Perhaps sensing the hurt in his lover’s expression, Lu Yunshan subtly moved farther away from Shen Jiaojiao.
Shen Jiaojiao, however, didn’t notice any of this. She remained immersed in her beautiful dream of marrying Lu Yunshan.
Noticing Lu Yunshan’s little movement, Gu Qinghai secretly rejoiced. It seemed that Brother Lu really didn’t think much of this stupid woman. That put his mind at ease.
Everyone congratulated Lu Yunshan on his wedding, and Gu Qinghai was no exception. He raised his wine glass and stared steadily at Lu Yunshan.
“Brother Lu, congratulations…”
With that, he drained his glass in one go. When no one else was looking, he gave Lu Yunshan a sly look.
Throughout the entire evening, Lu Yunshan didn’t speak to Shen Jiaojiao at all, nor did he let his gaze linger on her for even half a second.
But Shen Jiaojiao didn’t notice any of this, nor did she know about Lu Yunshan’s relationship with Gu Qinghai. She simply assumed that Lu Yunshan was shy.
There were only two meat dishes on the table; everything else was vegetarian. Even the staple food consisted of white-flour steamed buns mixed with cornmeal.
Although people’s circumstances were generally modest in those days, and there wasn’t much food to begin with, serving cornmeal-mixed steamed buns on one’s wedding day was indeed a little hard to justify.
Fortunately, there were still two meat dishes, and the portions were fairly generous, so no one said anything.
After seeing the guests off, Shen Jiaojiao cleaned up the aftermath and immediately went to the bathroom to fetch water and take a bath.
Thinking about what was about to happen, she was both excited and shy.
After bathing, she deliberately applied some Snow Flower Cream and hair oil.
Smelling the fragrance on her body, she climbed into bed and gazed expectantly toward the doorway.
Once Lu Yunshan returned, the two of them would finally consummate their marriage.
Just thinking about it made her entire body feel hot.
Creak—
The door opened.
Lu Yunshan walked in with a tired expression, took off his shoes, and climbed straight into bed to sleep.
Even after the lights had been off for a long time, Shen Jiaojiao still hadn’t felt him make a move.
The fire in her heart gradually turned cold.
Listening to his increasingly steady breathing, Shen Jiaojiao was puzzled.
Why wasn’t he touching her?
After thinking for a long time, Shen Jiaojiao finally gathered her courage and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
In a soft voice, she whispered into his ear, “Yunshan, how can you just go to sleep…”
Lu Yunshan actually hadn’t fallen asleep at all.
Seeing that he couldn’t keep pretending, he simply stopped trying.
He pulled Shen Jiaojiao’s hands away from his body and turned around, avoiding her enthusiastic embrace.
Lu Yunshan’s apologetic voice rang out in the quiet night.
“Actually, I can’t. I’m sorry.”
The smile on Shen Jiaojiao’s face froze.
She thought she must have heard him wrong.
“W-what did you just say?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t. There’s no way I can consummate the marriage with you.”
Lu Yunshan’s words completely shattered Shen Jiaojiao’s fantasy.
She sat upright in disbelief and stared directly at the man’s face.
Moonlight streamed in through the window. She couldn’t make out his expression clearly, but she could still sense his guilt.
Shen Jiaojiao couldn’t believe her ears.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! You’re lying to me, aren’t you?”
She threw back the covers and reached toward him, pulling down his pants.
She refused to believe Lu Yunshan was impotent.
In her previous life, the problem had clearly been Shen Qingqing. How could the problem possibly be with her man?
Although Shen Jiaojiao had become a widow on her very wedding day in her previous life, that didn’t mean she had been inexperienced.
On the contrary, she had refused to remarry solely because of Zhou Yuanzheng’s generous death compensation.
Privately, however, she had dated quite a few men, and she had slept with more than one of them.
She knew exactly how to tease a man and where to touch him to arouse his desire.
Lu Yunshan felt Shen Jiaojiao’s hands moving roughly over his body.
His face became so dark it seemed almost capable of dripping ink.
But he didn’t resist.
He simply allowed Shen Jiaojiao to provoke him as though she were venting her anger.
Shen Jiaojiao used every trick she knew to seduce him.
She even took off all her clothes and pressed herself against Lu Yunshan, her lips moving all over his body.
