After the imperial decree of marriage was issued, Lu Yanhe immediately went to find Jiang Shuman.
"Manman".
Jiang Shuman was practicing her martial arts in the courtyard. When she saw him coming, she briefly put the red-tasseled spear back in and took the handkerchief handed to her by the maid to wipe her hands.
"What do you want from me?"
Lu Yanhe's gaze remained fixed on her.
"I heard that His Majesty has bestowed a marriage upon you and Gu Jinchuan."
"Um."
Jiang Shuman's attitude made Lu Yanhe somewhat anxious. He stepped forward and said, "I know you've never liked these kinds of political marriages. The Emperor and Empress just want to use your marriage to Gu Jinchuan to resolve the feud between our two families..."
"So you knew that the Jiang family and the Gu family had a grudge?"
Jiang Shuman's eyes were full of sarcasm. "Do you still remember how the feud between the Gu family and the Jiang family started? When Mother held a full moon celebration for your sister, didn't you feel sorry for your aunt? Now you think she's a sinner?"
Lu Yanhe's face flushed red, and he guiltily defended himself, "I didn't know at the time that Aunt Rongping was the one who killed her..."
Jiang Shuman sneered.
"So, she's justified in harming the Empress? Or is it because she's the mother of your beloved, so you're willing to turn a blind eye out of her?"
Lu Yanhe opened his mouth, but in the end he only said, "I'm sorry."
Jiang Shuman said in a gentle voice, "Lu Yanhe, you're not a bad person, but you're a bit clueless. You've become stupid from reading all day, treating those outdated rules as gospel. You're also easily influenced; if someone stirs things up in front of you, you think I'm powerful and will dominate you in the future. That's why you're so critical of me, hoping I'll be subservient to you. But why should I try to please you?"
Her eyes were cold, and her words were sharp.
"Only incompetent men would desperately try to belittle women in order to elevate themselves."
Lu Yanhe was speechless.
Jiang Shuman continued, "That's the biggest difference between you and Gu Jinchuan. He never asks me to act according to his standards. He would be proud of me if I went to the battlefield and became a female general. Instead, he wants me to take off my uniform, stay at home to be a wife and mother, and cook for him."
Lu Yanhe's face turned pale and then flushed. "But you used to hate him..."
Jiang Shuman laughed, "You used to hate me, so why are you now rushing to apologize to me?"
Lu Yanhe was speechless.
"You're just not willing to accept it."
Jiang Shuman's words pierced his heart: "You gave up on me, thinking you could marry a beautiful woman, only to find that she has someone else in her heart. You were just deluding yourself and ending up with nothing. If Shen Qinghe truly loved you, why would you come back to me?"
"Lu Yanhe, in your eyes, I, Jiang Shuman, am just a second-best option, right?"
Lu Yanhe was so intimidated by her aura that he took several steps back.
"I...I..."
Jiang Shumiao didn't want to talk to him anymore. She turned around, picked up her sword again, and said, "Go. I won't hold it against you for your aunt's sake. But let me give you a piece of advice: think more carefully when dealing with people and things in the future, and don't get fooled again."
Holding the sugar figurine, Jiang Shumiao glanced at Lu Yanhe's departing figure and said to Fuqu, "Men are so strange."
Fuqu nodded.
"Human love is too complicated, I don't understand it."
Jiang Shumiao took a bite of the sugar figurine, chewing it with a crunchy sound.
"That's why I hate gods who are always saying they want to be in a relationship."
Fuqu sighed and muttered, "They really don't know how lucky they are. Don't they know how hard it is for us demons to cultivate immortality? If they find being an immortal too burdensome, they can step down and give way to a more worthy one."
"It's not that we don't appreciate what we have, it's that we're greedy."
Jiang Shumiao said, "They want to stay young forever and live a long life, but they also find the years too long, empty, lonely and cold, so they start to crave human love. What's most infuriating is that when they fall in love, they always threaten to kill all the people in the world, as if only love is the greatest thing."
Fuqu was shocked.
"No, are there no heavenly rules? How can they be allowed to treat human life so carelessly?"
"Yes, I have."
Jiang Shumiao felt a little annoyed. "But the Heavenly Rules at that time had many loopholes. Moreover, the survival rule of the gods at that time was to respect strength. Mortals were as weak as ants, and they looked down on them. Later, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went up and made a scene, and that's when the new Heavenly Rules were changed. If you want to take the body of a mortal to undergo tribulation, you must protect all living beings, otherwise you will have your divine bones removed, your divine status erased, and you will never be able to reincarnate."
Fuqu was shocked once again.
"Does the Emperor listen to you every single day?"
Jiang Shumiao snorted, "He wouldn't listen, but I beat him into submission in the end."
Fuqu almost knelt down before her.
Jiang Shumiao then said, "However, the revised Heavenly Rules are still not complete enough, mainly because the immortals lack virtue. So when I died, I established new rules: all cultivators must first cultivate virtue and then cultivate their hearts, taking the world as their responsibility, before they can ascend to immortality."
With teary eyes, Fuqu asked, "No wonder ascension is so difficult now... Wait, is this a rule you set?"
"yes."
Jiang Shumiao finished eating the sugar figurine and looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Is there a problem?"
Fuqu stammered, "You just said that those were rules you established before you died. But now that you've perished, why would the gods still obey those orders?"
She had heard a lot of things.
After the war between gods and demons, the gods were depleted and desperately needed fresh blood. Logically, they should have lowered their standards.
"because…"
Jiang Shumiao stopped herself as soon as she opened her mouth, and said fiercely, "Focus on your cultivation, and don't ask about things you shouldn't ask about."
Fuqu: "..."
If you don't want to ask, then don't ask. Why be so fierce?
The sixth day of the seventh lunar month is an auspicious day, suitable for marriage.
Jiang Shumiao, unusually, didn't sleep in and went to see the bride with Jiang Yining early in the morning.
The maids and servants all surrounded Jiang Shuman, and the two little ones squeezed into the crowd. They spent almost two hours getting her makeup done and changing into her wedding dress.
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