Chapter 1: The False Miss Burns Herself to Death

I'm cold…… I'm really so cold…… Please, give me a blanket…… Just one blanket……

In the night illuminated brightly by the snow, inside the dilapidated hut beside the horse stable, Li Qingluo's face, whiter than snow, appeared through a wide crack.

Her face was sharp and thin, gaunt and deformed, her eyes faintly glowing, she pleaded with the servants outside, reaching out as if to beg for her life.

"Pah! What a lowly wretch? Do you think you deserve a blanket to keep warm just because of you?"

The old servant kicked Li Qingluo's hand hard to the side, making her cry out in pain.

A few onlookers who had come to watch the spectacle burst out laughing "haha" at this scene.

"Just look at her—what does it matter if she is the true bloodline of our Jiangjun Fu? How could blood compare to sixteen years of genuine day‑to‑day companionship and deep affection?"

"Alas, what a pity for our eldest miss… On the very day this lowly person returned to the manor, she actually… actually left a letter of severance and… just departed from the world."

"To burn herself alive—how terrified must she have been to do something that harms herself and breaks the hearts of everyone in the manor?"

Recalling the past, several servants burst into tears.

Perhaps the more he thought about it, the angrier he grew; an old servant picked up a stick nearby, thrust it through the crack into the shack, intending to discipline Li Qingluo again.

Bystanders grabbed her: "After all, she is now the second miss of the Jiangjun Fu—don't really beat her to death."

"Hah, if she dies, she dies—what else can you do? Do you really think the mistress, master, and eldest son would still pity her? She ought to have died long ago; on the day the eldest miss died, she should have gone to accompany her in death! Poor our eldest miss…"

"Yes. Since the eldest miss passed, the mistress has been dazed, the master often sighs, and the eldest son has become moody… Isn't all this caused by this whole true‑and‑false miss affair?"

Nevertheless, the servant's stick didn't stab wildly, but they flung foul horse dung inside, pelting Li Qingluo all over.

Afterward, everyone scattered, paying no heed to Li Qingluo's original purpose of calling for help after all that trouble.

And she had merely wanted a blanket to ward off the chill inside the hut……

Outside, the snow continued to flutter down with a soft rustle.

The horses' "huff‑puff" sounds also gradually quieted down.

Li Qingluo lay still on the icy wooden planks, able only to painfully pull some straw and haphazardly cover herself with it.

Two days earlier, merely because she accidentally broke a teacup left by Li Qingzhu in her lifetime, her own elder brother Li Kechuan slapped her to the ground.

Then, under the pretense of properly teaching her manners and making her remember, he had people lock her in this foul‑smelling shack beside the horse stable.

Last night, the first heavy snow of this winter arrived silently.

She was so cold she could barely endure it, which is why she wanted a blanket.

Yet these servants, resentful because of Li Qingzhu, seized the pretext to abuse her to this extent.

Li Qingluo felt her life was nothing but a joke.

Had she known today would come, she never should have returned to the Li household.

But clearly, she is the Li family's true bloodline… clearly, she is the parents' biological daughter, the brother's own sister.

Yet in their hearts and eyes, there is only Li Qingzhu as daughter and sister.

Sixteen years ago, the midwife who delivered her secretly swapped her infant with her own granddaughter, then took her back to the countryside, raising her like a pig or dog until she was four or five.

From then on, Li Qingluo served as a slave and servant, never eating her fill, never sleeping a full night, attending to them day and night.

Until the Li family suddenly came looking for her.

Her true identity was revealed—she was actually the switched‑at‑birth eldest miss of a wealthy family!

Li Qingluo found a hint of joy in her confusion, and, full of anticipation, was taken back to Jinling City.

Even the Li family did not pursue the midwife's family for their original deed, nor did they give it much thought.

But as she had just seen her parents standing at the gate of the Li mansion and had not yet truly approached, she heard an urgent shout from inside the manor: "Not good!! The eldest miss has burned herself— the eldest miss has burned herself!!"

Li Qingzhu left a final letter, saying that because her identity had been exposed, she deeply knew her sins were grave, aware that she owed the Li family's true bloodline too much; she ought to have stepped aside to let everything return to its proper place, yet she could not bear to part from her parents' and brother's deep affection, fearing they would no longer love her, so she preferred to die at this moment……

Li Qingzhu burned herself to death, and in the process more than ten rooms of the Li mansion were burned down.

Li Qingluo had just returned, staring blankly at the charred ruins and that corpse, still not understanding why this had happened.

Before she could react further, the enraged Li Kechuan, his mind clouded by fury, slapped her hard, and Li Qingluo instantly filled her mouth with blood.

"It's all your fault!! If you hadn't come back, Zhu'er wouldn't have despaired, wouldn't have died!! Why shouldn't it have been you who died!!!???"

Although her parents pulled Li Kechuan away, their gazes toward her also held complexity and hesitation, even anguish hard to bear.

Only then did Li Qingluo realize they regretted……

They regretted having sought her out……

From that day onward, Li Qingluo has been atoning for Li Qingzhu's death.

