SBCEJM -Chapter 69 A Thousand Taels to Marry the Son! The Whole Capital Scrambles to Wed Him!

A single piece of news detonated through Vermilion Bird Street.

“Extra! Extra! Minister of Revenue Zhao Dequan is publicly selecting a wife for his only son, Zhao Tiansi!”

“Betrothal gifts—one thousand taels of gold! One hundred mu of fertile land! Three thriving shops!”

This dowry stunned the entire capital.

The storytelling master in the teahouse forgot his script.

The courtesan in the wine shop snapped her fingernail on the spot.

The most discomposed of all were the Hanlin Academy scholars.

The very moment before, they had still been condemning vulgar materialism; the next, they could no longer sit still.

“My third uncle has a niece who just came of age!”

“My cousin, though from a merchant family, is stunningly beautiful!”

Two young compiler officials nearly came to blows over whose aunt’s daughter was more suitable.

【Heh. Even a marketplace isn’t this lively.】

Feng Zexuan watched the farce unfold from her portable space.

Beside her, her elder brother Feng Zekai was copying classical texts, but the noise made him stop writing.

“Ridiculous!” he said, putting down his brush. “Treating marriage as a transaction—this is the collapse of propriety!”

“Brother,” Feng Zexuan tapped the table lightly, “this transaction can let an ordinary family leap to the top in a single step.”

Then she continued:

“If an unrelated woman marries into the Zhao household, wouldn’t her entire family rise with her?”

Feng Zekai opened his mouth—but no words came out.

He had just seen a colleague who always preached “a gentleman should remain poor with integrity” quietly slip out under an excuse.

【See? This is human nature.】

Feng Zexuan shifted her gaze to the screen in front of her.

The scene changed—Imperial Study.

“So Zhao Dequan has gone this far!”

Emperor Xiao Juechen originally intended to use this “pilot trial” excuse to send Zhao Tiansi to the frontier army, cutting off the Zhao family’s root.

But Zhao Dequan’s move changed everything.

He tied himself—and the greed of the entire capital—together with gold, forcing public sentiment into his favor.

Was this not open defiance of imperial authority?

Xiao Juechen wanted to stop it, but realized he had no standing—the decree had been issued by himself.

【The emperor is furious, but it’s useless.】

The scene shifted again—to the Yongning Marquis Manor.

Marquis Wang Jianzhang, a man with only a hollow title, was pointing at his eldest son Wang Wenzhao and shouting.

“Money! Connections! This is exactly what our Wang family lacks! Send your sister! As long as she can marry into the Zhao family, we’ll rise again!”

Wang Wenzhao’s face went pale.

“Father! Zhao Tiansi… they say he has a strange illness!”

“Is that illness worse than poverty?”

Wang Jianzhang slammed the table, rattling the teacups.

“She will marry him—even if it means living as a widow. That still buys our entire family fortune! She must understand this clearly for the Wang family!”

The scene shifted again—to a slum in the southwest of the capital.

A thin, yellow-faced woman clutched her daughter Xiao Tao’s hand, loudly describing a future of soaring to greatness.

The girl’s face held only fear and confusion.

【In this world, there are always those willing to gamble their daughters’ lives on illusory hope.】

Feng Zexuan closed the “live feed,” her heart turning cold.

“System, is there a way to let them ‘see’ their future in advance?”

System: 【Item “Dream Illusion Talisman,” cost: 1000 melon points. Can target a group (all unmarried women of marriageable age in the capital) and induce a one-time shared dream, with a scene defined by the host.】

“I’ll take it.”

A faint smile appeared at Feng Zexuan’s lips.

“The dream scene will be the wedding night.”

“I want them to personally experience it—being strangled by that monster, watching him collect their tears in a glass vial. I want them to feel that despair.”

“I never change fate. I only give them a chance to see the ending early, and choose again.”

At midnight, the capital was silent.

An invisible ripple spread outward from Feng Zexuan, instantly covering the entire city.

Yongning Marquis Manor — Wang Jingwen’s Room

She was dreaming.

Everything was red and festive. She sat on the bridal bed in full wedding attire.

The veil was lifted.

Zhao Tiansi appeared—his face flushed with abnormal excitement.

He did not touch her. Instead, he smiled obsessively and pulled out a crystal-clear glass vial from behind him.

“Don’t be afraid…” his voice was sticky, crawling into her ears. “I only need one thing.”

He suddenly grabbed her throat and slammed her onto the bed.

She couldn’t breathe.

She struggled violently, but only choking sounds came out.

“Yes… that expression… fear, unwillingness, purity…”

He pressed the cold mouth of the vial toward the corner of her eye, waiting greedily.

“Cry… why aren’t you crying? Give me your tears…”

Despair swallowed her completely.

“Aaah—!”

Wang Jingwen shot upright in bed, gasping for air, drenched in cold sweat.

Moonlight poured through the window. She looked around her familiar room—only then confirming it had been a dream.

But the sensation of suffocation… the sickly whisper… the cold glass vial…

It was all carved into her bones as if real.

She touched her throat. The pain still lingered.

After a long silence, her fear faded, replaced by cold resolve.

Three Days Later — Zhao Residence Gate

Carriages filled the street like flowing water.

Merchants, officials, nobles, madams from prestigious families—all gathered, each wearing confident smiles.

Steward Zhao Zhong stood on the steps, announcing rules in a booming voice as exclamations erupted from the crowd.

Deep inside the Zhao residence, in a secret chamber—

Zhao Tiansi muttered while staring at a row of empty glass vials.

He licked his cracked lips, eyes burning with excitement.

“Soon… very soon, they will all be filled.”

“Wedding night tears… chastity… what beautiful new collections…”

In an adjacent tea room, Zhao Dequan and Madam Wen sat across from each other.

“Madam, what do you think of this commotion?”

“You handled it brilliantly,” she replied weakly, yet sharply.

“But we must choose carefully. We need someone greedy enough, yet intelligent enough. A woman who can endure Tiansi’s… hobby—and keep silent forever. A caged bird.”

Zhao Dequan stroked his beard, calculating.

“Don’t worry. Under great reward, there will always be brave souls. Somewhere out there, there is a woman who values wealth more than her life.”

At that moment, a small commotion arose outside the gate.

A plain blue sedan chair, utterly out of place among the luxurious carriages, stopped at the Zhao residence.

The curtain lifted.

A woman stepped out—Wang Jingwen.

No makeup. Plain clothes.

Compared to the brightly dressed noble ladies around her, she looked like a colorless wild weed.

Yet the moment she appeared, everyone felt a chill.

No shyness. No anticipation of wealth.

Only cold silence—like ice sharpened into blades.

She stood quietly, gaze piercing through the noisy crowd straight into the depths of the Zhao residence.

Feng Zexuan, unnoticed, had already disguised herself as a Zhao maid and blended into the crowd.

She found watching from a screen boring—being on-site was far more fun.

Seeing the newcomer, she raised an eyebrow.

【Interesting. Wang Jingwen didn’t flee after the nightmare—she sharpened into a blade.】

At that moment, the steward Zhao Zhong drew out his voice and called loudly:

“Yongning Marquis Manor—eldest daughter, Wang Jingwen—arrived!”