I was seventeen the year I married into the Qi family.
My mother said I was lucky, that I would bring prosperity to the young master of the Qi family. She grinned so broadly at the betrothal gifts that her eyes nearly disappeared.
So I put on a heavy wedding dress, climbed into the bridal sedan, and was carried into the Qi residence amid music and celebration.
Unexpectedly, the young master Qi was perfectly healthy. What's more, he was an exceptionally handsome man, like someone out of a dream.
The wedding scale lifted my veil and grazed my forehead, leaving it cut and bleeding. Through the blur of blood, I still caught the contempt and disgust in his eyes.
He tossed aside the bloodstained wedding scale as if it were dirty, then looked down at me. "I don't believe in fate or any of that nonsense. Keep your head down and you might have a chance to live. If you dare try anything, I'll make sure you have nowhere to be buried."
Only after we were married did I learn that a Taoist priest had read Qi Jiming's destiny. He was fated to face a life-or-death calamity before turning twenty, and my birth chart could help him escape it.
Madam Qi loved her son dearly and forced him to marry me.
I heard he already had a beloved: a woman of equal standing, beauty, and talent. No wonder he hated me so much for ruining their match.
I didn't dare disobey him. I kept my head down and made myself invisible in the Qi residence.
Later, seeing how well-behaved I was, he softened his attitude a little. "I'll give you a dowry. We can part on good terms."
Later still, he was blinded in an accident, and I accompanied him step by step on the journey back to Yongzhou.
Once the calamity had passed, I too had become a used-up dose of medicine. Madam Qi calmly handed me a divorce agreement.
Every character was written with such force that I could almost see the man's former confidence shining through the ink.
So he had written the divorce agreement long ago.
I packed my things. Two pretty maids were sent to the back courtyard, passing me as I left.
Three months after I left the Qi residence, Qi Jiming returned from a distant journey and stopped me in my tracks, looking more panicked than I'd ever seen him. "Wei Tao, where are you going?"
Theme: Cherish the one before you
