Deep winter had settled in, snowflakes swirling down like giant scrolls of white silk.
Every corner of Yunzhou City lay buried under a blanket of pure white.
Inside the Golden Dice Workshop on the west side of town, lanterns blazed bright. Shouts of dealers shaking dice cups and gamblers placing bets echoed nonstop, mixed with raucous laughter and bitter curses—the whole place reeked of debauchery and ruin.
Outside the workshop.
Ji Chen collapsed face-first into the snow, every ounce of strength drained from his body. The bitter cold bit straight into his bones, and every inch of his skin throbbed with searing agony.
“So cold…”
“My body… I can’t move a single muscle…”
He watched clumps of snow slide off the tree branches right in front of his eyes. His vision blurred fast, his breaths growing shallow, and his fingers, which had been shaking like a leaf in the wind, slowly stilled.
“I’m gonna die here, aren’t I…”
Just as he thought everything would fade to black, the dim light in his eyes suddenly blazed to life.
Faint, long-forgotten images flooded his mind out of nowhere.
A legendary battlefield where immortals and demons clashed in all-out war.
Beneath a sky stained with chaotic, alien hues, a man clad in plain white robes hovered midair. He faced six Demon Emperors ganging up on him alone, yet not a flicker of fear crossed his face. The longsword in his grasp surged with righteous immortal qi, shooting straight up toward the clouds.
That battle blotted out sun and moon, splitting the heavens and shattering the earth.
In the end, the six Demon Emperors only barely managed to destroy his physical form—three dead, two gravely wounded.
The moment his divine soul tore free from his broken body, his lifebound sacred sword burst with dazzling radiance. It activated the reincarnation art, sucking his entire soul into its blade… and then—
The cycle of rebirth began.
“I… I remember everything now…”
Ji Chen’s mind snapped fully awake.
That man… was my past life!
Same name, same face. The Sword Sovereign of Qiongyao Immortal Realm, the top ruler of Chenming Immortal Domain—Immortal Emperor Ji Chen!
Memories rushed back crystal clear, a warm stream of energy flooding his consciousness. All the wisdom and power he’d wielded as an Immortal Emperor returned to him in an instant.
Drawing on his newly awakened immortal memories, Ji Chen channeled a few simple healing incantations. The biting cold and burning pain ebbed away little by little, letting him push himself up into a sitting position.
He tried to circulate his internal energy through his meridians, but the sorry state of his body made him frown hard.
“My meridians are all clogged and blocked, my vital energy thinner than a wisp of thread… Heh. Once an Immortal Emperor, slaying six Demon Emperors single-handed with just a sword. Who’d think I’d be reborn as some worthless weakling who can’t even cultivate?”
“For over a decade, being the Jiang family’s live-in son-in-law’s been nothing but endless humiliation…”
In this life, Ji Chen was once the heir of the Ji Clan, the most prestigious household in Yunzhou City. His father Ji Yunshan and mother Ye Shuying were two of the city’s most powerful cultivators.
Everyone had expected their child to grow into an unparalleled genius, showered with endless hope.
But fate had cursed Ji Chen with a broken soul—he’d been missing one soul fragment and one spirit fragment since birth. By age five, he still couldn’t speak a word, and not a shred of cultivation energy stirred within him no matter how hard he tried to train.
Desperate to save their son, Ji Yunshan and Ye Shuying abandoned their entire family fortune to journey west, searching for legendary immortal mountains and divine healers. They’d left years ago, and not a single letter had come back since.
Before departing, Ji Yunshan entrusted all his assets and young Ji Chen to the head of the Jiang Clan, Jiang Tianxiao.
The Ji and Jiang clans had been sworn allies for generations, and Ji Yunshan and Jiang Tianxiao were blood brothers who’d laid their lives down for each other. Long before Ji Chen and Jiang Mengli were even born, the two fathers had sealed a baby pact, binding their children to marriage.
As Ji Chen grew older, the flaw in his soul grew more obvious.
He turned arrogant, rude, and reckless, drifting through each day in a drunken haze. He even picked up a gambling addiction, tossing thousands of taels of silver away over dice cups. Everyone in Yunzhou City saw him as nothing more than a maggot Jiang Tianxiao fed and sheltered, useless mud that could never stick to a wall.
Countless people urged Jiang Tianxiao to call off the engagement, but he couldn’t bring himself to betray his sworn brother’s last wish. Even Jiang Mengli never complained—she only begged Ji Chen to rein in his reckless ways.
Yet Ji Chen never repented. Even with their wedding date set in stone, he didn’t tone down his bad habits one bit. Today, he’d stumbled right back into this gambling den again.
He’d lost every coin he’d brought, and racked up a six-thousand-tael debt to the Golden Dice Workshop. When he tried to sneak out without paying, the workshop owner ordered his thugs to beat him half to death, then tossed him outside like a dead dog to freeze in the brutal winter cold.
“That missing soul and spirit fragment… that’s where my past-life memories went all these years… Tch. If those memories hadn’t woken up just now, this life would’ve ended right here.”
Ji Chen scooped up a handful of snow and rubbed it over his face, clearing his foggy head.
“Whatever. Let the old garbage stay buried. This humiliating life…
It’s time to turn the page.”
Whoosh—
A frantic horse whinny cut through the air outside the workshop gates.
Voices chattered loudly, drawing a crowd.
“Miss Jiang, the guy’s right inside. But uh… your husband-to-be owes my workshop six thousand taels of silver. How we gonna sort this out?”
