You're the one who wants to marry a mistress, and I'm marrying someone else, yet you still

Xie Wanru is really sick.

This illness meant he couldn't eat or drink anything for three days, and he lost a lot of weight.

Everyone in the manor said that the Second Madam fell ill because she was saving Young Master Yanzhi. Although he was her stepson, the Second Madam treated him as her own son.

Only Xie Wanru herself knew that she had fallen ill from anger caused by her own foolish act of saving Shen Yanzhi.

She was angry at herself for being useless, ashamed to face Dongzhu and her father who was far away on the border; she was too cowardly.

For the past three days, Shen Mo has been distracted in class. He is worried about Xie Wanru's condition and can hardly understand what the teacher is saying.

"Shen Mo, if you don't take this seriously, I might have to spank your hand next time."

The man patiently explained that Shen Mo had been absent-minded lately, and despite his repeated reminders, he couldn't answer the questions he was asked.

"I'm sorry, sir."

He apologized in silence.

He would rush home after school to stay by Xie Wanru's side, without even reviewing his lessons.

"Kid, your senior sister will be angry when she wakes up and finds out you're not studying hard. You can keep her company, but you still need to study."

Xu Jing brought Shen Mo's book, and his page carried it, following him the whole time.

Shen Mo couldn't concentrate on his studies and was forced to stay in the study. Even with his eyes on the book, his mind was always on Xie Wanru.

During Xie Wanru's illness, Old Madam Shen visited her several times, but Shen Nianqing refused to come even once. She was knocked unconscious that night and had a large bump on her head, so she hid in her room and refused to see anyone.

Shen Yanzhi woke up the next day, but when he learned that two of his toes were ruined, he flew into a rage and smashed a lot of things. Naturally, he didn't remember Xie Wanru's life-saving grace.

Shen Nian'an had come twice, but Dongzhu stopped him outside Plum Garden both times, citing the fear of him catching the disease.

In the days since Xie Wanru was reborn, she has not actually done anything to protect the Shen family. On the contrary, she is very disdainful and hateful of the Shen family. However, Shen Nian'an feels that Xie Wanru is somewhat special.

In his view, Xie Wanru was gradually... different, becoming more open-minded and magnanimous, and better at raising her children.

Under her guidance, he was very happy.

“Nianlang, how could you be bewitched by her too? Have you forgotten that she twisted your wrist and deliberately didn’t ask Doctor Huo to treat you? She doesn’t love you; she just wants to bring disaster to the Shen family.”

Fu Rou was in a panic. How could even her beloved have been bewitched by that woman?

“If she had gone into the water to save Yanzhi sooner, Yanzhi wouldn’t have become disabled. She’s just selfish and afraid of death, and she doesn’t want to save our son.”

"That time I offended her, which is why she took action. My attitude towards her was not good to begin with. She is the eldest daughter of the Xie family, so she naturally has some arrogance."

When Shen Nian'an spoke of Xie Wanru, she unconsciously used all sorts of embellishments.

"Besides, she didn't know that Yan Zhi was our son. How could she not save him? She is a member of the Xie family. All she has in her heart is loyalty and courage, not selfishness, narrow-mindedness, or pettiness."

Shen Nian'an denied it.

In her previous life, after Xie Wanru adopted Shen Yanzhi, she was particularly strict with him because she hoped that he would follow in the footsteps of his father and brother and become a great general.

Therefore, in his previous life, Shen Yanzhi not only had to study but also practice martial arts. All the pain he accumulated in this process turned into a poisonous seed that took root and sprouted in his heart. In the end, it turned into poison, which he personally poured into Xie Wanru's belly, causing her to suffer endless pain and die.

Now, Xie Wanru not only ignores whether Wen Nian'an returns home at night, but also does not demand that Shen Yanzhi be both literate and martial, yet the father and son have a very good impression of her.

After hearing Shen Nian'an's praise, Fu Rou felt a chill in her heart. She looked at the man in front of her in disbelief. How could he have changed his mind in just a month or two?

"Nianlang, she's not sincere. Only my love for you is real. I've given birth to two children for you, and I've endured so much for you all these years. You can't abandon me for a woman who won't even share a bed with you. You can't do this to me, Nianlang. I can't live without you..."

Fu Rou threw herself into Shen Nian'an's arms and began to cry.

She cried so pitifully that Shen Nian'an couldn't bring herself to dislike her.

"Nianlang, I can't live without you. You know I love you to the core. You are my everything..."

Fu Rou's words made Shen Nian'an fall for her once again.

"Rou'er, what are you saying? I just feel that we will all be under the same roof in the future, and Yanzhi needs her support. That's why I don't want your relationship to be too strained. Once you enter the manor, you will have to listen to her, the main wife. I just want to coax her to work for me and Yanzhi. How could I abandon you because of her? She is not even half a finger of yours."

Shen Nian'an pulled the person into her arms and comforted her.

Even though he loved this mistress, Shen Nian'an was still relatively clear-headed at this moment. At least he knew that a mistress was still a concubine and that he had to listen to Xie Wanru.

Fu Rou cried softly, Shen Nian'an's words, "After you enter the family, you must listen to her, the legal wife," echoing in her heart.

Why should she listen to that woman?

What does that woman have that she can compare to, except for her background? She bore Shen Nian'an a son and a daughter, and that's why she deserves the position of the legal wife. What right does Xie Wanru, who can't even have children, have?

On the evening of the third day, Doctor Huo came by, and Xie Wanru finally woke up in a daze.

For the past three days, she has been repeatedly dreaming of her past life, the days when her soul floated after her death. It was after the Xie family was convicted of treason that Shen Yan destroyed half of her life's cultivation with a bowl of soup.

During the ten years she spent raising her children and being a wife in her previous life, she was not skilled in martial arts and was slow to react. Without the slightest suspicion, she drank the poison that Shen Yanzhi personally handed to her.

The drug rendered her completely incapable of martial arts, and Shen Yanzhi even broke her arms and legs and threw her into a dark and gloomy dungeon. So it's more accurate to say that she was starved to death rather than poisoned.

The Shen family threw her body out of the mansion, where it was devoured by wild dogs in a mass grave. They claimed that Xie Wanru committed suicide out of fear of punishment and was not worthy of entering the Shen family ancestral hall, and that the Shen family had no such daughter-in-law.

She was a married-out woman; even if the Xie family was convicted, she hadn't broken the law! But the Shen family was so eager to get rid of her, this troublesome woman, that they were extremely cruel to her, leaving her not even a complete corpse.

Later, her soul drifted to the execution ground and witnessed her father and brothers being insulted by the people parading through the streets. She was in great pain, and even her eldest brother's infant child was not spared.

All the men were executed, and the women were exiled, their lives worse than death.

She couldn't understand why Shen Nian'an and his son hated the Xie family so much. Even if Shen Yanzhi disliked her for being too strict as a mother, the ruthlessness that had spread to the entire Xie family was far too deep.

Xie Wanru could vaguely sense that something else was happening, but at that time her soul was gradually becoming ethereal and she could no longer perceive what was happening around her.