Chapter 2: He Wants to Break Off the Engagement.

After recalling the entire story from Fu Jizhou’s perspective, Wen Ru felt somewhat stifled.

On second thought, if the guest in the main hall was truly the Fu Jizhou from the novel, then she must be the passerby whose engagement Fu Jizhou had broken off – Wen Jinyi, the daughter of the Wen family, imperial merchants of Weiking.

Wen Jinyi’s ending wasn’t particularly good either.

Hidden behind the sweet facade, the female protagonist had harbored ambitious plans for years, not only having the open support of the prime minister but also intricate underground connections. So, by the grand finale, the person sitting on the dragon throne had changed, and the imperial merchants who once controlled the economic lifelines had been quietly replaced. Many new nobles emerged overnight, forcing the Wen family to retreat from the limelight and leave Weiking in disgrace.

Fu Jizhou had thrown himself into the river after watching the Wen family’s caravan pass through the city gates of Weiking.

Wen Ru had pondered why Fu Jizhou would do such a thing.

Fu Jizhou lived in an era of female supremacy and male inferiority, and had been more or less influenced by some of this world’s “principles”, placing himself in a dependent, submissive position. Like a dodder, he inevitably sought a place to parasitize.

The series of misfortunes he encountered after breaking off the engagement forced him to reflect on what he had done wrong. Perhaps in his heart, he had begun to acknowledge that breaking off the engagement was a foolish mistake. If he had obediently married into the Wen family, spending the rest of his life as a husband and bearing children would have been smoother than the life he later led, constantly pointed at and gossiped about.

Thus, even though he had never been a son-in-law of the Wen family for a single day, he still harbored a small, extravagant hope about the Wen family in his heart.

If he hadn’t been so bold as to break off the engagement at the age of eleven… if only…

Thinking too much about hypotheticals can easily blur the line between reality and fantasy.

At the end of the story, the Wen family left Weiking, and he could only stand at the city gate, watching them go.

For a moment, Wen Ru’s mind conjured an image of a frail figure. All alone, wearing tattered clothes, bearing the scars of a fallen life, standing at the foot of the city gate, gazing at the distant, receding caravan until it completely disappeared from sight. Only then did he lower his head heavily.

“Jinyi, come here.”

A clear female voice suddenly came from the front, interrupting Wen Ru’s thoughts. Wen Ru looked up to see a middle-aged woman with a neat hairstyle and fine clothes sitting in the main seat of the reception room, beckoning to her.

This must be Wen Jinyi’s mother, Wen Nianyue, the head of the Wen family.

“Mother!” Wen Ru quickened her steps, approaching with a beaming smile.

Wen Nianyue, who had been somewhat upset earlier, saw her daughter walking over with a smile and felt her anger dissipate. She reached out to embrace Jinyi’s shoulders and said with a smile, “You always complain that I don’t indulge you or spoil you. Today it’s raining, so I’ll allow you to skip your studies and play with your younger brother for the day. How does that sound?”

“Mother is the best!” Wen Ru agreed with a smile, then turned around to look for Fu Jizhou. She saw a half-grown child standing by the table in the hall, holding a veiled hat. His thick clothes were soaked through by the rain, and the lower part of his robe and the half-long veil were covered in mud.

He looked like a drenched chicken, standing there shivering.

But even in such a miserable state, he still stubbornly held his chin high, his round black pupils in his fair, rain-speckled face staring directly at the mother and daughter.

As if he would never admit defeat.

“Mother, is this the younger brother?” Wen Ru looked him up and down for a moment, then turned back to ask Wen Nianyue, pretending to be confused.

“Yes, he’s two years younger than you. I gave birth to you unexpectedly when your father and I were guests at his home that year. The connection is quite deep. Since you’re here, you can entertain him.” Wen Nianyue spoke with a nostalgic expression, “If your father were still here, your father…”

Wen Nianyue didn’t finish her sentence, instead letting out a long sigh and standing up. “The rain came on suddenly today, I need to go check on the shop. Hua Ting, take good care of the young miss. The things on the table, collect them on behalf of the young miss. You were Wan Jun’s old acquaintance and know his thoughts best, handle it as you see fit.”

With that, she left hurriedly with a few servants.

Hearing the mistress’s words, Hua Ting was about to step forward to collect the items on the table, but Wen Ru tugged at his sleeve and spoke first: “Hua Ting, go fetch some dry towels for little brother to dry off, and a change of dry clothes too. Wearing wet clothes like this will make him sick.”

“Yes, young miss.” Hua Ting bowed, wondering to himself why the mistress hadn’t arranged for a servant to prepare these things when the young master from the Fu family had arrived a while ago. Now that the young miss had spoken, he would certainly follow her instructions. He turned and left with two tea-serving servants to fetch clean clothes and towels.

Once Hua Ting had left, only Wen Ru and Fu Jizhou remained in the front hall.

Wen Ru slowly walked forward and picked up the slightly yellowed marriage contract from the table, carefully examining the characters on it.

It briefly stated the information of both parties to the engagement, mentioning that there were three copies, each bearing the official red seal of the government office.

So, to dissolve the engagement, they would need to take the Wen family’s copy to the government office to register, right?

“You…” Seeing her take the marriage contract, Fu Jizhou became anxious. He stumbled forward a step and couldn’t help but speak.

“Hmm?” Wen Ru looked up at him.

Fu Jizhou was very good-looking, especially when drenched by the rain, which made him appear even more fair-skinned and handsome, with a natural grace. The gentle scholarly air about his brows and eyes added a touch of fragility to his appearance.

