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Before my eyes stretched a vast plum grove, red plum blossoms standing proudly in the snow, their fragrance wafting through the air. Within the plum grove, a beautiful and delicate woman lay unconscious on the ground.

The flower basket in the hands of the girl, who was not yet ten years old, suddenly fell to the ground, scattering plum blossoms all over the ground. "Mother, Mother, what's wrong, Mother!"

"Miss!" The nanny who had cared for Gu Yu since childhood quickly picked up the little girl. "Quick, someone come! Madam has fainted! Quick, someone come!"

"Mother—Mother—"

Amid the girl's desperate cries, the maids and servants quickly helped her into the room. The imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau arrived, but after taking her pulse, they shook their heads repeatedly.

Gu Jin also rushed back from the Imperial Academy. "Ayu, what happened? What's wrong with Mother?"

"I don't know, brother, I don't know..."

Gu Yu cried for a long time, tears streaming down her face like a pitiful little kitten.

"Ayu, Ajin, come here." Old Madam Gu was over fifty years old, but her hair was already completely white.

She held the tiny, pitifully crying Gu Yu in her arms and wiped her face clean with a handkerchief. "My poor little thing, my darling, don't cry. It hurts my heart to see you crying. With the imperial physician here, your mother will be alright."

Gu Yu looked up at her grandmother with pleading eyes, "Really? Grandmother, you're not lying to me..."

"Yes, it's true, Grandmother wouldn't lie to you. Go to your room and wash your face, get a good night's sleep, and you'll see your mother when you wake up. Your brother and I will stay here with your mother." Old Madam Gu beckoned, and the nanny took Gu Yu away.

"Okay, Ayu will be a good girl."

Gu Yu nodded obediently, rested her little head on the nanny's shoulder, and glanced at the embroidered bed.

After Gu Yu was taken away, the old lady said to Gu Jin with a sorrowful expression, "Jin, your mother doesn't have much time left. Go see her one last time."

Gu Jin wiped away his tears and went into the inner room. "Mother, I..."

Lin Wan lifted her eyelashes, glanced at her son, and wanted to pat his head, but she didn't have the strength to lift her hand. Her lips trembled, "Ajin... Mother has to go... Your sister is still so young, Ajin, take good... care of her..."

Two lines of clear tears streamed down her face in sorrow.

Seeing this scene, Old Madam Gu's eyes also reddened. "Wan Niang, don't worry, I will take good care of your two children."

Lin Wan nodded, and her last breath dissipated.

When Gu Yu woke up again, she heard the news that her mother had asked her to go to an ancient temple to recuperate. "Grandmother, I also want to go and accompany Mother."

"Ayu, don't be willful. Your mother needs to rest."

"Okay, Ayu will be good. Once Mother is feeling better, I can go see her, right?"

As Gu Yu grew older, she still hadn't seen her mother. She seemed to know something, and gradually became more and more silent.

Gu Jin, who grew up alongside her, is going to the south.

"Brother, please don't go. Ayu doesn't want you to leave. You're only fifteen. Why do you have to go to the battlefield? I heard from the nanny that it's very dangerous. Ayu doesn't want you to die."

"Ayu." The tall and strong Gu Jin patted her head helplessly. "Ayu, you have to be good. Your brother went to the south to help Father. He will be back soon."

“How long is ‘soon’?” Gu Yu looked at him forlornly. “My brother and grandmother have already lied to me once. You said I would see my mother, but I will never see her again.”

“Ayu, I don’t know how long it will take, but I will definitely come back, because Ayu is in Shengjing, this is my home, and my brother will bring Father home.”

Gu Jin went to the south and stayed away for three years. After a brief reunion, they parted again.

Gu Yu looked at her father and brother and said nothing more to persuade them to stay.

Because she knew that what she said was useless. Adults all had their own plans, and they wouldn't care about what children said or the promises they made to them.

They were lying, and she was abandoned again and again.

“Miss, this is an auspicious sign. You will meet a good man soon, turn misfortune into good fortune, and your wishes will come true.” Su Bicheng explained to her earnestly, holding the fortune slip in his hand.

"What's your name? I've never seen you before."

"My surname is Su, and my given name is Bicheng."

"Su Bicheng, what a fine name. It's a pity that none of the things I've ever wanted have come true."

Gu Yu coughed lightly twice, and Qiu Ju quickly helped her into the temple's side room.

