Chapter 14 — Wedding Day Switch: My Husband Traded Me Away

Mother Zhang hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up.

"If Your Highness returns just like this, will the Lord Prime Minister... will he..."

"What about him?"

I looked at her.

"Would he truly offend the entire Prince Regent’s Mansion merely for the sake of a secondary daughter?"

Mother Zhang fell silent. She knew the answer all too well. He would not. That father of mine prized power and personal gain above all else in this world. In his eyes, Shen Rou was nothing more than a moderately useful chess piece. The moment that piece threatened his own interests, he would discard her without a single pang of hesitation.

"Your Highness, and as for Young Master Gu..."

Mother Zhang brought up yet another name. Before she could even finish her sentence, a commotion erupted from outside the carriage window. A familiar, urgent voice shouted from the street.

"Hua'er! Hua'er! Please, just come out and see me!"

It was Gu Yan. He had dressed in a long blue robe, his hair disheveled, and his face carved with utter exhaustion. Disregarding all propriety, he fought desperately to break through the line of guards to approach my carriage. Without direct orders from Feng Yuan, the guards dared not inflict any violence upon him, yet they managed to corral him firmly in the center.

"Hua'er! I know it is you! You must listen to my explanation!"

"Those rumors were not spread by me! It was Shen Rou! It was all her doing!"

To think he would betray Shen Rou so readily. How utterly laughable. In the past, for her sake, he had willingly shoved me straight into a fiery pit. Now that disaster loomed over his own head, he cast her aside as a shield without a second thought.

"I know you have suffered such grievous wrongs. Come away with me, and I shall take you far from this wretched place!"

"Can we not simply begin anew?"

He was still indulging in such pitiful delusions. I gazed upon his face, meticulously painted with false affection and desperate remorse, and felt nothing save a profound nausea.

"Stop the carriage."

My voice rang out, cold as ice. The carriage slowly came to a halt, and the guards instantly parted to clear a path. A flicker of triumphant joy crossed Gu Yan’s features, clearly believing my heart had softened. He lunged forward toward the carriage window.

"Hua'er, I knew deep within your heart you still harbored feelings for me—"

His words abruptly choked off in his throat. From inside the carriage, I tossed down a single object. It was a letter. A letter he had frantically smuggled into the Prince Regent’s Mansion only last night, filled to the brim with declarations of undying longing for me and venomous revulsion toward Shen Rou. Every single brushstroke dripped with profound ardor and devotion. Had I laid eyes upon it in my past life, perhaps my heart would have stirred. But now? It merely tasted like bitter mockery. The letter fluttered through the wind and landed squarely at his feet. The color drained entirely from his face, leaving him deathly pale.

"You..."

"Young Master Gu."

I finally spoke, my voice entirely stripped of warmth.

"I advise you to bear three things firmly in mind."

"Firstly, I am now the Princess Regent, your legitimate elder by status and law, so I suggest you mind your forms of address."

"Secondly, the letter lying at your feet, alongside every word you uttered just now, has already been copied down verbatim and delivered straight into the hands of your dear wife, Shen Rou."

"Thirdly..."

I paused, watching his features distort with sheer terror, and offered a cold smile.

"My return to the Shen household today is precisely to settle accounts with your esteemed wife."

"If you harbor any lingering pity for her, you are more than welcome to follow right behind us and witness with your own eyes what manner of end awaits her."

"Naturally, the prerequisite is that you can manage to keep up."

With those final words, I let the carriage curtain fall back into place.

"Move."

The carriage wheels began to turn once more, leaving Gu Yan’s despairing visage far behind in the dust.

Before the grand gates of the Shen estate, my father, the Prime Minister, had received word long in advance and was already kneeling at the head of the entire household to welcome my arrival. His complexion was infinitely more wretched than it had been on our previous encounter, and cold sweat soaked straight through the fabric of his official cap.

"This humble subject pays respects to Your Highness."

His voice trembled violently, not even daring to raise his head. I refused to grant him permission to rise, nor did I deign to step down from the carriage. Sitting high above within the carriage, I looked down through the translucent gauze curtain upon the sea of people kneeling across the earth.

"Prime Minister Shen."

I spoke in an indifferent tone.

"Are you aware of your crimes?"

My father’s frame shuddered even more violently.

"This subject... this subject has failed to discipline his daughter properly, and begs the Princess to grant her mercy."

"Do you truly believe a mere excuse of failing to discipline a daughter will suffice to wave this matter away?"

My tone dropped several degrees.

"Your dutiful daughter fabricated malicious rumors, slandered the Princess of the current dynasty, and sought to ruin the imperial lineage."

"Incident after incident, which of these offenses could ever be washed clean by your simple plea of poor discipline?"