1.1 AuYeung LaiSan

Read this first before I send you back in time." ZhiHin guided me to the story of the first entangled knot on my red string. "This first one should be simple. At that time and age, people are in blind arranged marriages, so you will be brought together just because your parents' decide with a MuiPo*.

I placed my finger as a placeholder for the story, I needed to read and quickly flipped over the rest of the book. "Exactly how many lifetimes have I had?"

"A little less than two dozen, I believe." he responded.

I turned back to the page and began reading. Okay, my story…

In this lifetime my name was AuYeung LaiSan born to an Imperial Scholar named AuYeung HunBo (father) and a daughter of a low ranking Imperial Official, named DingMui DaiZi. (mother) I was the youngest of eight children and their only daughter. They lived in Zhong City, center of the country.

I married my soulmate at the age of 17, a little old for marriage at that era, where marrying around 15 years old was the norm. Because I was the only daughter, my parents kept on delaying it, to keep me at home with them a bit longer.

My betrothed is SzeTo DongAn, he is a general that guarded the Southern Border city named Zhang Zuo.

According to this, everything went very smoothly, we're married for twenty-six years and had six children of our own, two boys and four girls. Peace with the bordering country was ensured with the marriage of their Princess Tong SiMan to our Crown Prince, MoYung TianLong.

I flipped to the next page but it was blank. "That's it? It isn't a lot to go by."

With a wave of his hand, "Yes, but it should be enough for you to muddle through. Okay, again the goal is to get your destiny to marry you. Don't worry so much about any changes you might make to history, as long as you succeed, the entanglement will come loose on the strings and once I bring you back, history will reset itself."

"But if you fail to gain your destiny's love or if you die before that, you will have to try again until you succeed." he cautioned.

"Wait, why would I fail?" Isn't it already written in history?" I questioned his logic.

"Well with the other strings involvement, who knows how it may affect your life. Okay, are you ready?"

"Well, I guess, you're not exactly giving me much choice here." I said a bit peeved.

"Let's get started, I will send you back to the day you first met your betrothed. He and his parents came to see your family to exchange the promissory gift. Basically exchange his jade with his family emblem, for your family's jade emblem." he continued "It is 9 months before you get married, so you are 16 years old."

He waved his fan around and around, chanting in some foreign dialect. A portal of golden light appeared. "Go" he demanded.

I walked on through and it started to close.

Retracting his fan, he said, "Good luck."

I turned back to take one last look as the portal slowly closed. I heard him say softly to himself, "I really hope this works or the Lord of Fate will have my head."

Our eyes locked on to each other for a second just before the portal completely closed and darkness engulfed me.

MuiPo* - an elderly married woman that compares birth dates and find auspicious dates for marriage.