Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple-Chapter 32 - 29: Too Late for Regrets

"You little rascal. I’ve had my eye on you since last night—you’ve been acting all sneaky. Tell me, what are you sneaking off to do now?"

The old woman grabbed Chen Wanyue, who was shouldering a basket and about to head out. She looked her up and down, a sharp glint in her murky eyes. "You girl, you’re definitely hiding something. Tell me the truth. What are you up to?"

Chen Wanyue clutched the engagement token in her hand, feeling a mix of satisfaction and resentment.

Her engagement to Li Cun was finally settled.

But her betrothal to Zhao Jing hadn’t been formally broken off yet. Mrs. Li was also worried Li Cun would find out prematurely if they finalized things with her. So, the matter was handled in secret. Including Mrs. Wang the matchmaker, only four people knew.

It was all so secretive, like they were thieves.

It was a stark contrast to her engagement to Zhao Jing years ago, which had been the talk of the entire Zhao Village. Mr. Zhao, the Scholar, had even specially invited a close friend with an official title to act as the matchmaker. They had presented eight different betrothal gifts and had several sets of clothes made just for her. Over the years, they had never missed sending gifts for any of the seasonal festivals.

Forget the gifts and the grand display—Mrs. Zhao had been utterly delighted with her back then, holding her hand and calling her a "good girl" over and over. And Mrs. Li?

She acted high and mighty, her expression full of criticism and disdain. Though she didn’t say a single harsh word, her face said it all. Anyone with eyes could see she was deeply dissatisfied with the match.

Mrs. Li’s attitude instantly dampened eighty percent of the joy from the engagement.

Chen Wanyue grew annoyed and became even more desperate to find the treasure chest on the mountain.

’Once I get my hands on the gold and silver in that chest and have a handsome dowry, we’ll see if I still honor this engagement!’

’Who is Li Cun, anyway? Just some worthless stone getting washed over in a river. When the time comes, I’ll go to the capital and find a much better husband!’

Desperate to change her fortunes, Chen Wanyue grew impatient with her grandmother’s relentless pestering, but she couldn’t let the old woman see through her plans.

Her grandmother might talk a big game about how much she doted on her, but if she told the old woman about the treasure chest, her grandmother would surely take the lion’s share. Her two grandsons would get the leftovers, and she wouldn’t even get a whiff.

Chen Wanyue didn’t have to be a genius to figure that out.

She said with a sigh of resignation, "What could I be doing? I was just thinking about how hard you worked to arrange my engagement, so I wanted to go to the county town and buy you a couple of bags of pastries to show my appreciation!"

The old woman’s eyes were full of suspicion. "Really?"

"Look, I even brought my copper coins. I only have ten or twenty coins in total, and I was going to spend them all on you. Please, let me go now. If I wait any longer, the cloud-flake cakes you like will be sold out."

"What’s the point of buying cloud-flake cakes? My old teeth are about to fall out. Even if you bought them, I couldn’t manage more than a bite or two. It’s not worth you tiring yourself out running all the way to the county town. If you really want to be a filial granddaughter, just give me the copper coins. Hand them over. All of them. We’ll skip the pastries today. Your engagement to Li Cun is settled, and that’s a good thing. I’ll make you some egg noodles to celebrate."

Chen Wanyue watched as her grandmother snatched the copper coins, her eyes turning red with anger. She wanted to grab them back but was afraid of provoking the old woman.

She still needed her grandmother to handle the engagement matters, so for the time being, Chen Wanyue didn’t want to get on her bad side.

Besides, she remembered that it would still be several days before her uncle discovered the treasure chest. A delay of a day or so didn’t matter.

It was already late morning, anyway. Chen Wanyue hadn’t eaten dinner last night, only swallowing a couple of peach crisps before bed to tide her over. She hadn’t had a chance to eat this morning either before Mrs. Li had shown up. Her grandmother’s mention of egg noodles was the last straw—her stomach started to rumble loudly.

