When Gou An saw He Ran leaving, she became anxious. 

Gou An quickly followed behind him, “That’s not okay. Even if you don’t tell me your matters, then I still have something to say—

“He Ran! Don’t leave! Oh, alright, I’ll just say it here! 

“He Ran, I’m sorry I lied to you, I am not the so-called savior who saved you when you were kidnapped back then! I lied like this because you were always looking for the person who saved you. I was very afraid that you would not want me after you found her, so I pretended to be someone else! 

“Sorry, sorry, I’m really sorry, in order to punish me, we can cancel the engagement!”

Her urgent voice was like thunder in the sky.

He Ran, who had been walking quickly ahead of her, suddenly stopped.

Gou An was caught off guard and bumped into his back, crying “Ouch!”. The path was slippery from the heavy rain, and she almost slipped.

While she was frantically clutching at He Ran’s arm to keep her balance, she heard a deep, magnetic male voice coming through the sheeting curtain of rain—

“What is this play you are performing?”

… …

Standing before the wet steps, the man was still wearing the formal attire he had worn at the He family’s high-level meeting that afternoon. His hair was combed meticulously. He had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and stood tall and straight.

He was holding a black umbrella with one hand, his suit sleeves rolled up at his elbows; he stood in the pouring rain.

Gou An held He Ran’s arm and stood at the edge of the steps, frozen.

Her eyes moved up—slowly—and finally settled on top of the person’s head. It was like a monster’s health bar displayed in an RPG game, with dark green words hovering over his head: [Favorability: 15]

Gou An: I suddenly have a question, what is the full marks of this scoring system? Is it possibly a ten-point system?

[Jiaojiao: Do you think He Ran, who debuted with 40 points, seems to have 400% love for you? If so, then he should not be here to break off the engagement with you, but to wash your feet.]

Gou An: … 

[Jiaojiao: I’m quite curious too, why don’t you ask him?]

Gou An: …

Okay, fine, let’s not discuss how ridiculously low He Jinxing’s favorability was.

This so-called  function, before the aura of this exquisite man, seemed to become more and more crude—just like the Windows 98 system¹.

As the edge of the black umbrella moved, the rain drops formed a curtain and fell on the stone steps in the courtyard. The man under the umbrella had a mature and undeniably handsome face.

The past thirty years have not left any traces of age on him but have only made him more charming.

He has prominent facial features, a high nose bridge and a slightly unobvious hooked nose. Gou An has heard that this had something to do with his grandmother having British ancestry.

If one was to nitpick and find something wrong with him, it would probably be his eyes. He officially took over the entire He family when he was still in his twenties. This made the man’s eyes deep and sharp, and when he glanced at you, they were very oppressive.

Even though he always wore an approachable and gentle smile on his face, the aura he exuded made people breathless.

Separated by a distance of about ten meters, Gou An and He Jinxing looked at each other, and she felt suffocated.

Her mind went blank for a second.

She tried desperately to recall what she said and did when she encountered He Jinxing in her dream, and what made this man hate her so much, but it seemed to be in vain.

She could only look at him helplessly; she saw that the corners of the man’s lips were slightly raised in a smile, but his voice was polite and distant, “Miss Gou.”

Objectively, his voice was really nice, but unfortunately it overlapped perfectly with the phrase ‘Take her away’ from the dream.

It sounded very much like Lord Yama² giving soft instruction.

He Jinxing raised his eyes slightly, and they were calm. He asked in an easy tone that wasn’t really a question, “Miss Gou, what did I hear just now?”

Gou An: “…”

Gou An carefully thought about certain issues—

For example, she always felt that she and He Ran were childhood sweethearts who grew up together. Although this guy looked like a libertine, he actually didn’t have affairs outside. He was good-looking and good at studies. Her family knows him and his family very well. Marrying this guy, their life together would be stable and orderly.

Even if he didn’t love her.

That’s why when he was trying to find the little girl who had been his savior when he was kidnapped as a child, Gou An got angry and, in the heat of that anger, quickly took this title.

But something was different now.

