Shang Yufu had been betrothed to the heir of the Dingguo Prince's Mansion since childhood. She had always assumed that she would eventually marry him. However, when he returned triumphantly from the battlefield, everyone was shocked to find that He Jingheng was confined to a wheelchair day in and day out.Later, it became known that the most valiant and skilled heir of the Dingguo Prince's Mansion in the Tianshun Dynasty had been crippled.Upon learning of this, Shang Yufu was determined not to go through with the marriage.Shang Nian entered the palace to plead for a special favor, requesting that the Shang family be allowed to select another suitable young lady for the marriage at an early date.Among the marriageable ladies in the Shang family, aside from Shang Yufu, there was only this overlooked second concubine-born young lady, Shang Ruoyi."Who said I'm going to marry in place of your daughter?" Shang Ruoyi sneered."Presumptuous!" Shang Nian thundered. "I order you to marry! Whether you like it or not, you must do so!"Shang Ruoyi nodded, then slowly said, "What about the dowry?""Dowry?""I don't ask for much. Just give me the dowry that my mother brought here." She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Yes, for a grand prime minister's mansion, surely there should be a dowry? It was originally left to me by my mother."What?

Her mother's dowry?

That was out of the question!

When her mother married into the prime minister's mansion, the wedding procession was magnificent, with a ten-mile-long display of red. Everyone praised the prime minister for his good fortune.

Now, if she were to take all of it away, it would be tantamount to emptying the prime minister's mansion!"The list of your mother's dowry is lost. How can we calculate it? Stop making trouble!" Shang Nian said sternly. "The orders of parents cannot be defied. As your father, I command you to get dressed and groomed immediately. Don't miss the auspicious hour. Your marriage was personally decreed by the emperor. Disobeying the imperial edict is a capital crime punishable by beheading.""Prime Minister, don't be hasty. You may not have the dowry list, but I do." She took out a booklet from under her pillow, waved it, and said with a calm expression, "Do you recognize this?"When Shang Nian and the First Lady saw this item, they were utterly shocked. How could this booklet be in her hands?Indeed, while others' dowries could be listed on a thin sheet of paper, her mother's dowry was recorded in a booklet, indicating the grandeur of the wedding back then."Ungrateful daughter, hand over this booklet to your father at once!"Shang Ruoyi sneered. "Even if you take this booklet, Prime Minister, it won't help. Everyone in the imperial city knows how magnificent my mother's wedding was when she entered the prime minister's mansion. Now, when her daughter gets married, she can't even take her mother's dowry. Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by the world? When your precious daughter marries into the Crown Prince's Mansion, people will surely gossip about how her parents withheld her concubine mother's dowry to adorn her. With such conduct, does she still dream of becoming the empress and ruling the harem? It's nothing but a pipe dream!"Shang Ruoyi knew exactly where her despicable father and the First Lady were vulnerable.They were constantly dreaming of Shang Yufu becoming the empress.They would never do, nor dare to do, anything that could damage their reputation."What do you want?" The First Lady stepped forward and asked coldly."Return my mother's dowry to me, intact." She flipped to the pages listing the dowry of land properties and shops and said, "I don't care for these. I also know that the prime minister's mansion's expenses come from my mother's shops. So, convert all these land properties and shops into ready silver and give it to me."How much silver would that be?Shang Nian was about to refuse when he heard the First Lady say in a deep voice, "Fine!""Madam..."The First Lady gave him a subtle wink, and Shang Nian fell silent.She took out the key to the treasury. "I haven't touched your mother's things. They've been locked in the treasury. As for the land properties and shops, there are eleven shops, four pieces of farmland, and two manors. We'll convert them into ten thousand taels of silver. How about that?"Shang Ruoyi raised her eyebrows slightly. The First Lady was being so generous; she must be up to something."Fine!""Master, Madam, the auspicious hour is almost here."The First Lady looked at Shang Ruoyi and said coldly, "Now can you get dressed and groomed?"She was dragged into the room by the servants and put on the wedding dress originally made for Shang Yufu. She shook her head and said, "I didn't expect Shang Yufu to be so plump. This dress is too big for me."The young maid who was dressing her couldn't help but giggle.Seeing the Second Miss looking at her in the bronze mirror, she quickly composed herself, lowered her head, and continued to arrange her hair ornaments."What's your name?" Shang Ruoyi asked."Returning to Second Miss, this servant is named Shaoyao.""Which courtyard are you from?""This servant has always been helping the cooks in the kitchen."The First Lady had actually sent someone from the kitchen to dress her up. She was clearly determined to make her look ridiculous.But by some stroke of luck, the maid's skills were quite good.Looking at the beautifully coiled hair bun the maid had done for her, Shang Ruoyi asked with some confusion, "Your skills are excellent. Why aren't you serving in the rooms of the madam or concubines? Why did you end up in the kitchen?""Returning to Second Miss, this servant used to serve in Concubine Zhang's room. But the prime minister commented on this servant's delicate and fair hands to the concubine. The concubine was angry and sent this servant to the kitchen."So that was the case.Just as she finished getting dressed, the servants came to urge her to leave.She touched the jade pendant around her neck.It was the one she had worn in her previous life. She was surprised to find that it was still on her after transmigrating.Thinking of her frustrated death in her previous life, Shang Ruoyi couldn't help but feel indignant.A top-notch special agent, not dying in war or sacrificing for the country, but at the hands of her most trusted teammate.If someone you could entrust your life to could turn traitor, who in this world could you truly give your heart to?Just then, the First Lady entered the room, took out a ten-thousand-tael banknote, and handed it to her. "Your mother's dowry boxes have been carried outside. Why don't you hurry up and leave? If you miss the auspicious hour and the emperor gets angry, can your worthless life bear the consequences?""First Lady, if you keep blabbering, today, even if it means incurring the emperor's wrath, I'll drag the prime minister's mansion down with me. There are hundreds of lives in this mansion." Shang Ruoyi crossed her legs and looked at her with a cold gaze. "Anyway, there's no one in this prime minister's mansion that I care about. If you don't care either, we can give it a try."The First Lady looked at her with a sinister gaze but, as she expected, closed her mouth.Shang Ruoyi sneered, stuffed the banknote into her bosom, and walked out of the room. Seeing the dowry boxes piled up far outside the courtyard, she couldn't help but be astonished. She never expected that the original owner's mother had been so wealthy.It was most lamentable that, despite such wealth, she had died such a tragic death.In the current Tianshun Dynasty, the principle of male superiority still prevailed. Although the status of women was not extremely low, it was still far behind that of men.But Shang Ruoyi was not the type of woman who could stay in the inner courtyard, being jealous and fighting with concubines for a man's favor.Even in ancient times, she could stand on her own and live a wonderful life.She refused to be a man's appendage!Watching her departing figure, the First Lady murmured, "So what if you take all this dowry? You may have the ability to take it, but you need to have the life to spend it."

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