"Sun Yanqi, what do you think we should do?"
"I'm at my wits' end. What do you think we should do?"
"Because of your humble birth, Father wouldn't agree to our marriage. To marry you, I went so far as to sully my own reputation, saying I'd been abducted by that lecher White Chrysanthemum. But how could I have known that Iron Sister would hear of it, be filled with righteous indignation, and go looking for that lecher White Chrysanthemum to avenge me?"
"If anything happens to Iron Sister, I'll never know peace for the rest of my life. What do you think we should do?"
A pretty young girl had tears streaked all over her face. Beside her, a young man stood at a loss for what to do. Only after a long while did he stammer, "There's something I must tell you plainly."
"My mother heard about this and said you were no longer pure. She threatened to kill herself unless I agreed not to marry you."
Astonishment filled the girl's face, and her pretty features turned snow-white in an instant. The young man's words carved at her heart like a knife and plunged her into an ice cavern; her whole body seemed to float into the sky. She staggered two steps, then suddenly cried out, "Iron Sister, I've wronged you! I'll go fight that lecher to the death right now and rescue you!"
The girl stumbled along for several dozen paces before she could no longer hold back and looked over her shoulder. At once, her heart grew ten times colder than before. The young man had not followed her; he merely stood where he was, wringing his hands. Her declaration that she would fight the lecher White Chrysanthemum to the death had only been made in a moment of pique. If a girl as young and beautiful as her fell into a lecher's hands, her fate was bound to be dreadful, yet her beloved showed not the slightest intention of stopping her!?
She gritted her teeth and thought, Even if I have to sacrifice myself, I must save Iron Sister. I can't let her come to harm at that lecher's hands because of me!
The girl used her lightness skill to race away, and the young man never went after her. Only when she had vanished from sight did he close his eyes in sorrow and murmur to himself, "Lianmei, I know you're innocent, but people's words are fearsome. People's words are fearsome!"
"And what could I do when my mother threatened to kill herself? I've betrayed you, I've betrayed you, I've betrayed you!"
...Girl: So when it's my turn, I don't even deserve a name? Even that damned faithless dog of a man gets a name...