Everyone has pushed the blame for Li Qingzhu's death onto her.

Her mother placed her in the most remote, cramped little hut, where it is scorching in summer and freezing in winter.

The manor's servants gave her nothing but cold looks, secretly cursing her as a jinx, a disaster star, a poisonous woman.

Her father never even glanced at her.

Her mother, when she occasionally saw her, would furrow her brows and murmur: "Zhu'er… my poor Zhu'er… it's Mother who has failed you! Mother misses you, longing for you till her heart aches……

Li Qingluo did everything she could to please them all.

Rain or shine, she would go to pay her respects to Mother, personally prepare Mother's meals, and massage Mother's legs and shoulders.

But Mother did not want to see her more; she only allowed Li Qingluo to stay out of sight when there was nothing to do.

And the food she prepared, Mother had the servants dump it to feed the dogs; upon discovering Li Qingluo's eager attempts to please, she would even scowl and snap: "What's the point of doing all this? No matter what, I can't get my Zhu'er back……

Mother wept every day and developed an eye ailment.

The doctor said they needed a blood relative's flesh as a guide, to use blood in the medicine; Li Qingluo, without a word, picked up a knife.

But later she overheard Li Kechuan say: "Those medicines were all poured out to feed the dogs! They're so foul they make you nauseous!"

A young servant advised Li Kechuan: "But, Master, without these medicines, the mistress's eye ailment……

Li Kechuan sneered: "She's just a fool! This is merely me getting the doctor to lie to her, and she actually believes it? What eye ailment needs these useless things!"

Hearing these words, Li Qingluo felt a chill run through her whole body, trembling.

She hadn't even left when Li Kechuan discovered her trace.

She cried and asked Li Kechuan, "Older brother, why must you treat me like this!? I am also your sister——"

Li Kechuan choked her neck tightly, his eyes bloodshot, as if he truly hated not being able to strangle her to death in his hands.

He roared at her like a madman, "Shut up! I forbid you to call me older brother! My sister is only Li Qingzhu, whether in life or death, in this life and this world!"

"And you, lowly as mud, are unworthy your whole life!"

"Father and Mother feel the same. We would rather you had never appeared, so that Zhu'er would not have died!"

"Why not just let the mistake be? Why insist on seeking you out?"

"Come here. Li Qingluo has spoken improperly, her conduct is corrupt; take her to the Ancestral Hall to kneel in punishment. Without my permission, she is not allowed to rise, nor to come out!"

Li Qingluo was dragged away with her mouth covered, locked in the Ancestral Hall for three days and three nights.

She took in no water, not a grain of rice stuck.

And whenever she shifted her body on the straw mat, a stick would lash her fiercely.

Only when she had completely fainted, and the beating had ceased making sound, was she thrown back into her own dark, damp little room.

Li Qingluo thought she would die in that bout of high fever upon waking, yet no doctor came to see her.

But unexpectedly,

The third son of the Zhongyi Hou Fu, who had just placed third in the imperial exams, Zhuang Wei, came.

He had originally been betrothed to Li Qingluo while she was still in her mother's womb, personally chosen by the old matriarch of the Zhuang family; naturally, he grew up together with Li Qingzhu from childhood.

They were childhood sweethearts, their affection deep-rooted from long ago.

However, Li Qingluo's return meant this engagement had to be called off…

Li Qingzhu died again.

Zhuang Wei hated her just like the Li family did.

Yet he reached out and saved her.

Li Qingluo did not understand his actions; Zhuang Wei coldly told her, "Rest assured. Even if I remain unmarried for life, I will not marry you! I will slowly collect the blood debt of Zhu'er from you—dying like this would be too cheap for you!"

Truly laughable and absurd…

In this life, merely living is truly a mistake.

To live was to exchange for Li Qingzhu's arrival at the Li household.

And to die should also exchange for peace of mind for everyone in the Li household.

But what, exactly, was her fault?

Was it simply because she longed for the familial affection she had never received?

Because of Li Qingzhu's death, she also felt a shred of guilt and did everything she could to curry favor with her blood relatives, wanting to comfort them, thus allowing them to trample and insult her?

But she was originally their daughter, sister, and even fiancée…

She never truly did any harmful deeds.

It was they who sought her out.

Just because Li Qingluo died, does that make her a sinner for all ages?

The snow outside continued to fall with a soft "shush-shush" sound.

Li Qingluo gradually breathed her last.

She watched her own corpse, stiff from the cold, and realized her soul had left her body.

She floated out of the room, drifted to the backyard, then came to the front courtyard lit with lights.

Not knowing what joyous event had occurred in the Li household, everywhere was filled with laughter, cheers, and bustle.

Since Li Qingluo's return, she had never seen such a strange sight.

She involuntarily drew near, only to see a lovely, flower-like young woman standing in the midst of the crowd, leaning into her mother's embrace, acting coquettishly, crying out, "Mother, I miss you all so much!"

"And Father, Older Brother!"

"Right, where is my sister? I haven't seen her yet—where is she? Let her come quickly so I can talk to her about this misunderstanding!"

This, this is Li Qingzhu!?

She actually isn't dead?