"I think you deserve a reward." Xiao Yu smiled and threw out a gold-embroidered sachet. The heavy weight landed on the top of the sedan chair. The sound of copper coins clashing mixed with curses from inside the sedan chair. "I heard you stuffed five packets of croton powder into the sedan chair?"
"How can there be so much!" Chen Weiwan rode her horse closer, the pearl tassels on her temples gleaming with tiny silver lights, and the phoenix feathers on her wedding dress drew flowing light and shadows on the horse's back, "It's just three packets of Western Region Seven-Star Chili Powder and two packets of Lingnan Laxative Powder. I guarantee they won't be able to get off the sedan before we get to the place of exile!" She suddenly lowered her voice, and her eyes curved into crescents when she smiled slyly, "By the way, I also asked the sedan bearers to drill a hole the size of a copper coin in the bottom of the sedan..." The little look of her sharing a secret amused Xiao Yu so much that he tapped his folding fan on his palm.
Xiao Yu couldn't help laughing. He reached out to brush away her hair that was messed up by the wind. His fingertips brushed against the back of her ears, which brought with them the cool morning dew: "Father said yesterday that you are three times more powerful than the shackles in the Ministry of Justice's prison." He turned around and ordered the guards behind him, with a smile in his voice: "Go, give double the reward to the sedan bearers, and make two more rounds! Make sure the storytellers in Liulichang watch carefully so that they can make up new jokes tomorrow!" The indulgence in his eyes was almost overflowing.
As the sun set and dusk shone over the city walls, the bridal sedan finally stopped at the South Gate. When Liu and Shen Ruorou were dragged out by the yamen runners, their faces smeared with dark red chili oil, their skirts stained with suspicious ochre stains, they looked like drowned rats fresh from a swill bucket. Shen Ruorou had half a fake snake stuck between her fingernails, its gold powder smeared all over her face. She muttered to herself, her eyes glazed over, "Snake... snake..." Her appearance was so ridiculous that the soldiers guarding the city turned around and stifled laughter.
"Aunt, take care!" Shen Weiwan stood by the battlements of the city wall, raising her hand and scattering a handful of "petals." Upon closer inspection, she found they were chopped itchy grass, the green fragments dancing in the sunset. "When I enter the palace, I'll send you some chili powder from the Western Regions as a gift! I guarantee it's more valuable than the private money you've hidden!"
Liu looked up, about to curse, but the sudden puff of powder choked her, sending tears streaming down her face. Her lapel quickly became stained darkly. She caught sight of the imperial jade pendant on Xiao Yu's waist on the city wall, and suddenly, clutching the guard's sleeve like a lifeline, she screamed, "Sir! The Seventh Prince allowed his fiancée to lynch a prisoner. This is against the law!"
"Breaking the law?" the bailiff sneered, pulling out an official document bearing the imperial seal from his sleeve and waving it before Liu's eyes. The vermilion ink stood out against the twilight. "You escaped from prison first, and what the Seventh Prince's wife did is 'assisting the government in apprehending a wanted criminal.' But you..." He pointed to the bridal sedan that lay tottering on the ground. The portrait of a fat pig on the curtain had been rubbed so badly that half its ear was missing. "The people's new play, 'The Silly Aunt in the Bridal Sedan,' has been staged. It'll open at the theater tomorrow!"
At nightfall, the General's Mansion was re-decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Shen Weiwan took off her heavy wedding gown and collapsed on the soft couch covered with mandarin duck brocade, nibbling on the candied plums that Xiao Yu had sent. She watched Chuntao enter, holding a wrinkled sedan curtain. The ink stains on the fabric had been rubbed and blurred. "Miss, this sedan curtain..."
"Keep it!" Chen Weiwan's eyes lit up, and she sat up as if she had discovered a treasure. "Once you enter the palace, hang it in the prince's study as a family heirloom! Call it the 'Curtain to Guard the House, Exorcise Evil, Punish Evil and Promote Good'!" She suddenly pulled out a gilded brocade box from her dressing table. When the lid was opened, fine pink powder flew out. "Oh, by the way, I'm getting married tomorrow, and I have to prepare a little 'surprise' for those noble ladies waiting to see me laugh."
Twelve embroidered sachets were neatly arranged in a brocade box, embroidered with auspicious phrases like "May you have a long-lasting marriage and a son soon." The stitching was so fine that it could even be seen in a person's silhouette. Curious, Chuntao leaned in to take a sniff. "A-choo!" The loud sneeze shook the candlelight on the candlestick. Tears welled up in her eyes as she pointed at the sachets, "Miss... Miss, inside..."
"It's just some dried itchy grass and pepper." Shen Weiwan smiled cunningly, and pinched a sachet embroidered with lotus flowers with her fingertips. The powder inside rustled. "Tomorrow, when the sedan chair passes by Liu's old house, I will throw all these in! Then let the musicians play "Victory Order" to send my aunt off for the last time!" That expression seemed as if she had already seen the ugly appearance of the noble ladies scratching their heads tomorrow.
Xiao Yu, who had walked in at some point, looked at the "murder weapons" lined up on the table, then looked at Shen Weiwan's sparkling eyes, and shook his head helplessly and dotingly: "The one I married was not a princess, but a little devil." He stretched out his hand to scratch the tip of her nose, and suddenly hugged her into his arms. His voice was low and gentle, with the scent of ambergris, "But... you are so lively and lively, which is the most exciting."
Outside, moonlight streamed through the carved window lattice, casting a shimmering light on the two of them. In the distance, the laughter of the common people, composing new rhymes, could still be heard. No one could have known that this absurd "bridal sedan chair parade" would become the most legendary story of the Dasheng Dynasty, a storyteller's tale for three days straight without repeating the same story. And Chen Weiwan's name, along with the jingle "deceiving the legitimate daughter," like a pebble dropped into a lake, rippled through the conversations of the capital's citizens. After all, what could be more satisfying than watching the wicked make a fool of themselves? Truly vindicated the old saying—good is rewarded, evil is punished; it's not that there's no retribution, it's just that the time hasn't come yet. When the time comes, the bridal sedan chair parade will delight everyone!
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