“The bride has fallen into the water!”
“How could the bride fall into the water?”
“The sedan chair was struck by lightning, and the bride actually tumbled out of it and fell right into the water.”
On the busiest street of Shengjing, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered.
A crisp male voice rang out, “The bride has fallen into the water, what are you all still standing there for? Why aren’t you saving her?”
A youth of about seventeen on the riverbank, seeing the commoners just watching the spectacle without helping, shouted urgently.
The bride in the water was struggling desperately due to her heavy gold head ornaments; her life was in peril.
Seeing that the crowd was only interested in the spectacle and no one was helping, the youth simply dove into the river.
Splash!
Ripples spread across the surface as the youth entered the water.
Gu Zhuo hurriedly grabbed the struggling bride. Having choked on several mouthfuls of water, Xue Wanyao reached out and tightly hugged the youth’s waist, terrified he wouldn’t save her.
The waters of the spring river in February still held a bone-chilling cold, but the warmth emanating from the youth made Xue Wanyao feel much better.
Gu Zhuo swam to the shore and helped Xue Wanyao to the side of the wedding attendant, letting her assist the bride up.
Back on shore, Xue Wanyao knew she must look a mess. She coughed several times and looked at the handsome, soaking-wet youth who had also climbed up. “May I ask for your name, sir? I will surely repay this life-saving debt in the future.”
The youth tossed his head. “I never hide my name. I am Gu Zhuo, the Prince of Chu.”
Xue Wanyao looked at the youth before her with curiosity. So, he was the famous Gu Zhuo of Shengjing.
Xue Wanyao knelt and said, “I have no way to repay this life-saving grace. In my next life, I will surely work like a horse or an ox to repay you, Little Prince.”
Gu Zhuo frowned slightly. “Little Prince? Judging by your age, you might not even be older than me, yet you call me Little Prince? I saved you for nothing.”
“Your Highness,” Xue Wanyao said quickly, “One day, I will surely serve the Prince of Chu like a beast of burden to repay you.”
After kneeling and kowtowing, Xue Wanyao rose and spoke to the wedding attendant, “Let us get into the sedan chair. We must not miss the auspicious hour.”
The wedding attendant looked at the disheveled Xue Wanyao. “Second Miss, you are soaked through…”
Xue Wanyao replied, “It matters not. My husband is too ill to perform the ceremony anyway. We will just have the sedan chair enter the gates directly to the bridal chamber. Two chickens can stand in for the ceremony.”
“Very well,” the attendant agreed.
Gu Zhuo walked up to the Heir of the Marquis of Wuding, who was dressed in a red robe. “Xu Sheng, I didn’t expect you were the groom? You just watched your bride fall into the water and didn’t go to save her?”
Xu Sheng, the Heir of Wuding, said, “I am not the groom today. The groom is my elder brother. Two days ago, during the spring cold snap, my brother’s asthma flared up again. He couldn’t leave his bed to fetch the bride or perform the ceremony, so I came in his place…”
Gu Zhuo asked curiously, “But she is your sister-in-law regardless. You just watched her die without helping?”
The Heir looked at the naive young Prince of Chu, unsure how to explain that the one who had fallen was his elder brother’s wife. As her brother-in-law, how could he jump into the water to hold and embrace her?
Xu Sheng simply smiled and said, “Little Prince, the auspicious hour is approaching. We must return to the Marquis’s Manor first.”
“Who’s ‘little’?” Gu Zhuo snorted. “I’ll go to your manor as well to have a cup of wedding wine. I saved the Xu family’s new bride, so I can be considered a great benefactor to your house.”
The Marquis of Wuding’s Manor was not far away; they arrived in just fifteen minutes.
However, when the sedan chair arrived, the gates of the manor were tightly shut. Only the Marchioness of Wuding stood at the entrance and said, “Please take the sedan chair back. The Marquis of Wuding’s Manor cannot take Miss Xue as a bride.”
Inside the sedan chair, Xue Wanyao, who had been trying to make herself feel better by dabbing her hair with a handkerchief, paused her movements and couldn’t help but frown.
She lifted the curtain and slowly stepped out. “Marchioness, I wonder why the manor is suddenly going back on its word and breaking the engagement at this moment?”
