Chapter 5: The Bride Brought to Ward Off Bad Luck

Qin Qi whispered, "The poor bride is the one to pity."

Su Xinyu murmured, "I wonder which family could be so heartless as to sell their own daughter."

She knew her medical skills were decent, but they were limited to surgery and were absolutely no match for the entire Imperial Academy of Medicine.

When a martial artist suffers a heavy injury, besides external wounds, there are usually internal injuries as well.

The Imperial Academy of Medicine possessed all medical departments, and its physicians were the best in the entire country. If even they were helpless, it was clear that Lu Chengxu did not have long to live.

The master and servant chatted as they walked, returning to the Mu residence by the hour of the Monkey.

Lady Niu led people to the guest courtyard: "Xinyu."

Su Xinyu called out, "Aunt, what did the Lu family say regarding the Sixth Young Master?"

If the Lu family went back on their word, she would at least have given an account to her parents and her original self.

Living in the Mu house was, after all, living under someone else's roof. Having lost both parents, she had to watch people's expressions, which always made her feel uneasy. Only her uncle was relatively gentle, and his care for her did not seem fake.

At that time, she would ask her uncle to help deal with the bullies, and then she would return home to seek a new livelihood.

Lady Niu smiled and said, "The marriage must be discussed thoroughly; how can one be in a hurry?"

As she spoke, she raised a hand.

Four old women behind her immediately stepped forward, pairing off to deal with Su Xinyu and Qin Qi.

Their movements were swift and their strength so great that the two girls had no time to react, feeling only a damp cloth being pressed over their noses and mouths...

In just a moment, the master and servant both slumped to the ground one after another.

Mu Baoxia and Ma Manman walked slowly into the guest courtyard.

"They've been messing around aimlessly for these three days. I heard they even boiled sheep intestines; it stank to death," Ma Manman grunted, lightly pressing a handkerchief to the tip of her nose.

"They only have a pretty skin to show for it," Mu Baoxia laughed contemptuously.

"It's still worth something," Ma Manman also laughed. "Mother-in-law is truly capable to have negotiated this deal."

Mu Baoxia said, "Sister-in-law is also very capable, coming up with such a perfect method to both drive the person away and obtain wealth."

"Stop talking, clean up the room," Lady Niu ordered.

Ma Manman nodded. "Right, let her take all those things of hers with her."

——

By the time Su Xinyu woke up, it was already night.

Outside, there were the festive sounds of firecrackers, and before her eyes was a large piece of bright red silk.

Her heart skipped a beat. She struggled to sit up, and as the red bridal veil slipped off, she realized she was wearing a bright red wedding dress, with her hands and feet tied, thrown onto a wedding bed.

Everything around her was a sea of red, and nearby, the dragon-and-phoenix wedding candles burned brightly.

Close by, the person lying stiffly beside her was also dressed in bright red wedding robes, his face pale, his eyes tightly shut.

Looking closely—

The groom was actually the half-dead Lu Chengxu!

She—she was the unlucky, pitiful bride brought in to ward off bad luck!

It was her aunt who had drugged her and sold her to the Lu family to be a "luck-warding" bride.

To carry her out of the Mu house, her uncle must have known.

All the words her parents said before they passed—that her uncle and aunt should decide her future and marry her into the Lu family—were in vain.

She had indeed married into the Lu family.

But she hadn't married the Sixth Young Master, but the dying Fifth Young Master.

No, she had to escape!

She spat out the cloth wad stuffed in her mouth, used her teeth to bite through the cloth rope binding her wrists, and untied it in a few quick motions before moving to the ropes on her ankles.

Her wrists and ankles were rubbed red from the binding, but she couldn't afford to care right now.

Stepping over the half-dead Lu Chengxu beside her, she got off the bed.

To her astonishment, she found several bundles piled by the bedside; they were the ones she had brought from home to the capital.

She hurriedly crouched down and rummaged through them; everything was there.

Including the scalpel she had just obtained today.

She slung the bundles onto her back, gripped the scalpel, and crept stealthily behind the bedroom door, when a question suddenly occurred to her—

Qin Qi had also been drugged; where was she now?

