“Heh, you don’t actually think being good-looking is enough to put food on the table, do you? The other women in the village fawn over you because they’ve got no brains. I’m different from them. A woman marries a man for food and clothing. You, Xing Yanheng, have nothing but a handsome face—what the hell use is that?”
“What the fuck…” Xing Yanheng had probably never been looked down upon like this before. He stared at the girl before him in disbelief.
A round face, a small upturned nose, and pale pink lips that were actually quite pretty—how could the words coming out of her mouth be so harsh?
“Little girl, big brother here is really going to disappoint you this time!” Xing Yanheng pinched her chin, studied her for a moment, then turned and walked out the door.
Cheng Yu didn’t know what he said outside, but when the matchmaker and Guo Fengyan came back, they told her the result of the matchmaking.
“Xing Yanheng has taken a liking to you. He said you can skip the engagement steps entirely—you’ll get married at the beginning of next month.”
Cheng Yu’s head buzzed at that moment.
What the hell was wrong with Xing Yanheng?
She’d said such nasty things and he still wanted to marry her. The guy was a glutton for punishment!
…
Cheng Yu was to take the place of the willful Cheng Yan and marry Xing Yanheng. Perhaps because her family felt guilty toward her, they prepared the best dowry they could for her.
When it came to Cheng Yan and He Zhou’s wedding at the end of the month, it was much simpler.
Because Cheng Yan was dead set on marrying He Zhou, claiming she was already pregnant with his child, He Zhou married her without paying any bride price. The Cheng family felt wronged, so naturally they wouldn’t let her take anything with her.
In contrast, Cheng Yu received three hundred yuan in bride price from Xing Yanheng, which reportedly Xing’s mother had scraped together by borrowing from every relative in the village and selling every livestock animal that could still breathe.
Xing’s mother’s sincerity brought great face to the Cheng family, so the dowry was much more generous. The relatives had prepared plenty of the usual things for a daughter’s marriage, and the money they pooled together for her came to over a hundred yuan.
On the day before the wedding, Cheng Yu raised a request with her mother: “I’ll marry Xing Yanheng, fine. But his family is so poor, I’m bound to suffer. I want to take the bride price he paid with me!”
Guo Fengyan, mindful of her past guilt toward Cheng Yu, discussed it with Cheng Dashan and actually agreed.
So on the wedding day, Cheng Yu was married off to Xing Yanheng in fine style.
The wedding ceremony was the usual affair—Cheng Yu had gone through it all in her past life when she married He Zhou, so there was nothing new about it this time.
Once the formalities were done, she sat quietly in the room and waited.
After all the Xing family’s guests had dispersed, Xing Yanheng stumbled in, drunk.
Cheng Yu silently counted in her heart: “One, two, three.”
This man had married her out of spite. Tonight he would definitely bring up going down to Xiakuang. All she had to do was agree, and before long she’d be a widow.
Since she’d married him, even without any feelings, she couldn’t just ignore a living, breathing human life.
She figured that even if he was going to die, let him die somewhere she didn’t know about. If his ghost ever came looking for her later, her conscience would be clear!
He’d just have to blame his own bad luck!
Xing Yanheng lifted the red bridal veil. Unlike their brief meeting last time, he was wearing brand-new clothes today, with the groom’s floral ornament pinned to his chest. His refined features, set against the glow of the kerosene lamp, looked striking and beautiful—as if painted stroke by stroke, vivid and lifelike.
A slight curve lifted the corner of his lips as he simply looked at Cheng Yu.
As the bride, she had naturally dressed up with care. The red wedding attire she wore was made by a tailor in town that Guo Fengyan had paid thirty yuan for.
Cheng Yu had lived a long life in her previous incarnation, so she had standards when it came to aesthetics. She didn’t like the old-fashioned style of the times, so she had the tailor make a fitted jacket with a mandarin collar, paired with a long red skirt. When she’d stepped out the door today, this outfit had made the village girls green with envy.
“What are you staring at me for?”
Cheng Yu snatched the red veil back and turned sideways, facing away from Xing Yanheng.
She was already racking her brain for ways to keep him here. Should she just knock him out?
In any case, she couldn’t let him go down to Xiakuang tonight. If word got out, people would laugh at her for not even being able to keep her man on her wedding night.
The girl’s big eyes darted around. Xing Yanheng had drunk a fair amount, but it was out of excitement.
He grabbed her chin and forced her to face him.
“Staring at you because you’re pretty.”
Xing Yanheng looked at that face with its light makeup and that unwilling expression, and a desire to conquer rose in his chest.
Cheng Yu’s eyes flew wide open!
Because Xing Yanheng gave her no chance to stop him—he kissed her straight on the mouth.
The man’s breath mixed with the smell of alcohol. The instant it entered her nose and mouth, every hair on Cheng Yu’s body stood on end, and she pummeled him with both fists.
He’d clearly drunk a lot, but Cheng Yu was still no match for him in strength.
He pushed her down onto the edge of the kang, and his tongue plunged in abruptly.
Every pore on Cheng Yu’s body opened wide. In her past life, she’d never consummated a marriage with He Zhou, so she’d never experienced such intimacy.
She couldn’t even imagine it—this so-called wedding night…
Xing Yanheng’s breath filled her mouth, his wanton tongue sweeping through her lips and teeth.
Cheng Yu’s entire body flushed an unnatural red, so red it seemed to drip blood. As his hands moved without any rhyme or reason, slipping along the collar of her clothes, Cheng Yu’s mind went completely blank!
Why wasn’t Xing Yanheng leaving?
She’d even prepared an excuse, and here he was, acting like a rogue with her?
Cheng Yu instinctively closed her eyes, clenched her jaw, and bit down on his tongue.
Xing Yanheng withdrew in pain, yet that eager, ready-to-go posture of his didn’t diminish in the slightest.
His obvious reaction pressed against Cheng Yu, a wicked smile tinged with seductive charm on his face.
So it was true that looks were purely a gift from heaven—this man, with just his face alone, was indeed enough to make anyone fall.
Cheng Yu was dazed for a moment, and he seized the opening.
Xing Yanheng roughly tore open her collar, and when she heard the button snap, Cheng Yu’s hairs stood on end.
She watched heartbroken as the wedding dress her family had spent thirty yuan to have custom-made for her was destroyed just like that?
A surge of stubbornness rose in her, and as Xing Yanheng kissed her chest without restraint, she bit down hard on his shoulder.
“You bastard, if you want to die, don’t drag me down with you!”
Xing Yanheng looked up, a flicker of pain showing between his brows, but in an instant, his knees pressed against hers.
Cheng Yu was forced into a shameful position, face to face with him.
“You clearly like this face of mine, so why pretend?”
A mischievous smile curled at the corner of Xing Yanheng’s lips as he deliberately ground his body against her waist and abdomen.
Cheng Yu’s cheeks burned crimson. He took the opportunity to tear open her collar, and even more roughly, his kisses fell upon her, even biting her with his teeth.
Cheng Yu’s face flushed so red it seemed to bleed. She struggled desperately, but couldn’t overcome his brute force.
When Xing Yanheng entered her, he let out a short exhale.
Cheng Yu’s eyes blurred with tears, her eyes tinged with a blood-red hue as she grabbed hold of his hair.
“Don’t move.” Xing Yanheng pressed down on her shoulders, his eyes already flooded with red, and kissed Cheng Yu heavily on the lips.