He seemed utterly incredulous.
"I said, since you despise me so much, why don't we have a mutual divorce."
Shen Fuyan stood under the moonlight with her hands clasped, her skin fair as snow, like a translucent jade carving.
She was not one to sit and wait for death. Since the imperial city could not give her the result she wanted, she would fight for it herself.
"Shen Fuyan, I am willing to be a lowly concubine. Stop pressuring your own husband. You and I are both women—this tactic of advancing to retreat is truly laughable."
Xu Mengyu suddenly drew close to Xuan Wenyang.
Her white dress fluttered, her gaze lofty and pure, as though she were the coldest moon in this world.
"I heard you come from a family of military officers, simple-minded. Surely you think such clumsy acting can fool a man."
Seeing her stern demeanor, Shen Fuyan smiled, her city-toppling beauty making even the moonlight seem dim.
"We are both women, yet I could never do the deed of being a kept mistress."
She looked at Xu Mengyu, sharpness blazing in her eyes.
"If you truly considered yourself noble and pure, why would you do such a filthy thing, and then exalt yourself by trampling others down, grinding military officers into the dust."
Shen Fuyan questioned harshly.
"Without military officers shedding blood on the battlefield, where would Great Qi's prosperous peace come from? You fancy yourselves talented scholars and beautiful ladies, elegant and refined—but do you know that the silk you wear, the ink you use, the very ground beneath your feet, were all won by military officers with their lives!"
She looked at Xuan Wenyang, her eyes full of disappointment.
"You say you did not want to marry me. I regret it too—I regret marrying a hypocrite like you!"
Xuan Wenyang, furious from humiliation, retorted: "You are jealous yourself, unwilling to accept Mengyu, and yet you drag in all this messy nonsense?"
Xu Mengyu lifted her chin: "I never belittled military officers either. It is simply that your methods are laughable, bringing shame upon your family for nothing."
Shen Fuyan narrowed her eyes slightly, then suddenly raised her hand and delivered a slap.
"What do you amount to, to be worthy of discussing my family?"
Her eyes abruptly turned red as she looked at Xuan Wenyang.
"Xuan Wenyang, since I married into the Chancellor's residence, apart from not having borne children, I have done nothing to wrong this position of principal wife. You broke your vows to seek true love—I did not make an issue of it. Yet you allow this kind of woman to casually insult the Shen family?"
Xuan Wenyang had never seen this side of Shen Fuyan.
In his eyes, she was always calm and unruffled—whether toward him, his parents, or the servants.
"Xu Mengyu, you think you are still the capital's foremost talented lady, fine. But do not forget—your father was convicted of embezzling military grain, and my father died in battle ten thousand li away because of his crimes!"
Shen Fuyan was furious beyond measure, yet her tone grew calm instead.
"Xuan Wenyang, she is the daughter of my enemy."
Xuan Wenyang looked at her, and somehow felt he was seeing the majestic authority of Chancellor Xuan himself.
He frowned slightly and stepped in front of Xu Mengyu: "Fuyan, Mengyu is also a pitiable person who got caught up in this. While you were wearing gold and jade in the Chancellor's residence, she was playing the qin and selling smiles on pleasure boats. I hope you can be more magnanimous, understand her experiences, and not be so rigid and petty."
Shen Fuyan closed her eyes for a moment, feeling she must be mad to waste these words on this despicable pair.
"You are my properly wedded wife, and besides, life is so hard for a woman after a mutual divorce. I will not divorce you."
Xuan Wenyang, afraid she would cling to her earlier words, quickly changed the subject.
"If you cannot accept Chen'er, that is fine too. Take good care of your health, and when the time comes, I will have a child with you…"
Shen Fuyan was more unyielding than he had anticipated.
Xuan Wenyang feared she would stir up trouble in the household, so he planned to stop the hallucination-inducing medicine and let Shen Fuyan conceive a child or two.
The reason she was making such a fuss was simply because Chen'er was Mengyu's child, leaving her unsettled at heart.
Thus, let her conceive first.
Whether the child would survive to birth—that could be decided later.
"Is that what you're thinking?"
Shen Fuyan suddenly laughed.
"Xuan Wenyang, you're even more disgusting than I imagined."
She walked up to him, her hand still faintly aching from the slap she had delivered moments ago.
"I am what kind of woman I am, and what kind of life I want to live—that is not for you to arrange."
Xuan Wenyang turned his head aside, a handprint identical to Xu Mengyu's now marking his face.
"We are getting a Mutual Divorce."
