The clan assembly was held in the Xiao family's ancestral hall, a vast stone chamber lined with the portraits of past patriarchs. Every branch of the Xiao clan sent representatives — uncles, cousins, distant relatives Xiao Yan had never met — all of them gathering to witness the formal dissolution of the engagement between their disgraced young master and the rising star of the Nalan clan. Nalan Jie stood at the head of the hall with his daughter beside him, her cold amber eyes sweeping the crowd with the unconscious arrogance of someone who had been told since childhood that she was exceptional.

Xiao Yan entered alone. His father had offered to walk with him, but Xiao Yan had refused. This was his shame to bear, and he would bear it standing.

'Xiao Yan, Son of Xiao Zhan,' Nalan Jie intoned, his voice carrying through the hall. 'The Nalan clan formally requests dissolution of the engagement contract between yourself and Nalan Yanran, on grounds of... incompatibility.'

Incompatibility. A polite word for a broken cripple who couldn't match the genius he was supposed to marry.

Xiao Yan bowed. Not from deference, but from necessity — if he didn't bow, he would have to look Nalan Yanran in the face, and he wasn't sure he could do that without his control breaking.

'The Xiao clan accepts the dissolution,' he said. His voice was steady. He was proud of that.

Nalan Yanran finally looked at him. For one moment, their eyes met, and Xiao Yan saw something flicker behind her cold expression — an emotion he couldn't quite identify. Then it was gone, and she was looking past him again, toward her future and away from his past.

'You have three years,' she said quietly. 'The challenge stands.'

'I know.'

The assembly dispersed. The branch families whispered. And Xiao Yan walked out of the ancestral hall carrying less weight than he'd expected — not because the shame was gone, but because it had crystallized into something he could use.

Three years.