Chapter 3

I hesitated for a moment, then decided to go greet him.

Just as I took a step forward, another person appeared beside him.

It was Song Lin'an.

He smiled and asked Pei Shuo, to which girl did the jade hairpin made by the craftsman a few days ago go.

Pei Shuo didn't reply, he silently looked at me.

I blinked and my hand unconsciously touched the jade hairpin in my hair.

Suddenly, I remembered that when someone from the Princess Mansion came with an invitation yesterday, they also brought a jade hairpin.

I thought it was a gift from the Princess.

Turns out it was from him…

No wonder the people from the Princess Mansion repeatedly insisted that I wear it today.

With Song Lin'an there, I lost the desire to greet Pei Shuo.

Turning around, I wanted to leave.

After just a few steps, someone called out to me from behind.

I turned around to see Tang Xuezu walking over with a smile.

She reached out, her fingertips brushed over my moon-white ruqun: "Why are you still wearing such mediocre clothes, sister? Didn't I give you a few new outfits yesterday?"

I frowned, lifted my leg, and walked away.

But once again, she blocked my path; her smile disappeared, her eyes turned sinister:

"The Song family invited several times but couldn't bring you back. I thought you had some sense of shame and didn't dare to meet Brother Lin'an."

"I didn't expect you to be so scheming, learning to pursue him at such gatherings."

Following her gaze, I looked at Song Lin'an in the distance, feeling wrongly accused.

"Mother is really willing to let a fool like you marry in," I said with a calm smile. "She's really not picky."

"You...," Tang Xuezu was enraged, raising her hand to hit me.

But just before her hand touched me, she suddenly screamed.

She fell face-first into the flower bushes nearby.

The unexpected turn of events made me instinctively reach out, but she suddenly recoiled, crying pitifully among the flowers.

"Yu, it's not that I won't allow it. Though you and Brother Lin'an aren't blood-related, how could you be together as you grew up as siblings?"

"Brother Lin'an has promised me a lifetime together, please be kind and let us be, can't you?"

Her words were earnest, with a few petals stuck to her, making her look pitiful and tugging at the heartstrings of those who saw her.

Her commotion attracted a crowd around us.

I didn't want to play along with her drama. "If you want to lie there, go ahead."

With that, I intended to leave.

She immediately grabbed my drape.

Her grip was so strong that I had to pull several times to break free.

"Ayue!"

Someone called me; before I could react, a slap landed on my face.

The force was so strong that the hairpin in my hair was flung away.

The people around gasped in shock.

I covered my face and shook my head towards Pei Shuo in the crowd.

Song Lin'an's hand trembled, looking at it in disbelief.

"I'm sor..."

Before he could finish, Mrs. Song suddenly stepped forward.

"Song Nanyue, two years in Qingzhou weren't enough for you to reflect?"

"In the past, you committed such a treacherous act against human decency, and now you're laying hands on your future sister-in-law. I think you're truly mad!"

"What sin have I committed to raise such a disobedient and unfilial daughter!"

She pointed at my face, scolding from rebellion and unfilialness to calling me innately lowly.

The half of my face slapped by Song Lin'an still ached faintly, but Mrs. Song's words chilled my heart even more.

My father was a subordinate of the Southern King, fighting through life and death on his campaigns. He later died under the blade of the Southern Barbarians while saving him.

My mother, while preparing to bury my father's remains, died from vomiting blood.

Bereft of my parents and with nowhere to turn, the Song Family took me in.

But looking at Mrs. Song's grim face before me, I suddenly felt those eight years of upbringing were nothing but a joke.