Chapter 3 — Catching Them Red-Handed on My Wedding Day

From terror to utter blankness, and from blankness to despair, her entire face finally twisted into a hideous, unrecognizable grimace.

You are lying!

She suddenly jolted up from the ground, her soaked sleeves lashing out in a spray of water as several matrons barely managed to restrain her.

You are clearly the Marquis! You are clearly wearing the bridegroom's wedding robes!

Liu Xiang was so frightened by her outburst that he stumbled backward. Trembling, he fached into his chest and pulled out a tattered script along with a neatly folded sheet of scented stationery. Holding them both high above his head, his voice broke into sobs.

I beg the mistress to examine the truth. This humble servant is merely Liu Xiang, the head of the Sheng Family Troupe.

I have performed operas in this city for twenty years. My neighbors from the southern streets to the northern alleys all recognize this face.

He opened the script and carefully offered the scented stationery forward.

This is the order form for the opera, written personally by the mistress just the day before. The mistress chose the play The Battle of Dingjun Mountain, and instructed me to dress as the Marquis to enact a scene of breaking enemy lines on the battlefield. It is written clearly in black and white; this humble servant would not dare to fabricate even a single word!

The matron at my side quickly stepped down, took the script and the stationery, examined them carefully under the glow of the corridor lanterns, and then held them high, reading aloud before the crowd.

Liu Xiang of the Sheng Family Troupe, playing the role of a martial actor, wearing bright red battle robes, performing Huang Zhong breaking enemy lines on the battlefield in The Battle of Dingjun Mountain. Remuneration: twenty taels of silver. Signed: Shen.

Every single word was crystal clear. The guests in the courtyard exchanged glances. Those who had just been brimming with righteous indignation, demanding justice for Chu Yaoyin, now wore expressions of utter shock. Chu Yaoyin stared fixedly at that piece of scented stationery, as if gazing at a venomous snake with its forked tongue flickering. Suddenly, she lunged up from the ground again, screaming as she hurled herself at Liu Xiang.

You forged this! You forged it yourself! I will tear this scrap of paper to shreds!

Three matrons moved as one, twisting her arms and forcing her back to the ground. Her knees struck the bluestone tiles with a dull thud. Her disheveled hair clung to her face, matted with mud and pondweed, leaving no trace of her former fragile, pitiful demeanor as a virtuous widow who wished to prove her innocence with her death. I stood upon the steps, looking down at her from above.

Aunt.

I spoke, my voice soft, almost gentle.

Just now, you kept claiming that the Marquis forced you. You said the Marquis was strong and powerful, while you were merely a weak woman unable to resist. Yet now that the truth is out, the person you clung to is nothing more than a humble opera troupe leader. In the water, you were stripping off his clothes and kissing him...

I paused, my gaze sweeping over the ambiguous red marks on her neck, my tone carrying just the right measure of astonishment.

Before you even clearly saw who it was, you dragged him into the lake?

A sharp intake of breath rippled through the surrounding crowd.

You exerted quite a bit of strength down in the water, didn't you? Clinging and pressing so tightly that the matrons could not pull you apart no matter how hard they tried. With strength like that, you hardly looked like someone who could not resist.

Chu Yaoyin's entire body began to tremble like a sieve in the wind. She abruptly raised her head, staring up at me with an enmity so venomous it seemed like crawling insects about to burst from her eye sockets.

You framed me!

Her voice was hoarse and torn, as if dragged from the deepest recesses of her throat.

Shen Luanruan, you set this trap for me! You deliberately chose this opera, deliberately let him wear red. You calculated that I would...

What did I calculate you would do?

I cut her off, my tone calm and even.

Did I calculate that you would take advantage of my wedding day to push my husband into the lake? Or did I calculate that in front of a full courtyard of guests, you would embrace a complete stranger and perform a live erotic spectacle?

A sharp, choking sound escaped Chu Yaoyin's throat, like a bitch whose spine had been snapped.

I did not... That is not what happened!

Enough.

Lu Mo, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke.