Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar year.

Today, it was an auspicious day for marriage. It was also on this day that Prince Yu was finally going to marry his princess consort many years after his wife passed away. However, everyone knew that this was not something to be happy about because most likely, a funeral would be on the way too.

Prince Yu was going to marry the daughter of the second branch of the Shen family, Shen Qing. In the Shen mansion, there were three unmarried ladies. Shen Miao was once famous for being an idiot, and Shen Yue was famous for being talented. Shen Qing was considered beautiful, generous, and smart. In the end, she ended up marrying Prince Yu. When the news of this spread throughout the capital, many commoners found it unbelievable.

“Shen Gui must be crazy.” Someone in the crowd whispered, “Is he really going to sit back and watch his daughter die in the hands of a devil? What a sin.”

“What do you know?” Another person said disapprovingly, “I heard from my cousin who’s an official that Eldest Miss Shen has already been having an affair with Prince Yu. She’s already pregnant with his baby. If not for the fact that she’s pregnant with the royal blood, she would have been drowned as a punishment.”

“Ah? Are you serious?” When the people around heard that, they were all a little surprised. Clearly, they did not know about this before.

That person nodded his head proudly. “Dead serious. I heard that all the civil and military officials saw it at the royal banquet that day. That’s why I said that Eldest Miss Shen is not pitiful at all. She deserved it.”

“That’s right. Pregnant before marriage is immoral!”

“How shameless!”

“How did the second branch of the Shen family raise such a daughter? She’s really a disgrace to the family.”

Everyone was talking at once, their words filled with disdain for Shen Qing. It took them only a moment to shift from pitying Shen Qing to cursing her.

The person who initially said that Shen Qing was pregnant smiled and disappeared into the crowd.

In the Shen family, the maid was helping Shen Qing dress up.

Ren Wanyun stood behind Shen Qing and clenched the handkerchief in her hand tightly, almost tearing it into pieces. The daughter she had raised well and carefully was now going to marry a devil. To Ren Wanyuan, it felt like someone was skinning her bit by bit.

Unlike Ren Wanyun, Shen Qing did not experience as much emotional fluctuation as Ren Wanyun. She sat quietly in her seat and let the maid help her put on clothes. The maid smiled and said, “Miss, I’m going to pull on the corset for you. This will be a little painful. Miss, bear with it for a while.”

As soon as the maid said that, Ren Wanyun felt a sharp pain in her heart and almost fainted. Shen Qing, on the other hand, only looked at herself in the bronze mirror with a blank expression. If not for the fact that her eyes would blink from time to time, others would probably think that she was a lifeless corpse.

The maid was a little afraid when she saw Shen Qing like this. She took out a corset from the box and started to put it on. It was indeed very painful. Usually, those young ladies would always shout in pain. However, when the corset was pulled on, Shen Qing was still expressionless, as if she was actually dead.

“Qing…” Ren Wanyun couldn’t help but cry.