FIMA Ch43: Breaking Off the Engagement [Arc 3]

Gu Siyuan opened his eyes and was greeted by a sea of green—newly planted seedlings by the villagers.

At the village entrance, two gardenias were in full bloom, their fragrance irresistibly wafting through the air.

Gu Siyuan touched his shoulder, sore from the book basket’s strap, and continued walking forward. After about a few dozen steps along the village path, he saw a blue-brick yard enclosed by a low wall, which was the original body’s home.

With his long legs and big strides, it took him only a moment to reach the wall, where he could clearly hear voices coming from the yard—more accurately, arguing.

A sharp female voice shouted, “Xie family, this can’t be done. You can’t just switch people like that. How can we, ordinary folks, serve someone who grew up in the Marquis household?”

A gentler female voice replied, “Sister Gu, but Changyue is the real son of the Xie family.”

The sharp voice retorted, “I don’t care whose son he is, our family arranged the marriage with Xiao Huan, and I only recognize Xiao Huan!”

The gentle voice hesitated, “But Xiao Huan has returned to the Marquis household. This marriage was suggested by Xiao Huan. Sister Gu, please consider…”

Listening to the argument, Gu Siyuan didn’t plan to go in immediately and looked over to a corner of the wall.

There, a thin figure stood on tiptoe on some jagged stones, hands resting on the wall, intently watching the scene inside the yard.

Gu Siyuan’s gaze was sharp and cold.

The thin figure quickly noticed and turned to look at him, startled by his tall figure and cold gaze. Losing footing on the mossy stones, the person began to fall.

The village ground was always littered with debris, mostly stones. A fall could result in serious injury.

Gu Siyuan frowned, extended his long arm, and caught the person around the waist.

Xie Changyue, after being frightened, leaned against the warm, firm chest, blushing and speechless for a while.

He grew up in the Marquis household, bound by strict rules, and had never been this close to a man.

At this moment, the arguing inside seemed to stop, and the sound of the gate latch echoed instead.

Xie Changyue quickly pushed the person behind him away, lowered his head, and swiftly ran towards the village.

Gu Siyuan watched his retreating figure, expressionless.

The courtyard door opened, and three figures stepped out one by one.

An elderly woman and two middle-aged women.

The shorter middle-aged woman was called Liu Zhi. She looked at the fleeing figure and muttered, “It looked like Changyue…”

The eldest woman, seeing Gu Siyuan, paused and then gently said, “A-Yang, why are you back from the academy at noon?”

The original body’s full name was Gu Yang.

“Grandmother,” Gu Siyuan greeted her with a bow, his face as cold as ever, “The academy starts field leave tomorrow, so to allow students living far away to return home without traveling in the dark, they let us off early.”

The elderly woman quickly responded, “In this hot sun; hurry inside and rest. Your father is in the kitchen; let him make you some tea.”

Gu Siyuan nodded and entered the yard, passing by them.

Gu Siyuan’s grandfather was the village head of Huangyang Village, so they had the best blue-brick house.

The yard was clean, unlike others with chicken droppings everywhere, and even had a pebble path.

Hearing his arrival, a handsome middle-aged man, or rather a middle-aged “ger” since this world had three genders, emerged from the kitchen.

The middle-aged ger smiled at him and made some hand gestures. Gu Siyuan had learned some sign language and understood he was asking if he was tired.

The ger was named Mu Xia, the one who gave birth to the original body.

Gu Siyuan shook his head, approached him, and softly asked, “I’m not tired. Is Father well?”

Mu Xia nodded with a smile, then gently pushed him inside and went to the kitchen to heat water for tea.

Following his memory, Gu Siyuan opened the wooden door to a room on the east side.

The room was simply furnished. Against the far wall was a kang bed, at the foot of which stood a black wardrobe. Below the window was a long desk.

This room was both his sleeping area and his study.

Gu Siyuan took two steps to the desk, set down the book basket from his shoulder, and carefully placed the ink, paper, and brushes from it onto the desk.

Although the Gu family’s conditions were slightly better than those of other families in Huangyang Village, items like ink, paper, and brushes were still very precious and had to be handled with great care.

Gu Siyuan took a piece of yellow mulberry paper and placed it on the desk, dipped his brush in ink, and slowly began to write.

In modern times, he didn’t often write with a brush.

Now that he was here, even though he had inherited the original body’s memories, the original body’s calligraphy was only passable.

In the imperial examination, good handwriting was crucial and could significantly affect one’s ranking.

While writing, Gu Siyuan sorted through the information about this world in his mind.

Simply put, this was a swapped-at-birth story.

The dynasty he was in was called the Great Zhou, with three genders: men, women, and “ger.”

Ger looked like men but had the reproductive capabilities of women and were generally more delicate in stature than men.

