Shen Ruo was eighteen when his family sent him from the backwater planet Kros to the bustling Imperial Star. The moment he looked up and saw the young man to whom he had been betrothed since childhood, he froze for an instant.Just as Shen Ruo mustered up the courage to confess his feelings to Chu Xiao, he stumbled and fell, cracking his head against the stairs.To everyone else, it seemed he had knocked himself silly. But Shen Ruo was heartbroken—he realized that he was merely a character in a book. The verbal betrothal agreement made by the old Duke Chu long ago counted for nothing in the Chu family's eyes. In the book, he was eventually rejected and cast aside, yet he refused to return to his impoverished home on Kros. Instead, he tried every trick to stay on the Imperial Star by cozying up to other nobles. In the end, because he offended Chu Xiao's nephew—the protagonist of this book—Chu Xiao had him exiled to an even more remote star system, where he vanished without a trace, most likely dead.Shen Ruo no longer dared to harbor any other thoughts. He just wanted to go home. Kros might be poor, but as long as he worked hard, he wouldn't go hungry.