“See that girl over there? You must protect her at all costs.”
When I first became conscious, my mind was a complete mess, and I could remember only those words.
All the memories of the body’s original owner suddenly surged back like a tide. Before I could even think, I saw a girl standing across from me.
A dim star hovered above her head. Her beautiful face was pale and lifeless, making her look utterly pitiful.
This was a grand party. Everyone was focused on me, while she stood alone. The guests faced her, pointing and jeering.
The girl beside me tugged at my sleeve and said softly, “Forget it, Mục Dã. Sister Mạnh didn’t mean to splash juice on me. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have been standing there.”
“Don’t think that just because you married into the Giang family, everyone has to cater to you.” The aunt beside us looked at her with contempt. “No wonder Mục Dã looks down on you.”
“Mạnh Tư Nguyệt, you used to pull these stunts, too,” a young man said with a mocking expression. “Are you trying to pull the same tricks again?”
When he finished, a group of people turned to look at me, signaling for me to say something.
Still stunned, I blurted out to the girl, “Wife.”
Hứa Nhuận Ninh’s smug smile froze.
The aunt’s expression froze, too.
The young man: “...Giang Mục Dã?”
“Hey.” I composed myself, schooled my expression, and carefully took off my suit jacket before gently draping it over Mạnh Tư Nguyệt’s shoulders.
“It’s so cold here, honey. Let me put my jacket on you.”
Mạnh Tư Nguyệt stared at me in surprise, her almond-shaped eyes wide.
“Mục Dã...” Hứa Nhuận Ninh, my white moonlight, stared at me in disbelief, her eyelids already red.
I immediately understood what she meant and comforted her. “It really wasn’t appropriate for you to come here. It’s good that you know you were wrong and are willing to change. Just don’t show up again.”
The white moonlight stood there, wanting to run but too embarrassed to do so, and could only cover her face and cry.
“Mục Dã,” Mother Giang said, looking at me in confusion. “How could you say that? We watched Nhuận Ninh grow up. Even though she isn’t part of the Giang family, we still love her like one of our own.”
“Mom, that wouldn’t be right,” I said awkwardly. “I’m still so young. It wouldn’t be appropriate to have another nanny, would it?”
“Hahahahaha...”
Quite a few people at the party couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
“Giang Mục Dã!” Hứa Nhuận Ninh’s friend said angrily. “Are you out of your mind? Have you forgotten all the awful things she did to Nhuận Ninh before? Marrying her was already more than she deserved, and now you want to break your mother’s heart, too?”
“I’m the one who should be grateful she agreed to marry me.” I’d finally finished processing all the memories, and I spoke sincerely. “Mặc Phong, don’t say another word. I admit it—I’m a hopeless romantic. I want a wife, even if it means I don’t have a mother.”
Mặc Phong: “...”
Mother Giang was so furious she grew dizzy. She rolled her eyes and slumped backward, and Hứa Nhuận Ninh quickly caught her.
Everyone hurried over to surround them, and chaos broke out again.
No one paid any attention to me. I turned to Mạnh Tư Nguyệt beside me, my eyes shining. “Wife, let’s go home!”
The person I had to protect was my wife. Could there be anything luckier than that?
Mạnh Tư Nguyệt froze, then answered softly, “Okay.”
She didn’t catch up to me. She just quietly followed behind.
Everyone we passed looked at us strangely, but I ignored them.
Young Master Giang clearly held a high position in the family, so no one dared stop him. They also couldn’t believe I would leave behind my unconscious mother and Hứa Nhuận Ninh.
“You haven’t eaten anything tonight.” I fell two steps behind and walked beside her. “Do you want to eat out, or should I cook for you at home?”
Mạnh Tư Nguyệt looked a little surprised. “You... you can cook?”
Giang Mục Dã certainly couldn’t, but I could.
I answered without changing expression. “Don’t believe me?”
She looked at me again and nodded gently.
My wife was just too beautiful!
