The Cousin Miss Always Wants to Repay Her Debts

Yu Qing hated Gu Changgong, the illegitimate son of a distant cousin's family.

He was a spoiled, unruly brat who was always at odds with her. He had none of the refined grace expected of a young nobleman, and couldn't hold a candle to his legitimate elder brother.

They first met when she was five. Gu Changgong used a little slingshot to knock the flower from her hair.

When she was ten, they fought over a ball during a game of cuju, and Yu Qing fell and was left with a scar.

At fifteen, when she was beginning to fall in love, she made cherry cream herself and asked him to deliver it to his elder brother. Gu Changgong ate the whole thing by himself, then complained that it was "sickeningly sweet."

Later, when she became engaged to the eldest Gu young master, Gu Changgong joined the army. Before her wedding could take place, he headed for the northern frontier. "You think I'll respectfully call you sister-in-law? Dream on."

But Yu Qing never got to her wedding, either.

When the Yu family fell from favor, she went from a highborn young lady to a government slave. After her death, her lonely spirit drifted until she saw Gu Changgong win a great victory and reclaim lost territory.

The person who used to brag for half a day over the smallest thing now wore a desolate, sorrowful expression as the crowds praised him from both sides of the street.

First, he returned to the capital and dealt harshly with everyone who had bullied her.

Then he sent people to find Yu Qing's elderly parents, exiled to the southern wastelands, and made sure they were properly cared for.

At last, Gu Changgong carried a jug of wine to her grave. The first thing he said was as unpleasant as ever:

"Yu Qing, you coward."

"You died so early. Couldn't you have waited for me?"

*

Yu Qing opened her eyes again, reborn at fifteen, with a box of cherry cream in her hands.

Beneath a trumpet vine trellis, a young man in fine clothes sauntered toward her, looking thoroughly reluctant. "Well? What do you want me to deliver to my brother this time?"

*Sweet rebirth story, happy ending

Theme: Repay even the smallest kindness many times over.