A dull, piercing ache throbbed at the back of Shen Yu’s neck, as if someone had struck her with an iron rod.
She sucked in a sharp breath and abruptly opened her eyes.
All she saw was a blur of dazzling scarlet swaying before her.
Instinctively, she tried to rub her aching neck, only to discover that she was trussed up like a dumpling about to be tossed into a pot, her body tightly bound with coarse hemp rope.
The hard wooden board beneath her jolted violently with every bump in the road, churning her stomach.
“What’s going on? Wasn’t I just eating instant noodles in my dorm while reading a novel?”
Her mind was still spinning when a flood of memories that didn’t belong to her forced its way into her head, making it throb painfully.
The Great Chu Dynasty.
The Marquis Dingguo’s Estate.
The unloved second daughter.
A vicious legitimate elder sister.
And…
A substitute marriage.
Just an hour earlier, the original Shen Yu had been knocked unconscious by one of her elder sister Shen Youran’s servants. After that, she’d been dressed in a cheap wedding gown and shoved into this bridal sedan to take her sister’s place—sent to her death.
Shen Yu closed her eyes in despair.
Transmigrating into a novel was one thing… but why did I have to start on Hell difficulty?
Muted whispers drifted in through the curtains of the sedan chair.
“What a sin. The Marquis’s family is truly heartless, forcing the Second Miss to take the fall.”
“Exactly. The Ninth Prince is a living King of Hell. That poor girl probably won’t survive the night.”
“Didn’t the Emperor bestow him two beauties just last month? They were carried out in less than three days. I heard there wasn’t even a body left intact.”
“The Second Miss will probably be thrown out to feed the wild dogs by tomorrow morning.”
Each sigh and whispered rumor made Shen Yu’s scalp tingle.
A living King of Hell? Thrown to the dogs?
She swallowed hard.
I’m just an ordinary couch potato who loves good food! I can’t even watch someone kill a chicken! And now I’m about to become dog food?
“Stop the sedan!”
A shrill eunuch’s voice cut through the night.
There were no drums.
No festive music.
Only a deathly silence that carried an ominous chill.
“Hurry up! The prince’s manor has strict rules. Bring her in through the side gate. Don’t delay the auspicious hour.”
The old woman escorting the bride urged the bearers on, her voice trembling with barely concealed fear, as though ghosts were chasing after her.
The sedan chair tilted roughly.
Shen Yu was yanked out like a useless sack of grain.
There was no wedding ceremony.
No guests.
Half dragged and half shoved, she was taken through a maze of gloomy corridors.
Finally, she was pushed into a room.
Bang!
The heavy door slammed shut behind her.
A lock clicked into place.
Shen Yu was thrown onto a rock-hard bridal bed, pain shooting through every bone in her body.
The room was eerily quiet.
A damp, icy chill lingered in the air, as though sunlight had never touched this place.
This isn’t a bridal chamber… it’s colder than a dungeon.
She shrank into herself beneath the heavy red bridal veil, shivering.
The ropes binding her wrists were pulled painfully tight. No matter how hard she struggled, all she accomplished was rubbing her skin raw.
I’m done for… I’m really going to die this time.
Time crawled by.
The room seemed to grow colder with every passing moment.
Hungry and freezing, Shen Yu’s stomach growled loudly.
She found herself daydreaming about braised pork knuckles and roast chicken, even wondering whether she should wriggle across the floor like a caterpillar to reach the table.
Just then—
Creak…
The heavy wooden door slowly opened.
An icy gust carrying the thick scent of blood swept into the room.
Shen Yu froze.
Even her breathing stopped.
Rumble… rumble…
It was the sound of wooden wheels rolling across stone.
Heavy.
Slow.
Oppressive.
The Ninth Prince, Chu Xiao, had once been the Great Chu Empire’s undefeated God of War.
But after losing the use of both legs in a devastating battle, his temperament had changed completely.
He became cruel.
Bloodthirsty.
A monster who killed without blinking.
Now…
That very monster was approaching her.
The wheelchair stopped beside the bed.
An overwhelming, icy aura instantly enveloped her.
Even through the bridal veil, she could feel a pair of razor-sharp eyes fixed upon her.
“The Marquis Dingguo’s Estate…”
The man’s voice was low and hoarse, as cold as a blade forged from ice.
“…has quite the nerve.”
Just one sentence made the room feel several degrees colder.
Terrified, Shen Yu instinctively shrank farther into the bed.
The next instant—
Shing.
Steel scraped softly against steel.
A flash of cold light swept through the air.
The object lifting her bridal veil wasn’t the ceremonial wedding rod.
It was a black iron dagger gleaming with murderous intent.
The red veil fluttered to the floor.
Blinking against the dim candlelight, Shen Yu finally saw the man’s face.
He was devastatingly handsome.
Sharp, sculpted features.
A high, elegant nose.
Yet those narrow eyes held nothing but violence and undisguised killing intent.
Like a hungry wolf lurking in darkness, calmly watching its prey await death.
Chu Xiao looked down at the trembling young woman before him.
The woman who was supposed to have married him was Shen Youran—the celebrated beauty of the capital.
Instead…
The bride had become the notoriously foolish Second Miss.
A substitution?
Did the Marquis’s family really think he was such a crippled fool that they could deceive him so easily?
Sending this useless girl into the Ninth Prince’s Manor…
There could only be one explanation.
She was a spy.
His gaze grew colder still.
He wasn’t even interested in interrogating her.
Killing an abandoned daughter of the Marquis’s family would be no different from crushing an ant.
He slowly raised his hand.
The dagger that had lifted her veil slid downward.
Its icy flat rested lightly against her delicate throat.
The chill of the metal seeped through her skin.
Every hair on Shen Yu’s body stood on end.
She knew that with the slightest flick of his wrist, her carotid artery would be sliced open.
“Speak.”
Chu Xiao leaned closer.
The dagger pressed tighter, nicking her skin and drawing a thin line of blood.
“How…”
“…would you like to die?”
Death loomed over her.
Shen Yu’s face turned ghostly pale, her lips trembling uncontrollably.
Her mind went completely blank.
Driven by nothing more than her survival instincts—and her desire to keep eating delicious food—she stammered,
“I-I…”
Her voice shook like a withered leaf caught in the wind.
Watching her pathetic display, disgust flashed across Chu Xiao’s eyes.
Pathetic.
Too stupid to even qualify as a spy.
He had completely lost his patience.
His lips parted.
He was about to summon the hidden guards outside and have this troublesome woman dragged away to be fed to the dogs.
Just as he was about to pronounce her death sentence—
A crisp electronic voice suddenly rang out inside Shen Yu’s mind.
(Ding!)
(The Holographic Gossip System has successfully bound to its host!)