Shen Che’s overly sincere attitude in accepting defeat made Ji Cheng realize that this young master was likely intentionally letting her win, which somewhat diminished the glory of her victory.
However, Ji Cheng wasn’t grateful at all. She was most annoyed by Shen Che’s demeanor of having everything under control. Originally, she hadn’t planned to make an excessive request, but since Shen Che was offering himself up, she didn’t mind taking a jab at him. “Tonight, you’ll sleep in the top courtyard.”
Shen Che didn’t respond verbally. He merely swept the dice on the table into the cup with the dice shaker, shaking it while saying, “You dare to make such a request, huh?”
“If you’re not afraid of losing face by going back on your word, you can always renege,” Ji Cheng said.
Shen Che placed the shaken dice cup face down on the table. “I won’t renege. This time, big or small?”
Ji Cheng also placed her shaken dice cup face down and thought for a moment before saying, “Big again.”
However, this time Ji Cheng’s luck wasn’t as good. She rolled four, five, and six, which didn’t beat Shen Che’s three sixes.
Ji Cheng couldn’t lose without grace, so she smiled at Shen Che and said, “Your turn to make a request.”
Shen Che said, “Put that bed of yours into storage.”
Shen Che’s request was so bizarre that Ji Cheng forgot to respond for a moment.
“Well?” Shen Che raised an eyebrow.
“Fine,” Ji Cheng nodded haughtily.
Shen Che stood up and said, “It’s getting late. I’ll go up to sleep first.”
Ji Cheng looked at Shen Che suspiciously. Her suggestions to play chess and dice were merely to delay time, but now she suspected that Shen Che’s goal in playing dice was specifically aimed at that bed.
“Is there something wrong with that bed?” Ji Cheng asked aloud.
There was nothing wrong with the bed, it was just too startling. It was the same as the bed in Shen Che’s dream. He had never seen the dowry bed that the Ji family had prepared for Ji Cheng before, so why had he dreamed of it?
The grape pattern symbolizing many children and grandchildren was originally a good thing, but unfortunately, in his dream, the ones tumbling on that bed weren’t him and Ji Cheng, but that Liu Jun fellow. Shen Che was as disgusted as he could be and inexplicably alarmed. For a moment, he even felt that perhaps Ji Cheng and Liu Jun truly had a marital fate, which he had snatched away. Otherwise, there was no way to explain the grape-patterned bed.
Shen Che originally didn’t believe much in such nonsense, but a few years ago, there had been a famous figure named Su Qingci. This person had appeared out of nowhere, and even the Jingshi Army couldn’t investigate his background. His poetry was stunningly brilliant, and he often made reckless and absurd claims, saying he was from the future and such.
Emperor Jingping had heard of his reputation in the palace, and due to his poor health, he believed Su Qingci’s claims about the future. However, the emperor was suspicious and ordered the Jingshi Army to investigate his background. Although this person was slippery and weak-willed, he never changed his story even under repeated interrogation. He vividly described his so-called future, talking about things like iron cars and flying bird machines, bewitching people’s minds. Such a person naturally couldn’t be allowed to stay long, especially not to deceive Emperor Jingping, so he had to be eliminated.
Although Shen Che openly said he didn’t believe it, he couldn’t help but think later that Su Qingci’s mind couldn’t possibly have invented such strange objects and events, especially the kind of appealing government system he described.
In any case, Su Qingci had planted a small seed of supernatural belief in Shen Che’s mind. Now, comparing it to the bed in his dream, it was enough to make Shen Che alarmed, after all, one tends to worry about things they care about.
So regardless of anything else, Shen Che definitely couldn’t keep this bed. It was both disturbing and ominous. But a new bride’s dowry bed couldn’t be casually discarded. Coincidentally, Ji Cheng needed it, so he just went along with it.
However, Shen Che’s real reason would certainly be mocked by Ji Cheng if he said it out loud, so he only said, “It’s stuffy.”
Ji Cheng looked at the purple sandalwood bed with its openwork grape pattern carving and cursed inwardly: Nonsense.
The next day, when the sky had barely begun to lighten, Ji Cheng was still lazily lying in bed when Shen Che came down from the top courtyard. She hurriedly got up, haphazardly wrapping herself in clothes.
