Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I said nothing more. It was not yet time to reveal who I was.

I only gazed at Fu Huai with tender eyes and praised him against my conscience, murmuring, “Husband, you are truly handsome. Just as I imagined you would be.”

Fu Huai seemed to lower his guard in an instant.

See? No matter what sort of men they were, most of them were vain and full of themselves.

A casual compliment was enough to make them lose all sense of direction.

Fu Huai was moved, and he was at the age when hot blood ran strongest. He had no reason to leave the bridal chamber.

The clothes, the wine, the candles, the incense… Bliss Powder had been added to all of them. Even if Fu Huai were an immortal, he would not escape my grasp tonight.

I did not take the initiative. Fu Huai began undressing on his own.

He had the proper build of a military general: broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs, and a handsome, resolute face.

Compared to the pretty boys in brothels, he was certainly far superior.

Thinking of it that way, I was not exactly losing out.

The bed curtains fell. Fu Huai’s breathing grew uneven, his cheeks flushed, and again and again he called me “my wife.”

I kept my eyes open and heard the sound of a flute outside the door.

The melody did not sound like anything from the Central Plains.

It was Shen Ru, calling Fu Huai from outside.

I could not help but sneer.

In my previous life, Shen Ru had called Fu Huai away just like this, turning my elder sister into a laughingstock on the very first night of her wedding. From then on, everyone in the Duke’s Mansion mocked her, and she could never hold her head up again.

But now, Fu Huai could not hear a single sound from outside. All five of his senses were ruled by desire.

Even if Shen Ru blew until her throat split, even if she played until the sun was high in the sky tomorrow, the man she loved would not appear.

Shen Ru must have felt terrible, no?

But in my previous life, the two of them had also made my elder sister spend her wedding night washing her face with tears.

Fu Huai lost control. In the latter half of the night, he leaned close to my ear and said in delight, “My wife smells so sweet. You are truly different from the others.”

Of course I was different…

His two concubines would never have used such a heavy dose of Bliss Powder.

Fu Huai did not sleep all night. At daybreak, he stared at me for a while before finally leaving the bridal chamber.

Only after he was gone did I slowly open my eyes.

If Fu Huai had no interest in me, he would not have stared at me just now.

He had probably gone to coax Shen Ru.

Men were so generous with their love. Inside the room, outside the room-everywhere was love.

I simply took another short nap.

It was not until Fu Huai came to see me himself that I woke again. His expression was troubled, even somewhat embarrassed. His tall frame blocked the light before me. With nowhere to put his hands, he could only clasp them behind his back and say, “Ahem… Well… Wife, yesterday, you and Eldest Miss Chu got into the wrong bridal sedan. But now that what is done is done, we can only let this mistake stand.”

I sat up in shock, both hands clutching the quilt around me, just enough to reveal a shoulder covered in red marks. Tears instantly fell from my eyes.

“Wh-what? How could such an absurd thing happen? But… it was a marriage decree from Your Majesty. How could the bridal sedans be mistaken?”

“I… I should leave.”

At that, Fu Huai’s expression stiffened. He was likely thinking of last night. Everything had been initiated by him, led by him, and it had been he who could not restrain himself.

All the evidence in the room had already been cleaned away by Cui Niang.

Fu Huai would only think that he himself had been overcome by lust.

He straightened. A hypocrite like him would naturally put on a righteous front and say, “Do not worry, Wife. I will take responsibility for you. Since this great mistake has already been made, we can only continue as things are. I will enter the palace and meet Your Majesty to explain everything.”

I buried my face in the quilt and laughed silently.

If it had not been a woman Fu Huai liked, he would only have hated that he could not throw her out at once.

Just as he had treated my elder sister in my previous life.

My elder sister was thin-skinned. She could not utter a single sweet word, nor did she know how to flatter anyone. How could she ever deceive a man’s heart?

Fu Huai thought I was crying. He even coaxed me patiently for a few moments before entering the palace to meet Your Majesty.

Only then did I slowly get down from the bed and go to the bronze mirror, lifting it to look at myself.

It was true that Fu Huai did not love me. It was also true that he had lost control last night.

But what was “love,” in the end?

You could not touch it, and you could not see it.

Guilt, however, was an excellent weapon.

Last night, Fu Huai had consummated the marriage with me directly, forcing these two marriages to continue down the wrong path. On the surface, it seemed as if he had caused everything.

So long as I regretted it in the future, he would feel guilty.