“Ran’er, rest assured. You are the only one in my heart; Xinrou was just an accident. Even if Xinrou enters the estate, she will only be a noble concubine. It won’t affect my affection for you in the slightest.”
Chu Mochen, the Marquis of Wenxuan, looked at his wife, Lin Yanran, with a gaze he believed to be deeply affectionate.
In her heart, Lin Yanran had already cursed this bastard and his eighteen generations of ancestors. On the surface, she didn’t show this so-called husband a single shred of respect either:
“An accident? What kind of accident happens a second time, and then again? Can an accident result in two children of different ages? And a noble concubine? Marquis, you should burn incense to your ancestors that this County Princess hasn’t beaten those sluts to death yet.”
Seeing his wife act so forcefully, Chu Mochen was stunned for a moment. He hadn’t heard his wife refer to herself as “this County Princess” in front of him for many years.
Chu Mochen felt that his wife simply loved him too much. Naturally, being the favored one, he felt secure in his reliance on her affection.
Pretending not to understand the underlying meaning in Lin Yanran’s words, he chose to play dumb: “Does Ran’er mean that you are willing to raise those two children under your own name?”
As for Sun Xinrou, Chu Mochen felt that being able to bear children for him was already her honor; whether Sun Xinrou lived or died wasn’t all that important.
If his wife could accept these two children, she would definitely be able to accept him having concubines in the future. Wouldn’t there be plenty of beauties then? Being able to take a concubine whenever he wanted was exactly why Chu Mochen had kept a mistress.
When Chu Mochen was young, in order to secure his position as the Heir Apparent under the threat of his younger brothers, he had promised Lin Yanran that he would never take a concubine in order to marry her.
Now that his younger brothers were no longer a threat, he was naturally unwilling to stay faithful to his wife alone.
Lin Yanran sneered. She wasn’t the original owner of this body, and she didn’t subscribe to the bullshit logic of blindly following a husband. If anyone made her life difficult, Lin Yanran wouldn’t tolerate it.
Her current status was the only daughter of the reigning Emperor’s maternal sister. Aside from her first-rank title of Mandated Madam as the Marquis’s wife, she also held the title of County Princess Yixian.
Lin Yanran didn’t lose her temper; her tone merely grew a bit heavier:
“Chu Mochen, don’t push your luck. If you dare to bring those three sluts into the estate today without this County Princess’s consent, this County Princess will immediately go into the palace to cry to Imperial Uncle Emperor. When that time comes, this County Princess would really love to see if you, the Marquis of Wenxuan, can endure a life of hardship with your concubine.”
Chu Mochen certainly couldn’t let his wife blow this matter out of proportion. Otherwise, if his brutal mother-in-law, the Grand Princess Changning, found out, he estimated he would be beaten so badly he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for a month:
“Ran’er, this is a family matter between the two of us, so there’s no need to trouble the Emperor, right? I know you’ve been wronged in this matter, and I did promise back then never to take a concubine. But over the years, the nobles of Cangming have been mocking me both openly and covertly for being henpecked, privately gossiping that you are a tigress. It pained my heart to hear it, which is why I momentarily did the wrong thing. But since it has already happened, we ultimately have to solve it. What will it take for you to accept the mother and her two children? I will fulfill whatever condition you have.”
Fortunately, Lin Yanran wasn’t the original owner; otherwise, she would have been infuriated to death by this shameless scumbag.
The current Lin Yanran naturally wouldn’t cry and scream over so-called love. Since the man’s heart had changed, securing her interests was the best choice:
“First: Tomorrow, you will submit a memorial to establish Xuan’er as the Heir Apparent, and divide your private treasury among our children right now! Second: When Sun Xinrou enters the estate, she cannot do so with the status of a noble concubine, but only as a regular concubine.”
After Lin Yanran finished speaking, she looked at Chu Mochen with a smile, her eyes seemingly saying, ‘Look at how reasonable I am.’
Lin Yanran was a transmigrator. The original owner had been guided by her eldest son at the Lantern Festival temple fair, where she discovered Chu Mochen—who claimed to be busy with official duties—strolling through the fair with a woman and two children.