The Marchioness of Wuding held her head high, looking very dignified. “Our Marquis of Wuding’s Manor is a family of moral integrity and has always valued our reputation. You fell into the water and were saved by a man outside your family; you embraced him, and thus your reputation is lost.”
“Since you, the Second Miss of the Xue family, have lost your reputation, you are not fit to be a wife of my Xu family!”
Xue Wanyao was still wearing her soaked wedding dress; at this moment, she felt a chill that pierced her heart.
“What moral integrity?” Gu Zhuo stepped out from the crowd. “To see a sister-in-law drowning and not reach out to save her is the act of a beast. That men and women should not touch is a rule of propriety, but to save a drowning sister-in-law is an act of necessity. Your Xu family watched her face death without helping, and now you dare speak of reputation?”
The Marchioness said, “Prince of Chu, you said to ‘reach out with a hand,’ but what everyone saw just now was you holding Second Miss Xue as you came ashore. Our manor’s bride cannot be a woman who has been embraced by an outside man. Miss Xue, please return.”
Xue Wanyao was truly at a loss. She walked up to her uncle and said, “Uncle Xue… I can only return to my parents’ home.”
Uncle Xue, who had come to see her off, frowned slightly and immediately sent someone back to the manor to report.
Gu Zhuo stepped forward and asked, “Your uncle was there? Why didn’t he jump in to save you just now?”
Uncle Xue looked at his legs. “My legs are hampered; it was not suitable for me to enter the water to save the Second Miss.”
Xue Wanyao got back into the sedan chair and had the bearers carry her back to the Xue residence.
When they arrived, she had her dowry maid give the bearers some silver, wanting to return to her room as quickly as possible to change her clothes.
However, as she reached the side gate, she saw her legal mother, Madam Xue, coming out with a group of older female servants.
Madam Xue sized up Xue Wanyao and frowned deeply. “You really are like mud that cannot be plastered onto a wall. It was not easy to use your eldest brother-in-law’s connections to secure such a good marriage with the Marquis of Wuding. How could you fall out of the sedan chair? To encounter a lightning strike on a clear day!”
“If you had died in the water, so be it, but how could you let an outside man save you?”
“The reputation of all the daughters of the Xue family will be destroyed by you!”
Madam Xue continued with a frown, “Our Xue family is a family that values its face. Since you are a daughter who has already been married off and this has happened, there are only two paths now. One is to die to prove your innocence, which would make you a virtuous woman. The other is to leave home and become a nun in a temple. You cannot return to the Xue family.”
Xue Wanyao lowered her head. “Mother…”
Madam Xue said, “Do not blame me for being heartless. You have always been a sensible child, but you still have your third and fourth sisters at home. Their marriages cannot be affected by you. If you must blame someone, blame your own bad luck.”
Having said that, Madam Xue led the servants back inside.
Uncle Xue limped over to Xue Wanyao’s side. “Wanyao, the ornaments on your head can still be exchanged for some silver. You can live a decent life in a temple.”
After speaking, Uncle Xue also entered the house.
Outside the Xue residence, Xue Wanyao stood alone, feeling the chill of the cold wind blowing through her soaked wedding dress.
Seeking death was something she was unwilling to do. Going to a temple to be a nun, where she would have to do all sorts of dirty and exhausting work and likely suffer bullying while eating meager meals, was also something she was unwilling to do.
There was a third path before her.
After making some inquiries, she headed toward the Prince of Chu’s Manor.
The young Prince of Chu who had just saved her was the son of the current Grand Princess and the Prince of Chu, a prince of a different surname. The previous Prince of Chu had died in battle ten years ago, and even his body was never found.
The Emperor pitied his nephew and doted on the young Prince of Chu.
Calculating his age, it was indeed time for the Prince of Chu to take a wife.
Xue Wanyao arrived at the manor just as Gu Zhuo was returning.
Gu Zhuo looked curiously at the bride he had just rescued. “You… aren’t you the bride I just saved?”
Xue Wanyao knelt before Gu Zhuo. “It is I, Your Highness. I have no way to repay your life-saving grace, so I wish only to offer myself to you in marriage to repay your kindness…”
Gu Zhuo’s peach-blossom eyes widened in shock. “You want to repay a life-saving grace, shouldn’t you give me silver? Is ‘offering yourself’ repayment or revenge? I have no desire to marry and be tied down yet!”