Later, Old Madam Gu discovered the letters that Gu Yu and Su Bicheng were secretly exchanging.

“Ayu, Su Bicheng is not a good man. He only cares about your family background.”

Old Madam Gu has been ill for some time, but she has not let Gu Yu know, fearing that the news would make the sensitive and delicate Gu Yu overthink.

"Family background? Is Su Bicheng after my father and brother?" Gu Yu murmured to herself. "Grandmother, isn't this a good thing? He needs our family's help and will never dare to abandon me."

"No, Ayu, listen to your grandmother. He is not a good man. Ayu, you must be obedient. You have never caused your grandmother any unnecessary worry since you were little. Don't make your grandmother sad this time either, okay?"

No, no, Grandmother, I don't want to be obedient.

“Okay, Grandmother, don’t worry. I will be obedient.” A smile appeared on Gu Yu’s delicate face. “Grandmother, you don’t need to worry about me. You and Father and Brother can decide on A-Yu’s marriage.”

Gu Yu secretly made up her mind: she would take the money she had saved over the years and elope with Su Bicheng. But if Su Bicheng was truly after her family's wealth, why would he agree to elope with her?

She felt that Su Bicheng was sincere towards her, and that even disregarding her family background, Su Bicheng still liked her.

While Gu Yu was packing her things at home, her grandmother fell ill. Overwork had taken its toll, and her illness became incurable.

She was the last to know the news.

Gu Jin rushed back from the northern battlefield to see his grandmother one last time.

Gu Yu lay in her grandmother's arms, somewhat puzzled. "Grandmother, why didn't you say you were sick? A-Yu was the last to know, wasn't she? Even my brother came back."

"Silly child, you are not well. I was afraid that the news of my illness would worry you." Grandma Gu stroked the top of her head. "You are the child I watched grow up. You are my precious darling. I can't bear to part with you."

"Grandma is going to abandon me, isn't she?"

Gu Yu seemed to understand the meaning behind Old Madam Gu's words, and helplessly shed tears.

"Don't mention Su Bicheng's matter again, Ayu."

But only Su Bicheng won't abandon me, Grandmother. He covets my family background and the wealth I bring; how could he dare to let me go?

“Okay, I know, Grandmother. Ayu has always been obedient since she was little, and she will be obedient this time as well.” Gu Yu nodded in agreement.

"Good boy, let your brother in. I need to see Ajin. I have a few words to tell him."

Grandma Gu looked at her little granddaughter with affection and finally let go.

Gu Yu didn't know what her grandmother and Gu Jin had talked about, but she could only hear faint sobbing sounds coming from inside the room; everyone was crying.

The mourning hall at the Marquis of Wu'an's residence was set up for two months, and everything was white.

A solitary white.

After her grandmother passed away, Gu Yu cut off contact with Su Bicheng. She wanted to know if Su Bicheng would choose her as he said he would, and she wanted him to propose marriage openly and honestly.

Unexpectedly, the next message I received from him was about his marriage to Liu Qingqing.

That night, candles were lit in her boudoir, and Gu Yu read the letter Su Bicheng had written to her over and over again.

Even someone as greedy as Su Bicheng would abandon her. What about everyone else? Will they all leave her too? It seems she has no value other than her high-ranking family background.

If her father and brothers also died on the battlefield, she would have nothing left.

She's so useless. She's always been like a useless burden, tossed around by people, like a mere appendage.

Why is it always her who gets abandoned?

When, when will she be able to abandon others?

It's so cold. She hugged her knees and curled up in a corner of the canopy bed. Even though she was covered with a thick brocade quilt, she still felt very cold.

Following the late matriarch's dying wish, Gu Jin chose a husband for Gu Yu and led her to meet Shen Changqing.

“Ayu, this is Shen Changqing, your betrothed.”

Gu Jin let his younger sister and Shen Changqing be alone together, while he left the private room.

Gu Yu looked up at Shen Changqing. He was good-looking and had an otherworldly air about him. It was surprising that the number one scholar in Shengjing would ask to marry her, a young lady who was in poor health and had no special talents.

It's probably because of her family background again.

She glanced at him silently, too tired to speak.

“...Miss Gu, Miss Gu...I don’t know if I did something wrong that made you unhappy.”

