Gu Ying patted her back comfortingly. "Don't worry, I'll live happily. You can rest assured about that."
When she said this, she didn't really have much confidence in her heart.
After being reborn, she never thought someone would protect her and prevent her from being harmed.
She never thought about marrying Su Huanfeng either, but she couldn't deny feeling upset when the Su family came to cancel the engagement.
She also clearly understood her current situation.
How could Gu Jia let her live a good life?
The news about the Su family cancelling the engagement would soon spread across the city. After that, who else would come propose to her?
Her marriage had become a bargaining chip in Mrs. Liu's hands. Mrs. Liu could marry her off to whichever family she wanted.
By then, she would be a powerless young girl confined in the inner residence. She wouldn't be able to resist at all and would end up walking down the same path as Gu Shuang in her previous life, eventually dying under some man's hands in endless loneliness and neglect.
Thinking of this, Gu Ying's elegant brows furrowed as a cold look flashed across her eyes.
Yanzhi reached out and waved her hand in front of Gu Ying. "Miss, what's wrong? Are you afraid too?"
Gu Ying sneered. "Humph. Afraid? There is no such word as fear in my life."
After speaking, she left with Yanzhi and returned to Muyue Studio.
She didn't want to give Mrs. Liu a chance to persecute her. She could only get rid of Mrs. Liu early, at least before Mrs. Liu started arranging her marriage. She had to completely lose her grandmother's trust.
...
Bianjing, Liyue Building.
This street had embroidered gates and carved beams everywhere. It was hung with bright lanterns and was where the powerful and elite gathered in Bianjing.
Therefore, it had always been a prosperous commercial area with restaurants and taverns everywhere.
The convoy of the Yong’an Marquis Manor slowly drove by from Changning Avenue, arousing whispers from the onlooking crowd.
"The marquis manor has sent out such a large array of carriages. I heard they went to cancel the engagement at the Dongping Earl Manor."
"Ah, the Earl of Dongping Manor! That makes sense. Those young ladies from the Gu family are all loose women. The eldest young lady is completely shameless, actually committing adultery with a man in the hunting grounds where so many people saw them! Tell me, if you were the old marquis, would you still dare to take a wife from the Gu family?"
"I see! No wonder, no wonder!"
Second floor elegance pavilion.
Zhao Changdu sat by the window holding a glass of glazed wine. His icy gaze followed the carriage as it traveled farther away.
After a while, a figure in green walked up.
The person pushed open the door, walked past the landscape screen in the elegant room, took off his fox fur coat, and sat down across from the man in black. He smiled and said, "The engagement is cancelled. Are you satisfied now?"
Zhao Changdu's expression was cold. His high brows and deep eyes glanced at the wine as he lightly took a sip. "Mm. How is she?"
Su He mocked him while pouring himself a cup of the tavern's best wine. "She's the one whose engagement was cancelled. How well could she be? She cried in front of my elder brother and obediently returned the jade pendant. When I left, I saw the tears on her face like pear blossoms in the rain, so pitiful."
Zhao Changdu's brow furrowed as if he couldn't imagine what she looked like crying.
Seeing a rare ripple of emotion appear on his perpetually cold and aloof face, Su He was quite surprised. "Changdu, do you really like the second young lady of the Gu family and want to marry her?"
"It's not that I like her." Zhao Changdu's brows knitted tightly as he lightly said, "I just feel she is suitable to be my wife."
Su He was rendered speechless for a moment. "Marriage is a major event, not child's play. The position of a wife is not about suitability. You must love her in order to be with her for a long time."
Just like back then, he had always thought he liked Huo Qiyun.
But he clearly felt Changdu only depended on and protected Huo Qiyun like family to repay her for taking care of him since childhood. In order to repay her kindness, the only idea he could come up with was to marry Huo Qiyun into the Duke Manor to protect her.
To him, taking a wife seemed to be just a formality that had no connection with feelings of love.
Did this man understand what love was?
Zhao Changdu raised his deep and tranquil eyes to look straight at him, curling his lips mockingly. "At least if she marries me, I will treat her well her whole life and won't let her suffer even a bit, so she won't go mad and commit suicide from endless coldness and neglect."
Su He sighed.
Having known him for so many years, he knew Changdu still couldn't get over his mother's death, and also resented the former Duke and the current Lady Cheng. He also hated Huo Qiyun who had abandoned him after he had given her all his feelings when he was fifteen.
To ask him to fall in love with another woman again was impossible.
Huo Qiyun's betrayal had hurt him too deeply.
He still remembered on the day Huo Qiyun got married, he, the heir of the duke manor, had cast aside all dignity and propriety. Carrying a sword, he had charged into the Huo residence in front of so many people, wanting to take Huo Qiyun away with him.
Huo Qiyun's single sentence - Don't make trouble - had extinguished all the light in his eyes.
He had just stood there blankly as so many people laughed at him, his straight back hunching over, before coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Huo Qiyun had stepped over him without even glancing at him once. Wearing her grand red bridal clothes, she had walked towards the Zhenguo Duke Manor's flower palanquin expressionlessly, leaving the youth behind.
The deafening gongs and drums of celebration had buried a young man's sincere and ardent heart.
The fifteen-year-old Zhao Changdu had died under Huo Qiyun's cold gaze. Since then he had never recovered.
On that night, taking advantage of his despair and heavy drinking, a group of assassins had injured him so severely he had nearly lost his life.
He had lain on his sickbed lifeless for a whole month. When people saw him again, the smile had already disappeared from his naturally gifted handsome face.
Later, the old Duke had taken him to the border and let him temper himself in the army.
Ten years later when he returned to the capital, he had become the God of Death that everyone feared, mature and restrained. The vigor of his youth was gone, replaced by clouds and rains, decisive killing intent - only his aloof coldness remained as he reveled in his own willfulness. It was a pity his whole body remained cold and indifferent, with no visible joy or anger, making people not dare to get near him easily.
Those who knew the inside story back then had all thought he would find trouble with Huo Qiyun after he returned.
But it had almost been half a month now.
He rarely troubled Huo Qiyun and was unfathomable, leaving people unable to grasp his thoughts.
As his best brother, Su He was also confused and had even been pulled in by him to facilitate the cancellation of the engagement between the marquis and earl manors.
This Gu Ying alone seemed to be worth his personal planning and scheming. She appeared to have some skills.
Su He meaningfully said, "Changdu."
Zhao Changdu raised his brow. "Hm?"
Su He tentatively asked, "Are you marrying Gu Ying to provoke Huo Qiyun?"
Zhao Changdu rolled his eyes at him and coldly stood up. "Let's go."
Su He was already used to his coldness and hurriedly got up as well, grabbing his fox fur coat to drape over his arm as he followed behind him.
Outside, the wind and snow were heavy. The fluffy snow had covered the entire street white, and there were gradually fewer pedestrians.
Feeling the cold, Su He rubbed his hands and put on the fox fur coat again, tucking his neck into the fur collar, revealing a sharp, thin jaw. "His Majesty has just promised at the winter hunt that after it concludes, he will send the Imperial Physician Wang to the Gu residence to treat her younger brother's illness. But something happened in Imperial Physician Wang's family these last few days, forcing him to leave Bianjing and return home. It's impossible to say there's no scheming in this."
The two handsome men walked side by side down the street. Their boots made crunching sounds in the snow, occasionally attracting the glances of passersby.
