Tong Fengye's eyes widened. "Who came to steal..."
Before he could finish, Tong Aning, emboldened by her skills, planted her hands on her hips beside him. "We came to steal the bride. What of it?"
Tong Fengye: "..."
He tugged at Tong Aning's sleeve. Tong Aning whispered, "Third Brother, presence! Presence is what matters most!"
Hearing that, he straightened his back and repeated Tong Aning's words. But presence alone wouldn't quite do right now, would it? The Heir of Duke Anguo looked ready to go mad with rage.
As far as Tong Fengye could see, he wanted nothing more than to stand up and beat the two of them.
Tong Aning said, "Third Brother, don't be scared. He can't stand up."
Tong Fengye: "..."
The Heir of Duke Anguo heard that too. He roared furiously, "Tong Fengye!"
Tong Aning glared at him. "I'm the one stealing the bride. Why are you picking on my third brother?"
For once, the Heir of Duke Anguo was at a loss for words. "...Can you honestly say your third brother didn't put you up to this?"
"How strange," Tong Aning said in puzzlement. "I'm a living, breathing person. Can't I have ideas of my own? Or do you always listen to other people, Your Lordship?"
Once again, Tong Aning struck the Heir of Duke Anguo's fatal weak spot.
The Heir of Duke Anguo had always listened to Duke Anguo. After Duke Anguo suffered a stroke, he listened to Duke Anguo's Wife. This marriage was the only decision he had made for himself.
He had wanted to marry Mei Xiangyu, but his mother disagreed.
But the other family insisted on handing their daughter over to him. His mother tried to dissuade him a few times, but when she couldn't, she stopped involving herself in the marriage altogether.
It didn't matter. As long as he married Mei Xiangyu, he would have beaten Tong Fengye.
Tong Aning stared at him with clear, bright eyes. She asked, "Why aren't you saying anything?"
Veins bulged with the Heir of Duke Anguo's fury. Unable to bear it any longer, he demanded, "What did you come to steal the bride for?"
Tong Aning looked at her third brother. "Can't women steal brides?"
Tong Fengye considered it. "I suppose they can."
Tong Aning looked back at the Heir of Duke Anguo. He thought everyone from the marquis's household was truly sick in the head. Tong Fengye was sick, and Tong Aning was no less afflicted. Talking to them here was a sheer waste of time.
Unable to wait for a servant to push his wheelchair, he turned himself around, as though another glance at the pair would sully his eyes.
Tong Aning: "..."
Just then, the bride came out.
She had been wearing a bridal veil, but now she lifted it, revealing a face as lovely as a hibiscus. Gasps of admiration rose around her.
The Heir of Duke Anguo snapped, "What are you doing?"
The wedding matron from the duke's residence also said, "It's a terrible taboo for a bride to lift her own veil!"
Mei Xiangyu said, "You're not marrying me to counter bad fortune. What taboo is there?"
The wedding matron said, "But it is to counter bad fortune..."
[Xixi, why do they need to counter bad fortune? Is the duke dying?]
[I don't think so. He only had a stroke. He's not on his deathbed... Host, I've got it. The heir has been telling everyone his father is dying, and that's why he agreed to this marriage.]
[He wants both face and benefits. What a filial son.]
Mei Xiangyu's lips curved in mockery.
Terrified that the marriage would be disrupted, her stepmother pretended not to see Tong Aning and Tong Fengye and hurried to move things along.
So what if they came from the marquis's household? They couldn't stop them from marrying off their daughter.
Taking her cue, the wedding matron called out, "Bride, enter the sedan-"
Just then, another bridal sedan stopped outside the Mei residence.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
"What does this mean? Is he marrying two at once?"
"The heir is going too far."
The person inside the bridal sedan emerged and walked up to Mei Xiangyu's father.
Mei Xiangyu said happily, "Father, I brought your lover home for you to marry."
Everyone was dumbfounded again.
Father Mei dared not look his wife in the eye. He said weakly, "Isn't this nonsense?"
"What nonsense? You said the heir was a fine match and that if I married him, I'd enjoy endless wealth and glory. Since you've been so good to me, naturally I had to repay you before I married."
So it had actually been Father Mei who gave the final approval for this marriage. Wasn't that pushing his daughter into a pit of fire?
[Sure enough, with a stepmother comes a stepfather. Xixi, why isn't Father Mei happy?]
And he wasn't merely unhappy. He also seemed to find it a little hard to speak.
What was there that he couldn't bring himself to say? At most, he should have felt humiliated, right?
Besides, the bride had a burly figure and didn't look like a woman, but rather...
[Don't tell me the bride is a man?]
[My heavens, the bride really is a man, a fisherman in his fifties or sixties, at that.]
A gust of wind lifted the bride's veil, revealing the fisherman's rouged, slightly bashful face.
Tong Fengye hurriedly covered Tong Aning's eyes.
The onlookers: !!!
Someone's vision went black, and they clung to a friend's shoulder, saying they couldn't take it.
Others backed away repeatedly, as though a moment's delay would leave them contaminated by Father Mei's strange proclivity.
Father Mei frantically put the veil back down.
He gritted his teeth at Mei Xiangyu. "You unfilial daughter!"
Mei Xiangyu's reaction was indifferent. She no longer cared what Father Mei thought.
In fact, even after her stepmother entered the household and her father continued treating her terribly, she had still clung to illusions about him, longing for his love, because her mother had told her on her deathbed that her father loved her.
