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Months had passed since that strange afternoon in the stream. Li Ren had actively been avoiding Rin-ji, which unfortunately also meant being far more scarce in the marketplace than she would have liked. But the thought of seeing him again filled her stomach with dread. She had clearly lost her mind to have done what she did. Everything her parents had worked for could have been lost over a silly girlish fancy.

And yet she still wore his cord. At the moment it was looped around her ankle, hidden away from view, but she knew it was there and that comforted her.

As the wedding date closed in on her, Zan Minh had become far more present in her life. She didn't know why he continued to come around, but figured he was following his parent's instructions. She had no delusions that he was actually interested in seeing her. Occasionally she imagined various reasons why he had suddenly been around so much, each one more lurid than the last. Her most recent theory was that he had fathered a child with a woman of ill repute and was desperately seeking penance by being seen in public with his 'pure and virginal' fiancee. Whatever the cause, it meant that Li Ren had to waste a considerable amount of time 'looking pretty'. Or being prepared to 'look pretty'.

Zan Minh had become fond of strolling out in public with Li Ren at his side. He rarely spoke directly to her - the time that he wasn't stopping and speaking with someone terribly important (or more correctly, letting important people admire his attractive fiancee) was generally spent listening to himself talk. Generally they kept to the highest (and most noble) sections of the city, but today Zan Minh had led her further down. Li Ren fancied that he was taking her to meet his secret lover, but doubted that her afternoon would actually be that interesting.

She hated wearing formal dress. Her gown reached all the way to the ground (those big feet had to be concealed, after all!) and she kept stepping on the hem and nearly tripping herself.

When she finally did stumble forward, her fiance's chiding voice actually addressed her for once, "Really, you should be more careful."

The redness in Li Ren's cheeks had nothing to do with embarrassment and she replied in a tight voice, "Sorry. I'll pay more attention."

This was possibly her worst nightmare coming true. Her two worlds coming crashing together, and Zan Minh witnessing it all.

The sound of buckets dropping had caught her attention and she had immediately recognized Rin-ji. Though she had desperately willed him to not approach them, clearly fate had ignored her. She looked at him with great difficulty and shame when he said her name. She knew that she was entirely guilty for the rift that had been created between them.

Had she never told him about Zan Minh? No, she highly doubted that she had. When she was with Rin-ji, she had always been pretending her very hardest that the world she actually belonged to did not exist.

If she had been by herself at that moment, how different things would have been. But Zan Minh stood firmly at her side, tightening his hold on her arm. Li Ren turned her face away, unable to face how ashamed Rin-ji made her feel.

Zan Minh looked utterly appalled. Some dirty servant boy was actually talking to him. He made a quick warning fire in his hand and tossed it near Rin-ji's feet. "How dare you address my fiancee, you filthy creature," he demanded, looking far less righteously indignant about Li Ren's honour than his own.

Zan Minh looked incensed to have a random servant talk back to him. He was about to lash out at Rin-ji when he caught the full implication of Rin-ji's words. "You know this filth," he demanded, tugging on Li Ren's arm to make her look at him.

Li Ren wished Rin-ji would stop talking. She wished this had been any other painfully boring afternoon with Zan Minh parading her around. To reunite with Rin-ji now of all times.. she felt helplessly stuck between the two men. One she had to please for the sake of her family and one she actually cared about.

"I..," she began. The words were catching in her mouth. Whatever she said, it was clear that her double life had finally caught up with her. Why was the truth so difficult for her to speak? "I've never met this man before in my life," she lied, averting her eyes from both of them. She had taken the safer route. The one that had the greater chance of letting her keep her freedom.

Zan Minh did not need any further invitation. "Guards. Arrest this filth," he said in his most commanding voice, tiring of the spectacle that Rin-ji was creating. "He has assaulted me and insulted my fiancee's honour."

A guardsman descended on Rin-ji from either side, one grabbing his hands, the other holding a spear at him threateningly. Zan Minh was clearly not someone to be questioned.

Li Ren stood frozen, mouth opened as if to speak and save him as he had predicted she would, but no words managed to come out.

Li Ren watched in horror as the guards began to drag Rin-ji away. She felt Zan Minh's hand at her wrist, trying to pull her away as he turned to leave. He was ranting on at no one in particular about how insulted he was and how shocked he was that the capital city couldn't control their riff-raff better. Li Ren wasn't listening. She couldn't take her eyes off of Rin-ji; her expression was shocked and her mind had gone blank.

She felt a tug on her wrist again and once again she resisted. Then she did the unthinkable for a noblewoman and lifted the corner of her dress just high enough to expose her ankle. Above the delicate shoe she wore, a simple black cord was securely tied around her ankle. It was only exposed for a few moments, but she hoped that Rin-ji saw it and that somehow that simple act would make him understand everything.

"I'll save you," she mouthed before Zan Minh tugged a third time and she didn't resist, allowing herself to be led away. She had never felt more powerless in her life.