Ling Yue was overjoyed trying on her wedding dress. Her wedding with Zhou Mucheng would take place next month, the event she had been waiting for many years. As scenes of her and Zhou Mucheng from childhood to adulthood flashed through her mind, a sweet smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
Stepping out of the fitting room, she looked at herself in the mirror – an elegant, sacred white wedding dress accentuating her petite and rosy face. Her eyes were like water, cherry lips like flower petals, long black hair cascading down her swan-like neck. She was just like a little princess who had walked out of a fairy tale.
She couldn't help but twirl in front of the mirror, shyly thinking: Would Brother Zhou Mucheng also really like her looking this way?
Just then, Ling Yue smelled something burning. Looking in the direction it came from, she saw something was on fire. Shocked, she urgently yelled out the door, “Come quickly, something’s burning, hurry, put out the fire!”
She shouted while rushing to get out, but when she got to the door she found it had been locked from the outside. Anxiously pounding on the door, she called out, “Come quickly...help! Save me!”
Behind her the fire grew bigger, soon consuming everything in the room. Searing heat washed over her. Flames leapt up her pure white wedding dress, intense pain engulfing her body. Ling Yue could endure no more, slowly collapsing to the ground. Eyes red from the smoke’s sting, coughing incessantly, each breath more difficult than the last, a stream of tears slid down her face as she thought of the person she had always harbored feelings for in her heart. “Brother Zhou Mucheng...I’m sorry...I cannot marry you...”
Fire trucks soon screamed onto the scene. Amidst the raging inferno, firefighters carried out an unconscious woman and rushed her to the hospital.
Watching the fire truck race away, the crowds speculated:
“Do you know who that woman is they carried out? She’s North City Ling Family’s young miss, Ling Yue. I heard she was getting married next month.”
“How unlucky, after such a huge fire, even if she didn’t die, she must be disfigured.”
“I heard Miss Ling was the most peerless beauty in Jing City.”
“I’ve seen Miss Ling Yue before, she was indeed very beautiful, but her personality, oh boy...”
“What do you mean?” Everyone looked questioningly at the speaker.
He sighed and shook his head. “Timid as a mouse, useless besides her face. Can’t compare at all to the Ling Family’s second young miss.”
In a hospital room, a tall woman lay in the bed, her face and body wrapped in bandages, only her eyes peeking out from fluttering curly lashes. Suddenly, she opened her eyes – clear and cold as icy daggers, sharp and majestic.
“Where is this place...” Ling Yue’s phoenix eyes narrowed, scanning her unfamiliar surroundings – light blue walls, white sheets, a single bed that could just fit one person, a bedside table, the gentle breeze from the half-open window fluttering the blue curtains, vaguely showing the garden view outside.
A bolt of pain shot through her body. Ling Yue frowned, memories not her own flooded her mind. The original Ling Yue was 20 years old. She was the young miss of North City’s Ling Family. Her mother passed away when she was little. Her father remarried and his new wife gave birth to a daughter and son soon after joining the Ling Family, securing her position.
On the surface, the original was the young miss. But in reality, even the servants had higher standing than her in the family, leading to her timid personality, causing the Ling Family to dislike her even more.
When the original was small, her mother betrothed her to Zhou Mucheng, eldest son of the Zhou family. Next month would have been her wedding to Zhou Mucheng.
Today, the original received a call from the bridal shop to come try on her wedding dress. Zhou Mucheng was also supposed to come but had something urgent he couldn’t make it for. Mid-fitting, a fire suddenly broke out in the room and the original perished.
A mocking arc lifted the corner of Ling Yue’s lips. She was certain the fire was deliberately set – someone wanted the original dead. Raising her eyes to the shadowy figure floating in midair, she said: “Rest in peace. I will avenge you.”
Hearing this, the figure faintly smiled at Ling Yue before dissipating.
Ling Yue was about to close her eyes to organize her thoughts when the door opened and an old woman rushed in, anxiously coming to her bedside. Seeing Ling Yue wrapped in bandages, tears spilled from her eyes.
She reached out to grasp Ling Yue’s hand but pulled back when she saw the bandaged hand. Eyes red, she tenderly looked at Ling Yue, “My poor young miss, why must you suffer so? What will you do now?”
She was Ling Yue’s mother’s wet nurse. She had accompanied Ling Yue’s mother to the Ling Family when she married in. After her mistress’ death, she had been taking care of the young miss. Over the years she bore silent witness to how the Ling Family treated the young miss but as a servant there was little she could do.
Just when she thought the young miss would finally find happiness, this fire ruined everything. She truly worried for the young miss, and didn’t know if she could take the blow when she found out the Zhou family had already called off the engagement. Having cared for her since she was small, she well understood how much the young miss cared for Zhou Mucheng.
“Granny Xu...I’m fine...” Ling Yue’s voice was hoarse from the smoke.
Granny Xu dabbed at her tears, noticing the IV bag was nearly empty. “Young miss, don’t move. Your saline drip is almost finished. I’ll go find the doctor to change it.”
She carefully tucked Ling Yue in before leaving to get the doctor.
Not long after Granny Xu left, the door opened again.
Thinking Granny Xu had returned with the doctor, Ling Yue looked up. But it was a middle-aged man with a stern expression who strode to her bedside, looking at her with disgust and indifference. “I came to tell you the Zhou family has called off the engagement. Also, after you’re discharged, you will move to the old house in the suburbs to live alone.” He had thought having her engaged to the Zhou family made her useful somehow. Now with her ruined face and broken engagement, if not for her share of his blood, he wouldn’t even provide her the old house to live in.
Ling Yue said nothing, merely peering at Ling Tianzheng with a trace of mocking in the depths of her eyes. She truly felt sorry for the original – dead without even her father’s condolences, instead thrown out like garbage.
