Marrying the Crown Prince

When Ding Dong saw the "beloved" she had been longing for appear before her, tears of joy instantly welled up in her eyes and swirled around her.

In her eyes, there was surprise, but also endless sorrow.

Zhong Xu saw all this and his heart softened completely.

He reached out and wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes, his voice gentle, "Why are you crying?"

Just that simple sentence was enough to make Ding Dong unable to hold back any longer. With a sob, she threw herself into Zhong Xu's arms.

She still loves him; she's crying in his arms now...

Zhong Xu's body stiffened. Reason told him that he should push her away immediately because she was his father's concubine and his nominal elder.

But... but I was the one who met her first...

Ding Dong cried as she recounted her recent grievances.

Being a concubine in a wealthy and powerful family is not easy. Not only do you have to abide by many rules all day long, but Lady Jingwen is also a difficult person to get along with.

She had countless ways of tormenting her daughter-in-law, let alone a concubine.

Jingwenbo was a fickle man who easily bored with the old and sought the new. He forced her into his household, but after only a few days, the novelty wore off, and he forgot all about her, leaving Jingwenbo's wife to torment him without a second thought.

Zhong Xu felt even more heartbroken upon hearing this.

The person I cherish and love so much is being treated like this; it's truly despicable!

He finally couldn't resist and reached out to embrace his beloved.

In this noisy world, they held each other tightly, as if the whole world had only consisted of each other.

While Zhong Xu was still immersed in the news that Ding Dong still loved him deeply, Ding Dong's eyes no longer held the tenderness and affection from just moments before.

Her eyes burned with endless hatred, and her fists clenched tightly where Zhong Xu couldn't see, her nails digging deep into her palms.

It's unclear how much time passed, but Ding Dong moved effortlessly between the father and son, skillfully navigating any situation, regardless of who she faced or what difficulties she encountered.

The first person she killed was Lady Jingwen.

Lady Jingwen was not a kind person, but since there were no particularly favored concubines in the Jingwen household before, she had focused all her attention on her son's courtyard.

Now that Ding Dong has appeared there, she naturally won't let him go.

Setting rules is easy, but Ding Dong herself is an opera singer, and the methods of Lady Jingwenbo are no match for her in the opera house.

What's more, she set the rules, and then immediately started whispering in Ding Dong's ear.

Jingwenbo, who was already dissatisfied with Lady Jingwen, became even more annoyed with his wife. "If you hadn't spoiled Zhongxu, would he have been stealing chickens and dogs and keeping mistresses all day long? It's true that a doting mother spoils her son. She was a perfectly good daughter-in-law, but she drove her away by this brainless woman. It's really despicable!"

In fact, the education of children is never the responsibility of one person alone. He blamed all the mistakes on Mrs. Jingwen, which was wrong in itself.

But Jing Wenbo was used to being a chauvinist, so how could he possibly admit that he was wrong?

This dislike reached its peak when he learned that Lady Jingwen had secretly poisoned Ding Dong's child, which she had finally managed to conceive.

"You poisonous woman, you poisonous woman!" Earl Jingwen and his wife started arguing.

In this era where husbands were considered paramount, even though Lady Jingwen had a family, she was still sent by her husband to a manor outside the city.

However, he was not sent there on the grounds of being a criminal, but rather on the grounds that he had contracted a serious illness.

The reason is simple: the family of Lady Jingwen did not agree to Jingwen using the seven grounds for divorce in order to affect their daughter's marriage.

Lady Jingwen did not stay at the estate for long before falling ill. Upon hearing this news, Jingwen's eldest son, Zhong Laoda, was very anxious, but he had official duties to attend to and did not have many holidays, so he could not stay by his mother's bedside every day.

So, to put her husband's mind at ease, his wife, Xu, went to the estate to serve Lady Jingwen.

As soon as Lady Jingwen opened her eyes, she saw the smiling Xu.

A sense of foreboding washed over her, and she screamed, "Why are you here? Where is my son? Where did he go?"

"Mother, what's wrong, Mother?" Madam Xu seemed startled and stepped forward with concern, wanting to comfort the distraught Lady Jingwen.

Unexpectedly, the struggling Lady Jingwen knocked over the medicine and scratched Madam Xu several times.

Three servants stepped forward together and managed to subdue Lady Jingwen.

Lady Jingwen raised her head, her eyes wide with resentment. "It was you! It was you who did this!"

She was acting erratically there, while the frail Xu Shi, clutching the wound on her neck, looked at the doctor with teary eyes, "Doctor, please take a look, Mother... Mother..."

Before she could finish speaking, tears began to fall, one after another.

The doctor sighed, "Madam's illness is indeed very serious, but she cannot skip taking this medicine."

So the servants forcibly pried open Lady Jingwen's mouth and poured bowl after bowl of medicine down her throat, which made her already frail body even worse.

A month later, under Xu's painstaking care, Lady Jingwen's health was completely ruined.

The doctor who came to examine her shook his head, indicating that there was nothing he could do.

His face was grave. "Prepare for the worst."

Upon hearing this news, Madam Xu froze on the spot as if struck by lightning, her face instantly turning ashen.

Overwhelmed by grief, she murmured, her lips trembling, "How could this be... How could Mother not be able to live?"

In an instant, grief, despair, and helplessness intertwined, causing her heart to ache.

Even though he was used to seeing life and death, the doctor couldn't bear to look away and turned his head away, unable to bear watching any longer.

After seeing the doctor off, Madam Xu remained calm.

She fetched pen and ink, wrote a letter home, and handed it to the servant, ordering him to send it home as quickly as possible.

Within a day, Uncle Jingwen, along with Zhong Laoda, Zhong Xu, and a few others, arrived at the estate.

At this time, Lady Jingwen was paralyzed in bed, unable to close her mouth, and could not speak properly. She could only babble incoherently, with saliva dripping from her mouth.

Mrs. Xu sat beside her, patiently using a spoon to scoop the medicine and feed it to her.

Unfortunately, Lady Jingwen swallowed very little; most of it flowed out of her mouth.

Madam Xu took a handkerchief and gently wiped Madam Jingwen's face.

Looking at his wife who was now doing everything so well, Zhong was deeply moved and took the medicine from her hands.

That evening, Mrs. Jingwen passed away.

Madam Xu covered her face with a handkerchief and wept bitterly, hiding the smile on her lips—that old hag is finally dead. It wasn't for nothing that I spent a lot of money to get this medicine. I have finally... finally avenged my son.

Indeed, Lady Jingwen treated every daughter-in-law equally, but she mistreated both Xu Shi and Zhou Rong.

As a result, Ms. Xu suffered a miscarriage once.

The thought of that poor, unborn child brought a surge of grief to Xu's heart, and the sorrow on her face became more genuine.

Her crying not only spread her reputation for filial piety, but also attracted many more suitors who wanted to marry Xu's daughter.

Of course, these are all for later.