She was abducted on the way to her wedding. At that time, the Flying Jade Stronghold wasn’t yet called the Flying Jade Stronghold… She naturally refused to submit even unto death, and then this detestable man brought her to witness the most extreme ugliness and malice in this world.

He took her on a journey of thousands of miles, sneaking into the residence of the Three Borders Governor-General, where she saw the man to whom she had almost entrusted her life. At that very moment, news of her abduction had just arrived. He laughed coldly, yet with a hint of regret, “I heard she was a rare beauty. What a bargain for that bandit. I’ll have father wipe out that bandit nest later – how dare they compete with me for a woman.”

“Yes, young master is wise and mighty. Miss Xu simply doesn’t have that fortune,” teased a maid serving at his side.

The man laughed heartily, reached out to embrace her, kissed her sweetly, and laughed, “Our Lian’er is the fortunate one.”

How revolting.

“The unfortunate one isn’t just that woman, but also my good father-in-law whom I’ll never have the chance to meet. He raised such a fine daughter to this age, and before she could be put to full use, she just mysteriously perished like this.” As he spoke, he playfully pinched the pretty nose of that Lian’er, smiling mischievously, “Since I can’t marry his supposedly celestial daughter, the promises I made to him don’t count anymore.”

When this scene unfolded, that detestable bandit leader was crouched with her on a large tree not far away. She gritted her teeth and reached out to pinch the soft flesh on the inner side of his arm, viciously pinching, pinching, pinching! Twisting as she pinched!

She pinched until he grimaced silently in pain, yet he looked at her and smiled.

She viciously pinched him, yet tears fell from her eyes.

From that day forth, she willingly became his bandit wife.

“You’re right, you’re right, you’re not wrong at all. It’s all my fault.” The bearded man immediately cowered, then said somewhat pitifully, “Are you truly not going to Jin Man Tower to pick out some things to wear? Bamboo West is getting married – as his mother, shouldn’t you dress up nicely?”

Listen to that – her son is getting married, and she, as his mother, should dress up for what!

Xu Feiqiong rolled her eyes again, “Rather than having me dress up, shouldn’t you properly shave off all that facial hair of yours?”

The bearded man immediately covered his full beard in terror, “Absolutely not!”

Xu Feiqiong smiled coldly.

The burly man with the full beard immediately trembled like a delicate flower swaying in the wind.

Shi Fa Ke still didn’t know she had encountered Lu Chi’s mother… When she arrived at the Zhu residence, Zhu Yanyan was already waiting eagerly.

She boarded Zhu Yanyan’s carriage and they went to Jin Man Tower together.

Zhu Yanyan rarely went out, and with Shi Fa Ke as company, she finally smiled. The nanny beside her finally felt relieved and was even more satisfied with Shi Fa Ke… Indeed a good girl. The young miss was always happy when with her. These past few days, the young miss had been melancholy, sometimes happy, sometimes worried, which made her truly anxious. Now things were finally better.

The carriage arrived at Jin Man Tower. Zhu Yanyan declined the nanny’s suggestion to enter the private room to make selections. She put on a veil hat, and the nanny thoughtfully prepared one for Shi Fa Ke as well. Shi Fa Ke was accustomed to showing her face in public, but thinking that going out together while only Yanyan wore a veil would make her uncomfortable, she thanked the nanny and also put on the veil hat.

Jin Man Tower had many female customers, and quite a few wore veil hats, so it didn’t seem out of place.

The hairpin Shi Fa Ke had ordered wasn’t ready yet, but it was already taking shape – a very unique jade phoenix hairpin.

“How beautiful!” Zhu Yanyan couldn’t put down the jade phoenix hairpin that was just beginning to take shape.

This hairpin would take another two days to complete, so they began looking at other jewelry. Zhu Yanyan rarely had the chance to be outside the private room, and was openly making selections in the main area. Because it was fresh and new, she was in high spirits.

While browsing, Shi Fa Ke suddenly saw a very familiar person.

He Ketian?

She looked aggressive, not looking at jewelry but scanning around as if searching for someone.

He Ketian had followed all the way to the Zhu family, then heard from the Zhu family’s gatekeeper that their young miss had already gone out. She aggressively made her way to Jin Man Tower… but couldn’t find them at all. Where could they be?! Did she have to search every private room?

“Ketian?”

He Ketian was somewhat irritably searching everywhere when she suddenly heard Shi Fa Ke’s voice. Turning around, she saw Shi Fa Ke standing not far behind her, lifting her veil hat to look at her.

…The veil hat!

No wonder she couldn’t find her!

“Why are you wearing this strange thing for no reason!” He Ketian aggressively walked up to her and said angrily.

Although she didn’t know why He Ketian was angry, wearing a veil hat was indeed somewhat odd. Shi Fa Ke smiled awkwardly, “I just saw you seemed to be looking for someone?”

