My Only Gold and Jade - Chapter 1

I was a sickly beauty, terribly difficult to keep alive, and I married the most notorious playboy in the book.

On our wedding night, I coughed up blood every three steps and was confined to bed.

Others advised him that he might as well bring a lovely concubine into his chambers sooner rather than later.

But He Lian held me in his arms and fed me medicine, saying carelessly, “No matter how hard she is to care for, she is still my wife.”

“I insist on raising her like something more precious than gold and jade.”

Unfortunately, no matter how carefully He Lian cared for me, I still died.

The day I died was in spring, just after the last biting chill had passed.

He Lian said he would take me out to enjoy the spring scenery and lift my spirits. When I did not answer for a long while, he lowered his head to look at me, only to find that I had already stopped breathing.

Yet He Lian seemed not to realize I was dead. He continued speaking to me in a low, gentle voice.

“Wen Yu, stop sleeping.”

When I still gave no response, He Lian finally could not help complaining.

“If you keep sleeping, the peach blossom pudding I made will get cold.”

I was already dead.

I had been ill for far too long, taking medicine again and again. Now that I had died, it could be considered a release.

But He Lian did not think so. He believed I should stay with him, safe and sound, for a very, very long time.

So when the people in the manor reminded him that I was already dead, He Lian still refused to let go.

With his own hands, he changed me into new clothes and painted on my makeup. Then he held me and lay down with me in the coffin.

When they found him, his tears had already soaked the clothes on my shoulder.

Everyone said that He Lian loved me most in this life. That I made a prodigal son turn back. That he cherished and pampered me beyond measure, even going so far as to die for love.

But He Lian was the most notorious playboy in this book.

I was merely the stepping stone that made him turn back before he met the female lead.

In the seventh year after my death, the female lead finally appeared.

By then, He Lian was no longer the playboy the book had brushed over in a single sentence.

He was noble by birth and held great power. If one had to find a flaw in him, it would be that He Lian had a wife who had died young.

That wife who died young had taught him what love was, then left this world behind.

Only after that long lifetime of loneliness, when He Lian met the female lead, Wen Yao, would he pour all the tenderness of his life into loving her.

I had been dead for seven years, and for seven years after my death, I had followed at He Lian’s side.

The System said that as long as the male lead met the female lead, I would be able to leave.

The day Wen Yao entered the capital was also in spring. The capital was bursting with blossoms in every shade, and He Lian would meet Wen Yao at the Grand Princess’s spring outing banquet.

She bore a slight resemblance to me, just enough to make He Lian lose focus for a moment. But in all the long years he spent with her afterward, he never thought of me again.

I asked the System, “Did He Lian truly never think of me, not even once?”

Before I could hear the System’s reply, I saw a radiant young woman appear near He Lian.

She wore a red dress, her hair black as ink. Like crabapple blossoms drunk on sunlight, she was a rare beauty.

She only resembled me a little, but I was not even a fraction as beautiful as she was.

Sure enough, the moment He Lian’s gaze landed on her, he froze.

My heart finally dropped heavily back into place.

All these years I had remained by He Lian’s side not only because the System forbade me from leaving.

It was also because I still harbored a ridiculous shred of fantasy. I thought that even if the plot had forced me to die, I had still made He Lian turn back, and he would remember me.

But He Lian was still controlled by the plot. He would be distracted by Wen Yao. He would fall in love with Wen Yao.

Aside from these seven years, no one would remember me ever again.

Yet in the time I stood there in a daze, I missed the change in He Lian’s expression.

By the time I came back to myself, He Lian had already strode out with an unpleasant look on his face and climbed into his carriage.

I was forced to follow him.

He Lian’s study had always been locked. In these seven years, because of the System’s restrictions, I had never once stepped inside.

But perhaps because the female lead had appeared, the System’s restrictions on me had loosened.

For the first time since my death, I entered that study.

It still looked the same as when I was alive, except there were many more portraits of me.

Even around the soft couch where I had loved to lie most, there was now a golden cage.

He Lian had collapsed onto it, his robes half-undone, and beneath him was my portrait.

At that exact moment, the System’s cold voice sounded.

“Plot complete. Departure permitted.”

White light flashed before my eyes. When I opened them again, I met a pair of ink-black eyes.

The corners of He Lian’s eyes were flushed red as he locked my wrist in his grip.

“Seven years. You have certainly made me wait.”