Early Tang, Summer Silence

I'm not writing this anymore. The ending was a mess.

[Blurb]

Bai Ling transmigrated into the body of an orphan girl in an unknown dynasty.

That year, devastating floods ruined the harvest and destroyed every home. Her father died, her mother sold her off and remarried, and she was reduced to a lowly status. She was even worse off than an orphan.

Fortunately, a kind benefactor took pity on her and bought her as a servant for their household.

Bai Ling gritted her teeth. Being a servant was still far better than being sold into a brothel. At least it was a respectable line of work. She clenched her fists. She could just pretend her eight years of medical school had gone to waste and that she had graduated into a cleaning job!

After years of bowing and scraping in the household, Bai Ling suddenly realized how utterly shameless she was: she had adapted far too well!

But perhaps she was lucky. The heir to the estate was a lame young lord with an odd temperament who disliked women coming near him. Unless absolutely necessary, he never went into the main hall. Aside from her daily cleaning, she had no other chores, and in her spare time she could even pore over ancient medical texts. With money and free time, her life was so much easier than working under her graduate advisor. Aside from the inconvenience of not being able to come and go as she pleased, she was almost starting to like it.

Until...

She began to feel a little sympathy for the cold-faced, lame young lord, sympathy she shouldn't have felt…

As expected, feeling sorry for a man is where the bad luck begins.

A summer night's rain came quietly, then roared down.

Bai Ling took several blows across the back. Half-conscious, she was dragged back to her bed.

Though it was midsummer, she shivered with cold. Feudal society was a beast that devoured people, while those in power held life and death in their hands...

How could she have forgotten? She wasn't much luckier than a kitten or a puppy.

…She wanted to go home.

Ning Xuan had always been like the moon on a clear night: aloof and upright. Yet the word love made him harbor delusions.

As a child, he couldn't walk and was constantly mocked and looked down upon. Chu Tang was a ray of light that found its way into his heart.

"If your heart is set, then even when the world is abuzz with gossip, it is only the wind making a reckless noise," she said.

Obsession took root, and the threads of affection snapped.

One day, beneath a bright and gentle sun, he heard those words again, spoken by someone else.

He confronted her in indignation, but she said, "I don't belong to you, and I owe you nothing."

That's right. She was already another man's wife.

Ning Xuan mocked himself. His character was base after all, nothing like her noble and pure nature. He had even begun to entertain thoughts of killing a man and taking his wife.

How laughable. He was the heir to a prince's estate, yet he had actually done it...

Theme: Live toward the sun