I sneaked another glance at her, until she finally couldn’t help asking me, “Why are you acting so differently tonight...”
Giang Mục Dã and Mạnh Tư Nguyệt had been married for only a few days, and this party was their post-wedding reception.
She knew Giang Mục Dã didn’t like her, but she had still politely come to the party.
Mạnh Tư Nguyệt was bound to come. At the party, Giang Mục Dã would openly act tender and intimate with other women while treating her coldly.
This was a tired old story about the real and fake heiresses: the biological daughter, Mạnh Tư Nguyệt, was an unwelcome outsider, while the impostor, Hứa Nhuận Ninh, was a pitiful little princess whom everyone spoiled.
Hứa Nhuận Ninh and Giang Mục Dã were childhood friends. He had always loved her, but she kept playing cat and mouse with him, always being just vague enough to keep him hanging.
That continued until the day her identity was exposed and she was revealed to be a fake. Although the Mạnh family still treated her well, she was naturally no longer a suitable match for an alliance between the two families.
From the Mạnh family's perspective, this was a form of protection. After all, she had always been ambiguous, constantly saying, “I only think of Mục Dã as an older brother.”
Marriage was for the sake of the family. Hứa Nhuận Ninh really wasn’t part of the Mạnh family, and being the wife of a wealthy family wasn’t easy. They would rather let her marry the man she loved—someone willing to accept and spoil her.
But from Hứa Nhuận Ninh’s perspective, she had been spoiled by both powerful families since childhood. If the Mạnh family now refused to use her for a marriage alliance, wouldn’t that mean giving up on her and cutting off her path to wealth?
The Giang family’s attitude was just as hard to understand. Mother Giang especially liked Hứa Nhuận Ninh, whom she had watched grow up. Hứa Nhuận Ninh was exceptionally good at flattering and pleasing her. But Giang Mục Dã’s father believed this marriage had to be of some value, and Hứa Nhuận Ninh was no longer a candidate to become the Giang family’s daughter-in-law.
Hứa Nhuận Ninh panicked. She thought she had lost the Mạnh family's support and needed a reliable marriage to depend on. Unfortunately, the marriage wasn't hers to decide.
Mục Dã, however, always knew where to draw the line and would never sleep with someone before marriage. So she decided to use underhanded tactics, planning to make sure they slept together first, so the Giang family would have no choice but to accept her.
Everything was going terribly. Giang Mục Dã helped Mạnh Tư Nguyệt away to rest, since she, too, had been plied with drinks by all sorts of malicious people.
She, too, had been drugged. By the time she realized it, it was too late. Her whole body had gone weak, leaving her completely unable to resist.
Her consciousness faded, and her body no longer obeyed her commands.
When the door opened, screams rang out one after another from inside the pretty room.
Hứa Nhuận Ninh had arranged for a crowd to come “catch them in the act,” and now she was practically lifting a rock only to drop it on her own foot. Though the Mạnh and Giang families were unhappy, so many people had witnessed what happened that they had to work together to deal with it. And so, the marriage contract was drawn up.
When Hứa Nhuận Ninh realized the truth had come to light, she destroyed all the evidence to protect her own reputation, leaving no proof behind.
Afterward, rumors somehow spread through their social circle that Mạnh Tư Nguyệt had made the whole thing up herself.
Giang Mục Dã hadn't wanted to get married from the start. Afterward, he was even more indifferent to Mạnh Tư Nguyệt; he only felt that he'd lost the love of his life.
But this was a devastating blow to Mạnh Tư Nguyệt.
Her adoptive parents had deliberately switched their identities so their own daughter could live a life of luxury; they certainly didn't love her. Her biological parents, meanwhile, treated her as nothing more than a pawn to manipulate at will. Her marriage was never under her control.
She was the victim, the one who had been hurt, yet people pointed fingers at her, and she was forced to marry the very man who had hurt her. And even so, she wasn't allowed to resent anyone or utter a single complaint.