Meng Shuhe carefully counted the banknotes; there were exactly one hundred thousand taels, just as expected.
She looked toward the servants of Pingyuan Houfu who were carrying Meng Ruoli’s dowry behind the bridal sedan and commanded, “Set the dowry down for a moment. Follow me into the Zhenguogong Fu to move my own dowry out.”
The servants of Pingyuan Houfu looked at each other in bewilderment.
To the side, Meng Wang spoke up in a fit of rage. “Meng Shuhe, was taking one hundred thousand taels of silver not enough? Today is your sister’s wedding day. Why must you insist on taking your dowry today of all days?”
Meng Shuhe did not even care to acknowledge this brainless brother of hers, who failed to distinguish between right and wrong. She simply looked at the motionless servants of Pingyuan Houfu and asked, “Are my orders not enough to move you?”
“Or do you no longer consider me a young lady of Pingyuan Houfu?”
The household guards of Pingyuan Houfu hastily set down the dowry they were carrying and bowed to Meng Shuhe. “Young Lady.”
Meng Shuhe stepped into the Zhenguogong Fu, leading the guards past the hall where the wedding ceremony was taking place and toward the courtyard where she had lived.
Arriving outside the courtyard where she had resided for three years, she saw the maidservants and older female attendants dressed in red, standing guard and looking out expectantly.
Seeing Meng Shuhe arrive, they were all stunned. “Ma—Madam?”
Ignoring them, Meng Shuhe entered the courtyard. She saw that “Double Happiness” symbols were pasted on every window and door.
Inside the room, a round table was prominently set with dragon and phoenix wedding candles and the hejinjiu.
On the Bobuchuang where she had slept for three years, the words “May you soon give birth to a son” were laid out using red dates, longans, and peanuts.
Meng Ruoli really wasn’t picky. To think she could actually use a bed that Meng Shuhe had slept in for three years as her wedding bed.
Lan’er was furious. “Young Lady, has the Zhenguogong Fu truly fallen into such ruin? The Shizi is marrying a new bride, yet they use the very room you lived in.”
Meng Shuhe let out a cold laugh. “A month ago, Madam Shen used the excuse that I had broken her dowry teacup to punish me by sending me to the villa to recover. As it turns out, it was merely to clear a path for them. They truly took me for a paper tiger to be bullied.”
When she first arrived at the villa, the servants there had been incredibly arrogant and unreasonable.
It was only later, when she spent her own money to find a human trafficker to replace them, trading the original servants away, that things changed.
Thinking back, those original servants at the villa were likely following the orders of the Zhenguogong Fu and Meng Ruoli.
The Duke’s estate dared to be so flagrant—sending her a xiushu the day before the new bride’s wedding—because they assumed that even if she tried to cause trouble, she would be held back by the insolent servants at the villa.
At this thought, Meng Shuhe gave a cold command: “Take a wood axe and hack this bed, this round table, and all the furniture in here to pieces. Take them back to our kitchen to use as firewood.”
The servants of Pingyuan Houfu once again looked at each other, none of them moving.
Meng Shuhe took out the one hundred taels in small denominations that the Marchioness had given her earlier and handed it to the head servant.
“Take this silver and divide it among yourselves. Lan’er, go to the woodshed and bring back some axes.”
Lan’er obeyed and quickly returned with several wood axes.
Meng Shuhe gestured for the servants to take the axes. “Hack it.”
The servants were filled with hesitation, but they did not dare disobey Meng Shuhe’s command. They stepped forward and began to hack at the fine nanmu wood Bobuchuang.
“What are you doing?”
Meng Shuhe turned back to see the newlyweds, Meng Ruoli and Shen Qian, standing at the door. She gave a faint smile.
“This dowry of mine is too large to move all at once. It just so happens that the villa is short on firewood, so I’m hacking these pieces of my dowry to take back as fuel.”
Meng Ruoli cried out in shock, “This Bobuchuang took ten craftsmen fifteen years to complete! How could you use it for firewood?”
Meng Shuhe replied, “What of it? It is my dowry; I can burn it if I wish. Does my younger sister have an objection?”
Meng Ruoli looked pitifully at Shen Qian beside her.
Shen Qian patted Meng Ruoli’s hand. “Let’s go to the side courtyard first. Today is our wedding day; let us not entangle ourselves with this shrew.”
