"Pa!" A ferocious-faced yamen runner impatiently slapped her across the face. The sound was particularly clear in the bustling street. "You still dare to talk nonsense when you're about to die! If you dare bark again, I'll cut off your tongue and feed it to the dogs!"
Shen Weiwan's eyes suddenly turned cold. Liu had indeed coveted her biological mother's mutton-fat jade bracelet, secretly bribing a maid to steal it while she was not paying attention. However, she had discovered it beforehand and outmaneuvered Liu, causing her to lose face in front of the clan elders. Apart from a few trusted servants, no one else knew about this. How dare Shen Ruorou mention it in public?
She was about to speak when Xiao Yu spoke first. His tone was calm but carried an undeniable pressure: "It seems that Second Miss Shen has hit her head in prison and can't even distinguish between superiors and inferiors." He waved his hand as if to drive away something dirty. "Why don't you take her away quickly? Don't offend the eyes of this prince and First Miss Shen."
The yamen runners responded repeatedly, and roughly dragged the cursing Shen Ruorou towards the city gate. When passing by Shen Weiwan, Shen Ruorou suddenly spat at her with all her strength, and the saliva almost splashed on the corner of her skirt: "Shen Weiwan! Do you think you won? I am just a ghost..."
"Becoming a ghost?" Chen Weiwan dodged sideways, tapping her round fan lightly against her palm, making a "tap tap" sound. "Cousin, you should worry about your life in the mortal realm first. I've heard that the abbot of Jingxin Temple hates evil and hates criminals the most. I'm afraid your pampered body won't be able to survive three meals of brown rice with cabbage stalks."
Shen Ruorou's shouting gradually faded away, disappearing in the clamor of the street. In the teahouse on the corner, however, even more heated discussions broke out:
"See? Miss Shen's mouth is really powerful. She can choke Miss Shen Er to death with just one sentence!"
"That's right! Have you forgotten what happened at the Spring Banquet? Miss Shen sewed itchy grass into her clothes, and she ended up wearing a skirt with itchy grass scraps, scratching her ears and cheeks at the banquet, like a monkey!"
"If you ask me, this is what they call good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished! Miss Shen and her daughter have done so much evil, they deserve this day!"
As Shen Weiwan listened to these discussions, her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the jade bracelet on her wrist. The cool touch gradually calmed her chaotic mind. She recalled this time in her past life, when Liu had coaxed her into sitting by the window to learn needlework. Her stitches were crooked, and the flowers she embroidered looked like they had been gnawed by insects. Shen Ruorou, standing beside her, pointed at her nose and laughed at her for a long time. Now, thinking about it, that so-called "sisterly love" was nothing more than the teeth of an ungrateful wolf that could never be fed.
"What are you thinking about?" Xiao Yu's voice echoed overhead, a subtle tenderness in it. Unbeknownst to her, he had dismounted and stood beside her, his shadow perfectly shielding her from the glaring sunlight.
Shen Weiwan looked up at him, the sunlight filtering through his black hair, casting mottled shadows on his shoulders: "Do you regret it?" Xiao Yu asked, her figure reflected in his dark jade eyes.
"Regret?" Shen Weiwan smiled softly, that smile carrying relief but also a hint of coldness. "I only regret that I was blind in my previous life, mistaking jackals for relatives and not seeing their true colors sooner." She paused, her smile brightening. "But now everything is fine. My cousin went to the family temple to lose weight and cultivate herself, and my aunt went to the border to see the snow and reflect on her mistakes. How wonderful."
Xiao Yu saw the cold light flashing across her eyes, and suddenly reached out his hand to brush away a petal that had fallen from her shoulder. "Jingxin Temple is only half a day's journey from the capital. Do you want to go and have a look?"
"What are you looking at?" Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows, a sly look in her eyes, "To see if she has lost two pounds, or to see if she has been taught a lesson by the nuns?"
"See if she's been planting cabbages." Xiao Yu led the horse over, looping the reins twice around his palms in smooth and graceful movements. "I've already sent someone to the abbot to discuss the cabbage seeds you sent a few days ago. I've specially allocated three acres of land for her to cultivate personally."
Shen Weiwan's eyes lit up, like a kitten hearing candy: "Really?"
"Of course it's true." Xiao Yu climbed onto his horse and held out his hand to her, his palm warm and dry. "Would you like to go take a look together? I've had some sweet cakes from a time-honored southern city brand prepared. Let's just treat it as an outing in the countryside."
Shen Weiwan looked at the smiling light in his eyes and suddenly felt that this suggestion was brilliant. She tucked the fan into her sleeve, grabbed his hand without hesitation, and used the force to climb onto the horse. When her skirt swept across the horse's back, it startled two colorful butterflies in the grass by the roadside.
"Let's go!" She smiled, her eyes curved and bright as a crescent moon. "If my cousin doesn't manage to grow the cabbages, I'll give her another ten pounds of radish seeds so she can start a vegetable garden in the nunnery!"
The clatter of horse hooves shattered the sunlight on the bluestone slabs, leaving behind crisp laughter along the way. Seeing this, the storyteller on the street immediately clapped his hands on the wake-up stick and raised his voice:
"...Ladies and Gentlemen! Listen to my latest story—Miss Shen outsmarts her wicked aunt, plays tricks on a scumbag, and now sends her vicious cousin to the family temple to grow cabbages—"
"Wrong, wrong!" the old man selling candied haws shouted in the crowd, shaking the string of candied haws in his hand. "We're not growing cabbages! We're helping her lose weight!"
The storyteller roared with laughter, his wake-up stick slamming loudly on the table. "Yes, yes, yes! This is what they call—the wicked will be punished by heaven, and the foolish girl will be reborn. Let's see how she joins hands with the Seventh Prince and watches the changing situation in the capital with a smile!"
The sun was shining brightly, and a gentle breeze blew by. Shen Weiwan lay on Xiao Yu's broad back, inhaling his faint scent of ink and sunshine. Suddenly, she felt that the wind in this life was sweet. As for the cousin who planted cabbages barefoot under the scorching sun? She was just a mosquito that was easily swatted to death on her journey of rebirth. Even wiping off the blood stain seemed unnecessary.
"Your Highness," she suddenly said, a hint of cunning in her voice, "When I marry you, can you plant a vegetable garden in the backyard of the palace?"
Xiao Yu looked down at her, his smile deepening: "Growing cabbage?"
"No!" Shen Weiwan shook her head and poked his back lightly with her finger. "I want to plant a sugar cake tree! Then I can eat sweet sugar cakes every day!"
Xiao Yu's laughter shook the horse's back slightly, startling a few sparrows in the trees. "Very well, I'll have someone find some sugar cake trees and plant a garden for you in the backyard of the palace, so you can enjoy the freshest sugar cakes every day."
The sound of horse hooves gradually faded, disappearing at the end of the bustling streets of the capital. Meanwhile, at the street corner, Shen Ruorou continued to curse as the yamen runners dragged her, but her vicious words could no longer reach Shen Weiwan's ears. Her new life had already begun in the warm sunshine. Her dark past was merely a few supporting characters destined to be trampled underfoot and become the butt of ridicule in this exhilarating and exciting story.
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