Was she still at the Mu house, or had she also been sent to the Lu family, or perhaps sold elsewhere?

The night was thick, and the sound of footsteps came from outside.

She hurried to hide, but it was too late; the door was pushed open.

The person entering was an old woman, followed by several sturdy maidservants. They were not surprised to see her awake.

"Fifth Young Mistress..."

"Don't call me that." Su Xinyu adjusted the bundles on her shoulders. "I did not perform the wedding ceremony with the person on the bed; we are not husband and wife."

"The ceremony has been performed; it was simply performed while the Young Master and Young Mistress were unconscious." The old woman produced a marriage certificate. "The marriage certificate has been stamped by the Jingzhao Prefecture. From today onward, the Young Mistress and the Young Master are a legally recognized couple by the imperial court."

Su Xinyu stepped forward to glance at it; at the signature line of the marriage certificate, a thumbprint had been pressed over her name.

She looked down at her own thumb; sure enough, there was red ink.

"Despicable!" she cursed aloud.

While she was unconscious, they had propped her up to perform the ceremony.

The person on the bed was about to die, and they had propped him up too, calling it "warding off bad luck." Was this how the Lu family treated Lu Chengxu?

Did they actually want him to live, or did they want his situation to get even worse?

Lu Chengxu, this hateful man who had accused her of being a bandit and messed with her while she was boating, actually had something pitiable about him.

But she was even more pitiable.

This situation she had transmigrated into was truly terrible!

The old woman handed over the marriage certificate: "If the Young Mistress wishes to tear it up, it matters not; a copy is kept at the Jingzhao Prefecture."

Threatened to this extent, Su Xinyu laughed out of anger. "So, am I considered a master?"

"Yes."

"Where is my maid, Qin Qi?"

"She is still unconscious."

Only then did Su Xinyu take the marriage certificate, thinking to herself that Qin Qi should also be at the Lu house.

She had to find her so they could escape together.

To her surprise, the old woman seemed to see through her intention and said with a cold face, "Qin Qi woke up just now, but was knocked unconscious again."

Having said that, she closed the door.

And locked it from the outside.

"This old servant advises the Young Mistress to behave," the old woman shouted from outside. "These maidservants all know martial arts. The Young Mistress has delicate skin; she won't be able to withstand a beating."

Su Xinyu set down her bundles and rubbed her aching shoulders.

The bundles were quite heavy, making her shoulders sore.

Looking up at the several stout figures standing outside, she realized she wouldn't be able to escape for a while.

She sat back on the edge of the bed and leaned over to look at Lu Chengxu's thumb.

She saw that there was also a red ink print on his thumb.

This Lu family truly had schemes and influence, enough to have the Jingzhao Prefecture issue a marriage certificate.

Time passed second by second. Perhaps out of boredom, or for some other reason, the maidservants guarding outside began to discuss the marriage in low voices.

"The Fifth Young Mistress is truly pitiable. Once the wedding night passes, if the Fifth Young Master cannot wake up, she will have to be buried with him."

"Is that true?"

"Otherwise, with so many cousins in the household admiring the Fifth Young Master, why would not a single one be willing to marry him? That is a life-threatening matter!"

"Where did you hear that?"

"Naturally from hearing the masters speak; most people in the household know." The speaker lowered her voice. "The Fifth Young Master is too heavily injured; even the entire Imperial Academy of Medicine is helpless. If he doesn't wake up even with the luck-warding bride, the bride will simply go along with him."

Hearing this, Su Xinyu's heart turned ice-cold.

It turned out an even worse situation lay ahead.

She walked quietly to the door so she could hear more clearly.

The maid outside asked again, "Why?"

"The Third Master is long gone, and the Fifth Young Master is his only son. Now that the Fifth Young Master is like this, given the military merits the Third Master earned in the past, how could the Lu family and the imperial court let the Fifth Young Master go all alone? Naturally, someone must accompany him."

"Hearing it like that, the Fifth Young Mistress is even more pitiable."

"Who could say otherwise?"

(End of Chapter)