A slick, greasy male voice drifted over the wall. Ji Chen recognized it instantly—Jin Wuyan, owner of the Golden Dice Workshop.
“Xiaocui, hand him the bank note.”
“But young miss, this is—”
“Just give it to him.”
“…Here, take it!”
“Nice! Miss Jiang’s such a straight shooter, worlds apart from that good-for-nothing husband of yours!”
By the gate, Jin Wuyan’s chubby face crinkled up, a sneaky mocking grin tugging at his lips.
The workshop doors creaked open, and a stunning woman hurried inside. She wore black hair tied neatly and plain white robes, her dark brows soft as frost, eyes like quiet orchids. Her makeup was cool and understated, swirling snow dancing around her like decorations. She bloomed like a winter plum braving the frost, breathtaking beyond words.
“Hey, ain’t that Miss Jiang Mengli from the Jiang Clan? Back again to drag that loser outta the gambling house?”
“The Jiang family must’ve cursed themselves somehow, taking a worthless layabout like him as their live-in son-in-law. If you ask me, leave him to freeze to death right here—saves the Jiangs more shame later on!”
“Right! What’s even good about him? Wanders around all day with no proper work, only cares about drinking and gambling. Jiang Mengli marrying this trash… she must’ve done something terrible in her past life. Such a waste, a total waste…”
Passersby stopped to gawk, forming a crowd.
Jeers, sneers, and pitying sighs crashed over Ji Chen like waves, but he ignored every word. Jiang Mengli’s heart, though, twisted tight with pain.
She stared at Ji Chen sitting crumpled in the snow, disappointment and helplessness clear in her eyes.
Thud.
A thick snowproof fur cloak landed over Ji Chen’s shoulders—Jiang Mengli had just taken it off her own body, still warm with her heat.
Ji Chen looked up at the woman before him. All the careless, forgotten memories of her washed over him, making him zone out for a split second.
Truth be told, he’d always owed Jiang Mengli a debt of gratitude.
Ever since his parents left Yunzhou, he’d pulled one idiotic stunt after another. Though she’d always been cold and frustrated with him, as his fiancée she’d quietly cleaned up every mess he made, over and over again, all the way to this day.
Through all these years, she’d never treated him cruelly.
“Stand up.” Jiang Mengli’s voice was soft.
“Come home with me.”
She stretched out a hand, brushed snow flakes out of his hair, and hauled him to his feet from the frozen ground.
“J-Ji Chen? You’re still alive?” Jin Wuyan, standing behind them, gaped, eyes blown wide.
Ji Chen glanced over and let out a faint laugh. “What, Master Jin? Disappointed to see me breathing?”
He wasn’t the blind fool he’d been before. He saw the malice on Jin Wuyan’s face, and remembered how brutally his thugs had beaten him minutes ago—he knew full well Jin Wuyan had intended to kill him today.
He’d never wronged Jin Wuyan, either. He’d blown piles of silver in this workshop every few days, filling Jin Wuyan’s pockets. There was no reason for the owner to want him dead. Someone had definitely put him up to it.
And he’d figure out exactly who, soon enough.
“Disappointed? Heh, why would I be?” Fat flesh jiggled on Jin Wuyan’s face, a flash of dark venom flickering across his expression before vanishing.
“The one who oughta be disappointed is Miss Jiang. Word’s out Jiang Tianxiao’s locked in your wedding date, right? Your groom’s got the nerve to come gamble in my workshop all day long, and now his bride’s gotta pay six thousand taels of his debt for him!
The Jiang Clan’s so lucky to have a son-in-law like you, ain’t they?”
He waved the bank note tauntingly as he finished speaking, dripping with contempt.
The surrounding onlookers gasped and muttered curses under their breaths.
“Spendthrift”, “live-in son-in-law trash”, “useless deadweight”—the words echoed through the crowd, sharp and stinging.
Jiang Mengli turned her head away, frowned, and sighed quietly. She ordered her maid beside her: “Xiaocui, help him onto the carriage.”
With that, she spun around to leave, unwilling to stay a moment longer.
“Mmm…” Maid Xiaocui dragged her feet, pouting as she walked toward Ji Chen.
“No need to help me. I can walk fine.” Ji Chen saw her obvious reluctance and didn’t push her.
He turned his gaze toward Jin Wuyan, who was still snickering to the side, and a cold, menacing glint flashed in his eyes.
He brushed the snow and dirt off his tattered clothes, stepped out the workshop gate, and climbed into the Jiang family’s horse carriage.
The crowd chattered amongst themselves before scattering off one by one.
“Pah! Coward hiding behind a woman’s skirt.” Jin Wuyan spat toward the carriage’s departing trail, then stared down at the bank note in his hand and broke into a greedy grin.
“Easy money off that loser.
Though my men held back way too much just now. How’s Ji Chen still able to walk? Was that half-dead act all a fake?”
He mumbled to himself, confusion clouding his face.
After a moment of thought, he called one of his most trusted lackeys over, whispered a string of orders in his ear, then hummed a little tune and headed back inside the workshop.
……
The carriage rocked and swayed down the road.
Jiang Mengli kept glancing across at Ji Chen sitting opposite her. She opened her mouth several times, yet no words came out.
Inside the carriage, only the creak of wheels crunching over snow broke the heavy silence.
Before long, the gates of the Jiang manor came into view.
“Ji Chen.” Jiang Mengli stood with her back to him, hands clenched tight inside her sleeves, her expression tangled with messy emotions.
Deep within those cool yet tender eyes lay disappointment, guilt, and bone-deep exhaustion.
“Let’s… call off our engagement.”
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