But when her father insisted on marrying her into the Duke of Anguo's Residence despite knowing it was a pit of fire, she gave up on him.
She wanted revenge!
From the looks of it, her revenge had worked quite well.
Her stepmother looked at her meek, cringing husband, then at the bride standing before her, her eyes all but shooting fire.
"I wondered why you went fishing every other day. So this was the fish you were catching." Her stepmother looked the fisherman up and down. "An ugly, old dead fish!"
"Who are you calling a dead fish? He said he loved me most!"
Instead of loving such a dignified wife, he loved a fisherman?
A chill of revulsion swept through the crowd. They thought Father Mei must have gone mad.
[He's lying to this fisherman, isn't he...]
Though Tong Aning didn't think the fisherman had anything worth swindling.
[No, his love for the fisherman is real.]
[What's he after?]
[Because his father used to fish for a living. Seeing the fisherman reminds him of his father...]
Tong Aning had never eaten such disgusting melon.
Her stepmother started fighting with the fisherman, and her son and daughter came to help. As the scene grew increasingly disgraceful, Father Mei stepped forward to break it up, only for all four of them to start hitting him.
Having seen enough of the spectacle, Mei Xiangyu walked up to the Heir of Duke Anguo and asked, "Your Lordship, do you still want to marry me?"
The Heir of Duke Anguo clenched his fists. "Yes!"
Mei Xiangyu neither agreed nor disagreed. She looked at Tong Aning and said, "Thank you for coming to steal the bride."
Tong Aning pouted. "But I didn't manage to steal you."
Amused, Mei Xiangyu laughed. "But you let me know I'm actually so well liked."
Tong Fengye lowered his voice. "Fourth Sister, what does she mean? She's not still going to marry him, is she?"
Tong Fengye met Mei Xiangyu's eyes and scratched his head awkwardly.
Tong Aning nodded and gave Mei Xiangyu a hug. "May you rise in rank, make a fortune, and lose your husband."
Mei Xiangyu really seemed to carry the crisp, cold fragrance of plum blossoms. She smelled wonderful.
Mei Xiangyu patted Tong Aning's shoulder.
The Heir of Duke Anguo couldn't ride a horse.
Mei Xiangyu said, "Then I'll ride."
Mei Xiangyu swung onto the horse, brimming with spirit. When she arrived outside the Duke of Anguo's Residence, Duke Anguo's Wife stood waiting, a smile unconsciously showing in her valiant features.
It looked for all the world as though her daughter had brought home a husband.
"You have no idea." Lou Yingyu found it funny just talking about it. "The second branch thought the first branch would be thrown into such chaos that chickens would fly and dogs would leap. But on the very first night, Duke Anguo's Wife had Mei Xiangyu go straight to her room. Who knows what they discussed? Now they've joined forces, and the second branch is even less of a match for them."
"That impressive?" Tong Aning narrowed her eyes, looking like a lazy kitten.
An idea struck Lou Yingyu, and she tossed something away.
Tong Aning: "?"
Lou Yingyu said disappointedly, "I thought you'd pounce on it."
Tong Aning bristled. "Don't treat me like a kitten."
Lou Yingyu patted Tong Aning's head. "I know, I know."
Then she waggled her eyebrows and asked, "I heard you went to steal a bride that day?"
Tong Aning: "...Don't bring it up."
"Even if I don't, it won't help. The whole capital has heard about it. My father said even His Majesty praised you at court."
[Huh?]
Tong Aning hadn't expected such a result. She had simply acted in the heat of the moment, and she had thought that Tong Fengye couldn't be the one to steal the bride.
Mei Xiangyu wasn't an object for two men to fight over back and forth.
"Speaking of which, why didn't you say you were just passing by?"
Tong Aning: "..."
She said glumly, "Because I'm stupid."
Lou Yingyu burst out laughing.
"Azhu."
Tong Aning spotted Azhu with her sharp eyes and waved to her.
Azhu's eyes brightened, and she quickly walked over.
Azhu didn't have many friends in the capital, only the two of them.
Lou Yingyu stopped teasing Tong Aning. Propping up her chin, she asked, "I heard you're going to study at the Imperial Academy too?"
Azhu nodded.
Tong Aning said, "That's a good thing. Why aren't you happy?"
Lou Yingyu frowned. How could going to school be a good thing? At that moment, she felt exactly as Azhu did.
Azhu said softly, "I'm afraid I won't keep up."
"That's easy." Lou Yingyu's eyes darted about. "I'll be your teacher."
Tong Aning tugged at Lou Yingyu, who was leaning forward. "Teacher Lou, teach me first."
Lou Yingyu: "..."
She muttered, "It's not as if I'm trying to lead students astray."
"Young lady, I hear you wish to become clever?"
The voice came very abruptly. All three looked toward the newcomer, a Daoist priest dressed in rags but with a kindly, approachable manner.
Tong Aning grumbled inwardly, [There are still scammers like this these days?]
Lou Yingyu couldn't have agreed more. Did he take the three of them for fools?
[Surely nobody would actually fall for this... Someone really did. On a certain day of a certain month, Chancellor Lou summoned him to his residence. He said just three sentences, and Chancellor Lou gave him a thousand taels.]
Tong Aning looked at Lou Yingyu and blinked.
Lou Yingyu: "..."
She rolled up her sleeves and was about to charge over. How dare he swindle her father!!!