Even before Jiang Xuening married into the Jingning Marquis’s Residence, she had already guessed that this marriage would certainly not be as good as Grandmother had made it sound. Moreover, the person originally betrothed to the Shen Heir Apparent had been Fifth Sister. The sort of young woman he liked was probably someone like Fifth Sister, so it was only natural that he would not like her after the bride had been replaced by her.
What she had not expected was that he would not even bother putting on appearances. On their wedding night, he had moved into the study to sleep.
“Miss, the Young Master really moved to the study to sleep. What should we do?” Chunlan looked at her sympathetically.
Chunlan and Xiamo were the two maids who had been serving her ever since she returned to the Jiang Residence. They had also accompanied her to the Marquis’s Residence today.
“Since things have come to this… let’s wash up and go to sleep first.” Jiang Xuening rubbed her forehead, which ached from being pressed by the phoenix crown, and called the two maids over to remove her makeup.
She had gotten up before dawn that day to put on her makeup, paid respects at the ancestral temple, and performed all the wedding rituals. By now, she was both exhausted and sleepy, and truly had no energy left to think about such complicated matters.
She slept soundly through the night without a single dream.
The next day, at the hour of the Rabbit, Jiang Xuening was awakened by her maids. According to the rules, a newlywed bride had to go to the main hall to pay her respects to the elders.
After dressing appropriately, Jiang Xuening casually asked, “Where is the Heir Apparent?”
Chunlan answered, “It seems that he hasn’t gotten up yet. Shall I go wake the Heir Apparent?”
“No need.”
Those who wanted to go would not need to be called. Those who did not want to go would be useless even if they were called.
Shen Yi’s study was in the first side room on the eastern side of the courtyard. Lu Ming, Shen Yi’s personal page, was standing guard outside the study.
When he saw Jiang Xuening walk out of the main room, he assumed that she would certainly come over to bother the Heir Apparent. Remembering that the Heir Apparent had instructed him the previous night not to allow anyone to disturb him, Lu Ming began thinking about how he should stop the Heir Apparent’s new wife from knocking on the study door.
Who would have thought that she would simply walk past the study without even glancing sideways, taking her maids straight out of the courtyard?
Lu Ming stared blankly at her retreating figure.
On the first day after the wedding, the new bride was supposed to go to the main hall to pay her respects accompanied by her husband. Was she not afraid of being mocked by others if she went there alone?
……
When Jiang Xuening went to the main hall alone to pay her respects to the elders, she naturally could not avoid being questioned, probed, and fussed over. She also had to endure a few sarcastic remarks from her sisters-in-law that were laced with hidden barbs.
However, Jiang Xuening’s heart remained completely unmoved.
Back when she had been living at the Rural Estate, she had endured far more cold looks and malicious treatment than this. Those experiences had tempered her into someone with a heart as hard as stone. A few idle remarks from others were neither painful nor itchy and were nowhere near enough to disturb her composure.
Instead, this incident had allowed her to see things clearly.
Most of the people in the residence were merely pretending to be kind toward her. The only person who seemed genuinely warm was her mother-in-law, Madam Wei.
Not only had Madam Wei not made her stand through the customary morning rites, but she had also taken Jiang Xuening’s hand and told her not to be sad. She comforted her by saying that the Heir Apparent was merely unable to accept the fact that the bride had been changed. Things would gradually get better in the future.
Jiang Xuening stayed with her mother-in-law for breakfast before returning to Muyun Courtyard.
As soon as she arrived, she happened to run into Shen Yi coming out of the study.
Out of courtesy, she took the initiative to greet him.
“Heir Apparent, good morning.”
“Mm.”
He answered indifferently, without even looking at her, and left with Lu Ming following behind him.
After they had walked out of the courtyard, Lu Ming could not help glancing back.
Jiang Xuening was still standing where she was. Her delicate figure carried a hint of aloofness and stubbornness.
“What are you looking at?” his master asked from beside him.
“Heir Apparent,” Lu Ming turned his head back, puzzled. “Since you knew from the beginning that this Sixth Young Madam Jiang’s character and background were both less than satisfactory, why were you still willing to marry her?”
His master was the Heir Apparent of the Jingning Marquis’s Residence. Even the legitimate Fifth Miss from the Zhongcheng Residence, the young lady who had previously been properly betrothed to him, had not been worthy of being matched with his master, let alone the current Sixth Miss, whose status as a legitimate daughter was questionable.
