By the time the Chen Family arrived, half of Mingzu City already knew why.
News traveled fast when it smelled of misfortune. Faster still when that misfortune belonged to someone people had once looked up at so fiercely it bordered on worship.
Bia Yuzhen stood beneath the shade of the front hall corridor and watched servants move in and out with lowered heads. No one spoke loudly. No one needed to. The tension in the estate had settled into the wood beams, the stone path, the rustle of sleeves passing through doorways.
The Chen Family had come in person.
Not to visit.
Not to ask after his health.
And certainly not to preserve the engagement both families had spoken of for years as though it were already fate.
A servant stopped three steps away and bowed. "Young Master, the Family Head asks that you come to the main hall."
Yuzhen nodded once. "I heard."
The servant hesitated, as though wanting to say something comforting, then thought better of it and stepped back. That was the trouble with comfort. Most people only reached for it when things had already gone ugly.
Yuzhen straightened his sleeves and walked toward the hall.
He had imagined this moment before. More than once, if he was being honest with himself. In the days after his foundation shattered, while physicians spoke in careful voices and elders tried not to let pity show in their eyes, he had already understood what would come next. The Chen Family had raised Chen Xianyi too carefully, too ambitiously, to leave him tied to someone whose future had collapsed overnight.
It was not surprising.
Knowing that did not make it pleasant.
The main hall doors stood open. Inside, the air carried the faint scent of sandalwood and cold tea. The elders of the Bia Family sat in their places, not one expression soft. At the head, Bia Zhenyuan looked as steady as a mountain carved from old iron, one hand resting on the arm of his chair. Beside him sat Lin Suyue, elegant and silent, her face calm enough to make a lesser person uneasy.
Across from them were the Chen Family.
Chen Rulong had come himself. That, at least, was a sign of respect—or a sign that he wished to dress the insult well.
Chen Xianyi stood one step behind him.
Yuzhen's gaze paused on him for only a moment.
He had loved him once. Or thought he had. At fifteen, it had not seemed difficult to mistake habit for certainty. They had grown up hearing their names placed together. Their engagement had been settled early, praised often, envied more times than he could count. The young master of the Bia Family. The young master of the Chen Family. A good match, everyone said.
Now Chen Xianyi would not meet his eyes.
That, more than anything, almost made Yuzhen laugh.
He entered without hurry and bowed first to his grandfather and grandmother. "Grandfather. Grandmother."
Only then did he incline his head politely toward the Chen Family. "Family Head Chen. Young Master Chen."
His voice was even. No one unfamiliar with him would have guessed he had spent the night awake.
Chen Rulong studied him with a look too complicated to be called guilt and too shallow to be called regret. "Yuzhen," he said, and if there was awkwardness in the name, he hid it well. "You seem well."
"I am alive," Yuzhen said.
A brief silence followed.
One of the Bia elders lowered his cup a little too hard onto the table. Chen Xianyi's shoulders tightened almost invisibly.
Bia Zhenyuan did not look at his grandson, but Yuzhen could feel the old man's attention like a steady hand at his back.
Chen Rulong exhaled. "Since everyone is present, I won't waste words."
That was kind of him.
Yuzhen folded his hands behind his back and waited.
"The engagement between the Chen and Bia Families was made years ago, when both children were young. At the time, it was a union both households welcomed." Chen Rulong's tone was smooth, practiced, the sort used by men who preferred to cut with polished blades. "But cultivation is the root of a cultivator's future. What has happened to Yuzhen is… regrettable."
Regrettable.
Such a clean word for wreckage.
"No physician in Mingzu City has found a way to restore a broken foundation," Chen Rulong continued. "Even outside the city, such cases are nearly hopeless. My Chen Family has discussed this matter carefully. For Xianyi's sake, and for the family's future, this engagement can no longer continue."
No one spoke for a breath.
Then one of the Bia Family's side elders let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "For Xianyi's sake? Family Head Chen, you should at least have the decency to say you came because my Bia Family's young master is no longer useful to you."
