Chapter 1 — The Coming-of-Age Banquet
Shang Zhiyuan frowned, clearly thinking my sulking was childish.
A young lady raised in silk, who had never so much as done real work—storming out of her home just to prove a point, shouting about “self-reliance.”
If that wasn’t childish, what was?
And the worst part was… in my last life, I really did it.
Today should have been my coming-of-age banquet.
The Xue family had made it grand; the guests filled every hall.
But at the liveliest moment, a plainly dressed girl was brought in.
She was the true Xue daughter.
Her face—so similar to my mother’s—was convincing enough on its own.
Then the kinship test confirmed it: she was Xue Manor’s blood.
Sixteen years ago, two families went to pray on the same day. A storm triggered a landslide. Two pregnant women were frightened into labor, and in the chaos, the babies were switched.
If not for Xue Zhenzhen inheriting her birth mother’s features so strongly, the secret might never have been uncovered.
It really had been an accident.
But I couldn’t accept it.
Even when my parents promised to treat us equally.
Even when Shang Zhiyuan, in front of everyone, swore he would still marry me.
I still couldn’t accept it—because I couldn’t bear the looks.
The whispers.
The pointing.
The way they watched me like I was entertainment.
I felt as if they were laughing at me, mocking me, looking down on me.
So I clung to the only thing I thought I had left: pride.
I insisted on “returning everything” to Xue Zhenzhen.
I walked out in white.
I even shoved Shang Zhiyuan away and snapped at him as if he had insulted me.
“I don’t need your pity,” I said. “Or your charity!”
Stubborn. Ridiculous.
Convinced I could live by my own hands and prove them all wrong.
So I married Lin Xiangsheng—the fallen scholar.
I embroidered late into the night, sold my work in the street, and didn’t cry even when someone shoved me down hard enough to scrape my skin raw.
I didn’t cry when Lin Xiangsheng failed the exams again and again, and every new fee piled onto my shoulders.
I only broke when I realized effort meant nothing to a man rotten to the core.
He gambled.
He lied.
And then, one day, his eyes red and greedy, he grabbed my wrist and said he only needed “one more bet.”
He said I could be sold.
On the road, I saw it.
The true daughter’s ten-li red dowry procession.
Xue Zhenzhen in splendor, marrying Shang Zhiyuan—every passerby sighing in envy.
Something inside me went cold.
I tore myself free, threw myself into the river… and died.
Now I was back.
Back at the day of the reveal.
Back with Shang Zhiyuan blocking my way.
He looked at me, stern and dissatisfied, and repeated what he had said before:
“Even if you aren’t the Xue family’s daughter, I’m still willing to marry you. Stop making a scene, alright?”
I stared at him for a heartbeat.
Then I answered calmly, “I’m not making a scene.”