The story’s protagonist, Shen Changhuan, was a ger who grew up in the Xie family in Huangyang Village, Tongzhou County, Wuqing.

However, this wasn’t his true identity.

Tongzhou was under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, close to the capital. Many wealthy families in the capital owned estates there and hired people from nearby villages to work on them.

The Shen family of the Marquis of Suining in the capital owned a hot spring estate in Tongzhou. When Xie Er was young, he worked as a laborer on the Shen estate.

Sixteen years ago, the former emperor of the Great Zhou dynasty favored Concubine Chu, who enjoyed immense favor, bringing prosperity to the Chu family.

The niece of Concubine Chu, Princess Chengjia, fancied Shen Wenxuan, the second son of the Marquis of Suining, and forced him to divorce his wife and marry her, despite him already having a wife and child.

Shen Wenxuan had to comply for the sake of his family and future.

However, he secretly hid his wife on his estate in Tongzhou.

Along with Shen Wenxuan’s wife came a loyal maid named He Hua, who was deeply trusted by the second madam.

Not long after arriving at the estate, the maid and the laborer Xie Er fell in love due to the harsh living conditions.

For convenience, the second madam arranged their marriage.

A year after their marriage, He Hua became pregnant.

Coincidentally, due to Shen Wenxuan’s secret visits, the second madam was also found to be pregnant.

Soon after, the political situation changed. The former emperor fell seriously ill, and the court ministers, under the pretext of cleansing the court, exterminated Concubine Chu and the Chu family.

Princess Chengjia, who had married into another family, was stripped of her title, and Shen Wenxuan took the opportunity to divorce her.

However, Princess Chengjia was not easy to deal with. She already knew that Shen Wenxuan’s wife was hidden in Tongzhou, so she had arranged assassins to eliminate her.

On the estate in Tongzhou, thanks to the protection of the servants, He Hua and a maid named Liu Zhi managed to help the second madam escape into the mountains.

However, both the second madam and He Hua went into premature labor due to the shock, each giving birth to a ger.

The second madam, weakened, fainted after giving birth.

The assassins did not give up their search and slowly approached their location.

To repay her mistress’s kindness, He Hua decided to switch her own child with the mistress’s child, then ran out with her own child to draw the assassins’ attention.

She instructed Liu Zhi to hide the mistress’s child.

Eventually, He Hua was killed by the assassins, and her child was about to be killed when Shen Wenxuan arrived with reinforcements, saving the child.

Seeing the child’s attire and the assassins’ actions, Shen Wenxuan believed this was his own child.

He then found his unconscious wife in a cave and took both the child and his wife back to the marquisate.

Meanwhile, Liu Zhi, while running with the child, accidentally fell down the mountain and lost consciousness.

She was rescued by villagers at the foot of the mountain and only woke up several days later.

When she woke up, she had a blood clot on her head and could not remember much, only vaguely recalling that someone named He Hua had entrusted her with the child.

One day, while walking with the child, Liu Zhi met Xie Er.

She vaguely remembered that this man seemed to be He Hua’s husband and handed the child over to him, saying it was He Hua’s child.

In the end, unable to part with the child, Liu Zhi married the widowed Xie Er.

Thus, the lives of the two children were completely swapped.

The ger brought to the Marquis of Suining was named Changyue by Shen Wenxuan, symbolizing a noble and pure life.

The ger left with the Xie family in Huangyang Village was named Xie Huan by Xie Er and Liu Zhi, hoping he would live a happy life.

Sixteen years later, the two children grew up.

One day, Xie Huan rescued an injured young man by the river in Huangyang Village.

Xie Huan hid him in a cave, and as the two young men spent time together, they fell in love.

During this time, the young man’s family found him through a mark, including a young man named Shen Changye, who seemed to be familiar with him and joked about getting well soon and returning to marry his troublesome brother.

Upon learning that the young man had a fiancée, Xie Huan was heartbroken.

The young man told him that it was only an arranged marriage by his parents, and he did not like Shen Changyue at all, saying he only loved Xie Huan and would only marry him.

The young man then revealed his identity to Xie Huan.

His name was Xiao Jingchuan, the eldest son of the current General and a commander of the Imperial Guard. He was injured while performing official duties in Jiangnan and was attacked while returning to the capital with important evidence.

His fiancée, Shen Changyue, was the legitimate son of the second branch of the Marquis of Suining in the capital.

That day, Shen Changye brought Shen Changyue along to find him.

Then, the assassins discovered Xiao Jingchuan’s whereabouts. To force Xiao Jingchuan to hand over the evidence, they tied Shen Changyue and Xie Huan together on a cliff as a threat, cruelly making him choose between the two.

Xie Huan’s foster mother, Liu Zhi, happened to be on the mountain and saw this scene. During the fight, her head hit a rock, and this impact gradually cleared up her long-muddled memories.