Wen Ru was stunned for a moment. She hadn’t thought much of it when she saw him from afar, but now that he was closer, she felt different.

Although her 21st-century brain was filled with articles about how women are naturally delicate and lovable, and how boys should take care of girls more, when she saw such a pretty boy, she couldn’t help but feel a kind of spirit she had never experienced before. She wanted to be his shelter, to tease him, to protect him.

Seeing the little girl look up at him, Fu Jizhou closed his mouth, his thin lips pressed tightly together, timidly taking two steps back.

The girl in front of him was still young, wearing a snow-cyan colored coat. Her small face was lively and still had some baby fat. When she looked at him, her face wore an adult-like seriousness, not intimidating, but rather cute.

Even so, he still wanted to break off the engagement.

Fu Jizhou bit his lip. He knew that a woman’s face was of utmost importance. Having an engagement broken off by a man would surely make the little girl lose face and be angry with him.

So, while he could firmly state his desire to break off the engagement in front of the head of the Wen family, when faced with the actual person he was engaged to, he felt somewhat timid.

He would probably be severely scolded and beaten by this little girl, Fu Jizhou’s heart trembled slightly at the thought.

“Are you afraid of me? What’s there to be afraid of? I only found out about our engagement today.” Wen Ru sat down in the chair by the table, casually spreading the marriage contract on the table, then poured a cup of warm tea. She initially wanted to hand it to him, but seeing that he had already stepped back several paces, she could only hold it in her palm to warm her hands. “Blind marriages are indeed not good. I agree to break off the engagement, but—”

“But what?” Fu Jizhou was surprised by Wen Ru’s words. He raised his face, leaning forward slightly in her direction, attentively waiting for her to continue.

His slightly upturned phoenix eyes blinked unwaveringly, looking somewhat adorably dazed.

Wen Ru couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly, thinking, “But you can’t bear the consequences of breaking off this engagement!”

Wen Ru sighed inwardly. Even in the 21st century where men and women are relatively equal, women still face more gossip when divorcing than men do. Not to mention in this female-dominated society, Fu Jizhou breaking off the engagement on his own had slapped the faces of both the Fu and Wen families. The idea of him being mistreated and abandoned by his family seemed outrageous, but not incomprehensible.

Wen Ru remained silent, and Fu Jizhou’s heart was in turmoil. He had traveled a long way just to break off the engagement, but as soon as the head of the Wen family heard his intentions, her face had turned cold.

Could it be that this engagement couldn’t be broken off?

“May I know why you insist on breaking off the engagement?” Wen Ru asked curiously, her large eyes fixed on him.

Fu Jizhou stole glances at her from time to time, opening his mouth but never uttering a sound.

Wen Ru tilted her head, pondering for a moment. She carefully folded the marriage contract on the table and tucked it into her sleeve, making sure it wouldn’t fall out. Then she continued to hold the warm tea, patiently waiting for Fu Jizhou to give his reason.

She wondered if there was a way to break off the engagement in this era without both parties being hurt.

Would it be better if she coaxed Fu Jizhou to go back, and then she would take her mother to Qianzhou to initiate the breakup of the engagement?

After a long silence, Wen Ru’s thoughts were interrupted by a gurgling sound. Following the sound, she looked over to see Fu Jizhou, his cheeks flushed red, retreating three steps and pulling down the veiled hat he was holding, trying to cover up the hungry stomach noise he had made.

He hadn’t eaten a proper meal in two or three days.

He had left home full of ambition, but after walking just three miles, he began to feel uncertain. He didn’t dare to stay long in sparsely populated areas, and in crowded places, he was afraid to squeeze in with a group of women. After finishing the few dry rations he had, he could only drink water on an empty stomach.

Thinking of this, Fu Jizhou found his peripheral vision shamelessly drawn to the snacks on the table.

Noticing his gaze, Wen Ru picked up the plate of snacks and walked over to Fu Jizhou. “Here, have a piece to fill your stomach. In a while, I’ll have Hua Ting take us to eat breakfast.”

Seeing the snacks right in front of him, Fu Jizhou tightly gripped the hem of his clothes, pursed his lips, and stole a glance at Wen Ru. Instead of stepping forward, he retreated until he was almost against the pillar at the entrance of the hall.

His resistant demeanor made it seem as if the snacks before him were malicious bait.

Fu Jizhou secretly made up his mind that he wouldn’t eat food given by a girl, lest it soften his resolve and make it difficult to speak of breaking off the engagement later.

“Why are you so timid?” Wen Ru picked up a piece of snack and unexpectedly pushed it directly to Fu Jizhou’s mouth, putting on a fierce face. “Look, it’s touched your saliva now. It would be gross to put it back on the plate, so you eat it!”

Wen Ru’s words were impolite. Fu Jizhou’s eyes widened, looking at her teary-eyed. He blinked a few times and then lowered his gaze, his long eyelashes trembling like little fans, exuding an air of grievance.

“You’re not going to cry, are you?” Wen Ru was startled and quickly tried to comfort him with kind words, “I’m not looking down on you, I’m just worried you’ll be hungry. Look—”

As she spoke, she popped the snack that had touched Fu Jizhou’s lips into her own mouth, lowered her head, and chewed it for him to see.

The tears that had been welling up in Fu Jizhou’s eyes now truly fell.

He knew that among scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, merchants were the most cunning. He had come to break off the engagement, but how had he let his guard down and been teased by this little rascal? If someone were to see this… he…

He wanted to break off the engagement??