Chapter 3 — Better to Lean on Mountains Than a Faithless Heart

The Marquis was a man of profound integrity. He spoke with blunt candor, declaring that as long as he drew breath, he would never suffer the stain of broken promises or betrayal. To provide me with a shield and to vent his own indignation on my behalf, he took matters into his own hands. Before the very eyes of Lady Shen, he ordered Shen Yi An to be struck with ten lashes of the imperial whip. Shen Yi An knelt upon the cold earth, enduring the punishment in silence, not uttering a single cry. His constitution was frail; the agony drained the color from his face, leaving him deathly pale, his brow slick with beads of cold sweat. Only when the Marquis cast the whip aside and swept his sleeves in a departure of icy fury was Shen Yi An finally helped to his feet by Jiang Nan Xi. He wiped the tears from his cousin’s face, then turned to me. His eyes were as freezing as the winter eaves under which we stood.

"Are you satisfied now, Miss Xu? Is this grand spectacle enough for you?" he hissed. "If it is still not enough, then perhaps have Father beat me to death—that should surely appease your vengeful heart!"

The wind bit like a blade, yet it was far less piercing than the jagged, hateful glares cast by the rest of the Shen family. I longed to explain, yet the situation had spiraled so far beyond my control that I could no longer claim total innocence. The words of defense I had prepared died in my throat. That night, I knelt before the Marquis, begging him to release me from the betrothal. His face was set like frozen mist. "Before your master passed, he entrusted you to my care. I will not allow your bond to be treated as a trivial jest! So long as I live, there shall be no talk of annulling this marriage."

Determined to force a reconciliation between us, the Marquis ordered me to accompany Shen Yi An to the hot spring villa to recuperate. Before our departure, he offered a stern injunction: "You are well-versed in the healing arts, Xu; only with you by his side can I truly be at peace."

Throughout the journey, we sat opposite one another in the carriage, yet a chasm wider than mountains and rivers lay between us. I could not find the courage to utter a single word. It was unclear when the man who had once suffered from insomnia, the man who would whisper his nightmares to me for comfort, had grown so utterly mute. The silence remained unbroken until the carriage jolted violently. I lost my footing and my forehead struck the wooden frame with a sickening thud. The sharp pain forced a gasp of cold air through my teeth. From outside the carriage, the sound of Jiang Nan Xi’s aggrieved weeping rose up: "Cousin, please, do not leave me behind! I promise I will not cause trouble again..."

The bright crimson blood blooming on my forehead shocked Shen Yi An into a change of expression. He disregarded everything else, scolding Jiang Nan Xi for her recklessness before scrambling to tend to my wound. "Are you not usually so resilient? How did a mere bump cause such an injury?"

"Why is it so difficult for you to simply bow your head and apologize?"

"I am not like you. I lack such a heart of stone—seeing me covered in blood would not draw a single tear from your eyes, unlike my cousin."

"I promise you, this is the last time! Next time, even if you bleed to death, I will not soften my heart again!"

"Does it hurt?"

I wanted to say that it was nothing compared to the pain I felt the day Jiang Nan Xi trampled upon my stomach. But I knew that if I spoke, I would only be met with his icy facade and endless accusations. That confession, too, was buried deep within. I never expected that his promise to "not soften his heart again" would manifest so cruelly.

On the day we returned, a heavy snow was brewing. The horses suddenly went mad, and Jiang Nan Xi was thrown from the carriage. She clutched her head, blood streaming down, trembling in Shen Yi An's arms as she sobbed. Every syllable she uttered was saturated with the primal fear of a brush with death—frail, innocent, and pathetic.

The coachman inspected the harness and leveled a finger at me: "The horse was drugged to drive it into a frenzy! That is why it went out of control!"

Jiang Nan Xi’s eyes widened, pointing directly at me with a voice full of venom: "It was you! You are skilled in medicine and touched my horse earlier. You tried to kill me, didn't you? You poisoned the beast!"

I was struck with panic, opening my mouth to refute the claim, but her driver chimed in to support her: "If I had known Miss Xu was plotting to harm my mistress, I never would have let you near the horses!"

Shen Yi An looked at me, his gaze brimming with profound disappointment. "Say no more... would even a stable hand try to frame you without cause?"

I froze, feeling my soul wither. "And what if I tell you that I did it?"

*Crack!* A cold, jagged stone clutched in her hand struck my forehead with brutal force.

"You lie! You are a fraud! My cousin was already cured, but you used gratitude as an excuse to force him to drink poison every day, keeping him sick so he would have to depend on you, so he could never leave your side!"

"My aunt already sent for a physician! It was your master—that quack—and you, you shameless wretch, conspiring to swindle the entire Shen household!"

In that moment, all sound vanished. Shen Yi An’s downward, silent gaze was like a razor, carving into the three years I had sacrificed, tearing my heart into ribbons.

"No wonder your master died young; it must have been retribution for his wicked deeds! And you want to marry my cousin? Keep dreaming!"

*Smack!* An enraged slap landed squarely across Jiang Nan Xi’s face, leaving her reeling with a split lip and a terrified expression.

"You may slander me, but you shall not insult the medical ethics of my master! That slap is for you to remember your place—"

"Enough!" Shen Yi An shoved me aside with such force that I collapsed to the ground. The gravel tore into my palms, searing like fire. He did not spare me a single glance, instead stooping to gather the woman on the ground, his face darker than the winter sky. "You are always full of excuses, always convinced of your own righteousness!"

"Then use your medical skills to heal the horse yourself, and find your own way back to the capital!"

Jiang Nan Xi curled into his embrace, casting a look of triumphant malice back at me. The northern wind howled, and the snow descended in earnest. I was left behind, bleeding and discarded in the desolate wilderness. As the carriage vanished into the swirling white, wicked men lurking in the shadows blocked my path. That night, the blizzard almost buried both my honor and my life. It was the young General Yun Jing Ting, passing by by chance, who rescued me from the brink of disaster. For the sake of my reputation, he personally petitioned the Princess to escort me back to the Marquis's estate. It silenced the whispers of the world and shattered Jiang Nan Xi’s dream of seeing me suffer a fate worse than death.

When Shen Yi An saw me limping into the estate, his expression flickered. But his hesitant step forward was blocked by Jiang Nan Xi. She looked at me with haughty disdain. "You truly are devious. Afraid of being punished for harming me, you stabbed your own leg to stage a bitter ruse before the Princess. Now, my cousin is being reprimanded because of you. You’ve won, haven’t you?"

The fragile glimmer of regret in Shen Yi An’s eyes vanished into the biting wind. Dragged away by Jiang Nan Xi, he did not look back at me once.