The Cultivation Patriarch Became the Marquis's Wife - Chapter 4

Before we left, Jiang Sirou and Xiao Jingyao lingered at the estate gates, reluctant to part.

She offered warning after warning and even gave him a protective talisman.

I watched with envy.

“You and Concubine Jiang are very close.”

Xiao Jingyao tucked the talisman carefully into his robes.

“Sirou and I grew up together. She is as dear to me as a sister. Now that she is the only survivor of the Jiang family, I have even greater reason to look after her.”

“Is marrying someone the mortal way of looking after a sister?”

Xiao Jingyao stopped. When he met my eyes, discomfort crossed his face.

“What do you mean, ‘the mortal way’? Are you not mortal?”

I smiled and said nothing more.

The carriage left the city. Once we reached the deserted countryside, I folded the earth beneath us and arrived at the Shen residence in Jiangnan in the blink of an eye.

I jumped down and drew a deep breath. Sure enough, the air carried a demonic scent.

As we entered, servants hurried to announce us, and Master and Madam Shen rushed out.

“The journey from the capital to Jiangnan is so long. How did you arrive this quickly?”

I offered the first excuse that came to mind. “Your daughter missed home.”

Master Shen’s face hardened. “Now that you are married into the marquis’s household, you should stop thinking about your maiden home. Your first duty is to serve your husband… Wait. Where is the marquis?”

The entire household hurried to the gates and found Xiao Jingyao crouched beside the carriage, vomiting.

White-faced, he extended a shaking finger toward me.

“You demoness… You tried to murder your own husband!”

The accusation was entirely unjust.

I had merely gone a little fast. How could that be enough to make him sick?

Tsk.

Mortals truly were fragile.

The Shens hastened forward to apologize, then scolded me. “Why are you still standing there? Help his lordship inside!”

Before I moved, a graceful figure swept past and took Xiao Jingyao’s arm.

The Shen family’s second daughter, Shen Ruzhi, looked up at him with a sweet smile.

“If Elder Sister cannot take proper care of you, my lord, perhaps I should serve you instead.”

She was soft and shapely, with peach-blossom cheeks and the fresh beauty of a hibiscus. Though young, every glance carried a seductive charm.

Xiao Jingyao might as well have been blind. He frowned and pulled his arm free.

“No. A wife’s younger sister should not cling to her brother-in-law in the street. Have some propriety.”

He stormed over, took my hand, and snapped, “You serve me.”

Damn him.

So now he remembered the importance of guarding his virtue.

I fanned the air before my nose in disgust and secretly cast a cleansing spell to rid him of the smell of vomit.

Master and Madam Shen, who had always indulged their younger daughter, hurried to smooth things over with another flood of apologies.

Xiao Jingyao went inside to change. I followed him and closed the doors and windows.

“There is nothing wrong with the Shen couple. They are merely snobs determined to marry both daughters into powerful houses. But the second daughter…”

“Your sister is young and already shameless,” Xiao Jingyao said. “She reeks of fox musk. Not even all that powder can hide it. The smell nearly killed me.”

I smiled.

Of course she smelled like a fox.

Xiao Jingyao removed his outer robe, sniffed the garment beneath it, frowned again, and took that off as well. Strong shoulders and a lean, taut waist came into view.

I looked him over and formed a plan.

“Woman, what are you plotting now?”

He shook out a clean robe and held it before his chest, staring at me in alarm.

“This afternoon, invite the second daughter to meet you alone in the garden. Make her believe your public virtue is an act and that you are secretly a lecher. Once she thinks she has an opportunity, she will lower her guard and reveal her true nature.”

Xiao Jingyao gaped. “You want me to sell my body and destroy my own chastity? Shen Qianhe, I am your husband!”

I pinched one of his chest muscles.

“You do have a body worth selling. If you were some decrepit old man, the thought would never have occurred to me.”

“I refuse!”

“Do you still want to learn who killed your father?”

I had struck his weak point. Aggrieved, his eyes reddened, and he looked ready to bite me.

“What a poisonous woman you are!”

“You flatter me.”

Entirely unbothered, I went to the dining room and leisurely devoured three bowls of rice.