"No, I'm just unwell." Gu Yu forced a smile. "I'm congenitally weak, a deficiency I was born with. I won't live long. Why would Young Master Shen want to marry a sickly person like me?"

“I don’t mind. A wife should be virtuous. Miss is a good match for my family and character. Even if we can only be together for a short time, it would be my good fortune.”

Such high-sounding words! Gu Yu's smile vanished. "Shen Changqing, if we become husband and wife, and you die before me, I will go with you. If I die first—"

"Shen Changqing, will you come with me too?"

Gu Yu stared intently at him, noticing that this refined and elegant young man had stiffened up, and chuckled, "Hahaha... If we can't die together, what kind of husband and wife are we? I'm just afraid you'll be too lonely left alone in this world."

"Miss Gu, I..."

"Stop talking, I understand." Gu Yu left the room listlessly.

Gu Jin was waiting for her outside.

"Brother, when will you return to the North?"

"It may take several more months before the military pay and provisions are approved."

Well, there are still a few months left, so I should be able to give her a grand funeral.

"Father and brother have been on the battlefield all this time. Have they ever thought about Ayu in Shengjing? Grandmother is gone, and Ayu is all alone now," Gu Yu asked.

"Ayu, don't worry, once the war in the north is over, Father and I will both come back, and then our family will be reunited."

"So you're not leaving?"

Gu Jin fell silent; he could offer no promises.

“Brother wouldn’t lie, Ayu knows the answer.”

Gu Yu decided to buy some poison. There are always some shady and dirty things in the mansions of the wealthy. As long as you pay enough, you can get your hands on poison.

The doctor thought she was going to use it on someone else, so he secretly gave her the antidote as well.

She looked at the two bottles of medicine in her hand, one containing poison and the other an antidote, and softly asked herself, "Gu Yu, will you regret this?"

It's unlikely. Her grandmother and mother are in the underworld, so she won't be lonely even in the afterlife.

If they wait a little longer, her father and brother might come down too, and their family would be reunited... No one would abandon her again.

Whether a person lives a long or short life, it's still a lifetime. She wasn't going to live long anyway, so it's better for her to go and see her mother and grandmother sooner.

One late night, Gu Yu wrote her will. She made up a pretext to shift the blame onto Su Bicheng in order to lessen her father and brother's guilt.

Since he broke his promise, she would make sure Su Bicheng suffered a terrible fate and ended up in the underworld with her, where she would settle accounts with him properly.

Wearing only her undergarments, she looked at the heavy snow falling outside the lattice window, a desolate white, while her mother's favorite red plum blossoms were in full bloom, their red color vibrant.

Why are ordinary families able to reunite and stay together for life, while she, living in a brocade-adorned boudoir and of noble status, has no one who truly loves her?

In her next life, she only wants to be the daughter of an ordinary family, with her parents, brothers, and grandmother by her side, and to find a good man who truly loves her, to live a simple and peaceful life.

She didn't want to stay in the same place, and she didn't want to be left behind again.

What's the point of living a long life if you're all alone in this world?

Gu Yu drank the poison and lay down with her eyes closed on the mahogany canopy bed carved with hibiscus patterns. The layers of soft gold gauze curtains in front of her became increasingly blurry.

A deep, piercing pain rose in her abdomen, as if a thousand poisonous insects were gnawing at her internal organs.

She's free now, and her father and brothers, no longer burdened by her, are free too...

When Gu Yu's body was on the verge of death, Tang Qingning obtained all of Gu Yu's past memories, like a hidden treasure, buried at the very bottom of her memory.

If memory is the key to determining a person's character, temperament, and way of doing things, then what is she now, having both Tang Qingning's and Gu Yu's memories?

Who is she? Is she Gu Yu or Tang Qingning?

"Ayu—"

Gu Jin had been staying by her bedside ever since he returned to the mansion. He had experienced too many moments when his loved ones were on the verge of death, and each time it was a heart-wrenching worry and pain.

Gu Yu opened her eyes and found that she didn't feel so bad anymore. Her mind was much clearer, and she wondered if it was a final burst of energy before death.

She still remembered her promise to Gu Jin: all her enemies were dead, and it was time to tell him everything.

"Brother."

"I am Tang Qingning."

Tang Qingning had chosen her own ending: to return everything to Gu Yu.

Power, wealth, and high social status—everything Tang Qingning once desired—was abandoned at this moment.

She was just Tang Qingning.