In May, the nights were no longer cool, and with Shen Che not around, Ji Cheng had inevitably dressed a bit too lightly, wearing only a dudou (traditional Chinese undergarment) and a pair of thin, loose pants. Her fragrant shoulders and jade arms were all exposed to the wind. Even though she had now wrapped herself in a thin robe, it couldn’t hide her dangerous curves. The tightly tied sash only served to accentuate her silhouette and curves even more. Although Ji Cheng was intelligent, she had no awareness of this kind of messy allure that young women possessed.
This unintentional enticement was truly heart-stirring. Shen Che didn’t dare to look too much, turning his head away as he threw what he was holding onto the bed and spread it out.
“What’s this?” Ji Cheng looked over Shen Che’s shoulder as he was laying out the bedding, and her face immediately turned red, though it wasn’t clear if it was from anger or embarrassment.
“Where did you get this? Isn’t it disgusting?” Ji Cheng had seen this kind of sheet before, with its stained marks.
Ji Cheng mistakenly thought it was something Shen Che had used with other women, how could it not be disgusting? Even if she didn’t care about Shen Che at all, this was still the room of the Second Young Madam of the Shen family.
Without turning his head, Shen Che said, “You find something you’ve used yourself disgusting?”
Ji Cheng was stunned by Shen Che’s words. “What nonsense are you talking about? That was so long ago! I didn’t know you had such peculiar tastes.”
“It’s from that time at Fenghuang Tower. I thought young ladies always had some inexplicable attachment to their first time,” Shen Che said, straightening up.
Ji Cheng had a very good memory. Shen Che had used this to provoke her before. “Didn’t you say there was no blood…” Ji Cheng started to say, but then she saw the spots of red on the unfolded sheet. Pointing at them, she asked, “What’s that?”
Shen Che said, “Sprinkled chicken blood.”
Ji Cheng said, “Didn’t Empress Xiaoyi abolish the practice of checking for red long ago? I didn’t know your family still had such an outdated custom.”
Shen Che said, “What do you mean by ‘your family’?”
Ji Cheng lowered her eyes and turned her face away.
“We don’t have such outdated customs, but the maids and old women downstairs will inevitably gossip. It’s better to avoid trouble,” Shen Che said.
“If you fake it like this, won’t those old women be able to tell?” Ji Cheng asked. How could something from a few years ago look the same as what would have been left last night?
“That’s why we can only let them take a glance,” Shen Che said.
After hurriedly eating breakfast and heading out to pay respects to the elders at Ruiying Hall, Ji Cheng took the opportunity to pull Liu Ye’er aside and told her to quickly clean up the bed and burn that sheet.
“It’s just rice paste,” Shen Che said in a low voice near Ji Cheng’s ear as they walked out side by side. “Did you believe it? How could we bring out something like that for those old women to see?”
The blush on Ji Cheng’s face lasted to Ruiying Hall, delighting the Old Madam as soon as she saw it. Wasn’t this exactly what she had been hoping for all these years she had tolerated Shen Che not getting married – a harmonious couple?
Although Duke Qi, Shen Zhuo, had some reservations about Shen Che’s marriage, with the Old Madam’s approval above and Princess An He not questioning it below, he, as a father-in-law, didn’t want to interfere in matters concerning his daughter-in-law.
Ji Cheng paid her respects with tea to the Old Madam and the Shen Zhuo couple, then went to pay respects to the Second Madam Huang, and naturally to Ji Lan and her husband as well.
Although the Shen family had divided their property, they hadn’t divided their affections, so for the early morning tea ceremony, the elders from all three branches of the family had come.
Madam Huang was cool towards Ji Cheng, still remembering the incident with Shen Yu. She didn’t know if Shen Che was aware of Ji Cheng’s man-attracting ways. If he knew, there would likely be trouble between the couple. She had even heard that even the Fourth Young Master had feelings for Ji Cheng. This girl might have come from a humble background, but she certainly had a knack for bewitching men. It was fortunate that Shen Yu hadn’t married her.
The smile on Ji Lan’s face was forced. She had never dreamed that the Old Madam would arrange for Shen Che to marry Ji Cheng and that Shen Che, after being so picky for so many years, would compromise on Ji Cheng. It was truly a case of lust clouding judgment. Did Shen Che need Ji Cheng’s small dowry that badly? It seemed the main branch had no hope now, with only an empty Duke title. The more she compared herself to Ji Cheng, the more she felt that the daughter-in-law she had chosen for Shen Jing was better, suddenly feeling a sense of superiority in front of Princess An He.
Ji Lan had been oppressed by these two sisters-in-law all her life, but now in the next generation, the tables had turned.