But to her disappointment, there was absolutely no reaction from the man.
Even after she threw every ounce of restraint out the window, the man showed no sign of arousal.
He merely stared at her coldly.
Shen Jiaojiao refused to believe it.
The man she had gone to such lengths to steal from Shen Qingqing was actually a useless good-for-nothing!
If that was the case, then in her previous life, it hadn’t been that Shen Qingqing was unable to have children.
The problem had been Lu Yunshan!
It wasn’t that Lu Yunshan had loved Shen Qingqing so deeply that he couldn’t let her go.
Nor was he some responsible, exceptionally good husband.
It was simply that Lu Yunshan was impotent!
The thought caused Shen Jiaojiao’s tears to burst forth instantly.
She glared at the man in front of her with hatred, furious that he had known he was incapable yet had still hidden it from her and married her.
She was also resentful toward Shen Qingqing for never telling her about this.
No wonder.
No wonder that in her previous life, even though everyone mocked Shen Qingqing as a barren hen, Lu Yunshan had endured the pressure and refused to divorce her.
So it was because this man himself couldn’t have children!
He was the one who couldn’t perform!
And that idiot Shen Qingqing had actually protected Lu Yunshan’s dignity as a man by telling outsiders that she was infertile.
That was the real reason they had never divorced!
Shen Jiaojiao couldn’t accept this outcome.
She cried and cursed as she started beating Lu Yunshan with her fists.
“Get out! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You useless coward! Why did you just watch me jump into this fire pit? Get out! I never want to see you again!”
Lu Yunshan knew he was in the wrong, so he simply sat quietly on the bed and allowed Shen Jiaojiao to vent.
Only after she had exhausted herself did he pick up his clothes and silently leave the room.
That left the exhausted Shen Jiaojiao alone in the bridal chamber.
She collapsed helplessly onto the bed, filled with regret and hatred, her disheveled hair spread across the quilt.
She cried and laughed, looking like a woman who had lost her mind.
But what difference was there between her and a madwoman now?
She was merely on the verge of going insane.
Thinking about everything she had painstakingly done since her rebirth, Shen Jiaojiao now found it deeply ironic.
She had gone to all that trouble just to pick up a piece of trash.
“Waaah…”
Shen Jiaojiao buried her head in the quilt and burst into uncontrollable sobs, as though she wanted to release every bit of grievance she had been holding inside.
Why was her life so miserable?
Why couldn’t she find happiness even after being reborn?
Lu Yunshan’s parents were staying in another room.
The soundproofing was poor, and the commotion coming from the bridal chamber had been so loud that Lu’s father and mother put on their clothes and came out to investigate.
The moment they stepped outside, they saw Lu Yunshan, whom Shen Jiaojiao had driven out of the room.
Their son’s expression wasn’t good either, and the two parents couldn’t help feeling angry.
“It’s your wedding day! Why aren’t you staying inside with your wife? Why did you come out?”
Lu Yunshan forced a smile.
“It’s nothing. We just had an argument. She wasn’t happy, so I came out.”
As soon as they heard this, Lu’s parents immediately became displeased.
“On your wedding day, what could possibly be so serious that you couldn’t talk it out properly? She actually argued with you and even drove you out! If your father and I weren’t here today, who knows what kind of scene she would’ve made!”
Lu Yunshan pressed his fingers against his brow and explained tiredly.
“It’s not her fault. I’m the one who’s at fault.”
But Lu’s mother didn’t see it that way at all.
She angrily stood up for her son.
“How unlucky is our Lu family? We thought we’d found a good girl, but now it looks like we’ve brought a troublemaker into the family!”
As a man, Lu’s father couldn’t openly criticize his daughter-in-law, but he was dissatisfied with Shen Jiaojiao as well.
His son was young and already a deputy company commander. Their family’s circumstances were decent, and his son was handsome and well-mannered.
He was exactly the kind of excellent husband that countless unmarried women could only dream of finding.
If Shen Luanfeng hadn’t once saved Old Master Zhou’s life, with their family’s conditions, how could a girl surnamed Shen ever have gotten this marriage?
And now, on the very first day after marrying into the family, she had already caused chaos throughout the household.
She was simply ungrateful.
If they had known she was this kind of person, they would never have agreed to let such a troublemaker marry into their family!