It was not until his youngest daughter's voice reached his ears once more that Jing Liangyu snapped out of his daze. He hurriedly rose from the large chair, strode around the desk, and grasped his daughter's wrist. Taking in her maid's attire, then her red, swollen eyes and tear-streaked face, he asked in a low voice, "What has happened?"
Jing Yun immediately told him about Du Yuanran simultaneously taking a wife and a concubine.
She had not embellished a single detail, yet after hearing it, Jing Liangyu's face was consumed with fury. He flew into a rage. "On the very day of your wedding, he brought a concubine into the household? How dare he?"
Jing Yun pouted and wiped her tears. "Father, Xiangxing also found out that Tang Yingying is already carrying Du Yuanran's child… Father, it's true that your daughter likes Du Yuanran, but he carried on with someone behind my back. Now that the Tang family's concubine-born daughter is with child, no matter how deep my feelings for Du Yuanran run, it is truly hard for me to accept such humiliation…"
"What?!" Jing Liangyu was even more enraged. "Shameless wretches! They dared do such despicable things behind your back?! It infuriates me! Just watch how I'll deal with them today!"
Jing Yun knew that the original host had been deeply cherished by this father, and that when the original host had chosen to marry Du Yuanran, this father had opposed it vehemently. After all, given the original host's circumstances, she could have had her pick of any young talent from illustrious families. Yet she had chosen Du Yuanran, a man of humble origins. Whose parents would not have objections to that?
It was out of love for his daughter, and because Du Yuanran did show some ambition, that Jing Liangyu, as her father, had reluctantly nodded and agreed to his daughter marrying beneath her station.
Now, learning of Du Yuanran's various despicable deeds, he naturally could not tolerate it!
Seeing him so furious he looked ready to kill someone to vent his hatred—this was exactly the effect Jing Yun wanted. But when she saw him about to rashly go settle accounts with Du Yuanran, she was quick-eyed and quick-handed, pulling him back.
"Father, go we certainly must, but not like this."
Jing Liangyu halted his steps. His heart ached so much his voice had gone hoarse. Stroking her head, he asked, "Yun'er, tell Father—what do you want to do? Rest assured, with Father here, with the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi here, Father will absolutely not let that ungrateful beast off!"
Jing Yun forced out tears and said sorrowfully, "Father, the concubine has already entered the Du household. If I openly tear off all pretense with Du Yuanran, outsiders will surely say I am jealous and lacking in tolerance and magnanimity. That would not only damage my reputation but also drag the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi into gossip. Yet I am unwilling to let Du Yuanran deceive me like this. Besides wanting to dissolve my engagement with him, I also want to teach him a lesson—to make all the use and scheming he has directed at me over these years come to nothing!"
Jing Liangyu nodded in agreement, his face full of loathing. "The engagement must absolutely be dissolved! His current glory and wealth all came from you. Since he has betrayed you, then we must 'return him to his original form' and let him know the consequences of betraying you!"
Jing Yun wiped the corners of her eyes, then stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, "Father, send someone to the Du residence now and say they brought back the wrong bride…"
…
In the bridal chamber of the Residence of the Fuyuan General.
After entertaining the guests, Du Yuanran, slightly tipsy, was supported by servants as he swayed unsteadily into the bridal chamber.
"Yun'er, your husband is here. I've kept you waiting."
He walked straight to the bride seated by the bed with the veil covering her head. His extended hand suddenly stopped mid-air, his slightly drunk eyes gradually becoming clear, now tinged with a hint of guilt. He murmured, "Di'er, there's something I shouldn't have kept from you… I… I didn't want to…"
Though he had now established a foothold in the court, he knew that everything he currently possessed was inseparable from her. To say he had no concerns about bringing Tang Yingying into the household would be false. He could even imagine how furious the people of the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi would be. Given how much Jing Liangyu doted on his daughter, he would definitely come demanding an explanation.
However, though anxious, he believed that what was done was done. Besides, she was soft-hearted—as long as he explained his difficulties with reason and emotion, she would certainly accept it.
