当棋子决定成为下棋的人

Qingyi finished three years in prison.

But when he walked out, what awaited him was not a real homecoming, but another arrangement already written for him.

The Huo family hasn't canceled the engagement. Your joint engagement ceremony with Huo Minxian goes ahead as planned.

I just got back, and the first thing you say to me is to get married?

This marriage is tied to both families' military supply business. It was never just your marriage alone.

So when I was in prison I was the family's shame, and when a marriage is needed I become the family's son again.

You bear the Murong name, so you have a duty to protect the Murong family's interests.

The Huo family is willing to still accept a man fresh out of prison. That already gives us plenty of face.

Accept? You push me into a marriage I never agreed to, and you want me to thank them for accepting me?

Mother, Qingyi just got back. At least let him catch his breath first.

This family has no time to tend to his feelings. Business won't wait, and the Huo family will wait even less.

I understand now.

Prison locks people up with walls; a family locks them up with blood ties and interests.

The doors are different, but the rules are the same.

Qingyi was once abandoned by the family, and now the family needs him again.

His identity was not his to decide, and neither was his worth.

Murong Qingyi, you had better cancel the engagement yourself. I will never marry you.

On that we have no disagreement. I don't intend to marry you either.

Then go tell both families. You brought this trouble, so you should end it.

Why won't you refuse it yourself?

Because my father is dead, and you came back alive.

You think three years in prison can wipe the past clean?

You may decide that I'm guilty, but your verdict isn't the truth, and it's no reason for this marriage to exist.

You have no right to play the victim.

I never said I'm the only victim. On the contrary, there are two people pushed into this marriage.

Don't lump yourself together with me.

Why not?

The Huo family uses your marriage, the Murong family uses mine.

Neither of us had a choice, yet we rush to prove the other is the enemy.

At least I know who I hate.

Maybe that's exactly what both families most want you to believe.

As long as we attack each other, we won't oppose them together.

Two manipulated people did not become allies.

They treated the most visible person as the opponent, and finished the family's first fight for them.

That person on the screen... is Miss Huo?

The reporters are taking photos!

Turn off the machine! No more pictures!

Footage of Minxian with another man suddenly appeared on the screen.

A private relationship was turned into a public weapon, with the guests' stares, the reporters' lenses, and the family's fury all landing on her at once.

The Huo family felt it had been humiliated.

The engagement might break, and the business behind both families might fail along with it.

For Qingyi, this was an exit that appeared by chance.

You finally got what you wanted.

You think I put that footage up?

Whether it was me or not, does it change the outcome?

The Huo family will cancel the engagement, you'll get your freedom, and I'll become the scandal on everyone's lips.

I wanted to leave, but I never thought of leaving by publicly humiliating you.

Of course you can say that, because you're not the one who has to pay the price.

Minxian—

Don't say my name.

You only need to accept the canceled engagement and walk out.

As for how my family will treat me, that's no longer any concern of yours.

The same scandal opened the door for Qingyi, but pushed Minxian into a more dangerous position.

Qingyi soon learned the footage on the screen came from an act of revenge aimed at Minxian.

But the person who planned to release the footage never got the film back.

In the chaos, another young woman took it first.

You didn't even see her face clearly?

She left no name and no destination, only a gentian flower in the cinema.

Susu...

Ren Susu was someone Qingyi once loved.

Three years ago, he believed she was dead.

A gentian flower proves no identity, but it's enough to strike the memory he least wants to touch.

Find the person who took the film. Where she went, who she met, find it all out.

Qingyi, who moments ago was coolly analyzing family interests, lost his certainty for a moment over a single flower.

He can calculate a negotiation, but he can't calculate the past he still loves.

The Huo family demands the engagement be canceled at once. Qingyi, you are not to interfere again. This is ugly enough already.

The engagement was never Qingyi's choice in the first place. Canceling it now may not be a bad thing for him.

There's no place for you to speak here.

Who said I want to cancel the engagement?

Haven't you always wanted to be rid of Minxian? Now the Huo family is backing out on its own, so what more do you want?

What I'm not satisfied with is that you arrange when I marry, and also arrange when I'm allowed not to marry.

Whatever the outcome, the decision always rests in other people's hands.

You just got out of prison, what right do you have to talk about decisions?

By the problems in the Huo family's military supply business, by the photos in my hands, and by the witnesses who know the inside story.

Do you know what you're doing?

I do.

The cinema photos can stop leaking out, and the witnesses can stay silent.

But the engagement continues, and the two families renegotiate the terms of their cooperation.

You're using the Huo family's weakness to threaten everyone.

Isn't that what you taught me?

Those who only talk about feelings have no place; only those who can protect interests are qualified to sit here.

You think a little evidence in hand lets you control the whole family?

I don't need to control the whole family.

I only need to make you understand you can no longer treat me as something you can drop at any time and take back at any time.

Qingyi did not leave through the door that had already opened.

He turned the secret the Huo family feared into a bargaining chip, and turned a family trial of him into a negotiation on his terms.

Qingyi, have you really thought this through?

Three years ago, they didn't need to hear me speak. Today, they have to listen.

At the start, he was the ex-convict everyone despised.

When the negotiation ended, even if both families still loathed him, they could no longer pretend he was insignificant.

Congratulations. You finally won.

At least from today on, they can't decide everything for me anymore.

They can't decide for you, but they can still decide for me. Because you demanded the engagement continue.

If I set down my chips, tomorrow they'll sacrifice me just like before.

So your way of protecting yourself is to keep sacrificing me?

I'll make this marriage proceed on my terms, and I won't let the Huo family—

Listen to yourself. You're talking about "my terms," yet you never asked what my terms are.

You said we're both pawns, and I once refused to admit it.

Now you don't want to be a pawn anymore, so you choose to become the one moving the pieces.

If I do nothing, I'll be at everyone's mercy forever.

I know.

So your fight back is real, and your victory is real too.

But the price of taking back your control is taking away mine.

Qingyi changed his position within the family, but he didn't step out of the family's rules.

He went from pawn to player, and Minxian is still on the board.

The next day, two engagements were held at once.

Qingyi stood beside Minxian, and Qingyu was also waiting for his own fiancée.

Qingyi, whatever you did yesterday, today just finish the ceremony first.

Have you met your fiancée?

You'll meet her soon.

When Fang Mulan walked into the hall, the sense of control Qingyi had just gained vanished in an instant.

Because that face belonged to a woman he'd believed dead for three years.

Susu?

Second Young Master Murong, hello. My name is Fang Mulan, Qingyu's fiancée.

Who are you really?

I've already answered. Fang Mulan.

The cinema film is in your hands?

That meeting gift—didn't you like it?

You know Ren Susu. Otherwise you wouldn't have left a gentian flower.

You ask too quickly. Today is a happy day for both families, not the time to talk about someone already dead.

You walk into the Murong family with her face, and you want me to act as if nothing happened?

I never asked you to forget. I only chose today to meet you formally.

The first episode doesn't confirm that Fang Mulan is Ren Susu, nor does it explain whether she came back for love, revenge, or some other purpose.

It only confirms her initiative: she took the film, she left the flower, and she chose to appear as Qingyu's fiancée.

What do you want from the Murong family?

From now on, we'll have plenty of time to talk terms.

Qingyi had just learned to control a negotiation with a secret, and Mulan walked into the next negotiation carrying his.

She chose her identity, her relationships, and her timing earlier than he did, and made him stand for the first time in a game whose rules he couldn't read.

How long can the control he won back really last?