SGEIRS -Chapter 1 Changing the Groom

As a once-prominent family that had fallen into decline, the Yongchang Marquis’s Manor was no longer what it used to be. Yet its eldest legitimate daughter, Meng Jinyao, had managed to marry into the highly favored Changxing Marquis’s household and become the heir’s wife. Who wouldn’t say she was blessed with good fortune?

However, Meng Jinyao didn’t think so.

If she were truly so fortunate, why hadn’t her fiancé come in person to fetch her on their wedding day? Instead, the Changxing Marquis’s second son had come holding a rooster to stand in for him, claiming that the heir was unwell and unable to attend.

Just a few days earlier, she had seen Gu Xiuming full of energy and vigor. How could he suddenly be so ill that he was bedridden and unable to come for the wedding?

In the end, it was simply because the Changxing Marquis’s household did not value this marriage. That was why they dared to humiliate her so lightly. If her grandfather were still alive, even if he were sick, as long as he wasn’t completely bedridden, he would have personally come to receive the bride.

With the wedding imminent, her stepmother and father, eager to cling to the powerful Changxing Marquis’s family, were unwilling to give up this excellent marriage that had been arranged ten years ago.

So even if it meant wronging her, they still pushed her into the bridal sedan chair. And she had no way out except to enter it.

Just then, Ningdong rushed in anxiously and said to Meng Jinyao, “Miss, the heir isn’t ill at all! He ran away with another girl!”

The moment those words were spoken, the entire hall was thrown into shock.

All the guests had thought the heir was sick. Who would have imagined that he had fled the marriage and eloped with someone else?

The people from the Changxing Marquis’s household froze, unsure which loose-lipped person had let the news slip.

When Meng Jinyao heard this, her whole body stiffened. She, too, had believed that her future husband might truly be unwell. She never expected him to have run away with another woman.

If he were sick and unable to personally welcome her or perform the wedding rites, she could grit her teeth and endure it. But eloping with another woman? That was something she absolutely could not tolerate.

She suddenly lifted her red bridal veil, revealing a face of breathtaking beauty. Her delicate features were taut with anger as she looked at the people from the Changxing Marquis’s household and demanded:

“On our wedding day, he runs away without a shred of responsibility. Is this the upbringing of the Changxing Marquis’s heir?”

Madam Zhang, the wife of the eldest branch born of a concubine, hurriedly replied, “Niece-in-law, don’t worry. We’ve already sent people to look for him. You are the officially married heir’s wife of our Gu family. As for that other woman, if you’re willing, you can let her be taken in. In the end, she’s nothing more than a lowly concubine.”

A sense of humiliation she had never felt before surged through Meng Jinyao. Her eyes reddened with anger, and her hands trembled lightly inside her sleeves. Yet she still straightened her back and forced herself to remain calm.

She said, “Since he eloped with someone else and abandoned me on our wedding day, what’s the point of me continuing to marry him and bearing the empty title of heir’s wife in name only?”

Madam Zhang was somewhat confused and followed her words. “Then… what do you mean?”

Meng Jinyao’s thoughts raced. She asked again, “The marriage contract is between the eldest legitimate daughter of the Meng family and the Gu family. It was arranged by our grandparents’ generation. But it never specified which Gu son I was to marry, did it? Am I right, Madam?”

Madam Zhang nodded. “That is true.”

Among the younger generation, however, the most noble was naturally the heir of the marquisate. Moreover, the old marquis himself had arranged the match, so everyone had tacitly assumed it was the heir. To marry the heir was already considered the Meng family’s great fortune—after all, he would inherit the title in the future.

Meng Jinyao took a deep breath, as if summoning all the courage she had in her entire life, and declared firmly and resoundingly, “It was your Gu family who wronged me first. Since you welcomed me through the main gates with an eight-bearer bridal sedan, there’s no way you’re sending me back on foot. If that’s the case, then switch to someone else to perform the wedding rites with me. Call out every unmarried man in the Gu family and let me choose one I find pleasing to the eye.”