Seeking a Better Match: The Cousin Won’t Back Out of the Engagement

Song Yueyi and Xie Jingling were engaged. Before the wedding, the old madam of the Xie family took her in to nurse her back to health. She knew the Xie family wanted to use her connections and status to advance their interests, but she pretended not to notice. She dutifully took care of everything for them, paving Xie Jingling's path to success, because once she had committed to the marriage, she would devote herself to it wholeheartedly. But he treated her with icy indifference. “Stay away from me!” She thought he was simply like that by nature. Only at the end did she learn that he was cold only to her. He had a childhood sweetheart he treasured above all else. “A Ying, in this life and the next, you are the only woman I will ever acknowledge as my wife. I will never let you down.” He and his A Ying had secretly had a son, and at some point he had poisoned Song Yueyi, leaving her unable to bear children. Then he let her adopt their three-year-old boy as her legitimate son, out of guilt. After she died, he could openly marry his childhood sweetheart, continue to rely on her father and brothers for support, and eventually bring their son into the Song family... ** She thought of it all as a nightmare. But when she woke, she was already in danger, with her life hanging in the balance. Did they think that because she was a frail woman, thousands of miles from home and without support, they could do whatever they wanted with her? They refused to break off the engagement before they had drained her of every last drop of blood. Then they could hardly blame her for pressing forward in order to retreat, casting aside her refined and virtuous demeanor and taking the unconventional path, until those rotten people had nowhere left to turn.