Lu Qian stood outside Lu Hong’s bedchamber and knocked on the door. “Elder Brother, the evening banquet is about to begin. Father sent me to fetch you. If you don’t come soon, you’ll be late.”

There was no movement from inside the room.

Lu Qian did not leave. He knocked persistently, without giving up. “I know you’re in there. Open the door.”

After a long pause, Lu Hong’s voice finally came from within — carrying a strange, raspy quality. “I have no appetite. I won’t be going to the banquet.”

An unusual gleam flickered in Lu Qian’s eyes. He softened his voice. “Elder Brother, open the door and let me in first, and then we’ll talk.”

In the state he was currently in — disheveled and wretched — how could he possibly let anyone see him?

Lu Hong answered without thinking. “I’m not in the mood. I want to be alone for a while. Go on ahead.”

“I can’t be at ease unless I see for myself that you’re all right.” When Lu Qian dug his heels in, he was not easy to deal with. His still-slightly-childish voice pushed through the thick door and reached Lu Hong’s ears. “If you won’t open the door, I’ll go straight to Father and tell him you’re perfectly fine but deliberately making excuses not to attend the banquet.”

Lu Hong: “…”

After a moment, Lu Hong finally came and opened the door.

By then the sky had grown dark, and no candles had been lit inside the room. The light was dim.

Yet Lu Qian noticed at once — Lu Hong’s handsome face was ashen, and the rims of his eyes were a deep red. He could already half-guess what had happened. Suppressing a faint stirring of elation deep inside him, he put on an expression of concern. “Elder Brother, what happened? Why have you been hiding in your room crying?”

It was shameful enough to have hidden away and wept alone — but to have someone notice and then press you about it was even more mortifying!

Even if that person was a brother he had grown up close to, Lu Hong still felt his face burn hotly. And besides, the matter of confessing his feelings only to be flatly rejected — and sending Ling Jingshu into a fit of vomiting on the spot — was simply far too impossible to put into words…

“It’s nothing.” Lu Hong made a determined effort to keep it light. “I was just in a low mood for a bit. I’m better now.”

Lu Qian looked at Lu Hong with a dissatisfied frown. “Do you think I’m a fool? If nothing had happened, why would you be hiding in your room crying?”

Lu Hong refused to answer.

Lu Qian’s eyes glinted, and he suddenly ventured: “Elder Brother, did you go looking for Cousin Jingshu this afternoon?”

A secret he had thought safely buried with no one the wiser was suddenly exposed by Lu Qian. Lu Hong’s handsome face went scarlet in an instant, but he did not deny it — he silently nodded.

“You like Cousin Jingshu,” Lu Qian said, his tone certain and matter-of-fact. “So you wanted to confess your feelings to her. But… Cousin Jingshu rejected you. And so you were heartbroken and came to hide in your room and cry in secret.”

He had hit on every point!

Though the most humiliating moment of all was something Lu Qian would never be able to guess, no matter what.

Lu Hong nodded, embarrassed and pained, then thought for a moment and added an admonishment: “Second Brother, keep this knowledge to yourself. Whatever you do, don’t tell Father and Mother.”

A thing like this, if it got out — it would be utterly disgraceful.

A flash of joy raced through Lu Qian’s eyes before he obediently replied: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” He paused, then probed tentatively: “Elder Brother, you confessed to Cousin Jingshu, and she truly wasn’t moved at all? You are so outstanding and accomplished — how could she not like you?”

Lu Hong’s fragile heart was trampled over mercilessly once more. His expression grew ever more bitter. “Cousin Jingshu made it very clear — she has not the slightest regard for me. I… I won’t go looking for her again.”

By the last sentence, his eyes had begun to redden once more.

This had been the very first time in his life that his heart had stirred, the first time he had ever fallen for someone. He had gone to declare his feelings full of joyful anticipation — only to be rejected without mercy. Lu Hong’s young heart had been shattered into fragments.

She despised him so utterly — how could he ever have the face to appear before her again?

“Elder Brother, please don’t be too heartbroken.” Lu Qian hurried to console his devastated brother. “You and Cousin Jingshu have no fate between you — there’s nothing to be done about that. In the future, you will surely meet a better woman.”

A woman like the noble and distinguished Princess Changping of the great Dazhou dynasty, for instance.

In a few years’ time, Lu Hong would travel to the capital to sit the imperial examinations, where he would distinguish himself brilliantly in both the Metropolitan Examination and the Palace Examination, and be personally appointed by the Emperor as the top scholar. It was this achievement that would catch Princess Changping’s eye.

Princess Changping’s birth mother was Empress Xu. Prince Yan, who would later become Crown Prince, was her younger brother by the same mother. She was the most nobly born woman in all of Dazhou. Lu Hong would become her husband — the Imperial Prince Consort of Dazhou — and enjoy a lifetime of glory and splendor.

Even though none of this was what Lu Hong truly wanted. Even though he had no desire to be the faithless man who abandoned his wife. But with such tremendous, heaven-sent fortune dangled right before the Lu family’s eyes, how could they allow Lu Hong to refuse?

Lu Hong would be placed under house arrest in his second uncle’s residence. The letters he sent home would never reach Ling Jingshu’s hands — but fabricated, exaggerated reports of disaster would arrive one after another. Ling Jingshu would be pushed to the edge of collapse, spending every day in tears.

Later, Lu An would forcibly violate Ling Jingshu, and then secretly arrange for someone to forge Ling Jingshu’s handwriting and write a letter of final farewell in her name to Lu Hong. That letter would be the final blow that crushed Lu Hong entirely.

Two people who had loved each other — broken apart by the ambitions and schemes of the Lu family, turned into bitter enemies who hated and resented each other, and finally sundered beyond all repair.

