Reincarnated into ancient times, Pei Zhu had three fiancés— the first was arranged by her mother, but he and her childhood sweetheart eloped south.
The second was arranged by her father, but his mistress was six months pregnant.
The third, she ultimately chose herself; he was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and utterly devoted.
Her new fiancé’s only minor flaw was that he claimed to have a facial injury and was undergoing treatment, requiring two more months before he could remove his mask.
He would occasionally whine, “If you really saw what I looked like under the mask, you would never want to come near me again…”
Pei Zhu would immediately reassure him, “It’s alright, it’s alright, even if you were disfigured, I would still love you.”
A joke, who was he trying to fool?
She had already seen his face under the mask; he was undeniably handsome, without a single scar.
Until later…
He removed his mask and disguise, revealing his true face— the face of her brother, whom she had expelled from the family.
On the day Pei Zhou’s true identity was revealed, his adoptive father, enraged, expelled him from the clan and the household.
Looking at his sister’s tearful, reluctant face, he finally understood why, despite knowing his true identity, he had always been unwilling to leave the Pei family.
He had intended to fully restore his identity before confessing his feelings to her.
Unexpectedly, by a twist of fate, his sister confessed her love to him first.
However, she loved his other identity.
Pei Zhou was consumed by jealousy, almost tearing his soul apart, yet he could only love her through that nonexistent identity.
He was cautious every day, fearing she would discover the truth and abandon him.
But she still found out.
At the funeral hall, her eyes were red from crying. “Brother, I never loved you…”
“I loved Xi Zhi, the Xi Zhi who died in the river outside the capital in February of the twenty-fourth year of Xingping…”
In the spring of the twenty-fourth year of Xingping, the Crown Prince, who had been living among the common people for twenty years, returned to the imperial family.
The first thing he did was to go to the Pei family, who had adopted him, with the imperial decree of marriage bestowed by the emperor, and meet Pei Zhu, with whom he had once addressed as brother and sister.
The new Crown Prince showed no joy or anger on his face, but his eyes were filled with a deep and turbulent abyss.
He stroked her pale cheeks, which were flushed with a faint blush, and murmured, “Zhu’er, Pei Zhou is me, and Xi Zhi is me too…”
“No matter who you love, you can never escape this in your life…”
