When Madam Cui arrived, she saw two heads bobbing like chicks pecking at rice. She couldn’t help but find it amusing. “Did you two stay up late again last night? Look at the dark circles under your eyes.”
Cui Yunchu lowered her head, and Madam Cui reached out to steady her wobbling head.
Hearing her say, “Rise.”
Cui Yunfeng turned her drooping head back to look at her. “Rise from what? That’s Grandmother. Are you still dreaming?”
Cui Yunchu opened her eyes a slit, then closed them again. “Tired.”
The maids and older servants had risen early, and after everything was set in order, there was still half an hour before the marriage procession would arrive. Cui Yunfeng and Cui Yunchu lay together on the dressing table, dozing off, much to Madam Cui’s exasperation.
She could only fuss over Cui Yunfeng, worried she might overlook or forget something.
From start to finish, Cui Xiang never once appeared.
Whether genuinely drowsy or feigning it, Cui Yunfeng was like someone drunk, groggy and listless, letting the servants fuss over her as though she were a wooden puppet going through the motions of the wedding ceremony.
Even when the Prince of An arrived, she only lifted her eyes to glance at him before closing them again.
“Yunfeng, you are beautiful today.”
“Do you mean I was ugly before?” Cui Yunfeng asked with her eyes still closed.
“No,” Xiao Yi said, gently reaching out to touch her face. But Cui Yunfeng immediately dodged him, and the atmosphere in the room grew somewhat tense.
“You are beautiful every day,” Xiao Yi added.
“Isn’t the Prince of An supposed to be injured? Why would you come to fetch the bride in person?”
Every word she spoke seemed laced with thorns, dripping with sarcasm.
Xiao Yi bent down, leaning close to her ear. “I’ll carry you out of the door. You’re alone—I was afraid you might cry.”
When her elder cousin had married, it was her uncle who had carried her out. Cui Yunfeng’s gaze drifted toward the window. Her father truly hadn’t come to see her even once.
She curved her lips slightly and said something that made Xiao Yi’s smile freeze and his body go numb.
“I regret it.”
Her voice was so soft only the two of them could hear.
The wedding ceremony for a prince was similar to that of the crown prince, except the ancestral rite was omitted. Because Cui Xiang had banished Cui Yunfeng from the Cui family, there were very few guests present today. The entire Cui residence was immersed in a strange, indescribable silence.
Madam Cui wept tears of old age, holding Cui Yunfeng’s hand as she earnestly urged her, “Don’t forget the price you paid for this marriage. Remember what your grandmother said—you may let anyone down, but never let yourself down.”
Only by living well could she be worthy of the fierce courage she had once mustered.
Cui Yunfeng bit her lip hard, tears streaming down her cheeks onto their clasped hands.
At this moment, she had no right to say she regretted it. Especially not in front of her family.
“Don’t cry. It’s unlucky for a bride to cry, and it will ruin your makeup. Then you won’t be beautiful.”
“Grandmother, please be seated.” Cui Yunfeng helped Madam Cui sit down, then knelt and kowtowed three times. She also turned toward the empty seat beside her and kowtowed three more times.
“Father, Grandmother, rest assured. Yunfeng will not repeat past mistakes. One day, I will return to the Cui family with my head held high.”
She seemed to have made some kind of decision, her eyes filled with determination.
Cui Yunchu watched as Cui Yunfeng was carried out by Xiao Yi on his back. Aside from her admiration for the phoenix crown and wedding gown, she felt not the slightest envy for marriage.
Her cousin, Yunfeng.
The marriages of those around her all seemed to be this way. Her cousin had said that being able to marry the one her heart desired, even if it meant scheming and fighting to the death, was still a form of fulfillment.
And now Yunfeng had married the man she wanted, yet she spoke of regret.
So, which kind is true marriage? Or did the women of the Cui family simply not deserve happiness?
Cui Yunfeng lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and said to Cui Yunchu, “Elder Sister, I’m scared to be alone.”
“I’ll wait for you at the Prince of An’s residence,” Cui Yunchu replied, holding her hand.
The bridal sedan chair departed first; according to custom, it had to circle the city three times before returning to the mansion for the wedding ceremony.
Madam Cui’s eyes were red and swollen. “Yunchu, when you go, try to comfort Yunfeng. People must look forward, keep walking forward—don’t turn back.”
She, too, sensed that at the moment Yunfeng mounted the sedan chair, she had regretted it.
Cui Yunchu nodded. “Grandmother, rest assured. Today, since the Prince of An is marrying, many talented young men of the capital will gather. As a granddaughter, I might take the chance to look around.”
Madam Cui, leaning on Widow Li’s arm, turned and went back inside the residence. “Handle it yourself. Just let me know when it’s decided.”
“…”
Cui Yunchu pouted, withdrew her gaze, and glanced one last time at the direction the sedan chair had gone before boarding her own carriage to the Prince of An’s residence.
The carriage stopped at the entrance of the Prince of An’s mansion, already crowded with people waiting for the sedan chair’s return.
Today, the Crown Prince was also present. Several young lords were cautiously chatting with him, while off to the side stood…
Cui Yunchu stared at the man in the dark-red robe for quite a while before daring to be sure.
She climbed the steps and first greeted the Crown Prince. “Your Highness.”
“So, the eldest cousin has come too.” The Crown Prince smiled warmly. Since Tang Qingwan’s miscarriage, his attitude toward the Cui family had become far more approachable than before.
Cui Yunchu smoothly called him “Brother-in-law.”
The bustling crowd at the doorway suddenly fell silent because of their exchange.
Cui Yunchu looked up and found that the young lords who had been encircling the Crown Prince had retreated far away. When they met her gaze, they immediately averted their eyes, pretending to converse or adjust their clothes.
“…”
She was a woman, after all.
How insulting.
It wasn’t as if she wanted to marry them.
Cui Yunchu’s lovely eyes narrowed, and she fixed on one handsome young lord among them. “You’re Lord Wang from the Ministry of Rite’s family, aren’t you? I am very close friends with your sister. Do you remember me?”
The man looked left and right, then finally at Cui Yunchu, his face turning red, torn between wanting to look and not daring to.
The “fox spirit” before him was indeed beautiful, and he couldn’t resist stealing a glance, yet it felt as if she might bite his head off.
His expression was truly agonized.
Cui Yunchu’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
Don’t think she didn’t know how they gossiped about her behind her back. A bunch of grown men, chattering like market women.
Especially how they looked at her with judgment and disdain.
She had grown up without eating a single grain of rice from their homes—why should she suffer their pointed remarks?
As Lord Wang watched Cui Yunchu step closer, his flushed face screamed, “Don’t come any closer!”
“Lord Wang…”
Cui Yunchu’s voice came to an abrupt halt as a tall, imposing figure suddenly stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the Wang lord.
“Is Miss Cui unable to see this official standing right here?”
Cui Yunchu slowly lifted her gaze from the man’s dark-red robe, up to his sharp-boned, sharply defined face.
“Ah, it’s you, Lord Shen. Dressed in such bright colors, I thought someone was showing off his flashiness to try and steal the bride.”
“I didn’t recognize you for a moment. My apologies.”
Shen Xiabai looked down at the robe he was wearing. “Red is bright and vivid.”
