The day Ding Nan met Luo Yao, heavy snow like goose feathers drifted down from a pale white sky.
That year, Ding Nan was nine years old, at the height of his prominence.
As the Third Young Master of the Ding Clan, while he could not be said to live in complete luxury, he was still well-dressed and presentable.
The girl, however, wore tattered clothes, using dry straw to keep warm.
Her hair hung loose and messy, her entire body covered in dirt.
No one could have imagined she would grow into such a lovely young woman in the future.
Seeing her pitiful state, Ding Nan brought her back to the Ding Clan.
On the night Luo Yao changed into new clothes, she swore in front of Ding Nan that she would stay by his side forever.
Even today, though Ding Nan had become a well-known good-for-nothing, she still refused to leave him.
Ding Nan felt both moved and helpless.
He was moved because, in the entire Ding Clan, among his peers, she was the only one who still paid attention to him.
He was helpless because this indirectly made him even more disliked in the eyes of others.
Legally, no one could buy or sell Luo Yao.
She was not Ding Nan’s maidservant, but a maid.
There was quite a difference between the two.
A maid had a free status and was merely employed to work.
A maidservant had no freedom; everything about her was controlled by the master’s family, her status equivalent to that of a slave.
A maidservant was a type of maid, but a maid could not simply be equated to a maidservant.
As for why a girl like her could work as a maid without worrying about her reputation—
In this world, the status of women was almost equal to that of men.
The current emperor of the Tianfeng Empire was a woman.
The Tianfeng Empire had already seen seven emperors, and three of them, who inherited the throne in proper succession, were women—legitimate empresses.
All of this was thanks to a world where everyone could cultivate immortality.
Because of that, the profession of maid had appeared long ago.
Female servants like Luo Yao were not rare.
However, crimes like adultery had become even more severe.
Regardless of gender, anyone who behaved unchastely would be drowned in a pig cage before the ancestral tablets.
No normal family head could tolerate something like passing off another man’s child as his own.
It was already humiliating enough to be cuckolded and laughed at by others—how could one also hand over the family fortune to the child of an adulterer?
Aside from the law, another reason Luo Yao had not become a maidservant lay with Ding Nan himself.
Back when he had just transmigrated, his mind was still filled with the knowledge he had learned under the red flag.
That pure version of himself had not yet been corrupted by feudal power, so he could not bring himself to turn Luo Yao into a bed-warming girl.
Now, it was too late for regrets.
Luo Yao had grown up.
A girl of fifteen was considered of marriageable age.
This year, Luo Yao was already eighteen, slightly older than Ding Nan, and usually very opinionated.
As she held Ding Nan’s head, he could feel the warmth of his breath against her chest.
“It felt nice.”
The two of them sat quietly in the room, waiting, when suddenly a voice called from outside.
“Xiao Nan! Are you in there?”
A strong, resonant voice.
Ding Nan quickly pulled away from Luo Yao and walked out of the room.
Luo Yao pursed her lips slightly, a bit unhappy, and followed behind him.
In the courtyard, Ding Nan saw a middle-aged man wearing a silk outer robe with a full beard.
His name was Ding Wen, Ding Nan’s father in this life.
Ding Nan quickly bowed.
“Father, what is it?”
“It’s like this—I’ve received news. People from the Shangguan Family are heading toward Qingquan City,” Ding Wen said.
“Ah? The Shangguan Family? Which Shangguan Family?”
“The one from Liyang City.”
“Liyang City? Why would such important people come to a small place like ours?”
Qingquan City, where Ding Nan lived, was located on the edge of the Tianfeng Empire.
It was not a large city.
Liyang City, on the other hand, was near the Capital City and considered a major city.
None of the families there were ones the Ding Clan could afford to offend.
So Ding Nan was puzzled.
“Why are they coming here? Could something be wrong at the border?”
His expression shifted.
Qingquan City was not on the border, but it was close.
If war broke out, the Ding Clan would suffer—and so would he.
“No.”
Ding Wen swallowed.
Ding Nan invited him to sit at the stone table in the courtyard and poured him tea.
Luo Yao sat beside Ding Nan and handed him a cup.
Ding Wen hurriedly took a sip, then rested his arm on the table and turned sideways toward Ding Nan.
“When I was sorting through your grandfather’s belongings just now, I found letters exchanged between him and the head of the Shangguan Family. Our two families have a marriage contract.”
“What? Father, you’re not saying I’m the one involved, are you?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, with a crack, the teacup in Luo Yao’s hand shattered.
Ding Nan turned to look at her.
“Are you alright?” he asked, concerned about whether her fingers were cut.
“I’m fine. I just broke through recently and haven’t gotten used to my strength yet.”
“Oh. That’s good.”
The two continued talking.
Ding Nan did not notice that cold sweat kept forming on Ding Wen’s forehead as he anxiously wiped it with a handkerchief.
After confirming that Luo Yao’s fingers were still fair and uninjured, Ding Nan turned back to Ding Wen.
“Is this real?”
“It’s real.”
“Then why didn’t Grandfather mention it?”
“According to the letters, the Shangguan Family cut off contact unilaterally, so your grandfather didn’t bother pursuing it.”
Ding Nan’s pupils suddenly shrank.
As long as the clan still existed, having a marriage contract was not strange.
“So, are they coming to break off the engagement this time?”
“Not sure. That group looks like a merchant caravan, carrying quite a lot of pills. But I don’t think it’s anything good—they didn’t make many stops along the way and came straight here.”
A merchant caravan that never stopped?
That was suspicious.
“And Shangguan Qingya is in the group.”
“Shangguan Qingya is my fiancée?”
“That’s right.”
Another crack—the teacup in Luo Yao’s hand shattered again.
Ding Nan looked at her.
Luo Yao quickly lowered her head, apologized, and began cleaning up the broken pieces.
Fortunately, I’ve always been frugal—our teacups are just clay, Ding Nan muttered to himself.
These clay cups cost about the same as the glass cups sold in supermarkets in his previous life.
Soon, his attention returned to the marriage contract.
He frowned and lowered his head in thought.
“Xiao Nan, do you feel unwilling to accept this?”
Ding Wen asked.
“Uh… not really… I just remembered something.”
“In any case, I’m telling you in advance so you can be prepared before they arrive.”
“Ah… mm… okay.”
Ding Nan nodded, as if in a daze.
Ding Wen assumed his self-esteem had been hurt.
“Keep him company,” Ding Wen said to Luo Yao.
“Understood.”
With that, Ding Wen left the courtyard.
Silence returned, broken only by the sound of the wind.
“Young Master, you’re not really hurt by that kind of cheap woman, are you?”
“A cheap woman? Luo Yao really was too kind—so firmly standing on his side.”
But unfortunately, that was not the case.
After today, Ding Nan would be eighteen.
After transmigrating to this world for so long, he had not heard anything familiar in ages.
Yet today, long-buried memories suddenly surged back, leaving him feeling as if in another lifetime.
A fallen genius.
A broken engagement.
When these two elements combined, the situation felt extremely familiar.
If he added one more thing that had long accompanied him, he would fully enter the classic engagement-breaking template.
And as it happened, he already had something very similar.
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