The Brother I Betrayed - Chapter 1

Before I married into the Xu family, I had a scandalous affair.

The very forbidden kind.

My elder brother—in name, at least—and I had shared a relationship no one knew about.

That was the year the Xie family’s real daughter was found.

And I, the counterfeit who had been switched with her as a baby, suddenly found myself in a very awkward position.

Unfortunately, I also happened to overhear the elders saying:

“…Just send her off to the country estate.”

Only later did I learn that the person Mother wanted gone was a malicious servant who had been spreading rumors about me.

At the time, though, I was too anxious to eat or sleep, and I misunderstood what they meant.

So, to protect my life of luxury, I made a rash and utterly ridiculous decision.

I seduced the Xie family’s heir.

Xie Yan had always been mature beyond his years, a stiff-necked gentleman who observed every rule of propriety. Naturally, he wasn’t going to fall for my little tricks so easily.

But either his luck was terrible, or the heavens enjoyed a forbidden romance between siblings who weren’t really siblings.

At a banquet, someone tricked him into drinking wine laced with an aphrodisiac. Naturally, I didn’t let the opportunity pass.

The next morning, when Xie Yan sat up with a hand pressed to his temple and scratches all down his back, what did he see?

Me, lying naked beside him, my eyes full of tears and my face a picture of terrified confusion.

The terror was an act.

At last, I had what I wanted. Xie Yan’s old aloofness melted into tenderness I could wind around my little finger.

Lord Xie, with his brilliant future ahead of him, racked his brains for ways to earn my forgiveness. He would even agree to my most unreasonable demands.

In truth, I only had one.

“I love you, Brother. I don’t want to leave the Xie family.” The important part was the second sentence.

Xie Yan fell silent for a moment. I wasn’t sure what he thought I’d meant.

When he looked up again, he took my hand and spoke with the utmost seriousness.

“All right. I promise. A-Shu, wait for me to come back.”

Not long after that, he went off to war to make his name.

One distinguished victory followed another, and the Xie family’s standing rose with him.

The matchmakers arriving with marriage proposals nearly wore our threshold to splinters.

That was when the Xu family asked for my hand.

I had promised to wait for Xie Yan.

I didn’t.

I wasn’t an idiot.

Becoming the lawful wife of a wealthy man was obviously a better prospect than being Xie Yan’s dirty little secret.

And so, when Xie Yan hurried home despite his injuries, he arrived just in time to meet my wedding procession.

At first, he thought his birth sister was getting married. He even planned to add more gifts to her dowry.

Then he heard the bride’s name.

“A-Shu, are they forcing you? If this isn’t what you want, I can take you away.”

He stood before me, humiliated and disheveled, asking a question even he didn’t believe.

I touched the priceless jewel in my hair and shook my head without hesitation.

That was the moment Xie Yan finally realized he’d been played.

For the first time, my steady, sensible elder brother lost his reason and made a bitter threat.

“If you get into that bridal sedan today, I swear I will never see you again.”

I brushed past him with a sweet smile.

“Nothing could please me more. How considerate of you, Brother.”

As the saying goes, a good former lover should act as though he’s dead.

Xie Yan was excellent at that.

The farther he stayed from me, the less chance there was of our forbidden past coming to light.

What I hadn’t expected was that he would volunteer for a miserable posting on the northern frontier—and earn promotion after promotion within three years.

The lover I’d discarded was doing so well, while the husband I’d so carefully selected…

I glanced at Xu Mingyuan, reeking of rouge and powder.

Right. Enough of that.

Any more and I’d get annoyed.

Apparently, the splendid future I’d chosen couldn’t withstand even that much praise.

In the third year of my marriage, the Xu family’s patron at court fell from power.

The household was implicated and saddled with fabricated charges.

Unless we found someone powerful enough to protect us and clear our names, the entire family would be sent into exile.

And the only person who could save the Xu family now was the newly appointed commander.

Commander Xie. Xie Yan.

I couldn’t prove it, but I suspected the heavens had set me up.

When the news broke, my unfortunate husband had just returned from a singing house.

Still tipsy, Xu Mingyuan stared blankly at the devastating news. When it finally sank in, his eyes went red.

He seized my hand in a panic.

“My dear, what are we going to do? Why don’t we run away? I’ll bring you, you bring the money, and we’ll go somewhere the authorities can’t find us…”

Useless creature.

Cry, cry, cry. That was all he knew how to do.

He’d probably cried away the Xu family’s good fortune.

“Where could we possibly run?” I took several deep breaths and struggled to put my dutiful-wife mask back on. “Mingyuan, we can’t escape this. Calm down first.”

When it became clear that calming down was beyond him, I expertly pressed my handkerchief over his nose and mouth, forcing him to slow his breathing and focus on something else.

The sobbing stopped at once.

A few breaths later, I let go and had him hold it himself.

“Calmer now? Good. Behave yourself. Don’t make a fuss. I’ll think of something.”

Xu Mingyuan blinked, and a tear rolled off his excessively long lashes.

The fool had nothing going for him except a beautiful face. Such a pity he was purely decorative.

After stealing a look at my expression, he obediently sat to one side and made himself an ornament.

He secretly sniffed the handkerchief a few more times before his emotions settled.

“I’m sorry, my dear. I’ll be quiet.”

Oh, very well. Since he was being good.

Since he really had been generous to me these past three years, and since I truly couldn’t jump ship.

“Go tell your father,” I said, rubbing my temple, “that I agree.”

“I’ll go and see my brother.”