Chapter 1 - 1 Forced Substitute Bride
1 Forced Substitute Bride
Tang Beibei put on the ill-fitting wedding dress and stood in front of the mirror with a frown.
She grabbed the wedding dress awkwardly. The waist was much than hers. She looked like a little girl wearing an adult’s dress, rather ridiculous.
“Sign this marriage agreement!”
A marriage agreement was thrown at her unceremoniously. Tang Beibei caught it and opened the agreement. The man had already signed it.
Jiang Jingchen.
Although the signature was scribbled, it was signed with force, domineering without any weakness.
Perhaps just as his name suggested, the man had a strong personality.
“Tang Beibei, you are lucky to marry Jiang Jingchen. So, be happy. If you mess this up, your grandmother may not live her old age in peace.”
Tang Beibei’s heart turned cold when she heard her father’s warning.
Rong Mei’er didn’t want to marry a dying man. She ran away without saying a word a few hours before the wedding.
Rong Mei’er lived at the Rong residence as a relative but in reality, she was Rong Yong’s illegitimate daughter. In order not to offend the Jiang family, Rong Yong shamelessly threaten Tang Beibei using her grandmother’s life to force her into marrying the sickly Jiang family member.
For her grandmother, Tang Beibei could only wear Rong Mei’er’s wedding dress. Sigh. If he was such a good catch, why didn’t he asked Rong Mei’er to stay?
Tang Beibei said defiantly, “If you hurt my grandma, I’ll can easily come after you as I’ll still be the first madam of the Jiang family even if Jiang Jingchen died. It’s not impossible for me to teach you a lesson!”
“You!” Rong Yong was furious and wanted to scold her but a staff came over to urge the bride to hurry over.
Although Rong Yong didn’t like this daughter, he still had to walk Tang Beibei to the stage as Rong Mei’er’s replacement.
Tang Beibei couldn’t see very well through her veil, but she could hear the guests’ mocking comments very clearly.
“It’s a miracle that the sickly Jiang family member lives to see his own wedding.”
“The bride is the rather useless and ugly daughter of the Rong family. I heard that she even participated in a talent show where the organizers didn’t give her a placing even after they spent money. But why does the bride on stage look so slim?”
“It must be because of the wedding that she tried to lose weight. However, this sickly person from the Jiang family is marrying the ugly daughter from the Rong family. He’s also doing people a favor!”
“…”
Tang Beibei felt terrible. When she arrived at the front of the stage, she saw the man in the wheelchair, coughing violently.
He was tall and thin, and his hand that was clenched to his lips was also unusually pale. But his black eyes were cold and indifferent, making the surrounding temperature drop by a few degrees. It was as if he was wrapped in a ball of cold air, and she felt intimidated.
The man continued to cough, and she was really afraid that he would die at the wedding.
If the wedding turned into a funeral, she would be in big trouble.
Rong Yong heard the coughing and was afraid of being infected with some disease. He quickly covered his nose and left.
The priest began the ceremony.
“Bride, do you take this man as your wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
Tang Beibei thought, since she had already signed the marriage agreement, did she still have a choice?
“I do.” Tang Beibei said stiffly.
The priest asked the groom the same question, to which he said “I do” with difficulty after coughing a few more times.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride now.”
The priest looked at the man in the wheelchair. Having him say “I do” was already like asking for his life, let alone kissing the bride.
Just as the priest was about to change his words, the bride squat down. She looked like she was kneeling in front of the wheelchair as she picked up her veil and covered the man’s head.
Under her veil, the two were separated from the outside world.
Tang Beibei was mentally prepared. Since she had married this man, she would accept her fate.
She was not surprised to see the burn marks on the man’s face, but when she looked into the man’s dark eyes, she felt that she was a prey that had invaded his territory, ready to be pounced by him at any time. She trembled in fear and felt very uneasy.
Although this man was sick, the oppressiveness he exuded could not be underestimated.
After his masked was removed, Jiang Jingchen raised his sharp eyebrows unhappily. He looked at the woman with a cold and mocking gaze. He reached out to snatch back his mask, but the woman said calmly, “I, I’ve married you. We’ll meet sooner or later. Now, let’s finish the ceremony. I’ll kiss you.”
Tang Beibei tried to control her emotions, but her palms were covered in cold sweat.
She had never been so close to a man. She was shy and nervous to proactively kiss a strange man.
She quickly kissed him on the lips, retreated and put his mask back on for him.
Jiang Jingchen was surprised and squinted his phoenix eyes. Was he just forcibly kissed by a strange woman?
It was his first kiss.
The woman moved her veil away, leaving behind a whiff of fragrance. His mask had been put back on, covering the evil at the corner of his mouth.
This woman was not Rong Mei’er.