Chapter 4

Chapter 4

On the day of Zhaoyang’s grand wedding, I entered her estate according to etiquette to present her with a bridal gift.

“Imperial Elder Sister.”

She adjusted her hair at the temples before a mirror, the corners of her eyes tilting upward as she barely suppressed a smile.

“Everything in this world has its rightful place.”

“What belongs to someone will always, in the end, be theirs.”

I did not bother with verbal sparring.

I simply raised my hand and ordered my attendants to present the gift I had brought.

It was a brocade box.

Small and incredibly light.

Placed among the tables overflowing with gold, jade, and emeralds, its shabbiness was an eyesore.

Zhaoyang stared at the box, her gaze tightening inch by inch.

“What is this?”

“A gift for your trousseau.”

I opened the box personally.

Inside lay a small wooden horse.

There was an old crack across the horse’s back, a fissure that had been meticulously glued back together.

It looked like a wound that had scabbed over, yet the scar remained.

Zhaoyang’s expression shifted instantly.

I looked up at her with a faint smile.

“Zhaoyang.”

“Even if an old item is repaired, it can only ever be considered a defective piece.”

I paused, then added another sentence-seemingly casual, yet every word cut to the bone.

“This applies to things, and it applies to people.”

Zhaoyang gripped the hem of her wedding dress so tightly her fingertips turned pale.

To her, the current Chu Xingzhi was exactly that: a defective piece.

She looked up with hatred, a cold sneer twisting her lips.

“It is still better than you, Imperial Elder Sister.”

Her gaze was like needles, pricking me inch by inch.

“You will let just anyone into your sight.”

“Even the lowliest of men can become a guest in your private chambers.”

As expected.

Back then, in the Cold Palace, those eunuchs and guards who humiliated me… if she hadn’t given them the nod, who would have dared to be so brazen?

In that case, I shall let you taste it too.

Taste what it’s like to be with a “lowly man.”

I did not stay for the banquet or the ceremony.

While the suona horns blared their festive noise, I turned and walked out amidst the courtyard’s celebratory atmosphere.

I did not return to my manor.

Instead, I galloped out of the city to an extremely secluded villa.

Once inside, I leisurely applied my makeup and changed into a vibrant red wedding robe.

The bronze mirror reflected a sharp-eyed woman, her satisfaction impossible to hide.

I pushed the door open. The dragon-and-phoenix candles were burning brightly, the wicks crackling.

Behind the slightly lowered wedding curtains, a person lay on the bed.

His eyes were covered with red silk, and his limbs were bound to the bedposts with fine golden chains.

He looked like an exquisite sacrificial offering, quietly waiting to be unveiled.

I walked over, my fingertip tracing his tensed jawline.

“Imperial Son-in-Law, do you hear that? The bells are ringing in the city.”

I laughed softly.

“At this very moment, Zhaoyang is holding the hand of a body double, performing the wedding rites with him.”

Chu Xingzhi gritted his teeth, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

After a long silence, he squeezed out a single sentence in a hoarse voice:

“Anping… you lunatic.”

I wasn’t angry. I simply reached out, my fingertip slowly sliding over his heart.

Through the fabric, that slight tremor was honest to the point of cruelty.

I curled my lips in satisfaction and leaned down close to his ear.

“Admit it, Chu Xingzhi.”

“Your heart guards your scholarly books and your Zhaoyang.”

“But your body…”

“It remembers me.”

The candle flame flickered, and the red silk swayed gently.

The fine chains chimed softly, the echoes lingering.

I want the Crimson Feather Order.

But I have no intention of letting Chu Xingzhi go, either.

He was the second thing I asked for from Jingping.

In this play of swapping the plum for the peach, it must be that the Yong’an Marquis Estate has abandoned him.