“Yes, looking for you.” He Ketian said through gritted teeth.

“Looking for me? What for?” Shi Fa Ke was a bit surprised, “How did you know I was here?”

“Hmph.” He Ketian sneered, “I went to your house to find you the day before yesterday, but you weren’t home. I went to find you again yesterday, and you still weren’t home. If I don’t find you now, you’ll probably forget about me completely.”

…This manner was like that of a resentful wife.

Shi Fa Ke shivered, getting goosebumps. Ketian was really getting stranger and stranger, and even moody…

Just then, Zhu Yanyan, who had been selecting jewelry not far away, noticed the commotion here and walked over. Looking at He Ketian, she asked curiously, “Ake, who is she?”

That call of “Ake” was quite intimate indeed.

He Ketian looked at the slender woman standing beside Shi Fa Ke, also wearing a veil hat, and found her extremely irritating. She must be Zhu Yanyan, and Shi Fa Ke wearing a veil hat was probably because of her too. She immediately stepped forward, pushed her aside, took Shi Fa Ke’s arm, and said proudly with her chin raised, “I am Ake’s good friend, He Ketian.”

He Ketian deliberately emphasized the words “good friend.”

Zhu Yanyan had never encountered such a situation and was somewhat dazed. Being bumped, she staggered and couldn’t steady herself, retreating several steps and accidentally bumping into a woman who was trying on jewelry nearby. The woman dropped a jade bracelet with excellent translucency from her hand. It fell to the ground with a crisp sound and broke into several pieces.

The surroundings fell quiet.

“Shopkeeper, this has nothing to do with me,” the woman frowned, somewhat displeased.

The shopkeeper quickly stepped forward with an apologetic smile, “Of course it has nothing to do with you. Sorry for the disturbance. Please move to the elegant seating inside and have some tea to calm your nerves.”

The woman nodded, stepped around the shattered bracelet on the ground, and went to the upstairs private room.

“Shopkeeper, this…” A clerk looked at the jade bracelet broken into several pieces on the ground, his face showing great distress.

“That’s Madam Xu.” The shopkeeper gave a light reminder.

The local magistrate’s surname was Xu.

Not to mention that the bracelet breaking was indeed an undeserved disaster for Madam Xu – even if she had actually dropped it herself, he would probably have found one or two reasons to excuse her.

But… this jade bracelet wasn’t cheap. Someone had to pay for it.

The shopkeeper looked toward Zhu Yanyan, who stood in everyone’s line of sight looking somewhat helpless. He knew the eldest daughter of the Zhu family – reportedly not favored in the Zhu family, but unfortunately had a good mother who treated her like a precious treasure… The shopkeeper hesitated whether he should offend Madam Zhu over a jade bracelet.

“Miss Zhu, you see…” The shopkeeper looked toward Zhu Yanyan, his face showing difficulty.

Zhu Yanyan looked toward He Ketian, “Miss He.”

He Ketian glared, “What are you calling me for?!”

“…You just bumped into me.” Zhu Yanyan bit her lip, her voice not loud but enough for everyone to hear.

Zhu Yanyan sensed that this Miss He harbored great hostility toward her, perhaps because she was displeased that she had become good friends with Ake, or perhaps… because of her previous entanglement with Scholar Lu. She had probably heard news of her engagement from somewhere and mistakenly thought the person she was engaged to was Scholar Lu…

But regardless of which it was, Zhu Yanyan couldn’t swallow this injustice.

This jade bracelet was obviously valuable at first glance. Although she had some silver saved up… that was money she had set aside for future use and couldn’t be wasted on such inexplicable matters. She couldn’t ask mother for more money either – these years, mother had protected her with great difficulty. She couldn’t cause her more trouble just before getting married. If father found out… he would be unhappy again.

“Miss Zhu is truly skilled at turning the tables,” He Ketian sneered. “Are you made of tofu? I barely touched you and you couldn’t stand steady. With such a delicate constitution, you should stay home properly. What are you doing in such a bustling place?”

Zhu Yanyan’s face immediately flushed red, feeling extremely humiliated. Because she never appeared in public, many people knew about her poor health… But now being spoken of like this in front of everyone, if… if this reached the ears of the person she was waiting for, would that person dislike her and refuse to marry her?

Thinking this, tears immediately welled up in her eyes. Fortunately, she was wearing a veil hat today, so no one could see her embarrassed appearance.

“You little girl, what a sharp tongue you have! You clearly pushed my young miss, yet you still dare to bully people like this!” The nanny angrily stepped forward to protect Zhu Yanyan, fuming with rage like a mother hen protecting her chick.

“I pushed her? Who saw it?” He Ketian sneered.

All around was silence.