Chapter 490

Xu Heming led the wedding procession grandly along the capital's streets toward the Li residence."Why has Prince An brought so many people with him?"

"Looks like the Li family is preparing quite a dowry."

"What do you mean?"

Someone turned to the speaker in confusion.

"Haven't you noticed how many people Prince An has brought?" the man said smugly.

"What does having a lot of people mean? Shouldn't the Li family be the ones arranging the escorts?"

"Exactly. It must be that they don't have enough escorts, so Prince An brought his own."

"I don't think so. Maybe Prince An is afraid the Li family won't give enough dowry, so he brought all these people to take it by force? After all, hasn't the Li family supposedly found their lost son?"

"It seems Prince An marrying the Li daughter won't be an easy battle."

"You can say that again. I wonder how much dowry the Li family is willing to offer this time. Since the Li family's thirteen hundred dowry chests were already donated to the court."

"Maybe even more than thirteen hundred. I heard Prince An's betrothal gifts alone numbered three hundred sixty chests. It's also said that the Emperor and Empress gave generous gifts, and the Grand Princess contributed too. I even saw the Cheng family sending things."

"Oh, right, right, right. I saw the Wen family send a lot as well."

"Really? Well then, by that logic, it would be a bit hard for the Li family to get away with less than thirteen hundred chests of dowry, wouldn't it?"

"Not necessarily. Now that the Li family has an heir, they can't just throw everything at the daughter who's getting married."

"Exactly. They already gave once, and it was Miss Li herself who donated everything to the court."

"But last time Miss Li donated her dowry, Lord Li got a promotion."

Some felt that Li Zhiwei's donation had benefited her father, Lord Li Tianyou.

In fairness, the Li family couldn't simply give Li Zhiwei nothing.

The crowd chattered on, but none of it could dampen Xu Heming's joyful and excited heart.

At that moment, a pair of venomous eyes stared fixedly at the bright figure on horseback.

She never expected him to be getting married again.

For so many years, he hadn't remarried, and she had thought he still remembered her.

But now, as soon as she returned to the capital, she saw him making such a spectacle of marrying someone else.

What about her child?

Thinking of Xu Qingshi, Zhou Yuxin wanted to rush forward and confront Xu Heming.

If he married someone else, what would become of their son?

"What do you think you're doing?" A large hand tightly grabbed Zhou Yuxin. The man's eyes burned with anger.

It was Ding Chen.

The man she was with now.

Back then, Zhou Yuxin had faked her death to elope with Ding Chen.

After that, they went to live out of town.

The Ding family used to live next door to the Zhou family; Zhou Yuxin and Ding Chen were childhood sweethearts. Unfortunately, her family opposed her marrying him, so she had no choice but to marry Prince An.

At first, she had resigned herself to that fate.

But life with Prince An wasn't as good as she had imagined.

Xu Heming was rarely at the residence, and she spent most days and nights alone.

That was when she began to miss Ding Chen.

With time, an affair blossomed between them.

Eventually, they even conspired to fake her death.

Soon, she became pregnant. For a woman, childbirth was like passing through the gates of hell, and it was not uncommon for a woman to die during labor.

Furthermore, Xu Heming was usually busy with official duties and had no time to attend to such matters, so they managed to escape successfully.

Originally, she had also wanted to take the child with her.

But Ding Chen said that staying in Prince An’s manor would be better for the child than following them. Besides, since she had died during a difficult labor, Prince An’s manor would surely cherish the child even more.

Sure enough, it was not long before it was heard that Prince An had petitioned to have the child named the heir to Prince An’s title.

At the time, Ding Chen said smugly that once his son inherited the title of Prince An, good days would come for them.

After hearing Ding Chen’s words, the two of them peacefully left the capital far behind, found a place to settle down, and began the life they had envisioned.

For the first two years, they brought enough money to live comfortably.

At that time, she even felt fortunate to have followed Ding Chen out.

Otherwise, she would have spent her days seeing Xu Heming only a handful of times a year.

Zhou Yuxin had no desire to endure that long, lonely life of waiting in an empty house.

What she had with Ding Chen—that was real life.

But by the next two years, they had spent all their money.

Their relationship began to sour.

She started selling off her jewelry.

Unfortunately, Ding Chen stayed at home every day, doing nothing, insisting on eating the best and wearing the best. When there was money—none of this seemed like a problem. After all, she had been used to this kind of life before.

But as she watched the jewelry in her dressing case dwindle, Zhou Yuxin’s resentment grew.

Gradually, their arguments became more frequent.

She began to reflect on why their life had come to this.

In the end, they concluded that the problem was a shortage of funds. But when it came to Ding Chen going out to earn money, he refused. After all, he knew no skills.

Zhou Yuxin, however, truly could no longer scrape together the money to support them both. After much thought, they decided to sneak back to the capital to ask their families for money.

What about being recognized?

It had been five years since they left, and they assumed everyone had long forgotten about them.

But neither of them expected such bad luck—as soon as they returned, they ran into the day Xu Heming was marrying his new wife.

Watching the grand ceremony for Xu Heming, Zhou Yuxin could not hide the jealousy in her eyes. Back when she had married Xu Heming, the scale of the event had not even been half of this.

At that time, she hadn’t cared about the ostentation, because her heart belonged to Ding Chen. She paid no attention to how lavish or modest the wedding was.

After all, she was not marrying the one she truly wanted.

But ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​‍now, standing here and watching her former husband receive a new wife with ten times more grandeur than she ever had—especially at a time when she was living so poorly—how could she accept it?

He ought to be living far worse than her!

The thought made Zhou Yuxin want to rush up and confront Xu Heming, demanding to know whether he had the nerve to treat her, and their child, this way.

She took a step forward just as she was about to call out to Xu Heming.

“Are you insane?” Ding Chen angrily clamped his hand over Zhou Yuxin’s mouth.

Ding Chen had always believed that Xu Qingshi was his own child. If Zhou Yuxin revealed herself now, Xu Qingshi’s true identity would be exposed.

And then he would lose the plan of relying on his son to enjoy a life of privilege.

Only then did Zhou Yuxin break out in a cold sweat, realizing just how dangerous her actions were at that moment.

If she were discovered—