Chen Rulong's expression chilled. "Elder Bia, there is no need for ugly words."
"Then don't bring ugly intentions into my family's hall."
Chen Xianyi looked as if he wanted to say something, but Bia Yuzhen was no longer watching him.
His attention had shifted, strangely, to the grain of the floorboards under the winter light. He knew that pattern. He had knelt there as a child and recited family rules while trying not to fidget. He had stood there at ten and received praise from visiting elders who called him a rare seedling. He had stood there again at thirteen when the engagement gifts from the Chen Family were formally recorded, while servants smiled and everyone said what a promising future awaited him.
The same place. The same hall.
How little it took for the meaning of a room to change.
"Yuzhen," Lin Suyue said softly.
He looked up.
Her eyes were clear and steady. Not pitying. Never pitying.
That helped.
Chen Rulong reached into his sleeve and took out a red document case. The color stung the eye.
"The original marriage agreement is here," he said. "The gifts exchanged can be returned according to proper custom. My Chen Family does not wish to damage the friendship between our houses."
This time Bia Zhenyuan smiled.
It was not a pleasant expression.
"Friendship?" he repeated. His voice was not loud, but the room seemed to tighten around it. "You bring a cancellation letter to my door before my grandson's wounds are even cold, and you speak to me of friendship?"
Chen Rulong's jaw moved once. "Family Head Bia, sentiment cannot alter reality."
"No," Zhenyuan said. "But it does reveal character."
Chen Xianyi finally raised his head then, his face pale. "Uncle Bia, I—"
"You don't need to explain," Yuzhen said.
Every eye in the hall turned to him.
He had not meant to speak so soon. But now that the words were out, he found he did not mind them.
Chen Xianyi stared at him. There was discomfort there, and shame, and something weaker that might once have passed for tenderness. Too late. All of it too late.
Yuzhen stepped forward, not enough to seem confrontational, only enough that his voice would not need to strain.
"If the Chen Family has come to end the engagement, then let it end." He looked directly at Chen Rulong, then at Chen Xianyi. "There is no need to dress it as concern for me. We all understand why you are here."
The hall had gone utterly still.
He could feel several pairs of eyes on his face, waiting for the crack, the plea, the humiliation.
He gave them none.
"The engagement was made between two families," he said. "If one side no longer wishes for it, keeping the paper changes nothing. Return what should be returned. Burn what should be burned. From today onward, let there be no misunderstanding."
Chen Xianyi's lips parted. "Yuzhen—"
But Yuzhen was finished with him.
Bia Zhenyuan looked at his grandson for a long moment. Something fierce and approving flashed beneath the old patriarch's stern expression.
"Good," he said.
One word. Heavy as stone.
Then he turned back to the Chen Family.
"My grandson has spoken. The engagement is over." His gaze hardened. "But hear me clearly, Chen Rulong. My Bia Family is not so fallen that it needs your courtesy. Take your document. Take your son. As for friendship—save that word for people who still believe you know its meaning."
No one in the Chen Family answered at once.
It was Lin Suyue who broke the silence, lifting her teacup with graceful finality. "Escort the guests out."
Guests.
Not allies. Not in-laws-to-be. Guests.
Servants moved at once.
Chen Rulong rose, face controlled so tightly it looked carved. Chen Xianyi stood half a beat later. For the first time since Yuzhen entered, their eyes met properly.
There were things in that look that might have mattered once.
Now it only made Yuzhen tired.
He turned away before the other boy could speak.
Outside, the winter wind stirred through the courtyard, carrying the dry scent of leaves and distant dust. Somewhere beyond the estate walls, Mingzu City was already sharpening this scene into gossip.
Let them.
Behind him, he heard Bia Zhenyuan's voice, calm and cold and unshakably on his side.
No one in Mingzu City would dare say the Bia Family had bowed its head today.
Even so, when Yuzhen lowered his eyes, the hand hidden in his sleeve was clenched so tightly his nails had bitten into his palm.