Shen Fuyan stared at him intently, candlelight reflected in her eyes.
"Have children with whoever you want, but don't you dare trample on me!"
She did not go out of her way to make things difficult for Xu Mengyu, because had Xuan Wenyang not permitted it, that woman would never have dared to dance before her eyes.
At the root of it all, it was Xuan Wenyang who had deceived her—the entire Prime Minister's residence had deceived her.
They had tried to tread upon her flesh and blood to sustain their flourishing family's prosperity.
"These are words spoken in anger. I won't hold it against you today, but if there's a next time, don't blame me for divorcing you outright!"
Having received an undeserved slap and seeing the courtyard nearly stripped bare, his pride wounded, he simply pulled Xu Mengyu along and strode out.
"The master is staying out tonight—he won't be back!"
After all, in that dream, Shen Fuyan had ended up on the streets, coughing blood and dying. He wouldn't bother with her now! Her retribution would come in due time.
In the now-empty courtyard, Shen Fuyan took a deep breath and turned back to look at her dowry.
"Count everything again and return it to the storehouse."
She walked back into the courtyard with a grim expression.
"Miss, this is the nourishing soup sent over from Old Madame."
By the time she rested on the couch, Lürong brought over a bowl of soup, her eyes flickering uneasily.
"Extra ingredients again?" Shen Fuyan's eyes were filled with mockery.
"Yes, this time it's also an extremely cold substance. If taken long-term, it would cause a person to waste away and die, as if afflicted with Cold Syndrome."
Lürong set the bowl far away, clenching her fists tightly.
"Miss, if you hadn't been cautious back then and kept your knowledge of medicine hidden, the schemes of this Prime Minister's residence would surely be even more vicious!"
Shen Fuyan stared at that bowl of pitch-black medicinal soup.
A bowl of nourishing soup every five days—and starting a month ago, extra ingredients had been added.
Perhaps that was precisely when the residence had conceived the idea of bringing Xu Mengyu through the doors, and Old Madame had been calculating, wanting to keep her bedridden and ailing.
After all, she had no son. As long as she died as Xuan Wenyang's wife, that generous dowry would all become the property of the Prime Minister's residence.
"No wonder she spends her days chanting prayers and eating vegetarian—she's probably begging the Buddha every day to forgive the sins she has committed."
With a cold laugh, Shen Fuyan lifted her chin.
"Dispose of it, but keep some of the dregs. Don't let anyone see."
She vaguely remembered that the wife of the second branch of the Prime Minister's residence had died of exhaustion from Cold Syndrome.
She would not make a fuss about this for now. The evidence would be kept—it might prove very useful later.
Before dawn broke, someone from Old Madame's courtyard suddenly arrived and woke Shen Fuyan.
"Second Madam, the Second Master is in a bad way. Old Madame sent me to ask you for a thousand-year ginseng—she says the Second Master needs it."
"Speak slowly."
Hearing that something had happened to Xuan Wenyang, Shen Fuyan rose unhurriedly and had someone help her dress.
"Good heavens, this is a matter of life and death—how can you be so slow!"
The messenger stamped her foot in agitation.
"If you don't explain clearly, how am I supposed to know a life hangs in the balance? And why is it that when your son falls ill, the Old Madame doesn't search the household for medicine, but instead sets her sights on her daughter-in-law's dowry?"
Shen Fuyan wore a faint smile at the corners of her lips.
"It's… it's the Second Master carrying on with the courtesan Miss Xiu at the Piaomiao Pavilion—he nearly came down with Ma Shang Feng! He's been sent back to the Prime Minister's residence now, raving nonsense, and the imperial physician says he needs thousand-year ginseng to survive, but there's none in the household's medicine stores!"
The messenger gritted his teeth and finally blurted it out.
"The Piaomiao Pavilion? Miss Xiu?"
That Xuan Wenyang would dare take Xu Mengyu to the Piaomiao Pavilion for pleasure—Shen Fuyan was not the least bit surprised.
Only, Miss Xiu…
She recalled a time when she had passed by one night and caught a glimpse of that bewitchingly alluring Miss Xiu leaning against a dark corner of the wall, with Pei Yanwei standing before her in casual clothes.
Why would she suddenly think of him?
A strange feeling welled up in Shen Fuyan's heart. She shook her head and rose to her feet. "Let's go."
"Second Madam, the ginseng hasn't been retrieved yet," the servant reminded her.
"What ginseng?" Shen Fuyan smiled captivatingly. "The ginseng from my dowry was long ago eaten up by the Old Madame."