Shen Weiwan unfolded the New Year picture and saw Liu sitting in a prisoner's carriage, surrounded by children singing a jingle. The inscription read, "A carriage full of snow and wind, three thousand miles in distance, is no match for a folk doggerel." She couldn't help but shake her head, while Chuntao exclaimed, "Miss, look at this!"
Chun Tao held a brocade box in her hand, and inside was a water-green embroidered handkerchief. In the center of the handkerchief was a small abacus embroidered with gold thread, and next to it were three words embroidered crookedly: "You are so cruel." Shen Weiwan chuckled: "Which naughty ghost embroidered this?"
"It was embroidered by His Highness the Seventh Prince himself!" Chun Tao blushed. "He said you're better at using an abacus than an accountant. This handkerchief suits you!"
Shen Weiwan's fingertips caressed the embroidery thread, her heart brimming with honey. Suddenly, a child's song reached her from outside the window, a melody even more cheerful than before. It must have been a new jingle about her marriage. She walked to the window and saw the old locust tree in the courtyard festooned with red lanterns. She remembered how, at this moment in her past life, she'd been huddled in a cold courtyard, munching on hard steamed buns, yet now she was about to marry the prince she loved. Her eyes warmed.
Three days later, Liu's exile team passed through the outer city of the capital. She was wrapped in a patched old cotton robe and a black gauze hat on her head, but she still heard the childish singing coming from the roadside:
"My aunt is going into exile, and she's drinking cold water on the way.
Weiwan is getting married, and the prince is the groom!
The red makeup is ten miles long, and the cabbage turns into a phoenix..."
Liu was trembling with anger. She flung back her veil and tried to curse, but was struck on the forehead by a stone-throwing child. "Bah! Wicked aunt! You deserve to be exiled for stealing other people's property!" The children ran off, laughing, leaving her slumped in the prison cart, her head in her hands. The bailiff sighed helplessly, "Madam, bear with it. You won't hear anything after this gate."
Liu looked at the city tower gradually moving away, her eyes went dark, and she fainted again, with blood still hanging from the corner of her mouth.
Meanwhile, in the main hall of the General's Mansion, Shen Weiwan was trying on her wedding gown in front of a bronze mirror. Embroidered in gold thread on the bright red brocade was a golden phoenix with outstretched wings, a pattern designed by Xiao Yu himself. The phoenix held a pearl the size of a grain of rice in its beak. Chuntao, holding the bronze mirror, suddenly clapped her hands and laughed, "Miss, there's a new jingle out there! I heard it was made by a tofu vendor!"
"Oh? Tell me about it." Shen Weiwan looked at her blushing cheeks in the mirror, and the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously.
Chun Tao cleared her throat and sang in the tofu-selling cadence: "Wei Wan marries the prince, beaming with joy! Liu Shi is exiled, crying for her parents! The abacus expert becomes a pauper, and good people are rewarded in the end—and there's a line at the end, saying that you and the Seventh Prince are 'cabbage and phoenix, a match made in heaven!'"
Chen Weiwan smiled, picked up the red gold hairpin from the dressing table, and placed it in her hair. Once coveted by Liu, this hairpin was finally worn openly on her head. The phoenix-winged design shone brilliantly in the candlelight. Suddenly, a deafening sound of gongs and drums echoed outside the courtyard. Chuntao peeked through the crack in the door. "Miss! The Seventh Prince's wedding procession has arrived! The boxes carrying the dowry stretch halfway down the street!"
She took a deep breath and, supported by her bridesmaid, walked out of the room. In the sunlight, Xiao Yu rode a tall horse, his red wedding dress accentuating his handsome features. Seeing her emerge, he dismounted and held out his hand, his palm warm. "Weiwan, the prince is here to pick you up."
Shen Weiwan placed her hand in his palm and heard the voices of the people on the street talking:
"Look at this dowry! I heard it includes a brocade quilt for hundreds of children and grandchildren, and a 'Cabbage Picture' painted by the Seventh Prince himself!"
"That's right! Miss Shen is so amazing! She has completely subdued that vicious woman Liu. She deserves this blessing!"
"That's right. Who would dare to mess with her from now on? Didn't you see the way the Seventh Prince looks at her, as if she were a rare treasure?"
When the sedan chair was lifted, Shen Weiwan lifted a corner of the curtain and saw that both sides of Zhuque Street were filled with people watching the excitement. Children were holding bouquets of cabbage leaves and singing the newly learned jingle along with the sedan chair:
"The new trend in Beijing is that everyone can recite poetry.
The aunt becomes a laughing stock, and Weiwan becomes the princess!
How happy this life is, how refreshing it is! "
She leaned against the red brocade-covered sedan chair, listening to the roar of gongs and drums and the cheerful songs, clutching the frozen persimmon handkerchief Xiao Yu had given her. Outside the window, the snow had stopped falling at some point, and sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the streets with a dazzling display of red-dressed women. In this life, she relied not on political schemes or sorcery, but only on her "silly wisdom" and memories of her past life, to crush her enemies, marry the prince of her dreams, and live a prosperous life.
As the sedan chair reached the foot of the palace wall, Shen Weiwan heard the sedan bearers humming softly: "A good abacus is not as good as a kind heart. Miss Weiwan, you are blessed with a mountain of fortune..." She couldn't help but smile, and the corners of her mouth raised a "provoking a beating" arc - this was the life she wanted, so cool!
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