"Di'er, are you angry?" Seeing that she did not respond, Du Yuanran swallowed and began to explain guiltily, "It wasn't my intention to bring Tang Yingying into the household—it was Mother who forced me to agree. You wouldn't know this, but years ago, Mother was indebted to Tang Yingying and had always wanted to repay her. Upon hearing that she was being bullied by her legitimate mother and elder sister at home, and that her situation was very difficult, Mother took pity on her and took it upon herself to arrange for me to take her as a concubine. Di'er, you know you are the one I care most about, and I dare not betray your sincerity toward me. But a parent's command is hard to defy, and with Mother threatening to kill herself, I truly dared not go against her wishes…"
After he finished explaining, seeing that the person beneath the veil remained as still as ever without any response, he couldn't help but lift the veil to see how she was reacting.
However, when he saw Xiangxing's face beneath the veil, his eyes widened sharply, and he stumbled back two steps, exclaiming in shock, "Xiangxing, how is it you?!"
With his astonishment, his gaze instinctively swept around the room, searching for his bride.
"Ah! Young Master, why is it you?" Xiangxing also seemed frightened. She quickly rose to her feet and, looking around in disbelief, said urgently, "Why am I here? What is going on?"
Seeing her startled expression, Du Yuanran's face turned deathly pale. He pointed at her as fury erupted from his throat, "You lowly maid! How dare you impersonate your mistress and marry in my place? Are you tired of living? Where is Di'er? Where have you hidden her?"
Xiangxing burst into tears, "Young Master, what has happened? Today is also my wedding day—why am I here?"
On hearing this, his handsome face, twisted in fury, turned pallid with patches of green. The hand pointing at her trembled uncontrollably. "Your wedding? When did anyone hear of you being betrothed? You bold, audacious wench! Do you believe I wouldn't kill you?!"
It was fortunate there were no sharp instruments in the bridal chamber—otherwise, he truly would have stabbed this wench with a blade!
Faced with his murderous rage, Xiangxing's face crumpled in tears as she trembled, saying, "Young Master, perhaps this is all a misunderstanding—the people who came to receive the bride picked up the wrong person…"
Before she could finish speaking, the accompanying matrons and maidservants outside rushed in upon hearing the commotion.
"Ah!" Seeing Xiangxing in her bridal attire, they all gasped in shock.
Du Yuanran turned around and bellowed furiously, "Where is your mistress? Who gave you the audacity to swap the bride?"
The maidservants seemed terrified, trembling with their heads lowered.
The two matrons at the front, Nanny Fu and Nanny Liu, both wore expressions of utter shock.
The two of them simultaneously surveyed the room, then Nanny Fu stepped forward first, picking up the bridal veil to examine it, and said in a panic, "General… I'm afraid the bride was truly taken from the wrong household… What are we to do about this…"
Du Yuanran's face turned ashen, and he roared without cease, "Wrong bride? I personally went to the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi to receive the bride! Under the watchful eyes of everyone, you're telling me it was wrong?"
With that, he shouted toward the door again, "Where's the matchmaker? Where the hell is she?"
The matchmaker was a woman well-versed in etiquette hired by the groom's family for the wedding ceremony. Compared to the dowry maids and serving women, she counted as part of the groom's household, and from receiving the bride to guiding the new couple into the bridal chamber, all ceremonial details were directed and arranged by her.
No wonder Du Yuanran was calling for the matchmaker—after all, throughout the entire wedding, she was the one closest to the bride. Now that the bride had been swapped, naturally he would seek her out for questioning.
Yet no matter how loudly he shouted, there was no sign of the matchmaker.
Nanny Fu and Nanny Liu secretly exchanged a glance, a hint of a sly smile flickering across their lips.
As their young mistress Diao'er had instructed, they had already sent the matchmaker away.
As long as the silver was sufficient, it was no difficult feat to make the matchmaker flee, let alone make her vanish from the capital entirely.
