BMECDAH 02

Chapter 02

Shen Peirong’s eyes welled up with moisture, and a surge of guilt flooded her heart. She hadn’t expected that the younger daughter she disliked the most would defend her at every turn, while the eldest daughter she held in the palm of her hand was speaking up for the second concubine. The grievances she had endured over the years caused her to shed tears.

Chen Xiaolian was both confused and panicked. She was confused because Jiang Wei was not at all the slow-witted and weak person she had been told about. She panicked because she wondered if Jiang Wei had already discovered Jiang Yan’s true identity.

Jiang Yan was also panicking. She couldn’t allow Shen Peirong’s resolve to waver. While wiping Shen Peirong’s tears, she also began to cry. “Mother, it seems that Sister has fully adapted to life in the countryside. Please, rest assured and let her marry into the Gu family.” If she had known Jiang Wei was so eloquent, she should have poisoned her to make her mute on the way back to the city.

“Right,” Shen Peirong said, calming herself. “Weiwei, you don’t understand your sister’s character. She is a kind and warm-hearted girl; the concubines and servants in the mansion all like her. It was only because the second concubine was afraid you would suffer after marrying into the Gu family that she spoke up for her. Since it was truly your doing that caused her health to be so frail, consider this marriage a form of atonement.”

Jiang Yan marrying into the Gu family would be “suffering,” but the original owner marrying into it to become a widow was “enjoying a blessing”? Her bias was incredibly lopsided.

Jiang Wei nodded obediently. “I understand, Mother. I will obediently take my sister’s place and marry that dying, sickly wretch of the Gu family.” She was a qualified transmigrator; since she had taken over the original owner’s body, she had to do the job.

Since Jiang Wei had suddenly become so compliant, Shen Peirong found it rather strange. “Are you truly willing to marry that sickly wretch from the Gu family?”

“Yes. Being able to become a widow right off the bat—I couldn’t be happier about such a good thing.”

Chen Xiaolian and Jiang Yan both smirked in secret. It seemed Jiang Wei was just a fool with a screw loose; they had clearly been overthinking it.

“Then your father and I will prepare a more generous dowry for you.” Seeing Jiang Wei’s submissive and obedient appearance, Shen Peirong felt a mix of relief and lingering guilt. If her younger daughter really were to become a widow, she would simply pick out a good family for her to remarry later.

“Thank you for the trouble, Mother and Father. I’m a bit tired and would like to return to my room to rest.”

Thinking a little dowry would get rid of her? No way! Her goal was the entirety of the Jiang and Shen family assets, including the two stone lions at the gate.

Jiang Dahai waved his hand impatiently. “Go then. Someone, help the second miss back to her room to rest. The wind is strong these next few days, so don’t come out. Leave the wedding matters to your mother and sister; just stay in your room and prepare for your marriage with peace of mind.” In other words, he intended to lock her in her room to prevent her from running away.

“Thank you, Father.” Jiang Wei deliberately walked in front of Jiang Yunhe, appearing surprised. “It’s truly strange. Big Brother is clearly the Second Concubine’s child, yet he looks so similar to Mother. And looking at Big Sister, she actually resembles the Second Concubine. Doesn’t everyone say a child resembles their mother? A stranger might think that Big Brother is actually my twin brother.”

The moment the words left Jiang Wei’s mouth, Chen Xiaolian and Jiang Yan both broke into a cold sweat, and even Jiang Dahai’s expression became frantic. The usually sharp-witted Shen Peirong stared at Jiang Yunhe—who shared her features—and her mind went blank… Could it be? No, that’s impossible…

Leaving them with that lingering doubt, Jiang Wei walked away with a heavy stride. If she didn’t leave now, she was afraid she would burst out laughing.

Before she transmigrated, she had just completed a mission and was about to receive a reward of a hundred billion. Unexpectedly, the system malfunctioned and sent her into this 1950s novel, “I Became Wealthy After Marrying a Bad Element from the City,” turning her into the ugly, stupid, and vicious ex-wife of the male lead, Gu Ting. She firmly believed this wasn’t a system glitch, but rather the System Bureau playing dirty. Regardless of how the system explained it, she insisted on filing a complaint. In the end, the System Bureau compensated her with a space containing a three-story villa where she could hoard supplies, as well as a system that allowed her to trade supplies with other transmigrators across the world. Only then did she withdraw her complaint.

