Seven-Step Poem - Chapter 2

The Jiang family’s ancestral rule demanded lifelong devotion to a single partner. A man who abandoned his wife had to slit his own throat.

Jiang Yuan could only resign himself to his fate.

It was not that he never tried to make a life with me.

But whenever he saw my sister’s celestial beauty and compared it with my ugly face, he could not summon the slightest desire.

I explained the difference between my sister and me.

He would only frown in displeasure.

“Such fantasies have no foundation. How can you believe them?”

He refused to touch me.

I kept thinking that if we slept together just once, I would begin to change.

Once was all I needed.

One day I put on a thin robe, painted my brows and powdered my face, bathed, and lit incense.

He had drunk a few cups of wine. When he opened the door and saw my back, he stopped short.

“Husband.”

He approached slowly, delight filling his eyes, and gently lifted my face covering.

But the name he murmured was my sister’s.

“Ruoruo…”

Apart from our faces, my sister and I looked very much alike.

My heart twisted.

As my veil fell and he saw it was me, his expression cooled inch by inch.

“Qin Wan, would you actually impersonate your sister just to get me into bed?”

Swallowing my distress, I tried to explain.

He gave a cold laugh.

“A habitual liar. Your character is rotten.”

“Even if you looked like your sister, you would still be ugly. Even if she looked like you, her kind heart would make her far better than you.”

“A person’s face reflects their heart. Have you ever considered that your looks are Heaven’s punishment?”

He swept out and never entered my room again.

We became the most intimate of strangers.

Given another life, I would never follow that same path.

Mother was still trying to persuade me.

When my sister came in, she called her over to help.

Instead, my sister spoke with complete indifference.

“He is only a man. How wonderful can he be?”

“Mother, if Wanwan doesn’t wish to marry him, let her have her way.”

Mother rolled her eyes.

“What nonsense. You need not marry, but your sister must.”

“With her condition—”

My sister took a sip of tea and corrected her.

“Mother, let us be clear. I am not remaining unmarried because of some ridiculous business about my looks changing. I simply do not like men.”

“If Wanwan’s appearance makes finding a husband difficult, find a few men to treat her condition first. Once she is beautiful, she can marry if she wishes—or not, if she doesn’t. What is the problem?”

Mother was furious at such outrageous talk.

“Absurd! What disgraceful nonsense!”

She drove my sister out, then sat holding her head, unable to recover for quite some time.

I took the opportunity to excuse myself too.

I thought my sister had spoken casually.

The next day, however, she took me out with an air of mystery.

We went upstairs to a private room. At the door, she told me to go inside.

I was bewildered. “What is in there?”

Her lips curved.

“A man.”

“I don’t know who, but I specifically requested someone handsome and well built. As long as he can cure you, that is all that matters.”

Appalled, I backed away.

“A man?!”

“To sleep together without a matchmaker, to lose my virginity before marriage—I can’t.”

My sister caught me as I tried to flee, displeased.

“What do you mean, lose your virginity before marriage? It is yours. Whether you keep it is your decision.”

“Wanwan, think carefully. Do you want to become beautiful, or choose a man while you still have this face?”

“I don’t mean you should become beautiful for a man. I know how unhappy you have been all these years. I want you to be happier.”

I stopped.

The malice I had endured because of my face was beyond counting.

Becoming beautiful had almost become an obsession.

My sister’s words woke me up.

Why couldn’t I use a man to become beautiful?

My body was my own. If others disapproved, they need not come near me.

Why agonize over it?

After a moment, I made up my mind.

My sister smiled.

“That’s right.”

“And one more thing, Wanwan. I paid for this man. If you are dissatisfied, slap him!”

“…”