She had seen the future.

The terrible, terrible future where she was like a puppet being manipulated by Fate. Her affection for this little bamboo horse³ was not enough to offset her fear of the tragic future coming her way.

She didn’t want this; she knew it was the wrong path.

At this moment, standing very close to He Ran, she could smell the boyish scent on his body mixed with the faint smell of tobacco, which made her throat itch and she wanted to sneeze.

Her wrists that had been bound by cold handcuffs in the dream began to ache again—

Gou An blinked and suddenly gained infinite courage.

“Mr. He?”

The side of her cheek started to burn, probably from his gaze.

The little rabbit slippers on her feet dug themselves on the ground.

“You heard me right. My proposal is serious. I am deeply aware of my mistakes and the deception I have done over the years, and I suddenly realized that I should not be fraudulently claiming the title of He Ran’s savior—”

He Ran: “…”

“What year are we in? He Ran also has his own ideas, I’m sure. As his childhood sweetheart, I am still considerate of his emotions, so we don’t have to take the matters between our grandparents too seriously. From now on, the Gou and He families can be like two parallel roots in two worlds—”

He Ran cut it, “Gou An, do you know what you are talking about?”

Young Master He raised his voice to interrupt her and pulled the still chattering Gou An.

Gou An was grasped firmly in his arms but still tilted her head disobediently to look over his shoulder. She didn’t even bother to wonder what this young man suddenly thought he was doing. She desperately stuck her head out and looked past him to the man standing still under the rain.

The man’s expression showed no emotional ups and downs.

Gou An’s eyes flickered and she lowered her head, not having the courage to look up at the fluctuating ‘Favorability’ level above his head.

She took a deep breath.

“What I said just now is that I want to terminate the engagement between me and He Ran.”

The tone seemed a bit too harsh, yeah? Will she get beaten?

“… ‘kay?”

She added as an afterthought.

From The Day The Engagement Was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

---

T/N: The text never explains this clearly, probably because the original readers would already know, but the whole ‘deception’ issue matters because—and you’d know this if you’ve read enough ancient c-novel romance—the traditional reward for a life-saving grace is marriage. Even the life-saving grace between the He and Gou grandfathers resulted in a marriage agreement in Gou An’s generation.

Young Gou An feared that He Ran would find that little girl who saved him and would set her aside as his fiancee. And it’s the reason why He Ran wanted to end the engagement and pursue Lu Wan—because she was his saviour. That, plus he’s a spoiled ass.

If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi and get access to advance chapters as reward. Thank you for your support! ☺️

Chapter 4.1 — Focusing on Crazy Point Deductions
Chapter 4.2 — Focusing on Crazy Point Deductions
Chapter 5.1 — A Bottle of Mineral Water He Didn’t Want
Chapter 5.2 — A Bottle of Mineral Water He Didn’t Want
Chapter 5.3 — A Bottle of Mineral Water He Didn’t Want
Chapter 6.1 — Blessing 99
Chapter 6.2 — Blessing 99
Chapter 7.1 — Apologize to Her
Chapter 7.2 — Apologize to Her
Chapter 7.3 — Apologize to Her
Chapter 8.1 — Reluctant
Chapter 8.2 — Reluctant
Chapter 9.1 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.2 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.3 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.4 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 10.1 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 10.2 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 10.3 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 11.1 — Young Uncle
Chapter 11.2 — Young Uncle
Chapter 11.3 — Young Uncle
Chapter 12.1 — Conflict During the Welcome Speech
Chapter 12.2 — Conflict During the Welcome Speech

FOOTNOTE:

1. Do I need to explain why the Windows 98 is a crude system? 😂 ↩︎
2. Lord Yama is the Lord of the Underworld, god of death, dispenser of justice, presider over the dead, the scariest guy in the pantheon. ↩︎
3. The Chinese phrase for ‘childhood sweethearts’ is ‘green plum and bamboo horse’. The boy and girl need not be romantically involved, it could just be innocent and platonic but there is nevertheless a closeness and intimacy for having grown up together. ↩︎