Memories of a past life crashed open like a floodgate, surging forward in an overwhelming torrent.

The cold bite of a glass shard drawn across her throat. Pain that cut to the bone and consumed her whole. The deep, suffocating helplessness and rage she had buried inside herself.

She had actually come face to face with Shen Liang — the very Shen Liang who had struck her down in her previous life.

“What happened here?” Shi Guang strode over. “Yutong, have you caused trouble again?”

Though Shi Yutong was arrogant with most people, she held a certain degree of fear toward this second elder brother.

Before she could open her mouth, Du Linghua was already laughing. “I heard you were looking for the Sixth Miss of the Yan Family — is this her?”

She had a habit of holding a handkerchief to her lips when she spoke, her phoenix eyes sweeping the room with playful, roving charm. “I’ve long heard that Sixth Miss Yan is of breathtaking beauty. Seeing her today, the rumors truly don’t do her justice. Second Young Master, come over and take a proper look.”

A few light words, and she had not only praised Yan Qing but neatly shifted all attention away from Shi Yutong.

Shi Guang followed Du Linghua’s gaze over and was indeed briefly struck by what he saw, though his experience was broad and such beauty was not entirely unfamiliar to him.

What he had heard most about this Sixth Miss, more than her appearance, was a personality that was said to be rather disagreeable.

He was the son the Marshal held in highest esteem, a man with considerable power in his hands who would one day carry on his father’s legacy. His wife, even if she couldn’t assist him in managing his affairs, should at least be a woman of virtue and capability — gentle, worthy, and accomplished.

Clearly, this Sixth Miss was not a suitable candidate.

When Shi Guang looked over, Yan Qing was also looking at him. It was not quite what he had imagined. He had expected this Sixth Miss to be shy, admiring, perhaps infatuated — but those eyes of hers were like a deep, unfathomable sky. And from the bottomless depths of her gaze, he felt, unmistakably, a scorching hatred and revulsion.

The sensation came and went in an instant, and for a moment he almost believed it was only a momentary illusion on his part.

Yan Qing didn’t even offer him a greeting. She simply turned to Father Yan at her side and said quietly: “Father, I’m not feeling well.”

Father Yan, who adored his daughter above all else, said at once: “I’ll have someone take you back.”

He offered a brief word of apology to the Shi Family and personally pushed Yan Qing’s wheelchair out of the rear courtyard.

Even as the noise of the crowd faded behind them, the hands Yan Qing had gripped against her knees showed not the faintest sign of loosening. The knuckles of all ten fingers had gone white.

Shen Liang. Shi Guang.

Even though she understood clearly that Shi Guang was not Shen Liang — merely a man who wore his exact face — the sight of that face made peace impossible within her. The resolve to dissolve the engagement with the Shi Family spread through her like wild grass, growing ever more fierce and uncontainable.

With the Yan father and daughter’s departure, Du Linghua took Shi Yutong away with her as well. She was a woman of intelligence; she knew that making a scene on a day like this would only displease the Marshal.

As for Shi Guang — he had found himself unexpectedly intrigued by this Sixth Miss, who was nothing at all like what he had imagined. And Shi Ting, too, was puzzled by Yan Qing’s uncharacteristic reaction just now.

Perhaps no one else had noticed, but he had been standing directly behind Yan Qing. When Shi Guang appeared, Yan Qing’s intense response had flickered past — and he had caught every bit of it.

From all his investigations into this Sixth Miss, who rarely ventured out, he knew that apart from the verbal marriage arrangement made between their families, she and Shi Guang had no connection whatsoever — they had never even met. Given that, why had she lost control of herself the moment Shi Guang appeared?

Lost control? When he applied those words to Yan Qing, he found it impossible to believe.

—