“It was precisely because her background and character were both poor that she was suitable for marrying into the Marquis’s Residence. If the woman I actually favored married into this household, she would certainly be tormented by Madam Wei. How could I bear to see that…”
The current mistress of the Jingning Marquis’s Residence, Madam Wei, was not Shen Yi’s biological mother.
Shen Yi’s biological mother had died of illness when he was young. Not long afterward, his father had married Madam Wei. After entering the household, Madam Wei gave birth to two daughters and a son. Once she had a son of her own, she began harboring thoughts she should not have had.
Over the years, Madam Wei appeared on the surface to be a gentle and virtuous mistress of the Marquis’s Residence. In reality, she had always been secretly targeting Shen Yi and framing him, painstakingly trying to drag him down from the position of Heir Apparent so that her own biological son could become the Heir Apparent of the Jingning Marquis’s Residence.
Fortunately, Shen Yi had been exceptionally intelligent from a young age. He had seen through Madam Wei’s intentions early on. Over the years, he had kept his sharpness hidden, acted cautiously, and quietly contended with her, preventing her from achieving her goal.
When Madam Wei realized that she could not find any weakness to exploit in him, she had shifted her attention to the selection of his future wife.
The former Fifth Miss of the Zhongcheng Residence had an ordinary family background and an arrogant temperament, which was precisely why she had caught Madam Wei’s eye.
Madam Wei had intended to burden him with an inferior marriage, weaken his confidence and future prospects, and pave the way for her own son.
Later, something had happened to Jiang Fifth Miss. The news that she had fallen into the water, behaved improperly, and lost her chastity had spread far and wide. Yet Madam Wei had delayed sending anyone to the Jiang Residence to break off the engagement.
It was not until the Jiang family had brought forward a Sixth Miss who was even less desirable than Fifth Miss to fill the marriage that Madam Wei had finally used the excuse of keeping their promise to conveniently agree to the substitution.
As for this Sixth Miss of the Jiang family, he had not even needed to deliberately investigate her background. Someone had already delivered the information to his ears.
It turned out that this Sixth Miss had originally been a concubine-born daughter. She had even been sent to the Rural Estate to reflect on her mistakes because she had harmed her own siblings. The Jiang family had only brought her back to the residence recently in order to have her substitute for the marriage, and had even changed her status from a concubine-born daughter to a legitimate daughter on the family register.
Shen Yi naturally had not felt the slightest bit of goodwill toward someone like her.
However, since she already had a history of wrongdoing, if Madam Wei attempted to use her to implicate him in the future, he could simply push the blame onto her and make Madam Wei suffer the consequences of her own scheme.
Once he eventually tore away Madam Wei’s layer of hypocrisy and purged the household of its corruption, it would not be too late for him to find a woman he truly favored.
……
Jiang Xuening, who remained inside the courtyard, knew nothing of Shen Yi’s thoughts.
She had only just entered the Marquis’s Residence and was completely unaware of the undercurrents surging beneath the household’s peaceful surface. At that moment, she was merely staring at the lock hanging on the study door, pondering what she should do next.
If she allowed Shen Yi to continue distancing himself from her, she imagined it would not take long before he sent her back to the Jiang Residence with a divorce letter.
But she had used this marriage to exchange for her mother’s freedom and security for the rest of her life. In doing so, she had also offended the Jiang family and no longer had a maternal family to return to.
At present, her only option was to find a way to resolve the estrangement between herself and Shen Yi and grow closer to him. Only then could she establish a foothold in the Marquis’s Residence.
The problem was, how was she supposed to grow closer to him?
Jiang Xuening had spent the first ten years of her life confined to the Rural Estate. Her experience was limited, and she did not know how to please a man.
Although her mother had been a concubine, she had been born into a respectable family and had never taught Jiang Xuening any of the techniques used by women in the inner household to curry favor with their husbands.
Jiang Xuening could not come up with an answer, so she simply stopped thinking about it.
The process did not matter.
As long as she could consummate the marriage with him and become his true wife in every sense, that would be enough.
Thus, that night, she braced herself and went to knock on the study door.
The page Lu Ming standing guard outside tried to stop her. She shot him a glare, and he reluctantly stepped aside, wearing an expression that seemed to say, “You won’t be able to get the door open anyway.”
But Jiang Xuening was stubborn by nature. Once she had made up her mind to do something, she would definitely do it.
If the door would not open, she would simply keep knocking.
The person inside finally could not take it anymore and opened the door with an irritated expression.
“What is it?”
Her face flushed red, but her gaze remained determined.
“I came to consummate our marriage, Husband.”