A Tale of Golden Heiress: Lady Wanjin - Chapter 18

Seeing Wen Wan remain silent and just stare at him, the man called Zhao Heng gave a weak, doting smile, “Why are you looking at me like that, my dear… Where are we…”

Zhao Heng’s words left the three women in the room silent.

And thoroughly short-circuited Wen Wan’s brain.

Happiness… had it really come this quickly?

The people in the room exchanged glances but maintained a tacit agreement and eerie silence.

Auntie Liu and Nanny Chen instinctively looked at Wen Wan.

Blushing yet secretly pleased, Wen Wan squirmed like a lively little worm, “A Heng, we… haven’t held the wedding ceremony yet. Calling me your wife… isn’t quite proper, is it?”

Wen Wan’s words left Nanny Chen and Auntie Liu speechless once again.

The youth these days sure knew how to play games.

Zhao Heng also fell silent.

He opened his dazed, confused eyes and glanced at Wen Wan, then at the other two women in the room.

The wind blew soundlessly.

The room was as quiet as a tomb.

After a long while, the man coughed twice, as if finally resigning himself to fate. There was a faint trace of helplessness in his voice, “Then who are you? Who am I? And where is this?”

Auntie Liu and Nanny Chen exchanged a series of meaningful glances, their breath caught in their throats.

Wen Wan tightened her grip on the sachet.

Smoothly, she slipped the travel pass and waist token into her pocket.

The entire motion was fluid and natural.

No one would ever guess she had just pocketed the man’s identification right under his nose.

“Your name is Zhao Heng, from Shou’an. I am Wen Wan, your betrothed. This is the Wen family’s villa.”

The atmosphere in the room grew tense to the extreme.

The man Second Master Tu had snatched wasn’t blind—he had lost his memory.

Nanny Chen gulped audibly.

Yet the young mistress smiled, her voice calm and unhurried, but her eyes frighteningly bright. “You’ve lost your memory?”

Zhao Heng tilted his head, scanning the room, “I suppose so. My mind is completely blank.”

The young woman across from him chuckled softly, “A Heng doesn’t remember his own name, yet he calls me ‘my dear’ so freely. Do you do that with all young women?”

Zhao Heng’s expression remained natural as his gaze fell on the sachet in her hand, “I don’t remember Miss Wen, but I remember this sachet.”

Wen Wan’s face tightened slightly, “This sachet… what about it?”

“This sachet was given to me by my mother. She said… if I ever met a woman I fancied, I should give it to her as a token.”

Zhao Heng’s pitch-black eyes, clear and distinct, seemed like sticky spring water, enveloping her entirely.

“Besides, I think… I dreamed of your face earlier. You took care of me all night, didn’t you?”

Ah.

So, he meant that moment when he was half-asleep and asked, “Who are you?”

What kind of smooth transition was this?

Before Wen Wan could even fully settle into her role as the charming young widow who had paid a fortune for a child, had heaven really delivered a husband to her so effortlessly?

Meanwhile, Nanny Chen screamed internally: It was me who took care of you all night! Me!

Zhao Heng looked at her again, his voice hoarse, a hidden fire burning deep in his eyes. “So, Miss Wen, can you tell me… what exactly is going on?”

Here it was.

The crucial point had arrived.

Wen Wan’s mind naturally conjured up countless heart-wrenching novels she had read in her past life.

Harem drama, tragic romance, system-based stories, mpreg, revenge plots, forced love—

Which one suited Wen Wan best?

“Ten days ago, I found you injured on the official road west of Ping County.”

“You were severely wounded and claimed to be the illegitimate son of a wealthy family from Shou’an. Your mother had passed away early, and after losing the struggle for inheritance against your brothers, your stepmother and siblings hired assassins to hunt you down.”

“You begged me to save you, saying you would serve me like a horse or ox if I did.”

“Your elder brother sent men after us, and I got dragged into it. The thugs your family hired chased us into the Peach Blossom River. The current was fierce, and you passed out. Fortunately, I grew up by the river and am an excellent swimmer, so we managed to escape. But I… I… you… saw all of me.”

Nanny Chen noticed the perfectly timed shyness on Wen Wan’s face.

She turned away.

Couldn’t bear to watch.

But Wen Wan specifically called her out. “My elderly servant, Nanny Chen, can testify to this.”

“Ah?” Nanny Chen nodded emphatically, her face stern. “That’s right. I can prove everything Miss said is true. If not for her risking her life to save you, you’d be long dead!”

After speaking righteously, Chen Ma silently recited: Amitabha.

As long as you marry into this family, sir, I will definitely take good care of you to make up for this.

It was unclear whether Zhao Heng believed it or not, but a faint smile flickered in his beautiful eyes. “So, it seems Miss Wen has saved my life.”

” ‘Great kindness’ is too strong a term. Since you’ve already agreed to become a live-in son-in-law for the Wen family, this debt is settled.”

“Live-in son-in-law?” Zhao Heng’s sword-like eyebrows furrowed deeply.

So, this wasn’t a story of a beauty saving a hero and then marrying him…

“Ah, I forgot A Heng has lost his memory.” A trace of disappointment appeared on Wen Wan’s face. “After I pulled you from the river that day, you said… You said… You would take responsibility for me.”

“But there are only my sister and me left in my family. Now that my father is critically ill, I had planned to take in a husband.”

“You also said that since you had been disowned by your family anyway and had no ties left, what did it matter if you married into mine?”

“Ten days ago, I already informed the Wen family elders that our wedding date is set for five days from now—”

The young mistress’s eyes reddened, a faint mist appearing in her almond-shaped eyes, her eyelashes trembling uneasily.

It seemed like reluctance, humiliation, and fear.

Dawn was approaching.

A pale glow of morning light fell on the young mistress’s pale face.

“I know most men cannot accept being a live-in son-in-law. Even though we had an agreement first, since you’ve lost your memory, this marriage shouldn’t count. If you’re unwilling, I won’t force you.”

Auntie Liu, “ ?”
Chen Ma, ”?”
How could it not count?!
How could you not force him?!
Does forced love not count as love?!

The young mistress’s voice was soft, on the verge of tears, like a delicate flower drenched in rain, “Young Master Zhao, let’s just say we were destined to meet but not to be. I will give the elders an explanation myself.”

Auntie Liu and Nanny Chen were so anxious that they were ready to find a rope to tie down this cooked duck.

This duck… couldn’t fly away…

“There are still five days until the wedding. How will you explain it to your family? Besides…” Zhao Heng frowned. “I never said I refuse to marry into your family.”

Wen Wan covered her face with a handkerchief, hiding her slightly upturned lips.

Men all over the world loved delicate, fragile flowers.

Delicate flowers were good.

They looked harmless and easy to bully.

Auntie Liu finally couldn’t hold back. “So does the young master agree to marry in?”

This “young master” rolled off her tongue quite smoothly.

It sounded premeditated.

Zhao Heng clearly felt the gazes of the three women in the room “snap” back onto his face.

Zhao Heng lightly furrowed his brow and sighed heavily. “This matter is significant. May I have some more time to think it over?”

Wen Wan held back the eager Nanny Chen, forcing a look of deliberate ease onto her face.

The young mistress’s eyes were red, but her tone was stubborn.

“Young Master Zhao, you needn’t have any concerns. Even though we… had skin contact, after all, only Nanny Chen was there at the time. Just pretend… it never happened. But it concerns my chastity. Even if you and I are not destined to be husband and wife, I ask you to keep it secret. Otherwise… there will be no place left for me, Wen Wan, in this world.”