As an experienced transmigrator, she had already studied most of the plot. Jiang Yan was not the original owner’s twin sister; she was the daughter of the second concubine. Back then, after Shen Peirong gave birth to the original owner and fell unconscious, Jiang Dahai and Chen Xiaolian conspired to swap Jiang Yunhe and Jiang Yan.

That was right—the original owner’s trashy father, Jiang Dahai, had participated in the swap. Chen Xiaolian wanted her daughter to become the legitimate daughter of the house, while Jiang Dahai didn’t want the son born to Shen Peirong to inherit the family business. The so-called “master” who gave the prophecy was also part of their scheme; the purpose of driving Jiang Wei away was to ensure Shen Peirong would pour all her energy into Jiang Yan. Their ultimate goal was to make Shen Peirong hand over everything the elder Master Shen had left her, effectively “eating” the family’s legacy.

When Jiang Yunhe was five years old, he had fought with Jiang Yan over a jade pendant; Chen Xiaolian had pushed him, and he hit his head on a stone, becoming mentally disabled.

Jiang Yan wasn’t the heroine; she was a “Black Koi”—a vicious female supporting character who relied on the jade pendant to suck the original owner’s fortune. Meanwhile, the original owner was just the cannon-fodder ex-wife of the male lead who died young.

In the book, Jiang Yan, as the “Black Koi,” learned in advance that the Gu family was to be exiled and goaded Shen Peirong into bringing Jiang Wei back from the countryside to take her place. She used her “green tea” tactics to trick the foolish original owner into marrying Gu Ting. Then, unable to stand the Gu family treating Jiang Wei well, she schemed for the original owner to hand over the assets the Gu family had entrusted to her. She drove a wedge between the original owner and the male lead, utilizing the original owner’s simplicity to trick her into reporting the Gu family for hiding assets, eventually forcing the original owner to divorce Gu Ting.

Unexpectedly, after obtaining the massive Shen family fortune, Jiang Dahai abandoned the original owner, Shen Peirong, and Jiang Yunhe, and fled to Hong Kong with all the wealth, along with the second concubine and Jiang Yan. Jiang Yan used the supplies she had plundered from the Gu and Shen families to become a millionaire. In the end, she returned to the mainland and married the male lead’s nemesis—the villainous second male lead who had framed the Gu family.

After the divorce, the original owner realized the truth and tried to take Jiang Yunhe to beg for the male lead’s forgiveness. On the way there, they were persecuted by the invaders who had been left behind. In the end, it was the heroine and the male lead who wiped out the invaders, avenging her and Jiang Yunhe, and they buried the siblings. Shen Peirong, labeled a capitalist, was sent to a farm to raise pigs. Upon learning that both her children were dead, she fell into a pig manure pit and drowned.

“Second Miss, I heard you had an argument with the First Mistress. This is some chicken soup I simmered for you; have a taste.”

Just as Jiang Wei returned to her room, a woman in a pink qipao accompanied by a five-year-old child arrived to deliver soup. It was Chen Yiyi, the trashy father’s third concubine and the younger sister of Chen Xiaolian. Following her into the room was her five-year-old son, Jiang Tian.

Jiang Tian stared at Jiang Wei with rolling eyes. “Are you that country bumpkin who was sent to the countryside because you were cursed to harm your father?”

“That’s right. And are you the little wild brat born from a woman who couldn’t conceive with her own husband and had to go borrow seed elsewhere?”

“Cough, cough! Second Miss, I kindly brought you soup to drink. Why are you slandering my purity?” While Chen Yiyi was angry, her body trembled with fear.

“Slander? Isn’t it just the truth?” Jiang Wei curled her lips and knocked the bowl of chicken soup out of Chen Yiyi’s hands. The soup sizzled and bubbled as it corroded the floorboards. “Third Aunt, if I had drunk this soup, I’m afraid I would have become a mute bride.”

“It wasn’t me!” Once exposed, Chen Yiyi’s face turned deathly pale. “It was the eldest miss. She said that as long as I poisoned you to make you mute, she would convince the First Mistress to register little Tian under her name.”