But they only allowed that brief moment of smugness to show before stepping back into their carefully rehearsed act.
Nanny Liu frowned and said, "General, when you came to the marquis's residence today to receive the bride, you were half an hour late. At that time, our young mistress Diao'er was speaking with Xiangxing in the same room. In order to make the auspicious hour, the matchmaker hastily took one bride away. As it happened, both our young mistress Diao'er and Xiangxing were still wearing their bridal veils, and there was no time to tell them apart…"
"You!" Du Yuanran pointed at her in fury.
However, recalling the circumstances of receiving the bride, he felt somewhat uneasy at heart, and it was precisely this unease that kept his blazing anger from erupting fully.
The time for receiving the bride had been set in advance, but early this morning, the Tang family had sent word that Tang Yingying had, for some reason, experienced a disturbance during her pregnancy. Upon hearing this, his mother, worried about the safety of the child in Tang Yingying's womb, had ordered him to stop by the Tang residence first before going to the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi to receive the bride…
After he went to the Tang residence and then turned toward the Residence of the Marquis of Anqi, he was naturally late.
And to avoid missing the auspicious hour, he did not enter the marquis's residence but merely urged the matchmaker from outside to hurry the bride out, then, following the bridal sedan, rushed back to the residence for the ceremony.
It was precisely because of the many affairs and the haste that he had not carefully noted the escort procession or the accompanying dowry maids and serving women, and so he could not confirm whether Xiangxing had been among the escort party…
Nanny Fu showed a look of irritation. "General, at present the matchmaker has vanished without a trace. She must have realized she took the wrong bride and hidden herself away out of fear of blame. Even if you have any grievances, you ought to take them up with the matchmaker. What use is it to make things difficult for us servants? This is the lifelong matter of our young mistress Diao'er—would we servants not wish for our young mistress Diao'er to be married off?"
Du Yuanran was so enraged that his chest heaved violently. Then, unwilling to give up, he pointed at Xiangxing and asked again, "I have never heard Diao'er say that you were betrothed to anyone. How could you possibly have been married off? Who was the person you were to marry? Moreover, to be married on the same day as your mistress—what virtue or ability do you possess?"
The implication was that he still refused to acknowledge that the wrong bride had been taken, and he continued to suspect that they had pulled some trick!
Xiangxing hung her head, dabbing at her tears and sobbing, "This servant is no longer young. Miss Jing Yun, thinking of my many years of service, had long intended to grant me my freedom and personally selected a marriage for me… General, I still want to ask you—why did things turn out this way? How am I supposed to hold my head up now? And how am I to explain this to my Miss Jing Yun?"
Du Yuanran clenched his fists, his face turning livid as he was about to roar back at her, when suddenly the steward Zhou Shun came rushing in with panicked news, "General, something terrible has happened! Someone from the Marquis's mansion has arrived, saying you picked up the wrong bride today!"
Du Yuanran's handsome features twisted in shock!
The wrong bride…
From the time of the bride pickup to now, nearly two shichen had already passed. If it truly was a mistake, how could the Marquis's mansion only now be noticing?!
…
The banquet hall was filled with guests, toasting and drinking, joyous and lively.
However, the festive and boisterous atmosphere came to an abrupt halt with the sudden appearance of Jing Liangyu.
Especially when they saw Jing Yun in her red bridal gown following Jing Liangyu through the entrance—everyone present, from high-ranking nobles and officials down to servants and maids, was utterly dumbfounded.
The stunned and shocked gazes sweeping across the hall were a sight more spectacular than seeing a ghost in broad daylight.
After all, they had witnessed the ceremony with their own eyes, watched the new couple bow to Heaven and Earth, and seen the bride escorted into the bridal chamber by the matron of honor. And now the bride in her red wedding gown was walking in through the front gate…
Then who was the one who had bowed with the groom earlier?!
"Uncle, what on earth is going on? Shouldn't Di'er be in the bridal chamber? How is she here with you?"