Ji Lan handed the prepared red envelope to Ji Cheng and earnestly advised, “You and Ache are not young anymore. You should quickly give our Shen family some descendants.”
This was what every elder wanted to say to Ji Cheng, but as the bride had just entered the family, the experienced ladies all knew that they shouldn’t put too much pressure on the newlyweds at this time, otherwise even the act of consummation would become a task.
Ji Cheng knew better than anyone the importance of having children. Shen Che was the only son of the main branch, and he was indeed not young anymore. As for Ji Cheng, if she wanted to truly establish herself in the Shen family, she needed to give birth to a son, and quickly at that.
So although Ji Cheng had been resistant last night, she hadn’t intended to avoid the wedding night. Who knew that just as she was getting sleepy, Shen Che would offer her an excuse, resulting in them sleeping in separate rooms.
Tonight, she absolutely couldn’t act according to her temperament and preferences. Ji Cheng desperately needed a son. Once she had a son, she wouldn’t care about Shen Che anymore.
After paying respects to the elders with tea, Ji Cheng also greeted her two sisters-in-law. Of the brothers in the family, only Shen Yu was absent, as Third Brother Shen Zhen was with Shen Yu in the northwest, but the rest were all present.
Although Shen Jing had a thousand things he wanted to say to Ji Cheng when he saw her, he no longer had the chance to say them and could only lower his head dejectedly. To avoid making Li Rui suspicious, Ji Cheng simply pretended not to notice Shen Jing’s expression.
As for Hong’er, he had truly grown up. He was now a big boy of eight or nine years old. Although there was still some childishness left, the cuteness of a small child was almost completely gone.
Ji Cheng called out “Hong’er,” and Hong’er responded with “Second Aunt.” There was no more “Sister Cheng” or “Aunt Cheng.” This made Ji Cheng feel quite emotional. She wanted to pat Hong’er’s head, but she saw a faint shadow of Shen Yu in him. He was no longer a child she could pinch the cheeks of or rub the head of at will.
After the tea ceremony, the new daughter-in-law had to go to the back hall, Jiarong Hall, to pay respects to the Shen family’s ancestors. This was Ji Cheng’s first time entering Jiarong Hall. That year when she spent New Year’s at the Shen family, as a guest, she had only stood outside watching the Shen family’s male members worship their ancestors inside.
The ancestral tablets of the Shen family lined an entire wall. The top row surprisingly listed Shen Du from several hundred years ago, the founder of the Great Qi Dynasty.
Ji Cheng only then realized that the Duke Qi branch of the Shen family had once been part of the Great Qi imperial family. No wonder Shen Che was so arrogant. But that was all in the past now, as several dynasties had passed since the Great Qi.
Coming out of Jiarong Hall, Ji Cheng had to socialize with the Shen family’s relatives, which was also a way of getting acquainted. Shen He and Shen Yun were there, and even Lu Yuan, whom she hadn’t seen in many years, was present. Shen Wan and Shen Cui, who had married nearby, naturally couldn’t be absent. It felt like they had returned to their maiden days, with all the sisters gathered happily together, feeling that their entire lives were bright and beautiful.
Shen Wan came forward and embraced Ji Cheng, saying, “I always felt we hit it off at first sight and were extremely compatible. Now it’s been proven that we indeed have a predestined relationship. It’s just that you’re younger than me, and you used to call me Sister Wan, but now I have to call you Second Sister-in-law instead.”
Ji Cheng laughed and said, “What’s the big deal? I see that Fourth Sister-in-law is even younger than me, yet you still have to call her Fourth Sister-in-law.”
Everyone burst into laughter at this, with one person saying something and another responding, creating a lively atmosphere. Even Shen Yun, although dissatisfied with Ji Cheng in her heart, was outwardly sweeter than anyone else.
Only Shen Cui had almost nothing to say from beginning to end as if she had become a completely different person. Ji Cheng hadn’t had the chance to examine her closely last night, but now looking carefully, she saw that Shen Cui was a year younger than her, only eighteen, yet she looked as if she were twenty-three or twenty-four, and there was a lifeless quality about her.
When there was finally a moment when only Ji Cheng and Shen Cui were alone together, Shen Cui finally spoke, saying, “I never imagined that in the end, you would become my Second Sister-in-law.”
Author’s Note: Shen Du: Have you ever seen a male lead whose first appearance is on an ancestral tablet?