Gu Ying shook her head and said sincerely, "No, no one is born evil. Only those who are driven to desperation have no choice but to become evil. You are a woman, and women are weak by nature. If you made up your mind to fight back, you must have suffered a lot before you had no choice but to kill him, right?"
Yin Lan was silent for a moment, perhaps empathizing, or perhaps wondering how Gu Ying, just a fifteen-year-old girl, could make such mature remarks.
She recalled the man who had abused her for years, and thought of how the child in her belly turned into a pool of blood flowing out between her legs before it even took shape. Her eyes gradually turned cold, then slowly smiled open, nodding like she was coaxing a child, "The young lady is right."
Gu Ying hugged Yin Lan and rested her chin on her shoulder. In a hoarse, childish voice she said, "Yin Lan, I'll treat you well in the future. Don't put your hopes in any man, men will only hurt and harm you."
Yin Lan hugged her waist in return. She didn't know if the young lady was speaking to her or herself, but all she could do now was to quietly let the young lady hold her.
This was the first time she felt that she was not a slave, but the elder sister of the young miss of the prestigious Earl Manor.
She sighed softly, "Has the young lady been hurt by someone too?"
Gu Ying's eyes grew hot, she sniffed, pulled away from her, and her expression calmed down. "No, I won't be hurt by men either. I remember now, I must rely on myself at all times, not on others."
Just like her unreliable father.
After her mother passed away, he went far away to the border. He would come back once every three or five years if they were lucky. He rarely came back to see her and her brother. Although he occasionally sent some little gifts from the borderlands to amuse her, and wrote her letters, with him not around, the lack of fatherly love could never be filled.
Since even her birth father was like this, how could she place her hopes on a stranger who might become her husband in the future, and rely on him for the rest of her life?
Yin Lan tilted her head sympathetically and gripped her soft little hand. "The young lady's mind is as deep as her graceful temperament. I've made up my mind that I won't marry again in this life. I will repay Madam for life and accompany the young lady for life."
Gu Ying smiled genuinely, "Let's go back to Musui Studio."
...
The days that followed were somewhat dramatic.
Gu Jia and Jiang Yin set their wedding date for the end of the year, just a month away.
With the date set, it seemed Gu Jia's heart was also suddenly settled. She also seemed to have accepted this outcome and Jiang Yin.
After leaving the ancestral hall, she stopped going out. She stayed in her Cangwu Pavilion every day, happily spending her days embroidering her wedding dress in preparation for her wedding.
Moreover, since Jiang Yin was marrying into her family, as the wife, no matter Jiang Yin's achievements, he would have to listen to her. She resigned herself to her fate of not making a prestigious marriage, and started seriously preparing for her marriage with Jiang Yin.
What delighted Gu Jia even more was that after the winter hunt ended, the young lord of Yong'an Marquis Manor was promptly sent to the border by the old marquis to temper himself.
On the third day, the letter cancelling the engagement arrived at Dongping Earl Manor from the marquis manor.
Lady Dowager Gu Jia was still busy with Gu Jia's wedding. She had originally planned to thoroughly interrogate Gu Ying about what happened with Fu Xuan at the hunting grounds after finishing Gu Jia's wedding preparations.
As soon as the cancellation letter arrived, the old lady was suddenly thrown into disarray, and nearly collapsed to the ground in anger.
"What an injustice! What an injustice!"
"At my age, there is not a single person in this family who doesn't give me trouble!"
On the day of the cancellation, the marquis manor acted relatively low-key.
The old marquis came in person with a decent matchmaker, bringing the original marriage contract to Yongshou Hall.
When Gu Ying received the news, she had just gotten up and finished the fresh milk delivered from the kitchen.
Yanzhi rushed in furiously just as Gu Ying was holding the anti-aging pills that Yin Lan had fetched from the manor's medicine pavilion, and was gently raising her long lashes. Her eyes still held some lingering drowsiness after just waking up. "What's the hurry?"
Yanzhi was so angry her face turned red. She yelled in a shrill voice, "Young lady, the marquis manor has really come to cancel the engagement! That wretched young lord claimed to like you! How could he send a cancellation letter just three days after returning!"
The corner of Gu Ying's mouth twitched, but she remained relatively calm. "Are you afraid the neighboring Weiyuan General Manor won't know your young lady's engagement was cancelled?"
She sat up, without the slightest anger or fluctuation on her face, gazed at the anger on Yanzhi's face, and laughed. "After all, he is young and couldn't withstand the winds and waves. A cancelled engagement is nothing worth mentioning."
Yanzhi was indignant.
Thinking of her young lady's tragic fate, she knelt on the footstool by the bed, grabbed Gu Ying's skirt with her little hands, and couldn't help but feel sad to the point of wanting to cry. "But young lady, after having your engagement cancelled, your reputation will be worse than eldest young lady... According to our Dong Li laws, a cancelled engagement is equal to divorce. When you marry again in the future, you will already be considered a twice-married woman. Which respectable scholar in Bianjing City will still be willing to marry you then!"
"Based on what you said, your young lady will immediately become the notoriously unwanted steamed bun in Bianjing City?"
Yanzhi gritted her silver teeth. "Exactly!"
Gu Ying chuckled. Yanzhi was silly but also quite cute.
In her past and present lives combined, she no longer had high expectations for human nature. Thanks to Yanzhi's unswerving loyalty, she knew there were still people in this world who loved her so unquestioningly.
Her heart softened into a pool of spring water.
She held Yanzhi's little hand in hers and rubbed her frozen stiff fingers. "Didn't you use the Frost Flower Cream I gave you?"
"Young lady, I'm telling you important things!"
"The cancelled engagement can't be more important than your hands." Gu Ying carefully examined the chapped skin and frostbite on her hands that grew every winter. She was extremely distressed. She casually took some Frost Flower Cream and applied it to her hands herself.
Yanzhi was stunned.
Yin Lan smiled as she brought in hot water and smoothly handed Gu Ying a hot towel. "Young lady, look at how silly this girl is."
Gu Ying also smiled. "But Yanzhi is right too. The marquis manor cancelling the engagement will surely make Gu Jia eager to watch me make a spectacle of myself. I'm afraid Mrs. Liu won't be able to restrain herself either."
She wasn't worried about anything else, just that Mrs. Liu would continue making trouble using her marriage.
