I was fourteen when I married into the illustrious Shen family. Ten years later, he had gone from loving me to despising me for my age. After humiliating me at a jewelry shop, he announced that he would marry a young girl. He repeatedly struck at my deepest insecurity about growing older, even telling me during an intimate moment that I smelled like an old woman.
I ran away from home, got injured, and lost my memory. My memories returned to the days when I was young and adored by all the young men of the capital, when princes and nobles competed to pursue me. Shen Muchao regretted everything. He jumped into a pond to search for my matching ring and called off his wedding to the other woman. Amid the crowd’s adoration of me, he was content to stand quietly among my admirers. But I had already forgotten him.
Only at his brother’s grave did I learn that he was insecure and sensitive, always doubting my feelings for him. He did not know how to love and did not believe he deserved to be loved, so he could only grow old alone.
