Qin Wanru watched the nightmare unfold in front of her like an onlooker to a tragic play. It was a strange dream. She watched her own horrible death. They dragged her down into a nightmarish abyss, slowly tortured to death, then cut in half at her waist. She looked down at her body, stiff and twisted, laying in puddle of blood at the foot of the golden gates.In all of history, the Kingdom of Dongcang had never had a woman put to death in such a horrible way. She could hear the crowd still mocking her, the scoffing she knew all too well.It felt so real. She could taste blood in her mouth, feel the hopelessness…“Miss, wake up. Are you having a nightmare again?”The voice beside her tore through the scene. Sun flooded through the ninety-nine golden gates that framed the path behind her corpse, burning the horrible scene to nothing. Qin Wanru opened her eyes in surprise. Her fists were clenched tightly, nails digging into her palm and sending shooting pains up

The moment Qi Tianyu issued those orders, men stepped forward to restrain the sedan’s destroyers.“This sedan is useless!” one of the restrained men cried. “The elder daughter refuses to marry you and has forced her younger sister to take her place. However, the younger sister isn’t willing to marry you either.”“That’s right! First Daughter Qin doesn’t want to marry you, and her sister won’t take her place! Please give up, Master Qi!” another man cried.“Destroy the sedan so our eldest miss won’t have to marry him!” yet another man cried, his voice even louder.Outraged, Qi Tianyu grabbed a man who was still trying to hit the sedan with his broom.“Even the younger sister doesn’t want to marry me? Does she think this marriage is such a joke that she can just decide not to marry me?”The man he’d grabbed was Wang Feng, Nanny Yu’s son. He burst out laughing.“Isn’t it strange, Master Qi? You were supposed to marry the elder sister, but here y

“Second Miss,” Qing Yue screamed. She ran to Qin Wanru’s side.A crowd of people stood at the door, including Grandma Qin and her servants. They saw Qin Wanru lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Grandma Qin’s face changed from scolding to horror.“Hurry! Somebody get a doctor!” she screamed.The servant girls rushed to obey as Grandma Qin picked up her half dead granddaughter.“Zhuozhuo! Zhuozhuo, what happened?” she asked, voice trembling on the edge of tears.Zhuozhuo was Qin Wanru’s nickname, but nobody called it with love like Old Grandma Qin.“Grandma, big sister wants me to marry brother Qi, but… but I don’t want to marry him! She won’t let me just… I don’t want to marry him! Please don’t let her kill me…” Qin Wanru said, words broken and faint. Her hands went slack and she lost consciousness.It was a risky move, letting herself get injured so severely, but Grandma Qin would remember her tantrum when she insisted on the marriage. W

The Qin Mansion was relatively small, so it did not take long for Qin Wanru to lead the group to Qin Yuru's room. When she saw Qin Wanru about to let them through the door, Qin Yuru lost her nerve. Casting her other concerns aside, she walked up to Qin Wanru and put out her arms out to block her."What do you plan to do in my room, Second Sister?" said Qin Yuru and she glared fiercely at Qin Wanru, her face drained of color."Not much. I just want to look at the letters our cousin wrote you!" replied Qin Wanru calmly, staring back at Qin Yuru."Letters... what letter?" Qin Yuru was so terrified that she almost bit her tongue. She had no idea how Qin Wanru had found out about the letter.When Madam Di had first begun trying to set up the match with Duke Yong’s family, Qin Yuru had started corresponding with Di Yan. Their letters expressed their mutual commitment to make their relationship work. It was, in fact, Di Yan who had urged his mother to agree to their

The engagement between the two families was broken. The eldest daughter of the Ningyuan army general did not guard her chastity. She had such a malicious heart that, pregnant with another man’s child, she devised an evil plan for her younger sister to take her place in marriage.The news snowballed as it spread.Within half a day's time, the entire city of Jiangzhou was talking about it. In a matter of hours, the eldest Miss Qin despised, universally agreed to be the most shameful girl they’d ever heard of. Some even weaved her story into a ballads. When the news reached Qin Huaiyong, he quickly sent men to suppress the rumor, but it was impossible to completely stop people from talking. The Qi family was secretly protecting and spreading the story. By now, the news had even spread far beyond Jiangzhou...The Ningyuan army general was furious. Qin Yuru wailed and cried and even tried to commit suicide. She had shaken the foundation of her entire household.