"Fine, let’s have lunch first then. Grandmother, please make extra noodles. I’ve missed two meals."

The old woman grumbled in the kitchen as she worked with brisk, practiced movements. "Is skipping one meal going to kill you? Who told you to be so lazy? The food was ready, but you wouldn’t get up. Now you’re hungry and you think you’re in the right?"

Chen Wanyue heard her but pretended she hadn’t.

In that short time, the sky had turned overcast. A cold wind began to blow, sending a chill down one’s spine.

Chen Wanyue went back to her room to lie down. Lost in thought about the treasure chest on the mountain and trying to pinpoint its exact location, she didn’t hear the PITTER-PATTER sound outside her window.

By the time her grandmother called her to eat, it was already raining heavily outside.

Chen Wanyue stomped her foot. ’How am I supposed to get up the mountain now?’

She was so absent-minded during the meal that she nearly stuck the egg noodles up her nose.

The old woman saw this and grew even more certain that something was afoot.

She tried to probe for more information, but Chen Wanyue just hemmed and hawed, fobbing her off without saying a single honest word.

The old woman was as shrewd as they come; of course she knew Chen Wanyue was hiding something big.

She immediately lowered her gaze, her mind made up. She wouldn’t get a single chore done today if she had to—she was going to keep a close watch on this little troublemaker.

After the meal, Chen Wanyue put down her bowl and went to her room to rummage for a straw raincoat.

By the time the old woman finished washing the pots and bowls and hurried over, Chen Wanyue had already put on her straw raincoat and conical hat, with the small basket back in her hand.

"Grandmother, I’m going up the mountain to pick mushrooms."

"Mushrooms, my foot! At this time of year, all the mushrooms are long gone. Besides, it just started raining. Even if there were any, they wouldn’t have sprouted yet."

"At worst, I’ll just pick some wild greens and bring them back..."

"Oh, heavens, this is big! The eldest of the Chen family is leading a group of government officials up Xiaoao Mountain! Linzi’s mother, everyone, come and look!"

The old woman snatched an oil-paper umbrella from beside the kitchen and rushed out the door.

But Chen Wanyue was even faster, already reaching the courtyard gate.

At the shout from outside, neighbors from all around poked their heads out.

"Who’s going up Xiaoao Mountain now?"

"Did I hear someone mention the Chen family’s eldest?"

"What’s wrong with Chen Song? Did they catch the person who was setting traps and hurting people on the mountain? Or did someone else get injured up there?"

A young man, soaked to the bone, wiped the rain from his face as he ran home, shouting, "I don’t know! I was just coming back from a card game when I saw Chen Song leading a whole group of constables up the mountain. Good heavens, it looked like every last constable from the county government was there! They looked fierce as tigers, it was terrifying."

The speaker was a well-known loafer in the village who never did an honest day’s work, preferring petty theft, card games, and boasting. He was a notorious liar who loved to exaggerate, so normally, no one would have believed him.

But someone had nearly died on Xiaoao Mountain just yesterday. Plus, it wasn’t every day you saw constables, and with the rain keeping everyone idle, they all exchanged glances. "Should we go up the mountain and take a look?"

"Let’s go, let’s go! We’ll go as a group. There’s safety in numbers."

The old woman didn’t want to go, afraid her old bones couldn’t take a fall.

With quick reflexes, she grabbed hold of Chen Wanyue, who was about to follow the crowd up the mountain. "You’re not going either. You’ll stay right here at home."

"How can I stay here? That’s my treasure chest! If I don’t go, someone might carry it off!"

The old woman’s heart skipped a beat. With another flash of speed, she shut the courtyard gate. Lowering her voice, she demanded of Chen Wanyue, "You’d better explain yourself. Where did a treasure chest come from? How could there be a treasure chest? Where is it? All those times you tried to leave today—was it all because you wanted to go to Xiaoao Mountain to find this treasure chest?"