the same as hers. Her mother had said their marks were identical. How could she not be her child?
“I must go to the Xie family to clarify this!”
She wanted to leave immediately, but Wu Tong grasped her hand firmly.
“Over all these years, you have visited many times, but the Xie family has never seen you. Every time you return, you fall gravely ill.”
Held back by Wu Tong, Xie Mingyue gradually calmed.
“So now, besides being Qi Jinshan’s wife, I am nothing?”
Wu Tong watched her cautiously. “Madam, being the master’s wife isn’t so bad. He is now a third-rank official with a promising future.”
Third rank? Xie Mingyue was secretly shocked.
Even her father had only reached third rank in his forties after some accomplishments. Qi Jinshan was barely thirty…
Setting aside her sorrow for now, she sought to understand the situation clearly.
“You said I vomited blood?”
Lowering her gaze to her hands—pale and slender—and then back at the mirror, the face there was beautiful but weary.
She had once been the most renowned young lady in the capital, adorned in fine clothes and cloud-like hair. Now, even as the wife of a third-rank official, how had she become so emaciated?
“Yes. At the Qi family’s ancestral rites, after drinking the blessing tea, you vomited blood. The master summoned imperial physicians to treat you. The marquis’s wife is currently investigating this matter in the front hall.”
She never expected such drastic changes in her life over ten years.
How had she come to be declared a false daughter by the Xie family? How had she transformed from Qi Xiuyu’s fiancée to Qi Jinshan’s wife? And how had she let herself become so frail?
Three questions weighed heavily on Xie Mingyue’s heart. After a moment’s thought, she decided the most urgent task was to learn about the Qi family’s situation thoroughly—at least so she would not be exposed before Qi Jinshan.
“What is my relationship with Qi Jinshan?”
After a moment, Xie Mingyue regained her composure.
“You and the master…”
Wu Tong was about to speak when fearful voices from the maids echoed outside.
A man dressed in dark golden robes slowly passed the folding screen—broad-shouldered and long-legged. The collar of his garment bore a crease she had left.
Qi Jinshan had returned.
Xie Mingyue stared at him, stunned.
Earlier, she had not seen clearly. The Qi Jinshan of ten years hence was restrained in brilliance, noble and pure—vastly different from the cold, shadowy figure who had always watched her from afar.
“Xie Mingyue,” he said, standing neither too near nor too far, his eyes indifferent, as if their previous intimate encounter had been but a dream, “your maid Fen’er has confessed. You poisoned yourself.”