The wedding rites were completed, and the bride was escorted into the bridal chamber.
Through the red bridal veil, she could only sense the tall, imposing figure beside her. The man carried an overwhelming aura of authority, and the cold fragrance clinging to him wrapped around her like winter snow.
When the ceremonial rod lifted the scarlet veil, Shen Xinglan appeared before her in bright red wedding robes. He was tall and broad-shouldered, his features sharp as if carved by blade and axe. His entire body radiated the murderous aura of someone who had clawed his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, making others instinctively want to submit.
Mu Wanting’s clear, perceptive eyes openly examined her husband without the slightest trace of a bride’s shyness.
Shock and disgust filled Shen Xinglan’s eyes.
“Why is it you?!”
Mu Wanting curled her lips slightly. As expected, Madam Liu had not forgotten to sabotage her on her wedding night—she had never informed Prince Pingxi’s household about the bride swap.
Back when she was fourteen, Shen Xinglan had saved her life. From then on, she became hopelessly infatuated with him, chasing after him boldly and passionately, doing countless outrageous things that became the talk of the entire capital.
Shen Xinglan and the Shen family had come to despise her deeply. In the end, they chose Mu Rongrong as the future princess consort, while she herself, heartbroken, married Zhao Zhiyuan.
But this time was different. She had already let go of love and hatred alike. The past was nothing more than drifting smoke.
She refused to take the blame for someone else and said calmly, “The bride swap was entirely at my younger sister’s insistence. It was not my wish.”
Shen Xinglan frowned. Given how obsessed Mu Wanting had once been with him, this felt more like her doing.
Back then, Mu Wanting had pursued him madly, making a spectacle of herself at every turn. What truly made him loathe her, however, was the time she drugged his wine and climbed into his bed to seduce him.
Such despicable tactics disgusted him.
If not for his extraordinary self-control, she might already have gotten what she wanted.
And now, she has even gone so far as to switch brides!
Irritation surged through him. He turned away, unwilling even to look at her.
“No. The marriage contract states that I am to marry Mu Rongrong, not you. Mu Wanting, no matter what tricks you used, I will not marry you.”
Mu Wanting smiled politely.
“Fine. Then please send someone to Yongle Marquis Manor to bring my younger sister back. I’d much rather marry into the Yongle Marquis household myself.”
Shen Xinglan immediately ordered a servant to go to Yongle Marquis Manor. Looking at Mu Wanting only made him more agitated, so he sat at the table and gulped down tea.
If there were still a chance to fix this without making a public scene, he absolutely would not have stayed in the same room as Mu Wanting.
About half an hour later, the servant returned, furious.
“My lord, I went to see Second Miss Shen, but her dowry matron blocked me at the door. She said the second miss willingly married into Yongle Marquis Manor and told us not to disturb her anymore. She even hurriedly drove me out, as if afraid I’d ruin the marriage.”
Shen Xinglan looked toward Mu Wanting, who sat quietly with lowered eyes. The whole matter felt suspicious, yet she refused to explain anything.
Still, the thought of spending the rest of his life with Mu Wanting made him unbearably restless.
“Someone brought paper and ink. I’m writing a divorce agreement.”
Everything was unfolding exactly as Mu Wanting had expected. She smiled faintly.
“Very well.”
Shen Xinglan shot her a suspicious glance.
Just as a servant went to fetch paper and ink, the eunuch Li Dafu arrived to summon Shen Xinglan away by imperial decree.
Remembering how Shen Xinglan had been crippled on his wedding night in her previous life, Mu Wanting took out a protective guard.
“My lord, I promise you this—if you wear this protective gear, then when you return, I’ll agree to the divorce.”
The suspicion in Shen Xinglan’s eyes deepened, but the imperial eunuch was urging him impatiently. Afraid Mu Wanting might change her mind and cling to him, he hurriedly put on the protective gear.
“You’d better keep your word.”
Mu Wanting smiled faintly. Shen Xinglan truly had a talent for hurting people.
Fortunately, she no longer felt anything for him.
She had no time to wallow anyway. In just a few days, exile awaited her, and she needed to retrieve her mother’s dowry as soon as possible.
When she arrived at the Ministry household’s treasury, she discovered that only a tenth of her mother’s dowry remained. Meanwhile, Madam Liu’s dowry and the household’s own wealth remained untouched.
