Sun Liu'er waited for her mother to leave before stopping her needlework. She began to stare out the window in a daze. Her heart was filled with a pain that surged up in waves, impossible to suppress.
The clear sound of reading aloud drifted from the distant schoolhouse, making Liu'er's heart ache even more. 'Qingmu is actually going to school! He'll have a good future. Will he even remember me then?'
'No, I can't give up. I have to try one more time.' She didn't know where the confidence came from, but she felt that as long as Qingmu was willing to marry her, he would surely find a way to deal with her mother and make her wish come true.
'How can I make Qingmu completely devoted to me, to cherish me the way he cherishes that ugly sister of his?'
Liu'er, her face filled with sorrow, gazed at the osmanthus tree in the courtyard, its flowers already withered. The clusters of gold had shriveled to crimson, drooping limply among the dark green leaves, as miserable as her own heart.