A man walked over from the guests of honor—a jade hairpin in his crown, a gold sash at his waist, his tall and upright bearing carrying the innate nobility of his birth—immediately drawing the attention of many.
This man was none other than Sikong Hengyi, the current Crown Prince of the Great Shu Kingdom.
As he approached Jing Liangyu, Sikong Hengyi cast a subtle sidelong glance toward a spot not far away.
There stood Prince Yu, Xia Yanli, who had left his seat and returned. His signature smile hung on his face—three parts casual, seven parts devilish—with a raised eyebrow, making no effort to conceal his delight at watching the drama unfold.
Just moments ago, this friend had sent Yingfeng to secretly pass him a message, and he had found it hard to believe. He never expected his uncle would actually bring his cousin here.
However, he concealed his knowledge well, his gentle tone feigning complete ignorance as he asked.
Jing Liangyu wore a look of fury. Casting a sweeping glance over the assembled guests, he deliberately raised his voice as he answered his nephew, "Your Highness, you see, today was supposed to be Di'er's wedding. But when General Du sent men to the Marquis's mansion to receive the bride, they took away Di'er's senior maidservant as if she were the bride! Out of concern for face, I dared not raise a commotion, thinking that General Du would surely discover the error along the way. Yet to my disbelief, my daughter and I waited at the mansion past noon and no one came from the Du residence. I was so incensed that I had no choice but to bring Di'er here to the General's mansion to demand an explanation!"
Everyone present heard every word perfectly clearly.
In an instant, the hall erupted in astonished murmurings and discussions.
Sikong Hengyi's gaze flickered subtly as he turned to his cousin in her bridal gown and asked in a puzzled tone, "Di'er, how could such a mistake have happened?"
His question was also the very thing every guest was most curious and puzzled about, so the murmuring abruptly ceased, and all eyes turned in unison toward Jing Yun.
Jing Yun's eyes reddened as she replied with a quavering voice, "Crown Prince, you wouldn't know this, but I had previously arranged a marriage match for Xiangxing, permitting her to wed on the same day as myself. Today, when the general's mansion sent the procession to retrieve the bride, they arrived late to begin with, and that matchmaker took Xiangxing away without even verifying her identity. At the time, I merely assumed it was the bridal sedan for Xiangxing that had arrived, so I said nothing—I never imagined it would lead to such a misunderstanding…"
She lowered her head and dabbed at her tears as she finished speaking.
Everyone present wore expressions of utter disbelief; anyone would have found this matter too absurd to believe.
Sikong Hengyi pressed further, "Where was General Du at that time? Why did he not come to retrieve you personally?"
Jing Yun replied with even greater grievance, "I don't know where he was at that moment either…"
Even as she threw herself into the performance, she did not forget to covertly observe a certain spot.
The Duke of Yu, who had escorted her back to the mansion, was grinning as if watching a comedy skit—how irritatingly dazzling that smile was.
However, she wasn't worried that he might expose her, for she owed her ability to put on this act to his assistance in the first place. If he were to expose her, it would be no different from jumping into a cesspit himself—soiling his own name for nothing.
But wait—hadn't this man already left the wedding banquet? Why had he returned? And grinning like some perverse creep—enjoying a spectacle this much was beyond all reason!
"Lord Marquis!" A woman's voice came from not far away.
Everyone turned to look and saw Du Yuanran's mother, Yao Zhuhua, hurrying over from the women's guest seating, accompanied by maidservants and elderly attendants.
Her rapid footsteps and anxious expression made it abundantly clear that she had already learned of the situation. When she drew near to the father and daughter and saw Jing Yun in her bridal attire, she seized Jing Yun's hand and said with guilt, "Yun'er, this is all our fault—we chose such a blind matchmaker and caused you such great grievance. Yun'er, don't be angry. Today is your and Ran'er's wedding day—please don't let this upset your health, or else we would be heartsick with worry. Come, I will personally escort you back to the bridal chamber…"
As she spoke, she took Jing Yun's hand and made to lead her away.