After returning to the estate, the original owner ordered an investigation. Holding the results of the investigation, she covered herself with her blanket and cried for an entire night, successfully crying herself to death.
In the modern world, Lin Yanran had just successfully fought for the family inheritance against a bunch of sons born to mistresses. Because she was happy, she went to ride an extreme bicycle to celebrate, and an accident caused her to plunge directly off a cliff.
At the moment she fell off the cliff, Lin Yanran had only one thought: she wouldn’t be able to go back for dinner.
Fortunately, Lin Yanran’s biological mother had passed away long ago, and she had already drawn up a will to donate her organs, so she wouldn’t benefit her so-called brothers. As for her bedridden biological father, he still had over a dozen filial sons!
When Lin Yanran woke up again, she became the Marquis’s wife with the same name in a novel she had read called The Concubine’s Glory, the Husband’s Wealth.
Lin Yanran accepted this new identity very calmly, because before she even woke up, the original owner had already said goodbye to her in a dream.
The original owner felt that the Marquis of Wenxuan had betrayed their love, and she wanted him to never find her again, whether in heaven or on earth.
Lin Yanran thought the original owner was simply insane, but before she could persuade her, the original owner dissipated without hesitation, not uttering a single word about what to do with her two sons.
When Lin Yanran woke up, she became the Lin Yanran who possessed all of the original owner’s memories.
Hearing Lin Yanran’s demands, Chu Mochen agreed without any hesitation:
“I’ll listen to Madam in everything. Tomorrow, I will submit a memorial to establish our Xuan’er as the Heir Apparent.”
Chu Mochen agreed so readily mainly because whenever he needed anything, he would always ask the original owner for silver and goods; he couldn’t even use the things in his own private treasury anyway.
Moreover, Chu Mochen thought that his wife had always been generous to him, and he could just coax her back in a few days. As for the noble title, it would definitely belong to his and his wife’s son anyway, otherwise the imperial family wouldn’t agree.
Thinking about this, the expression on Chu Mochen’s face didn’t hold even a hint of reluctance.
Lin Yanran disdainfully slapped away Chu Mochen’s hand that was resting on hers, stood up, wiped her hands with a handkerchief in disgust, and then calmly said, “Let’s go.”
Looking at his wife’s actions, Chu Mochen felt a fleeting sense of loss in his heart. But he quickly brushed the feeling aside and looked at Lin Yanran with great confusion: “Where are we going?”
“To move the Marquis’s private treasury. The sooner we finish moving it, the sooner Sister Xinrou can enter the estate, right?” Although Lin Yanran’s tone was sarcastic, there was no sadness in her heart at all.
As for the original book’s female lead, Sun Xinrou, entering the estate to become a concubine, Lin Yanran wasn’t afraid at all.
Being a concubine in a noble and influential household was not that easy.
In the original book, the fact that Sun Xinrou could become the so-called ultimate winner was, in Lin Yanran’s opinion, mainly due to the original owner’s early death.
In the original book, although the original owner never discovered that Chu Mochen was keeping a mistress, Chu Mochen had been repeatedly hinting to the original owner about taking a concubine.
The original owner, of course, stubbornly refused to agree.
Therefore, Sun Xinrou and her two children had always been raised outside the estate.
By the time the original owner discovered Sun Xinrou, Sun Xinrou’s son had already passed the provincial imperial examination.
Chu Mochen had also grown extremely weary of Lin Yanran, who had always been unwilling to agree to him taking a concubine. Furthermore, feeling that the child born to his mistress was a promising talent, he forcefully brought Sun Xinrou into the estate with the status of a noble concubine.
The original owner became depressed and heartbroken because of this, passing away in just half a year.
After that, Chu Mochen never remarried, and Sun Xinrou managed the household, becoming the actual matriarch of the Marquis’s estate, which brought the book to its conclusion.
Lin Yanran didn’t know whether the noble title eventually fell to the original owner’s son or to Sun Xinrou’s son.
However, now that she had arrived, Chu Mochen could go wherever he wanted, but the noble title and benefits must belong to ‘her son.’
Looking at Lin Yanran, who had already strode outside, Chu Mochen was both dazed and incredulous. “You actually agreed to me taking a concubine so easily? You aren’t trying to trick me out of my private treasury, are you?”