"I'm naturally well-informed." Xiao Yu sat down, his eyes fixed on the frosting at the corner of her mouth. "I'm just curious how Miss Shen plans to 'congratulate' your cousin?"
Chen Weiwan blinked and deliberately raised the peach blossom pastry in front of her eyes: "Of course... it's a big gift." She thought of Shen Ruoruo's face, which she valued the most, and she had already made up her mind - the red gold hairpin stolen by Liu would come in handy.
[Shen Ruorou's Collapse: White Silk and Poisoned Wine]
In the boudoir in the west wing, Shen Ruorou hugged an embroidered pillow and cried heartbreakingly, her hair disheveled like a grass nest: "Mother! I won't marry! I would rather die than marry that old man!"
Liu looked at her daughter's red, swollen eyes, her heart aching, yet she was helpless. She wanted to stand up for her daughter, but Li Xiu's affair was public knowledge. Who would want to marry a girl with such a connection to gay men?
"It's all Shen Weiwan's fault! She killed me!" Shen Ruorou suddenly grabbed the scissors on the dressing table, "I'm going to kill her!"
"You're crazy!" Liu grabbed the scissors and scratched her daughter's wrist with her nails, leaving several red marks. "If we mess with her now, we won't even be able to stay in this yard!"
The mother and daughter were hugging each other and crying bitterly when the maid Lu'e suddenly called out from outside the door: "Madam! Miss! A gift has arrived from Qinghui Courtyard!"
Liu wiped away her tears and saw Lu'e come in holding a brocade box wrapped in red silk. Shen Ruorou thought it was an insult and knocked the box to the ground. The red gold hairpin fell on the blue bricks, and the oriental pearl on the hairpin gleamed in the dim light. It was the relic that Liu had tried to trick out of Shen Weiwan. There was also a note next to the hairpin, with Shen Weiwan's beautiful handwriting on it:
"I heard my cousin has found her true love, so I'm sending her some of my mother's relics as a congratulatory gift. I hope you and Mr. Wang will be happily married and have a son soon. Also: If Mr. Wang doesn't agree, Mr. Li from the coffin shop in the west of the city is also a good match."
"Chen Weiwan!" Shen Ruoruo grabbed the hairpin and tried to smash it, but her fingertips touched the cool, red gold that was her dream. But now, this gorgeous hairpin felt like a resounding slap in the face, slapping her already shattered self-esteem. She suddenly looked to the corner of the dressing table—there hung a spare white silk, left behind by Shen Weiwan the last time she was so angry that she wanted to commit suicide.
"Mother..." Shen Ruorou suddenly collapsed to the ground, looking at Bai Ling with empty eyes, "I don't want to live anymore..."
The Prince's "Watching the Play": Peach Blossom Pastry and a Poisonous Scheme
In the study of the Seventh Prince's Mansion, Xiao Yu listened to the guard's report while playing with the silver hairpin left by Shen Weiwan on his fingertips.
"Miss Chen has hung up all the white silk?" He chuckled and placed the silver hairpin next to the chessboard.
"Yes, Your Highness," the guard said, suppressing a laugh. "Liu snatched her away, and now the mother and daughter are crying and wailing in the room."
Xiao Yu picked up the manuscript of "The Biography of the Broken Sleeve" that Shen Weiwan had just sent him. The latest page showed an illustration of Shen Ruorou being chased by a matchmaker and the Sai Geng Tie. Next to it was a doggerel: "Fifty widowers come to the door, coffins and butchers are lined up in rows. Second Miss, come out quickly and choose a husband for your reincarnation."
"This girl," he shook his head, a smile on his lips, "a hairpin is sharper than a knife." Then he said to the guards, "Tell the secret guards to keep a close eye on Liu. Don't let her get desperate and hurt anyone - Miss Shen's performance cannot be ruined midway."
The Protagonist's "Blessing": The Coffin Shop and the Butcher
Inside Qinghui Courtyard, Shen Weiwan looked at the empty brocade box Chuntao had brought back, and recalled Shen Ruorou's expression of mixed love and hate when she saw the buyao. A sneer rose at the corner of her mouth. That buyao had originally been her mother's dowry, stolen by Liu in her previous life and given to Shen Ruorou to impress. Now that it had returned to its original owner, it had become a dagger piercing the enemy's heart.
"Chun Tao," she put down her teacup, her eyes cold, "Go tell Matchmaker Zhang that as your elder sister, I fully support your cousin in marrying Mr. Wang. Then send the engagement letters from Li Laowu and Zhao the Butcher as well, and tell them... let your cousin take her time choosing and don't let herself be wronged."
Chun Tao's eyes widened: "Miss, what are you doing..."
"You don't understand." Shen Weiwan picked up the peach blossom cake that the Seventh Prince had just given her and took a bite. "Some people, only when they are pushed to the brink of despair, will they know what it means to be unable to live or die."
As the night deepened, Shen Ruorou's suppressed sobs echoed from the west wing, mingled with Liu's curses. Shen Weiwan extinguished the candlelight, lay in bed, and listened to the cicadas chirping outside. Shen Ruorou's "romantic luck" was merely an appetizer; tomorrow's monthly review would be the real feast—she had already prepared the account books, waiting for Liu and her daughter to fall into her trap.
The next morning, matchmaker Zhang returned with engagement letters from Li Laowu and Zhao the Butcher. Liu fainted from anger, and Shen Ruorou locked herself in her room, refusing to come out despite calls. Meanwhile, in Qinghui Courtyard, Shen Weiwan savored the rose pastries freshly delivered by the Seventh Prince. A cold glint flashed in her eyes as she scrutinized the account book showing Liu's withholding of funds. This drama of revenge, fueled by Shen Ruorou's romantic fortune, finally reached its climax.
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