The day Shen Qingli returned to the capital, her fiance publicly broke off their engagement, then turned around and announced he would marry the capital's most beautiful woman.
Everyone waited for her to cry.
Instead, she took a yellowed IOU from her sleeve and gently placed it before the old madam of the marquis's household.
"You can break off the engagement."
"First, pay back the five hundred thousand taels of dowry my mother gave you."
The entire hall fell silent.
The marquis's household had relied on the Shen family's dowry to stay afloat for years, and was now deeply in debt. The old madam refused to acknowledge what they owed. The Marquis of Zhenbei drew his sword, but Shen Qingli simply laid down the second IOU, then the third.
In the end, she sent the account book to the palace.
That very night, the Prince of Jing, who had spent ten years in a wheelchair and was reviled by everyone as a useless cripple, personally came to propose.
Everyone laughed that a good-for-nothing and a cripple made the perfect pair.
Until an urgent report arrived from the northern frontier:
The Prince of Jing's wheelchair was empty.
And Shen Qingli stood at his side in armor, holding the seal of the Zhenbei Army.
Later, her former fiance asked her with red-rimmed eyes:
"If I hadn't broken off our engagement back then..."
Shen Qingli didn't even glance up.
"Then how would I have married the Prince of Jing?"
