A servant was already waiting for Lu Xuan outside, holding the reins of a thin, lame donkey.
"The Patriarch has ordered you to head to the Shen Family and marry today."
Lu Xuan stared at him, dumbfounded.
Today?
He had not even left the Ancestral Hall for the space of a ten breaths.
They were this impatient to throw him out?
The donkey stood there with its head lowered, one back leg bent at an odd angle. Its ribs showed through its dull coat. It looked up at him with a pair of tired eyes.
For some reason, he knew what was coming in next.
The servant barely suppressed a grin, his glee at Lu Xuan’s misfortune bubbling right at the surface.
"Young Master has specifically arranged this. He said since you have no martial arts... just a crippled piece of trash... he was worried you might ride one of the fiery horses in the stable and fall to your death.
That would leave your ugly wife a widow before the wedding night even started. So he found you this lame, skinny donkey instead. Much safer."
As expected, it was a naked humiliation.
No one was even trying to hide it anymore.
A proper groom would have had a decorated horse, a sedan chair, a line of musicians. Even the poorest family in the city could scrape together a few firecrackers.
He had been handed a donkey that could barely walk, Lu Xuan expression did not change.
Even if the entire city lined the streets to mock him, he would still go.
Not because he was afraid, but because dead men cannot take revenge.
He did not climb onto the donkey, instead, he took the reins in his hand and began to lead it on foot toward the south of the city.
The donkey limped after him.
It had been mocked for being lame. He had been mocked for being worthless.
The two of them, he thought, deserved each other.
The streets of Azure Sun City were already full of people.
It seemed the news had traveled faster than he had. People pointed from the doorways of shops. Vendors stopped hawking. Someone laughed so hard they had to hold onto a pillar.
"Look... that’s the Lu Family’s trash."
"He’s really marrying her?"
"Two of a kind. One is a cripple, the other is a monster."
Lu Xuan kept his head low.
When he finally arrived at the Shen Family estate, he spotted a lone figure standing in front of the main gate from a distance.
She wore a bridal veil and a faded old red dress.
In her hands, she held a small blue cloth bundle, clutched tightly against her chest, there was no one to send her off.
No procession. No dowry. Not even a single member of her family standing beside her to offer a few parting words.
She stood there alone...
Like a forgotten object that someone had set down at the door and walked away from.
The Shen Family’s main gate was shut tight behind her.
Through a narrow crack, an old servant poked his head out.
He looked at Lu Xuan, then, without a word, he pulled the door closed again.
The way you shut a door on a jinx.
Lu Xuan walked over, unhurried.
The woman seemed to hear his footsteps, her thin frame trembled slightly.
She did not step back, she only gripped her bundle tighter, as though bracing herself for whatever came next.
A sliver of her chin was visible beneath the veil.
There were indeed red spots on the skin, just as the rumors said.
But her jawline was clean and sharp.
Not the jawline of someone who had been sick for years, Lu Xuan noticed it, and filed it away in his mind.
He stopped in front of her.
Today was his first wedding... in both lifetimes.
He had no script for this. No one had ever taught him what to say to a bride who had been abandoned at a gate.
He thought about it for a long moment.
Then he spoke.
"My name is Lu Xuan."
His voice was rougher than he intended.
"I have no wedding procession. No inheritance to speak of. Only a thin, lame donkey to my name..."
He paused.
He did not know why he said the next words. They were not something he would have said to anyone else.
"But I promise to keep you happy."
"Are you willing?"
The surroundings fell silent, for a long moment, neither of them moved, then, slowly as if mustering out the courage, the woman gave a small nod.
From beneath the veil came a voice, barely louder than a breath.
"I am willing."
Although her voice was barely above a whisper... it was exceptionally firm.
Lu Xuan didn’t beat around the bush, he walked over to her side.
He reached out for her, and then gently helped her onto the lame donkey.
As she settled onto its back, her grip on the bundle slipped, It tumbled open, and the things inside spilled onto the ground.
The contents of the bundle lay bare for all to see.
A few pieces of dry rations, a change of clothes, and a neatly folded piece of beautiful embroidery...
That was everything she owned in this world.
Lu Xuan bent down and picked them up, one by one, without a word.
Her hand trembled slightly as she took the bundle back and clutched it tightly against her chest.
"Thank you."
Her voice was so small... as if she hadn’t spoken to anyone in a very long time.
Lu Xuan didn’t answer.
He simply turned around and took the reins, leading the donkey back toward the Lu Family estate.
The woman on the donkey’s back kept her head low, her face hidden beneath the bridal veil. Not a single expression could be seen. No one knew what she was thinking.
But Lu Xuan noticed that her hands clutching the bundle had tightened... clearly nervous.