Not only had her mother’s dowry been used to subsidize the household, Madam Liu had even shamelessly used it as Mu Rongrong’s dowry. Mu Rongrong’s wedding procession had boasted one hundred and twenty chests of dowry—all paid for by her mother’s property!
As for Mu Wanting’s own dowry, Madam Liu had dismissed her with cheap junk. A legitimate daughter like her had received barely forty chests.
How could Mu Wanting tolerate that?
She swept away everything—her mother’s dowry, Madam Liu’s dowry, the gold and jewels in storage, grain, medicine, bolts of cloth—emptying the treasury clean.
Thinking of the concubines and illegitimate children who had bullied her under Madam Liu’s orders, she raided their private stashes too.
Didn’t Madam Liu love fighting her mother for control of the household?
Then she could manage an empty house and see how she liked it.
By tomorrow, the Ministry household would probably be drinking northwest wind for dinner.
Still unsatisfied, Mu Wanting left behind a note before departing.
“Piaopiao, you betrayed me first. Don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
Now let’s see if that loving couple still had the mood to trample over her mother while enjoying themselves.
Fight. Tear each other apart.
Next came Mu Rongrong—the woman who stole her marriage, stole her life, and flaunted a glorious wedding procession funded entirely by her mother’s dowry.
Wasn’t she so proud of her rich dowry and her family’s favor?
Fine then.
Mu Wanting would replace every valuable item in the dowry with stones and see just how much her in-laws still valued her afterward.
By the time she finished, she had exhausted all the uses of her teleportation ability for the day. She immediately returned to the bridal chamber, washed up, and fell into an exhausted sleep.
Shen Xinglan was carried back unconscious in the middle of the night.
Even with the protective gear, blood had stained his red undergarments.
When Mu Wanting gently removed the guard and reached to pull down his trousers to inspect the wound, Shen Xinglan suddenly grabbed her wrist.
His ears flushed red, and a trace of anger and embarrassment appeared on his face.
“What are you doing?”
Mu Wanting replied matter-of-factly, “Treating your injuries, of course. Your wounds are serious, and combined with your old injuries, no imperial physician besides me could heal you quickly.”
Shen Xinglan resisted immediately. “I don’t need you. You don’t look like someone who knows medicine at all.”
More than treating him, she looked like she wanted an excuse to cling to him.
Mu Wanting smiled. “Your Highness, have you forgotten? My mother, Xia Chan, was a divine physician respected even by the emperor himself. I may not surpass her, but my medical skills are at least worthy of the title.”
Shen Xinglan raised a brow. Xia Chan’s medical skill had indeed been extraordinary and unconventional—she could even cut open a patient’s body and heal them successfully. If Mu Wanting truly inherited her mother’s expertise…
Mu Wanting continued, “If you summon a physician now, the entire Shen household will be alarmed. You don’t want your family worrying, do you? Just think of me as a doctor. In my eyes, you’re nothing more than a lump of flesh.”
Then she leisurely added another blow:
“Besides, only after I stitch up your wounds will you be in any condition to summon both families and the matchmaker to sign the divorce papers. Otherwise, writing while dripping blood everywhere… would hardly be dignified.”
Though unwilling in every possible way, Shen Xinglan did not want to disturb his family either. The old madam was advanced in years, and his mother already suffered chronic insomnia. If they found out, none of them would sleep tonight.
Taking a deep breath, Shen Xinglan finally released her hand. Turning his head away with reddened ears, he spoke in a low voice.
“I’ll pay you for the treatment afterward.”
Mu Wanting nodded. “Then all I ask is that you agree to one condition later.”
She sprinkled pain-relieving powder over his wounds first, then took surgical scissors and forceps from her bundle, carefully separating the fabric from torn flesh.
Even with the protective guard, his buttocks had still been beaten into a bloody mess. Without it, his muscles and bones would likely have shattered as they had in her previous life, aggravating old injuries beyond cure.
She cleaned the wounds thoroughly, stitched them closed with needle and thread, and finally applied medicinal ointment from her mother’s hidden space.
Throughout the process, Shen Xinglan felt surprisingly little pain. His doubts about Mu Wanting’s medical skill diminished considerably.
His ears burned scarlet. The moment she finished, he hurriedly pulled on a fresh pair of undergarments.
Mu Wanting said calmly, “There’s also the wound on your chest.”
Shen Xinglan narrowed his eyes dangerously and grabbed the hand holding the suture thread.
“How do you know I’m injured on my chest? And the protective gear—how did you just happen to have it ready for me to wear?”