So, when Shen Changye urged Xiao Jingchuan to save his brother first, Liu Zhi couldn’t help but reveal the truth about the child swap, stating that Xie Huan was the real young master of the Marquis of Suining’s household, his true younger brother.

Afterward, although both Shen Changyue and Xie Huan survived thanks to the timely arrival of reinforcements, the truth from back then became clear.

Xiao Jingchuan was ecstatic about this news; if Xie Huan was indeed the real Shen Changyue, their marriage arrangement could be directly carried over.

Thus, under Xiao Jingchuan’s active promotion, the Marquis of Suining quickly learned of the news.

Shen Changyue, always proud, voluntarily left the marquis household and returned to the Xie family in Huangyang Village, changing his name to Xie Changyue.

Xie Huan returned to the marquis household and, following the naming convention of their generation, changed his name to Shen Changhuan.

However, life in Huangyang Village was much more complicated than Xie Changyue had imagined.

Firstly, Xie Huan was already sixteen years old. In the countryside, unless someone couldn’t find a spouse, most people were already married by that age.

Although Xie Huan wasn’t married, his family had already arranged a marriage for him, with just the final step left.

His betrothed was named Gu Zhen, the eldest grandson of Gu Shan, the village head of Huangyang Village, and a cousin of Gu Yang, the original body. He was the most popular young man in the village.

The village head’s family was naturally better off than other families in the village. Gu Zhen had been sent to study since he was young and, at eighteen, had already passed the county-level exam.

It was said that he was very good at his studies and might have even passed the provincial-level exam if it had been held that year.

Gu Zhen was also the devoted second male lead in this story, deeply in love with the protagonist Shen Changhuan from a young age.

Upon learning that his betrothed would be changed to Xie Changyue, he planned to have his family reject the marriage.

However, although the Marquis of Suining allowed Xie Changyue to return to the Xie family in Huangyang Village, they still had some feelings for him after raising him for so many years and were quite concerned about his life in the countryside.

To reassure the marquis household, Shen Changhuan took the initiative to talk to Gu Zhen.

Eventually, for some reason, Gu Zhen agreed to marry Xie Changyue after their conversation.

Xie Changyue did not object. He knew his status was different from before, and marrying a scholar like Gu Zhen in the countryside was an excellent match.

Thus, Xie Changyue married Gu Zhen.

After marriage, Xie Changyue found Gu Zhen to be a good person, except that he never touched him.

Gu Zhen was very diligent in his studies, as if something was chasing him. He quickly passed the imperial exam.

Xie Changyue followed him to the capital and reunited with the people of the Marquis of Suining’s household.

After getting drunk once, Gu Zhen and Xie Changyue finally consummated their marriage.

The next day, Gu Zhen seemed to have a sudden realization and promised to treat him well from then on.

The two began to live like a real couple, with harmony and affection, and vowed to spend their lives together.

Just as Xie Changyue thought their days would continue to be so blissful, Gu Zhen became increasingly busy and was often not found when sought.

One day, the city was under martial law due to Prince Wu’s rebellion.

When everything calmed down in the evening, Xie Changyue, worried about Gu Zhen’s safety, sent servants with lanterns to find him.

However, near the palace, he saw his husband pushing Shen Changhuan away to block an arrow for him.

He watched helplessly as his husband died to save Shen Changhuan, realizing that Gu Zhen had been busy helping Shen Changhuan all this time.

Xie Changyue fainted on the spot.

When he woke up, he was completely darkened.

He hated Shen Changhuan and began to use all means to take revenge on him.

Why was his whole life overshadowed by Shen Changhuan?

At birth, his biological mother abandoned him to save Shen Changhuan, almost leading to his death.

Later, his foster mother, Liu Zhi, abandoned him to save Shen Changhuan, nearly letting him fall off a cliff.

Now, his husband died to save Shen Changhuan, abandoning their vows.

However, no matter how clever Xie Changyue was, he couldn’t match the protagonist’s halo.

In the end, Shen Changhuan and Xiao Jingchuan were promoted and lived happily together, while Xie Changyue, despite his schemes, died miserably.

“This mission: Change Xie Changyue’s fate and bring him happiness.

Reward for success: One lottery draw.

Penalty for failure: No reward.”

Mu Xia walked in with tea and saw his son holding a brush and writing something, his serious and quiet figure exuding an imposing presence.

Although everyone in the village praised the eldest grandson, Gu Zhen, in his eyes, his son Gu Yang was the best, especially after returning from the academy this time. He felt he had an inexplicable air of authority.

Not wanting to disturb his son, he quietly placed the tea on the table and tiptoed out.

However, Gu Siyuan still looked up.

The noise in the courtyard had increased; his aunt Li Xiangtao was discussing breaking off the engagement with the Xie family with his grandmother, raising her voice in her agitation.