Xiao Yu pinched her blushing cheeks helplessly, but his tone was so doting it could drip honey: "Next time someone dares to make trouble, I will have someone sew chili powder pouches into their hair buns. I guarantee that if they lower their heads, they will sneeze non-stop. It's more effective than chanting Buddhist beads."
"That's so boring," Chen Weiwan raised an eyebrow, pulled out half a piece of osmanthus cake from his sleeve and stuffed it into her mouth. The cake was soft and sweet, with a hint of lingering spiciness. "If you want to cheat, you have to do it clearly - like sticking chili powder on the soles of their shoes, so that if they take a step and sneeze, it will be like stepping on a firecracker. How festive!"
The two chatted and laughed as they boarded the gilded carriage. Chuntao took out a string of candied haws from the food box. The sugar coating shone like amber in the sunlight. "Miss, His Highness specially took a detour to ask Master Wang to make this for you. He said it would help you relieve the spiciness."
Shen Weiwan bit down on a hawthorn, the sweet and sour juice, mixed with the aftertaste of chili pepper, bursting on her tongue, and she found it particularly refreshing. She watched Xiao Yu pick the catkins from her hair, and suddenly remembered this moment in her past life, locked in her room by Liu, forced to embroider that crude wedding dress, needle after needle piercing her fingertips, blood staining the inferior satin red, yet she dared not even cry. Now, there was someone willing to play along with her, shielding her from all the malicious intent. Her nose suddenly felt sore.
Sure enough, within half a day, the "chili powder incident" in the fitting room spread like wildfire, spreading throughout the streets and alleys of the capital. In teahouses and taverns, storytellers spitted and sang about "The Seventh Prince's Consort's Outwitting Battle with the Sour Guy," while ordinary people gossiped about it, making up even more vivid jokes:
"Ms. Liu, Ms. Lin,
Want to mess up the place and play dirty tricks,
With a dirty ladle in his arms,
But I didn’t expect to encounter a pepper cannon!
A-choo, a-choo, in a row,
Red nose and red eyes like a manuca,
The Seventh Prince's wife laughed heartily.
Next time I dare to come and report,
Send you directly to feed the cat——
No, I'll send you to a Salesian's home to be a nanny.
Washing diapers for the baby every day!
Chen Weiwan sat under the grape trellis in Xiefangyuan, listening to the children outside the wall singing in long, drawn-out tones. She swung her legs and said to Xiao Yu, who was peeling lychees, "Your Highness, why don't they make it more rhyming? 'Sending you to feed the cats' is so commonplace. They should say 'Sending you to the orphanage to teach the children folk songs and wash three hundred diapers while you're there.'"
Xiao Yu laughed when he heard that. He handed the snow-white lychee flesh to her mouth, and brushed the corner of her lips with his fingertips: "You, you are so unruly." He looked at her sparkling eyes as she held the flesh in her mouth, and suddenly softened his voice, "Tomorrow is the wedding, what else do you want to do?"
Chen Weiwan held a lychee in her mouth, her eyes curved into crescents. "I want to hide a bunch of firecrackers in the wedding sedan chair, and when we get married, they'll go off and give the Empress Dowager a fright!"
"Nonsense!" Xiao Yu flicked her forehead, but there was no anger in his eyes, only unwavering tenderness. "If you want to hide firecrackers, you might as well hide chili powder. I guarantee that no one will dare to approach you during the wedding ceremony. Even the bridesmaid will have to wear a veil to serve you."
"Your Highness still understands me!" Shen Weiwan smiled with her eyebrows curved. The sunlight fell on her hair through the gaps in the leaves, like a handful of broken diamonds, making the pearls on her earrings shine brightly.
In the stillness of the night, candlelight danced in the bronze mirror, reflecting Shen Weiwan's crimson wedding gown. A phoenix embroidered in gold thread danced on the hem, its eyes inlaid with obsidian, gleaming faintly in the candlelight. Chuntao was unbraiding her hair when she suddenly whispered, "Miss, actually... Liu Ruolin and the others are here today simply because they're jealous of you."
Chen Weiwan grasped the pearl tassels dangling from the phoenix coronet, the cool beads poking her palm. She recalled herself in a past life, treading on thin ice amidst jealousy and scheming, ultimately dying tragically in the snow. But now, she simply chuckled, her fingertips stroking the phoenix's wings. "Jealous? Let them be jealous then." She turned her head and gazed out the window toward the Seventh Prince's Mansion, where the lights shone brightly, like a starlit courtyard. "Being able to marry the person you want, to trample your enemies underfoot, to live a life happier than anyone else—that's what they envy most."
The next morning, when Shen Weiwan got into the wedding sedan, she had indeed hidden a bag of refined chili powder in her sleeve. As the sedan started to lift, she heard Xiao Yu's hearty laughter through the curtains. Unable to resist, she lifted a corner of the curtains and saw him riding a tall horse. Around his waist, a small cloth bag of chili powder, tied with red silk, swayed as the horse jolted.
"Xiao Yu! What are you hanging?!" She lowered her voice and shouted through the curtain of the sedan chair, feeling shy and laughing.
"A wedding gift for you!" Xiao Yu reined in the reins and turned back to wink at her. The sunlight fell on his handsome profile, and his smile was so doting it could melt anyone. "I guarantee no one will dare to lift your veil!"
The people watching around burst into laughter, and someone shouted, "The Seventh Prince loves his wife so much! He even wears chili powder as a dowry!"
Shen Weiwan shook her head helplessly, but couldn't help but curl her lips as her fingertips quietly touched the chili powder in her sleeve. This life had been filled with surprises since the day she was reborn. She knew that as long as she had this prince by her side, willing to share her silliness and deceptions, the days ahead would be filled with even more hilarious "surprises." As for those blind rivals? Let them continue to be the subject of laughter throughout the capital, amidst envy and jealousy—after all, not everyone could be the consort of the Seventh Prince, whose life could be a joke.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
