Chapter 5
Chapter 5
I left in a daze, utterly confused.
To be honest, before I went to deceive Liang Xi, I had been both nervous and terrified.
After all, a lie was a lie. I was afraid Liang Xi would carefully verify my identity-for instance, ask me to produce the jade pendant that had served as a token, or question me about the details of how I had saved him back then.
I had even prepared excuses in advance and thought up all sorts of nonsense to make up on the spot.
I never expected everything to go so smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that I began to suspect there was some kind of trap hidden in it.
Whatever.
In any case, I had achieved my goal.
Liang Xi truly took my words to heart, and he acted quickly.
The very next day, the imperial edict granting the marriage arrived at the Xu family.
Xu Mingyi stared at me in disbelief.
My stepmother, even more shocked, blurted out, “How do you know Prince Rui?!”
I deliberately held my breath until my face flushed red, pretending to be bashful.
“A few days ago, I accidentally fell into the water while I was outside, and His Highness saved me, so…”
Xu Mingyi found it absurd. “You’re making that up, aren’t you? He personally went into the water to fish you out?”
Damn it. She actually didn’t believe me!
Wasn’t this kind of scene everywhere in storybooks?
Why did you believe it when it was in a storybook, but not when I said it?
I held my breath again and made my face turn even redder.
“I don’t know why he went into the water himself either… But now that I think about it, he must have fallen in love with me…”
As I spoke, I deliberately lifted the imperial edict in my hands a little higher.
After all, he had even requested an imperial marriage decree.
Xu Mingyi seemed to want to say something else, but my stepmother tugged her back.
“Forget it. She’s always so timid and useless. I doubt she’d dare lie.”
In my heart, I quietly thought: you are very much mistaken.
Wasn’t the whole point of acting timid and useless all these years so that no one would suspect me when I lied today?
Deceiving my stepmother and younger sister was no big deal. I had even deceived a prince.
My courage far exceeded her imagination.
No matter how unwilling she was, my stepmother could only watch as I married into the prince’s estate.
On the day the wedding procession came to fetch me, I had thought my stepmother might do something. I had even considered what I would do if Xu Mingyi dragged Liang Xi over and confessed her true identity to him.
Fortunately, nothing happened.
My stepmother and Xu Mingyi seemed to have both believed the story that Liang Xi had saved a beauty and fallen in love at first sight. They merely watched me through gritted teeth, their smiles terribly forced.
After we were married, Liang Xi treated me well.
Even though I knew it was all built on the belief that I was his benefactor.
If the lie was ever exposed one day, my circumstances would be turned completely upside down.
I carefully maintained this peaceful and satisfying life, hoping I could simply grow old with him like this.
Unfortunately, my luck had never been particularly good.
Or perhaps I was receiving retribution for telling too many lies.
In the second year after my marriage, my younger sister came to visit.
When I heard from the steward that Xu Mingyi had arrived, I lifted my skirts and ran outside.
I had to stop Xu Mingyi. I absolutely could not let her meet Liang Xi!