Although she had cleaned out Xiao Tang’s private little slush fund, Ting Wan didn’t plan on handing over the gold bars right away. Firstly, handing them all over might incite the greed of certain hidden vermin. Secondly, it would be hard to explain how she had obtained so many gold bars so quietly.
When the time came and the organization needed it, she could just invest it then. It made no difference and would save a lot of trouble.
Lu Mou, the Defense Commissioner, and Xiao Tang, the Young Marshal, were locked in a stalemate.
One was dispatched by the Military Faction, with a powerful backer behind him, and had even quickly gathered a portion of Hong City’s people to his side. The other was a local tyrant entrenched in Hong City for many years, possessing an army, munitions, and a certain network of connections.
Neither was a simple character, but both were respectable men who, for the time being, did not want to completely tear off all pretenses of civility. Thus, the stalemate seemed to be covered by a veil so flimsy it would tear with a single tug, creating an awkward sight.
Take today, for example. Xiao Tang was marrying Su Xiaomo and had sent Lu Mou an invitation to the wedding. Lu Mou accepted the invitation and came to the wedding, but Lu Mou also sent men to raid Xiao Tang’s armory.
Don’t ask how Ting Wan knew.
The answer is that Ting Wan was right there beside Lu Mou as he planned everything. She even had a hand in it—perfecting the plan with a few dirty tricks and making a trip back to the Su residence early this morning.
What for?
The answer was simple—to swap out Su Xiaomo’s dowry.
With her dimensional space, it was easy for Ting Wan to switch out Su Xiaomo’s dowry. The gold, silver, and jewels were replaced with rocks. The weight was exactly the same, but the quality couldn’t be guaranteed in the slightest.
Mr. and Mrs. Su were both astonished that Ting Wan had actually returned. One, out of concern for his pride, and the other, fearing Ting Wan would turn Su Xiaomo’s wedding upside down and ruin her daughter’s marriage, had a tacit understanding not to send Ting Wan an invitation or inform her, hoping she wouldn’t show up on this day.
Unfortunately, this simple wish was not to be.
Not only did Ting Wan show up, but she also brought a gift.
The gift was very normal, just an ordinary wedding present, but it gave Mr. and Mrs. Su an inexplicable sense of threat. The gift never even made it into Su Xiaomo’s hands.
However, Su Xiaomo was quite welcoming to Ting Wan. With a beaming smile, she eagerly pulled Ting Wan upstairs to admire her wedding dress and the dowry Mr. Su had meticulously prepared for her.
Really, she was serving herself up on a silver platter.
Ting Wan could see that Su Xiaomo’s welcome was built on a foundation of showing off.
After entering the room, she first claimed that she had wanted to send Ting Wan an invitation, then began her journey of flaunting the dowry. Who knows what kind of airs she was putting on. A perfectly good dowry wasn’t kept in the storeroom or in the vehicles following the wedding car, but was displayed right there in the bridal suite. It was hard to tell if it was for her own delight or just for show.
In any case, after showing off to her elder sister, she had people lock the chests and carry them downstairs.
The speed at which she had the chests locked was not fast, just enough time for Ting Wan to swap out the contents.
After the swap, Ting Wan had no patience to listen to her nonsense about how deeply in love she and Xiao Tang were. Leaving with a simple “the gift has been delivered, so I’ll be leaving now,” she departed directly.
She was leaving the Su residence, not the wedding venue of Xiao Tang and Su Xiaomo.
The Su family hadn’t sent Ting Wan an invitation, but Xiao Tang had!
He had sent it specifically to show that he had a clear conscience and that the dissolution of his engagement with Ting Wan was perfectly normal.
Ting Wan sighed in admiration. Those two were truly a perfect match; even their thought processes were identical.
Xiao Tang and Su Xiaomo were having a Western-style wedding held in a church. The priest asked for their vows, the newlyweds expressed their feelings—the whole process was just as one would expect.
Ting Wan stared at her own fingers with a blank expression, casually gifting the couple another headline for tomorrow’s news.
Beside her, Lu Mou was picking at his hands, counting on his fingers when his men would finish raiding Xiao Tang’s armory.
The two of them sat quietly, not causing trouble for the new couple on stage as many had expected, allowing the wedding to proceed with exceptional smoothness.
“Su Youning, aren’t you resentful that Su Xiaomo stole your fiancé?”
Just a few steps after leaving the wedding venue, Ting Wan was stopped by someone.
She turned around.
Well, well, if it isn’t the malicious supporting female character, Ms. Shen Zhenzhen!
She hadn’t paid attention to whether the Shen family had left with them on the train before, and after all this time, she had forgotten about her!
“And you are?” The original owner wasn’t familiar with Shen Zhenzhen, and Ting Wan was even less so. Since they were both strangers, it was best to keep it that way.
Ting Wan looked at Shen Zhenzhen with a bewildered expression, making it clear she didn’t recognize her.
“You don’t know me? How could you not know me?” Shen Zhenzhen’s eyes widened in disbelief. Then, as if she had imagined some scenario in her head, she had a sudden realization. “You couldn’t handle the shock of your own sister stealing your marriage, so you’ve gone silly, haven’t you?”
Ting Wan was speechless. Good grief, this person’s ability to jump to conclusions was truly first-rate. It would be a waste of her overactive imagination not to write stories.
“It’s fine if you’ve gone silly. Listen to me, that Su Xiaomo is the one who stole your marriage. You should hate her, get revenge on her. How can you attend her wedding so nonchalantly?” Shen Zhenzhen took two steps forward, grabbed Ting Wan’s hand, and started chattering away.
She spoke with a serious face, while Ting Wan listened perfunctorily, deftly pulling her hand free from Shen Zhenzhen’s grasp. “Miss, you seem to be making a scene. You look familiar, but I really can’t remember where I’ve seen you. I suppose you’re also here for the wedding? Hey, big brother on guard duty over there, there’s a relative from the bride’s side who wants to join the feast but can’t find her way!”
After speaking, she broke free from Shen Zhenzhen’s hand, turned, and left.
Shen Zhenzhen’s behavior clearly matched what was described in the original novel. She had taken a fancy to Xiao Tang, which was why after the wedding, instead of going to her “good sister’s” banquet in Liu City, she left and thus ran into me.
Since she didn’t want to go to the banquet, I might as well help her out and send her there!
The big brother on guard duty was there to give directions, afraid that guests might get lost. As soon as Ting Wan called out, he came over.
Shen Zhenzhen had no desire to go in and eat at Su Xiaomo’s wedding banquet. She didn’t want to be seen by Su Xiaomo and have to put on a smile when she was clearly unhappy.
Ting Wan’s move left Shen Zhenzhen stunned. She didn’t even have time to grab Ting Wan, who had slipped away in a flash, let alone leave on her own.
“Brilliant!” Ting Wan laughed out loud after getting into a rickshaw. “Shen Zhenzhen should really thank me for giving her an extra opportunity to watch the show! A drama where the groom goes to work on his wedding night and the bride searches for her dowry isn’t something you see every day. As long as the party Xiao Tang and Su Xiaomo have planned lasts late enough, she’ll get to see everything!”