In my anxious thoughts, the day of the grand wedding finally arrived.

Despite all her efforts, Lady Xu and Shen Anrong couldn't prevent the wedding, so they simply used the excuse of not attending to avoid it altogether.

Amidst cheers and applause, I finally became the happiest young lady in all of the capital.

On the night of the wedding, Xue Huaiyi returned drunk. As I helped him undress, he suddenly pulled me into his embrace.

"The great general, who rides the battlefield, is pretending to be drunk."

"I had to feign drunkenness to come back. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving a beauty alone in an empty room, yet feared true drunkenness might spoil the occasion. Hence, this ploy."

He made a move to kiss me, but I turned my head away:

"What are you doing? I haven't removed my makeup yet."

"No harm in eating it."

……

A night of passion.

By noon the next day, news arrived. The people sent out by General Xue discovered that my father was indeed secretly operating illicit businesses through the manager of Jin Yue Loft, particularly underground gambling dens which were expressly forbidden by the court.

It seemed the gambling business wasn't covertly managed by Lady Xu but orchestrated entirely by my father. In my previous life, when the gambling den was raided, it was my own father who used me as a scapegoat.

The father for whom I had preserved a shred of affection had turned out to be the mastermind pushing me into the abyss.

"What does my lady plan to do?"

I gritted my teeth and spat out four words:

"Expose him secretly."

Under Xue Huaiyi's covert manipulation, the underground gambling den was quickly exposed. The Jingzhao governor swiftly acted, apprehending the culprits. Clues soon pointed to Jin Yue Loft's boss, Jin Yu Hai, stopping just short of implicating the Shen family.

My father, being extremely selfish, severed ties in desperation to save himself, but this time the one he abandoned was Lady Xu.

I had married into the Xue family, and dragging me down would inevitably cause trouble for the Xue family—a calculation my father understood well. So, in this lifetime, Lady Xu was the one who had to bear the brunt of the disaster.

Jin Yu Hai staunchly insisted that Lady Xu was behind the scenes, while my father deflected responsibility, only facing charges of negligence. Lady Xu was wrongly imprisoned, set to be executed after the autumn.

Thus, I avenged the murder of my mother in our past lives.

Curious about Lady Xu's state in prison, I bribed the guards and finally got to see her.

Disheveled and in rags, in just a few days, the elegantly dressed and overbearing Lady Xu had turned into a beggar.

"Liang Peizhi, you have a visitor."

At the guard's words, Lady Xu scrambled like a rat to the cell door.

"I'm innocent! It has nothing to do with me... it's all Shen Wenzhong's doing..."

By this time, Lady Xu had been tortured to the point of delirium.

I squatted slowly, looking at her vacant eyes, and said:

"Of course, I know you're innocent. The casino was indeed supported by my father behind the scenes. I also guessed that once the scandal broke, you'd be the scapegoat..."

"Shen Anqing, you little wretch..." Lady Xu suddenly went berserk, flailing her hands at me, trying to strangle me, but being in prison, she was powerless.

"I exposed my father's private casino operation to make you experience complete betrayal and isolation."

"Shen Anqing, you little wretch, you set me up. Even in death, I will not let you go. Do you think you can rest easy once I'm dead? Dream on... I've already arranged for Anrong to marry the eldest son of the Xue family. Wait for my daughter to tear you apart piece by piece..."