Chapter 2: The man that everyone feared

What a happy ending!

They could get rid of this shameful burden. They didn't have to worry anymore. The little sparrow would no longer affect their reputation. They just had to get rid of it, get rid of her, as soon as possible!

Liang Yunsheng bit her lower lip. This was her first time back, and her parents, she once thought be biological, didn't even ask her how she was doing.

Fortunately, they didn't completely abandon her. Although she couldn't accept such a thing, this contract, they at least wanted her to have a good home.

"I just celebrated my sixteenth birthday, though. I'm not even the legal age for marriage. It's too early for this," Liang Yunsheng said carefully.

"A family like ours is different from ordinary people. But it's not like the old fashioned marriages, where you get married without seeing who you're marrying. You must live with the Yin family and cultivate a relationship with Yin San. If things go smoothly, you will be engaged at eighteen and get married at twenty."

Liang Yunsheng could not accept that her future would be decided so hastily and without any input from her. "I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in this life. I'm already independent and can completely live by myself!"

She wanted to leave this place and not be manipulated by them!

Liang Yunsheng said nothing more, simply turning and returning upstairs to the guest room she was staying in.

She fled upstairs in a hurry, as if there was a flood beast chasing her. She tried to not hear the last words that Liang Yaosheng said to her, but they travelled up with her.

"Young Master Yin is free tomorrow and said that he will come. Meet him first, maybe you will change your mind!"

Liang Yunsheng stayed locked in the room alone. She ate none of the food that was sent up for her.

Come nightfall, she managed to be both hot and cold. Her throat was sore, like a cold was forming, but heat still radiated from her forehead. Liang Yunsheng wanted to go downstairs to find a cup of hot water to drink, but she was surprised to hear the cook, who was on the night shift, cleaning the kitchen and chatting with a man in a low voice.

"I don't know what master is thinking. He wants to marry Miss Yunsheng just like that..."

"If Miss Yunsheng doesn't marry him, does he want Miss Yiyi to marry him?" "You are a woman with long hair and short knowledge..." "...you don't know. I heard that Yin Qianchen is an orphan of Tiansha. He is famous for being evil. He is cruel and vicious and has an unfathomable shrewdness. Even old master Yin himself is afraid of him. He secretly regrets raising him."

"Then, then Miss Yunsheng will marry him..."

"So, I guess that when the Yin family came to talk about this matter, the old master will begin to worry. He wouldn't dare let Miss Yiyi marry someone like that, but he would not dare dishonor third young Master Yin. This... just happened to be the person who was sent to him."

Liang Yunsheng's head spun. Her heart dropped completely out of her chest, into an abyss.

She was nothing more than someone who was going to suffer in place of Su Yiyi!

She wracked her brain, making excuses for her parents. They really hoped that she could live a safe and secure life, that's why they made the decision they did!

It was just wishful thinking, though.

The Yin family. She didn't want to go. She could live well on her own!

Liang Yunsheng wandered back through the corridors and fell back into bed.

Her mind was a complete wreck, but that didn't stop her from falling, rapidly, into a dream.

Despite falling in and out of dreams, she slept very restlessly. Dreams of the Su family and Liang family and the man from the cook's conversation.

In her final dream, she was drowning in a sea of fire. She was about to be fully pulled under as a chunk of ice floated along to serve as her rescue, she thought. The chunk of ice morphed into a great monster, that formed a mouth with huge, dripping teeth that suddenly bit down on her.

"Pain, heat," she muttered to herself.

It was only a dream, she knew it was, but she couldn't shake a heat from her body. The sea of fire might not have been real, but it certainly felt like it was.

A man's face appeared in front of her as she struggled to focus her vision. He was closer than she first realized. She hugged to quilt as she stared at the man.

"Wh- who are you?"

This was clearly her room. How could a stranger suddenly barge in?