When Yanyu’s wedding day arrived, all officials were given a holiday. Throughout Wei, both inside and outside the capital, the people knew the Prince Qin was to marry his principal consort.
Wei Ruxuan secretly brought her maid out to watch the spectacle. She stood in the crowd, smug and self-satisfied.
Just wait—she thought—the wedding procession surely would not include Prince Qin.
She remembered from her dream: the Wei family and the Emperor had forced this marriage upon Prince Qin.
Prince Qin had no desire to marry, and during the procession, he had not gone to the Wei household at all. It was the Wei family who had desperately sent their daughter to Prince Qin’s residence.
Though it had only been a dream—and in the dream she knew it was merely the plot of a book—recalling it now, Wei Ruxuan felt as though it had truly happened.
In any case, marrying the Fifth Prince was far better than marrying Prince Qin. At least the Fifth Prince could rise higher, perhaps even become Emperor one day.
But Prince Qin? He would die on the battlefield, without even a whole corpse left behind. Anyone who married him would lose their head!
Wei Ruxuan gloated inwardly. Her maid carefully supported her:
“Secondary Consort, please be careful. With so many commoners here, why insist on squeezing into this crowd? If you want to join the excitement, why not persuade the Fifth Prince to attend Prince Qin’s wedding banquet instead?”
Indeed, the noblewomen of the capital were all at Prince Qin’s residence, attending the wedding feast. Even the Emperor and Empress were present there.
Wei Ruxuan wanted to go too, but the Fifth Prince forbade it. He had said: “Xuan’er, you were once betrothed to Prince Qin. If you go, how shameful would that be? Everyone would gossip that we had an affair before marriage. Besides, you are now a secondary consort. Prince Qin is marrying a principal consort. For you to appear there would be most improper.”
The difference between principal consort and secondary consort was only a single word, but the status was worlds apart. One was the true mistress of the household; the other merely served tea and paid respects.
Wei Ruxuan snorted: “You think I care to go to Prince Qin’s residence? I don’t! Even if they invited me, I wouldn’t want to go!”
At that moment, the wedding procession arrived.
Wei Ruxuan had come out late, unaware that half an hour earlier, Prince Qin’s men had already gone to the Duke Zhen’s residence to fetch the bride.
At this moment, Prince Qin himself was escorting the bridal sedan chair and a grand procession back to his residence for the wedding ceremony.
The common people buzzed with discussion.
Among officials, Prince Qin’s reputation was poor—they called him ruthless and violent, a madman. The common folk also knew he had a bad temper. Yet their impression of him was favorable. After all, he had gone to war as a teenager, earning great merit for Wei. Ordinary people admired men who fought with real steel to defend the nation.
“Look—it’s Duke Zhen’s daughter! One hundred and sixty-eight chests of dowry!”
“To be honest, I don’t envy her for all that dowry. Even twice as much wouldn’t matter! Without Duke Zhen and his sons, our northern frontier would have fallen to the Cang barbarians!”
“The Wen family was always thin in heirs. When the Duke and his sons died, not even their bodies were whole—their limbs were taken as trophies by those wolves! Only this young lady remains. If the Emperor doesn’t treat her well, what general would dare risk his life at the border again?”
“Exactly! I heard Prince Qin had good relations with the Duke and his sons. He’s a man of iron—he would never mistreat a woman!”
“……”
Wei Ruxuan had not expected Prince Qin to actually appear in the wedding procession. Seeing his tall, handsome figure, she bit her lip hard, unwilling to accept it. She wished the story would hurry to its end—that Prince Qin would die in battle, and the Wen girl’s head would be cut off!
Her maids, meanwhile, were envious: “Miss Wen has so much dowry! All packed to the brim!”
Wei Ruxuan rolled her eyes: “Bought with the deaths of her whole family! A cursed star, yet so many people praise her—what’s wrong with this world?”
Looking around, she saw that those praising the Duke Zhen’s household were mostly poor commoners, ignorant and foolish, saying laughable things.
The noble families of the capital all mocked Miss Wen. They laughed that the Fifth Prince had rejected her, and now she was marrying the mad Prince Qin—her future would be full of suffering.
Wei Ruxuan had considered Miss Wen her rival for days, yet she had never even seen her. In her dream, she had not seen this person either—no face, no name, no background. Only that she was the heroine. Now she thought: surely a sickly invalid could not be a beauty. She had seen plenty of bedridden patients—yellow-faced, thin, and ugly.
Tomorrow, the new Princess Consort Qin would enter the palace to pay respects to the Empress and Empress Dowager. Then she would see her for herself—whether mule or horse, the truth would be revealed.
Wei Ruxuan, uninterested in watching further, decided to go buy more cosmetics. Tomorrow, she would make sure to outshine this Princess Consort completely.
Just then, she overheard others gossiping: “Wasn’t it said at first that the Wei girl would marry PrinceQin? What happened?”
“She was unchaste! Someone saw her secretly meeting the Fifth Prince at a cosmetics shop before marriage. Once the rumor spread, even her distant cousin had her engagement broken off! Seems all the Wei girls are fickle and shameless!”
“Is that true?”
“Of course it’s true—someone saw it with their own eyes…”
Wei Ruxuan’s face turned ugly. She hadn’t expected such rumors to spread among the common people. She quickly left with her maids.
Meanwhile, the wedding procession marched grandly into Prince Qin’s residence.
That day, the Emperor and Empress both left the palace to attend. The Empress Dowager, unwell, did not come. Yet even before the ceremony began, Empress Zheng departed.
Yanyu had sat in the bridal sedan chair all the way. At last, the chair stopped.
Xiao Chengji impatiently extended his hand toward her, his tone cold:
“Come.”
Moments later, a soft, delicate hand—like boneless silk—rested in his palm.
Xiao Chengji had never touched a woman’s hand before. This one was white as fresh snow, her slender fingers like carved jade, the tips faintly pink, as if a firmer grip might bruise them.
He had never seen such a fragile woman. For years, he had ignored the Emperor’s words, but now, making an effort to show filial respect, he restrained his strength and carefully helped Yanyu out of the sedan chair.
The matrons nearby were startled. They hadn’t expected Prince Qin to personally lend a hand the moment the sedan stopped. They hurried forward with smiles: “Your Highness, allow us—we will help the Princess Consort out.”
But suddenly his hand was empty. The delicate touch was gone.