The Whole Capital Heard My Heart, Except My Husband - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name was Jiang Lingyi, and I was the new bride of Ningyuan Marquis Manor.

Before I married Xie Mingzhu, I had only three impressions of him.

First: he was handsome.

Second: he was cold-hearted.

Third: he didn’t have long to live.

I knew the third one because I had once had a very long dream.

In that dream, not long after our wedding, Xie Mingzhu sent me to the Eastern Palace, using me to get close to the Crown Prince so he could investigate a secret ledger tied to treason.

I helped him get the ledger.

And I died in the snowy night at the Eastern Palace.

Before I died, I heard the Crown Prince laugh and say, “Xie Mingzhu even calculated that you would die.”

When I woke up, my bridal sedan chair was just stopping at the gates of Xie Mansion.

The bridal attendant lifted the curtain, and red silk hung across the entire street.

Xie Mingzhu stood on the steps in a crimson wedding robe, his brows and eyes chilly, like a blade just pulled from snow.

At that very moment, I wanted to run away from the wedding.

But my father and brother’s lives were pinned beneath the imperial decree.

The Jiang Family had been dragged into the Military Grain Embezzlement Case. The emperor’s marriage decree was both favor and chain.

I could only step over the broken firecracker scraps all over the ground and walk toward him.

He held out his hand.

I placed mine in his, cursing him in my heart with every filthy word I knew.

[You bastard, don’t touch me.]

Xie Mingzhu showed no reaction at all.

Instead, the officiant beside us, the one holding the ceremonial goose, went weak at the knees and nearly dropped to the ground.

From that moment on, I knew something was wrong.

During the wedding rites, I thought, [First bow to heaven and earth, second bow to my enemy, husband-and-wife bow-might as well bury each other instead.]

The guests in the hall were caught between laughing and not laughing.

Xie Mingzhu remained as calm as ever.

When he helped me turn around, his fingertips hooked around my wrist bone through my sleeve.

The pressure was light.

Like a reminder. Like a warning.

On our wedding night, he lifted my red veil.

Under the glow of the red candles, he looked at me for a very long time.

I sneered inwardly. [What are you looking at? Keep staring and I still won’t die for you.]

But he only poured a cup of warm water and set it beside my hand.

“If you’re tired, sleep first.”

I stared at him. “Marquis, aren’t you going to consummate the marriage?”

Xie Mingzhu paused.

“You want to?”

I nearly choked on the water.

[Like hell I do.]

Outside the door, the two maidservants on night watch coughed at the same time.

Xie Mingzhu glanced toward the doorway.

“All of you, leave.”

The maidservants ran off faster than rabbits.

Only the two of us remained in the room.

I cautiously cursed him again in my heart. [Xie Mingzhu is the biggest idiot in the entire capital.]

He lowered his head to undo his outer robe, not even twitching an eyebrow.

Good.

He couldn’t hear me.

Everyone else in the capital could hear my inner voice, but not him.

That was practically a lifeline Heaven had left me.