Jiang Li brushed past Shen Ruyun and her mother with Tong’er.

Her face still carried the same light smile as before, as if it had already become a natural mask. However, upon closer inspection, the curve at the corners of her mouth seemed somewhat cold.

Shen Ruyun and Madam Shen had indeed come.

After marrying Shen Yurun, she came to the capital. Madam Shen was not an easy mother-in-law to get along with, and Shen Ruyun was even more willful and selfish. Xue Huaiyuan doted on his daughter and did everything possible to provide her with a generous dowry. All that dowry went to subsidize the Shen family, while her clothes and jewelry were mostly taken by Shen Ruyun under the pretext of liking them.

She wasn’t a saint. In the Xue family, she had also been a beloved jewel in their palm. When Shen Ruyun and Madam Shen displeased her, when she was still Xue Fangfei, she would show it.

Every time this happened, Shen Yurun would timely step forward. Shen Yurun always said that his widowed mother and young sister had raised him from childhood, and that he could achieve what he had today entirely thanks to their efforts, asking Xue Fangfei to treat them better. Xue Fangfei was kind-hearted after all. Thinking of how difficult it must have been for these frail women to care for Shen Yurun, she tried her best to endure.

But tolerance didn’t earn the same respect in return. During the last six months of her life, Madam Shen and Shen Ruyun never came to comfort her. Sometimes they would even talk outside her door in voices she could hear, asking why, after doing such shameful things, she still didn’t go die and continued to drag down the Shen family.

If not for Xue Fangfei’s resilient character, she might truly have been unable to bear it and taken her own life to prove her innocence.

“Miss?” Tong’er sensed something was wrong with the person beside her and called out softly.

Jiang Li came back to her senses and smiled: “I’m fine.” But in her heart, she thought that Madam Shen and Shen Ruyun couldn’t possibly know nothing about the affair between Shen Yurun and Princess Yongning. For Princess Yongning to enter and leave the Shen household as if no one was there, she was obviously familiar with the Shen family.

With the Shen family’s tendency to act according to circumstances, finding a noble princess of royal blood was indeed far more profitable than finding a minor official’s daughter. Today she had seen with her own eyes that the clothes and jewelry worn by Shen Ruyun and Madam Shen would be somewhat difficult to afford even with Shen Yurun’s current salary.

This was probably Princess Yongning’s “goodwill.”

Thinking about this, Jiang Li only felt the Shen family was both pathetic and pitiable. Princess Yongning may be of noble royal blood, but she could kill a wife and eliminate heirs without changing expression—how could she be easy to get along with? The Shen family only saw immediate benefits, little knowing that the days of weeping were still to come.

She was happy to watch the spectacle.

The Shen family, Shen Yurun, Princess Yongning—they were the murderers who caused her family’s destruction and death. This debt, she would collect bit by bit.

The two walked back toward Fangfei Courtyard. Even though Jiang Li had proven her innocence today at Jiang Youyao’s coming-of-age ceremony, she still seemed to be an overlooked daughter of the Jiang family. No one paid attention to her actions.

Halfway there, they encountered a man coming toward them.

When had there been an outside male in the Jiang family’s inner courtyard? Jiang Li stopped and didn’t approach, maintaining a proper distance from this man. The man was also one who observed propriety and didn’t advance further.

Jiang Li turned aside, wanting to leave by another path, but the man suddenly spoke, saying softly: “Second Miss?”

Second Miss? It seemed a very familiar tone. Jiang Li turned to look at him.

This man appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a pine-scented colored long robe of fine material. His hair was bound with a jade hairpin. Tall and graceful, exceptionally handsome—he was an undeniable beauty, with a refined and elegant temperament. His gaze toward Jiang Li flickered slightly.

Jiang Li stared at him. Perhaps her gaze was too unfamiliar, making even the man before her somewhat embarrassed. He hesitated before saying: “Second Miss may not remember. I am Zhou Bangyan.”

Zhou Bangyan? Jiang Li suddenly understood, and Tong’er beside her nearly cried out in surprise.

So this was the Heir of Marquis Ningyuan, Zhou Bangyan. When she was still Xue Fangfei, she often heard this name from her own sister-in-law, but had never met him in person. She only knew he was a handsome man as graceful as a jade tree. Now that she had become Jiang Li, Zhou Bangyan had become her former fiancé. This was rather peculiar.

Jiang Li paused, then said: “Heir.”

A very ordinary tone, without excitement, without mixed emotions—as simple as addressing a stranger on the street.

Zhou Bangyan was somewhat surprised.

He had known about his engagement to Jiang Li since childhood. When young and ignorant, he didn’t feel much about it. Later, Jiang Li was sent to a nunnery for plotting to harm her stepmother. At that time, Zhou Bangyan often heard his parents discuss whether to break off the engagement, but in the end, somehow, his fiancée became Jiang Youyao.

Zhou Bangyan had met Jiang Youyao. She was a delicate, lovely, innocent, and adorable girl. He was very satisfied with Jiang Youyao and had no objections to this marriage.

Coming to attend Jiang Youyao’s coming-of-age ceremony today, Zhou Bangyan saw Jiang Li, whom he hadn’t seen in many years.

Regarding his memories of Jiang Li, Zhou Bangyan only remembered her as a chubby girl with a bad temper when they were children. But at the coming-of-age ceremony, Jiang Li’s appearance caused ripples in his heart.

Jiang Youyao was an exquisite jade ornament, suitable for display in a room. Jiang Li’s noble purity and spiritual grace was like bright moonlight in the sky—something to be gazed upon but never reached.

Zhou Bangyan had been silently watching Jiang Li from among the crowd of male guests observing the ceremony. He saw Jiang Li being accused by everyone, then turning defeat into victory unhurriedly. This stirred his admiration even more. Now encountering her by chance in the Jiang household’s back courtyard, Zhou Bangyan felt delighted in his heart, yet Jiang Li looked at him as if looking at a stranger.

This made Zhou Bangyan somewhat disappointed.

Perhaps what one cannot obtain is always the best. Jiang Li’s somewhat cool demeanor toward him made Zhou Bangyan’s heart surge even more. He thought that clearly, just days ago, he had heard that when Jiang Li learned about the marriage between himself and Jiang Youyao, she was so heartbroken she threw herself into the lake. Thinking about it now, perhaps that incident had hurt Jiang Li’s heart, which was why she was so cold to him now.

Perhaps he should talk with his father about renegotiating this marriage. Thinking this, when Zhou Bangyan looked at Jiang Li again, it was as if he was already treating Jiang Li as his fiancée.

Jiang Li frowned slightly. She was not at all unfamiliar with Zhou Bangyan’s kind of gaze. When she was still Xue Fangfei, even after she married Shen Yurun, many such gazes still surrounded her.

Disgusting.

She didn’t want to say more to Zhou Bangyan. Although she had become Second Miss Jiang, she had no desire to be entangled with this person. Jiang Li was about to leave when she suddenly heard a delicate shout from behind: “Heir Brother!”

Jiang Li’s teeth nearly ached from that shout. Turning back, she saw Jiang Youyao running over in small steps. In one breath, she ran to Zhou Bangyan’s side, raised her face with a smile and said: “Heir Brother, Second Sister, what are you talking about so happily?”

Although she was smiling, the look she gave Jiang Li was just like a legitimate wife catching an affair—her fierce light fully exposed.

Author’s Note: Pay attention, everyone! Shen Yurun is the type of phoenix man—never marry a phoenix man!

Of course, you can’t want this kind of cheap scumbag like Heir Zhou either~

Still vote for the Duke, sending love~