Jiaojiao is getting married, and the male leads fall for her and fight over her.

Chapter 236 Men, such hypocrites.

Just as Shen Shuyi was feeling nervous, Pei Dongzhou suddenly stood up and said, "I'm going to take a shower, and I'll come and sleep with my cousin later."

Shen Shuyi: ...

Seeing that Pei Dongzhou was about to go to the bathhouse, she simply asked directly, "Does Cousin Prince know that I went to Jufutang with you?"

He's skilled in martial arts; he must have discovered she was eavesdropping. Now that he's pretending not to know, he can't change some of the facts.

Pei Dongzhou clenched his fists and turned around nonchalantly: "So what?"

"Then, we're siblings, we can't get married," Shen Shuyi replied weakly.

Pei Dongzhou sneered: "It's just Qiu's side of the story, it doesn't count."

Shen Shuyi realized that Pei Dongzhou must have gone to Aunt Qiu to ask her questions after disappearing for so long.

Seeing that Pei Shizi's expression was still relatively calm, she asked curiously, "I don't understand. I'm clearly a girl, and my second cousin is a boy. How did Aunt Qiu manage to switch us? And aren't my second cousin and I a year apart?"

Pei Dongzhou didn't expect that Shen Shuyi would still have the mind to find out the problem at this time. She wasn't worried about not being able to marry him, but was curious about the truth of what happened back then. This woman had no heart.

Since she's so eager to know, he'll just tell her.

He sat back on the edge of the bed and calmly began, “This was a scheme orchestrated by my aunt and Aunt Qiu. My aunt concealed the timing of her pregnancy. When she claimed to be pregnant, she had already given birth to Nanzhou. The timing of Nanzhou's birth coincided with the time my mother gave birth. Before Nanzhou was born, my aunt had already conspired with Aunt Qiu. At that time, Aunt Qiu resented my mother for making her drink too much contraceptive soup, thus disqualifying her from motherhood. To get revenge, Aunt Qiu and my aunt bribed a midwife to switch my cousin and Nanzhou on the day my mother gave birth. Only the midwife knew the gender of my mother's child, and she disappeared after the birth. Aunt Qiu said she knew the midwife's whereabouts, and I have sent people to find her; it may take a few days.”

Shen Shuyi found it unbelievable: "Then why would my mother... ah, I mean Pei Zhichun do this? Why would she exchange her child with her aunt's child? And she even set up such a big scheme. If Aunt Qiu hadn't told her, no one would have known about this."

After all, Pei Zhichun was already dead, and the midwife who knew the truth had gone into hiding.

“My aunt probably didn’t want her own child to suffer, right? And I heard that my mother and aunt didn’t get along back then, and it’s possible that the child swapping happened because of old grudges.” Pei Dongzhou’s eyes were distant. “But my aunt passed away early, and the Marquis’s mansion still took my cousin into the mansion. She did such a thing, and she got away with it, but it caused Nanzhou and my cousin to have their lives swapped.”

"Actually, it's not so bad. I've been in the Marquis's mansion since I can remember, so it's like I wasn't exchanged. There's no difference." Shen Shuyi chuckled, but Pei Dongzhou gave her a cold look.

She immediately suppressed her smile; she should be serious at this moment, since the young master Pei, who wanted to marry her, was quite unhappy.

For some reason, she felt that she and Pei Dongzhou were not like siblings, simply because she did not feel any closeness to Pei Shizi, nor did she feel any bond of blood ties.

Perhaps Aunt Qiu was mistaken as well.

But she felt that Aunt Qiu was living a good life now, so why would she make such a big deal out of the entire Marquis's mansion?

If Aunt Qiu wasn't lying, then could she really be Zhang's biological daughter?
No wonder Zhang looked at her with such complicated eyes... Sigh, it's all a mess.

"Cousin, don't think you can get rid of me like this. Cousin, you need to understand one thing: you can only marry me in this life!" Pei Dongzhou said with a sneer before going to take a bath.

Shen Shuyi scoffed, thinking that Prince Pei was being stubborn.

Normally, he would automatically stick to her whenever he saw her, like a spineless person. But now, seeing her, he automatically and consciously acted like a gentleman and didn't dare to touch her today.

He was deeply bothered by the matter, yet he pretended not to care. Ah, men, such hypocrites. After inwardly mocking Pei Dongzhou, Shen Shuyi went to bed.

When Pei Dongzhou came out, he saw Shen Shuyi on the bed.

In the past, he would have clung to her himself, but today he stood by the bed for a long time, looking at Shen Shuyi with complicated emotions.

Shen Shuyi pretended to have just seen Pei Shizi. She didn't dare to upset him at this time, and only said with concern, "Cousin Shizi, you should rest early too. You have to be on duty tomorrow."

It remains to be seen whether he will still accompany her when she attends the Li family's banquet.

Pei Dongzhou was indeed struggling internally.

He couldn't resist the allure of the beauty on the bed, but a sense of unease remained. Nevertheless, he bravely got into bed and said to Shen Shuyi, "Behave yourself while you sleep, cousin, and don't snuggle into my arms."

Shen Shuyi sneered upon hearing this: "These are all things that my cousin, the young master, said himself. I would never do such a thing. Besides, this is my bed. I can go wherever I want. My cousin, the young master, has no right to control me."

Perhaps because her voice was too loud, Pei Dongzhou got out of bed the next moment and walked away without looking back.

Seeing Pei Dongzhou's back, Shen Shuyi thought he might be using this as an excuse to avoid sleeping in the same bed with her.

But she was still a little curious whether Pei Dongzhou had left or not, so she quietly got out of bed. When she saw the young master Pei sitting on a chair in the courtyard resting, she inexplicably felt a little sorry for him.

She turned back and asked A-Jian to prepare a room for Pei Shizi to rest in next door before she went to rest herself.

After making the bed, A-Jian went to the courtyard and said to Pei Dongzhou, "It's late and the dew is heavy. Why don't you go to your room to rest, Your Highness? I've already made the bed."

Pei Dongzhou raised an eyebrow and asked, "Was this on my cousin's orders?"

A-Jian answered truthfully: "That's right. The young lady was worried that the young master wouldn't sleep well in the courtyard, so she ordered me to make up a bed in the west wing."

Pei Dongzhou nodded, got up and went into the hall. But this time he didn't go to the west wing, but to Shen Shuyi's bedroom.

The carefree girl had already fallen asleep, but at least she still cared about him and wasn't entirely without feelings for him.

That night, he didn't go to the west wing to sleep, but stayed in the main room watching Shen Shuyi's sleeping face, and watched her all night long.

The next day, when Shen Shuyi got up, Pei Dongzhou was nowhere to be seen. The young master Pei must have gone to the yamen.

She then went to the woodshed where Aunt Qiu was imprisoned.

Aunt Qiu was covered in injuries, clearly indicating that she had been tortured; it was unknown whether Pei Dongzhou was responsible.

After transmigrating, she had never interacted with Aunt Qiu. Seeing Aunt Qiu now, she felt that every pitiful person has something hateful about them. Aunt Qiu hated Zhang, but didn't Zhang hate Aunt Qiu just as much? It was simply because they were both serving the same man.

(End of this chapter)