Chapter 1
On Zhuque Avenue, a wedding procession stretching for miles was moving forward in a grand manner.
The gilded wedding sedan chair, carried by sixteen men, gleamed in the sunlight. The golden phoenixes embroidered on the curtains swayed gently with the steps of the porters, as if they were about to take flight at any moment.
Following the sedan chair was a seemingly endless procession of dowry items, with red silk ribbons tied to the vermilion and gold-painted chests, fluttering in the spring breeze.
"Whose daughter is getting married? Such a grand affair!" A young man who looked like a scholar stared wide-eyed in a teahouse on the street.
The old man beside him stroked his beard and said, "Judging from this setup, even a princess from a noble family could probably pull this off."
"You don't know this, sir," a vendor at the next table leaned over and whispered, "This is the only daughter of the Li family, the richest family in our Lanno Kingdom. I heard her dowry alone filled 1,360 carts!"
Everyone gasped upon hearing this.
At this moment, a group of maids carrying jewel boxes walked by in the procession. The sunlight shone into the boxes, reflecting a dazzling brilliance.
"That's not right!" a woman suddenly frowned. "Didn't the heir of the Marquis of Ru'an just marry Miss Zhou three days ago? Could it be that Miss Li...?"
"Who knows? For Miss Li to marry into the Marquis of Ru'an's household as a concubine is already a great honor for her."
"Did you see this dowry? This ten-mile-long red bridal procession isn't excessive, is it? With this kind of dowry, what kind of husband wouldn't you find in the capital? Why bother going out of your way to become someone's concubine?"
Inside the sedan chair, Li Zhiwei's fingertips dug deeply into her palms.
Beneath the bright red veil, a cold smile curled at the corner of her lips.
She never imagined that she would be reborn on the day she got married.
She remembered that in her previous life, she brought half of the Li family's fortune to the capital to marry Lin Jitong. However, she did not know that three days before she married him, Lin Jitong had already married her beloved cousin Zhou Yutang.
She could only swallow her anger and become Lin Jitong's concubine.
She could be called a secondary wife, but that was just for outsiders to hear. Her life in the Marquis of Ru'an's mansion was not easy. At first, her maids protected her.
But gradually, the people around her either betrayed her or were dealt with by Lin Jitong and Zhou Yutang.
Her dowry was taken away by her kind mother-in-law, Zhou, after she entered the Lin family.
She wanted to get her dowry back, but her mother-in-law made all sorts of excuses to refuse.
In the end, the Marquis of Ru'an's family spent all of her dowry.
Lin Jitong then asked him to write a letter to his father, asking him to send him money.
But by then, she had already seen through the true colors of the people from the Marquis of Ru'an's mansion, so how could she be willing to let her father send money to these ungrateful wretches?
However, that beast Lin Jitong used her name to swindle the Li family out of all their wealth, and in the end, her parents met a tragic end.
She found out when Zhou Yutang was showing off her mother's jewelry in front of her.
Only then did she realize that if the Marquis of Ru'an's mansion hadn't been interested in the Li family's wealth, why would they have proposed marriage to a mere merchant's daughter like her?
All of this was their treacherous scheme.
"Li Zhiwei, you don't know, do you? My cousin felt sorry for me because I didn't have a dowry. Not only did he give me your dowry, but also, actually, he never touched you. In fact, the tea you drank on the day you entered the family was given a poison that would prevent you from having children. How could someone as lowly as you be worthy of bearing my child? And you must want to know who the person you consummated your marriage with is, right? Haha..."
Zhou Yutang looked at Li Zhiwei with a smug expression; Li Zhiwei was her stepping stone.
If it weren't for her and her family's dowry, my cousin and I wouldn't be living such a comfortable life, and my cousin's career wouldn't have progressed so smoothly.
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