Meng Ruoli glared at Meng Shuhe with jealous hatred. She would let Meng Shuhe be arrogant this one last time. From tomorrow onward, Meng Shuhe would be a discarded, divorced woman, while she would be the high and mighty Shizi Consort of the Zhenguogong Fu.
Seeing that her dowry had been mostly hacked to pieces and her anger largely spent, Meng Shuhe returned to Pingyuan Houfu.
Before leaving Chang’an Cheng for Jiangnan, she naturally had to inform the Marquis and Marchioness.
Upon returning to Pingyuan Houfu, she learned that the couple was not at home. A month ago, they had received happy news from her maternal grandmother’s house and had gone to attend a cousin’s wedding. They had not yet returned.
Meng Shuhe finally understood how Meng Ruoli and the Zhenguogong Fu had dared to show her so little face and set the wedding date so urgently—it was because the Marquis and his wife were away.
By the time the couple returned, even if they wanted to stand up for her, the deed was done. The divorce and remarriage would be a fait accompli. At most, the Duke’s estate would face some scolding from the Marquis.
Meng Shuhe left a letter and said to Lan’er, “We are going back to Jiangnan.”
Lan’er asked, “Young Lady, why must we return to Jiangnan?”
Meng Shuhe gently stroked her lower abdomen. “The noble families of Chang’an Cheng appear to be prestigious and refined on the surface, but their despicable actions in the shadows are truly shameful. There is no point in staying in Chang’an.”
More importantly, Meng Shuhe did not dare gamble on whether the child in her womb being able to speak was true or false.
If Lu Jing truly was the Crown Prince, and if there really was a girl in his heart for whom he wished to remain pure, then having ruined his virtue, she could not guarantee she wouldn’t face his retribution.
Meng Shuhe hadn’t lived at her natal home for long and didn’t have much luggage. Although she had many clothes and jewels at the villa, with Lu Jing there, she didn’t dare go back for them.
She figured she could simply buy what she needed at the shops later.
Just as Meng Shuhe and Lan’er stepped out of the Pingyuan Houfu gates, they happened to run into the Marquis and Marchioness Pingyuan, who had just returned.
The couple were both thirty-seven years old and possessed very fine features.
Meng Shuhe bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Marchioness Pingyuan, which was why the Meng family had been so certain she was their daughter when they first found her.
Seeing Meng Shuhe, Marchioness Pingyuan smiled gently. “Shuhe, why have you come to visit today?”
Meng Shuhe said, “Father, Mother, I have come today to bid you farewell. I wish to return to Jiangnan.”
The Marchioness’s expression changed at these words. She stepped forward and took Meng Shuhe’s hand. “Is Shen Qian going back with you? Why the sudden desire to go to Jiangnan?”
Meng Shuhe couldn’t very well say that she might be carrying the current Crown Prince’s child, and to prevent her and the child from obstructing the position of the woman the Prince loved, she had to flee to Jiangnan immediately.
She could only dab the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. “Mother, the Zhenguogong Fu has bullied me too much. For the past three years, Shen Qian used the excuse of mourning to never enter my room, yet now he has given me a xiushu on the grounds that I have failed to produce an heir.”
The Marquis said angrily, “How dare Shen Qian divorce you for such a reason? Do not cry; Father will surely seek justice for you and ensure the divorce is overturned.”
Meng Shuhe replied, “There is no need. Shen Qian has already married Ruoli as his Shizi Consort. I have no wish to entangle myself with them further and have already divorced him publicly. I wish to return to Jiangnan to clear my mind.”
The Marquis and Marchioness looked at each other in shock.
The Marchioness frowned. “Ruoli is so foolish! Without her parents’ consent, how could she marry so rashly? The Duke’s estate has gone too far.”
Speaking thus, the Marchioness patted Meng Shuhe’s hand. “Shuhe, you have only just returned to your mother’s side. I cannot bear to let you go to Jiangnan. If you wish to clear your mind, going to the villa on the outskirts of the city would serve just as well.”
“Mother, my mind is made up.”
Meng Shuhe said softly, “My adopted sister has stolen my husband. Remarrying will not be easy for me, and staying in Chang’an will only make me a laughingstock for others. It is better to leave this place of sorrow as soon as possible.”
The Marchioness sighed. “The road to Jiangnan is long and arduous. We cannot rest easy letting you return alone. Stay in Chang’an for now; your father and I will surely find you a new husband far better than Shen Qian.”