Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Was the Plot About to Start?

“Sister Jiang Jiang, how about we also…” Li Er Shan grinned, already imagining the world rearranging itself in his favor now that Jiang Chao Sheng had vanished.

“Thanks, but no.” Jiang Jiang shivered, tightened her padded jacket, and put on a frail little voice. “I’m weak. I can’t go out.”

Then she spun around and hurried back inside without looking back, leaving Li Er Shan clinging to the wall like a lonely gecko, staring after her with tragic devotion.

Sigh. Sister Jiang Jiang was beautiful, but too sickly.

No wonder his father refused to let him marry her.

Jiang Jiang: Thank you. And please pass my thanks on to your entire family.

Inside, the room was warm enough to melt a man’s spine. The stove burned bright. Mu Wan Ling sat by the fire, sewing shoe insoles. When she heard the door, she looked up—and her face softened into a gentle smile.

“Cold, aren’t you? Come warm yourself.” She beckoned Jiang Jiang over. “You child, you’ve only just started feeling better and you insist on standing outside in the wind. Where’s your brother?”

“Off chasing stars,” Jiang Jiang said with a pout.

“Chasing… stars?” Mu Wan Ling frowned, thoroughly confused. It was snowing. What stars?

Ever since Jiang Jiang had nearly died from a raging fever and then woken up, she’d started tossing out strange phrases now and then.

Had that fever cooked her brain? My poor child.

Mu Wan Ling’s heart squeezed. As for her son—wherever he’d run off to—she didn’t worry much. He was a grown boy. He wasn’t going to disappear.

“It’s been snowing for days. It’s cold.” Mu Wan Ling wrapped both hands around Jiang Jiang’s and held tight. “Don’t follow your brother into nonsense. Stay inside and rest.”

Her hands were soft and warm.

Jiang Jiang’s chest warmed in a different way.

In her previous life, she’d been an orphan. Everything had been earned with her own hands.

In this life… she had family.

Real family.

Mu Wan Ling sighed, gaze drifting. “In seven days, they’ll post the exam results. Let your brother relax a little before that. If he fails…”

“If he fails, he studies again,” Jiang Jiang said casually, warming her fingers by the fire. “He’s not going to jump into a river, Mother. Don’t worry.”

Her brother could swim like a fish. Jumping into a river was impossible. Even if he fell in by accident, he’d probably do fancy strokes on instinct.

Hang himself? Maybe.

But Jiang Jiang considered his broad shoulders and height, then the trees outside.

There probably wasn’t a crooked branch within ten miles that could handle him.

That thought made her even calmer.

He wasn’t dying. Solid. Safe.

Mu Wan Ling watched her daughter and sighed again, exhausted for reasons she couldn’t quite name. Her son had never let her relax, and lately her daughter seemed to be wandering down a… strange path too.

So tiring.

By the fire, mother and daughter sat with different worries. Mu Wan Ling fretted over her children, while Jiang Jiang’s thoughts slid to something else entirely.

Liu Cheng An was returning to the capital. His engagement with the Chu family would be dragged back into the light.

And the true female lead… should be transmigrating into this world soon, shouldn’t she?

Just thinking about it…

She almost looked forward to it.

Outside, the wind and snow finally eased. The clouds thinned and broke, and warm spring sunlight spilled over the white ground, bright enough to sting the eyes.

In that strange spring snow, an army camped outside the capital—fully armed, disciplined lines of men and horses. A small squad rode out toward the capital, and at the front rode Liu Cheng An, black armor gleaming, red cloak snapping behind him like a banner.

At the ten-li pavilion beyond the city, the crowd had already swelled.

The outer ring was packed with commoners watching for excitement. The front was claimed by the honored patrons of the capital, their carriages clustered together—and in the most prominent positions sat the carriages of the Liu family and the Chu family.

Both were old, established clans of Qing Yun Kingdom. Many of their descendants served as officials. Everyone in the capital knew the truth as well as they knew their own names:

The Chu family and the Liu family had been bound by marriage for years.

Guards surrounded the carriages. Then the curtain of the Chu family carriage lifted slightly, and a young girl leaned out.

She was in the fresh bloom of youth, bright-eyed and fair-skinned, with a pale oval face and large eyes that looked innocent enough to fool anyone.

Chu Yun Fei, the Chu family’s second miss.

The Chu family had always been close with the Liu family. They had even arranged a childhood betrothal.

Originally, that marriage should have belonged to the Chu family’s eldest miss, Chu Yun Yue, and the Liu family’s young master, Liu Cheng An.

But years ago, Chu Yun Yue had fallen ill with a strange disease. Rumors spread through the capital that the Chu family’s eldest miss had gone mad—foolish, wild-eyed, no longer fit to be seen.

And so, slowly, a thought took root in Chu Yun Fei’s heart—one she once would never have dared to entertain.

What if… she could replace her sister?

What if she could marry Liu Cheng An?

Every time the idea rose, her heart raced—half fear, half anticipation, and all of it dangerous.