Right up until the moment of her death, Ling Jingshu had never known the truth of what had happened. She had been reborn carrying her hatred, with a bone-deep loathing of Lu Hong — how could she ever possibly love him again?

And the only person who knew every secret of what had transpired — was him alone.

Then let this secret be buried in his heart forever. Let Ling Jingshu remain in the dark forever, hating Lu Hong forever.

In this lifetime, Lu Hong and Ling Jingshu could no longer become husband and wife. He would be the one who was meant to be Ling Jingshu’s partner in this life.

Thinking of all this, a secret surge of joy and exhilaration flickered through Lu Qian’s heart. Yet the expression on his clean-featured face remained one of gentle concern. “Elder Brother, you really are not fit to be seen like this — you shouldn’t go out and see people. It would only arouse suspicion. I’ll go back and report to Father — I’ll say you have a slight headache and need to rest in your room.”

Lu Hong pulled himself together enough to offer his thanks. “That’s very good of you, to cover for me like this.”

“We are brothers of the same blood. Don’t be so polite with me — it’s far too distant.” Lu Qian grinned, and his clean, fair face looked all the more endearing for it.

After Lu Qian had gone, the expression Lu Hong had been barely holding together dissolved at once into dejection.

By the time Lu Qian returned to the dining hall, the evening banquet was just getting underway.

Lu An saw that only Lu Qian had come back, and his brow drew together in displeasure.

Every time he looked at his father’s face, the image of Ling Jingshu’s haggard, gaunt, pale, and hollow expression would surface in Lu Qian’s mind, and a violent, savage impulse would surge up inside him.

He quickly lowered his gaze and said softly: “Father, Elder Brother has a headache and has already gone to sleep. He is unable to attend the evening banquet.”

With so many people present, Lu An could not say much. He nodded and gave a sound of acknowledgment.

As the Ling family’s son-in-law, Lu An held an esteemed position, and throughout the banquet, guests of the same generation and younger came to offer toasts. Though Lu An had a good head for liquor, he was no match for round after round of toasting — by the end of the evening he was thoroughly drunk. Whatever intentions he had harbored of going to check on Lu Hong were simply set aside and forgotten.

The following day, when Lu Hong appeared, the dejection and despair in his expression had been largely concealed, and the swelling and redness around his eyes had faded. He did not look particularly spirited, yet neither was he so obviously out of sorts as to arouse anyone’s suspicion.

“Your son pays his respects to Father!” Lu Hong stepped forward to greet Lu An.

Lu An, still suffering from a hangover, was in poor color. He frowned and asked: “What happened with you yesterday? You were perfectly all right at noon — how did you end up with a headache by the afternoon? You even missed the evening banquet.”

Lu Hong had prepared his answer in advance. He responded with a contrite expression: “To reply to Father — after the noon banquet yesterday, I had some time to myself and wandered around the garden for a while. It must have been too windy, and my head began to ache. Since yesterday was Maternal Grandmother’s birthday celebration, calling a physician into the residence would have been inauspicious, so I said nothing about it and simply rested alone in my room. I did not have the energy to attend the evening banquet either. But after a full night’s sleep, I feel much better.”

This explanation was entirely plausible.

Lu An’s expression eased somewhat. “You still showed some foresight. You are right — calling a physician into the residence yesterday would indeed have been inappropriate.”

At Lu An’s side, the Ling woman was not one to pass up the chance to play the caring stepmother. She immediately said: “The birthday celebrations are being held for three consecutive days — we can’t have A’Hong suffering for all three of them. I’ll send someone quietly to fetch a physician right now.”

“Thank you for your concern, Mother.” Lu Hong politely declined. “But I truly am much better now. There’s no need to call a physician.”

Since Lu Hong said as much, the Ling woman did not press the matter of the physician further, and instead said with a smile: “A’Hong, you must be sixteen this year, am I right?”

Why was she suddenly asking about his age?

Lu Hong was somewhat puzzled, but answered: “Yes. My birthday falls in the seventh month, so I still have three months before I turn a full sixteen.”

Lu Qian, thinking of something privately, let his smile recede behind his eyes.

Sure enough, he then heard the Ling woman say with a cheerful smile: “When you put it that way, you are really no longer young. It’s time to give some thought to your future marriage. Is there any young lady you have your eye on? If so, you should speak up — it would be good to settle the engagement sooner rather than later. Waiting a year or two before the actual wedding would be perfectly acceptable.”

These words were laden with implication.

It was all but saying outright: propose to the Ling family.

In her previous life, this was precisely how things had unfolded — Lu Hong declared his feelings, then the Ling woman raised the matter of the marriage with the Old Madam of the Ling family, and the Ling family had agreed to the match without much hesitation. Everything had proceeded naturally and smoothly…

Would Lu Hong do the same as in the previous life and openly acknowledge his feelings for Ling Jingshu?

Lu Qian’s heart climbed to his throat, and without realizing it, he had fixed his gaze intently on Lu Hong.

Lu Hong, sharp as ever, had of course caught the Ling woman’s underlying meaning. Had this been two days ago, he would have been overjoyed and would have immediately and eagerly admitted his feelings for Ling Jingshu. But yesterday, Ling Jingshu had rejected him with unmistakable clarity…

No matter how much he loved Ling Jingshu, he could not bring himself to act so shamelessly.

Lu Hong steeled himself and answered: “I am truly moved that Mother thinks of my future with such care. But right now, my only wish is to apply myself to my studies. The thought of marriage has not crossed my mind yet.”

This reply was entirely unexpected to the Ling woman.

She glanced instinctively at Lu An.

Lu An was equally astonished, and asked him directly: “You don’t like Shu Jie’er?”

Lu Hong: “…”