Chapter 106:
Lu Ziyan sneered, “Your cousin and aunt dread me to death. I don’t know where they learned about my background. Before I even knew my true identity, they repeatedly tried to kill me. At first, I thought it was the Emperor…”
He paused, then thought of his own past mistakes, and stopped speaking.
If the First Prince hadn’t provoked him first, how could he have…
“Are you wondering why he targets me like this?” Lu Ziyan’s gaze shifted slightly as he looked at the dagger she gripped tightly in her hand, saying calmly: “Because I’m the legitimate son born to the Former Empress. Being fostered in the Lu Family is something the Emperor and several old officials all know. He wants the Crown Prince position, but he can’t sit on it unless I die.”
The legitimate son born to the Former Empress?
Xie Wanning’s eyes widened.
The Fifth Prince?
As far as she knew, the Former Empress died in difficult childbirth, and the Fifth Prince was born prematurely, not even surviving to the full moon, following his mother to the grave.
When she realized his true identity might be a prince, she subconsciously thought he was the Emperor’s illegitimate son. She never imagined he was actually a legitimate son?
And one known to several old officials.
With such origins, he was actually arranged to have the identity of the legitimate youngest son of the eldest branch of the Wuyuan Marquis’s Estate?
Xie Wanning’s first reaction was, how could the Lu Family agree?
But the next instant, she thought, how could the Lu Family not agree!
The Lu Family men hold military power, with a family of men boasting illustrious military merits. Only they themselves know if they fear the Emperor’s dread.
And the previous generation of the Lu Family had no daughters at all, with no one in the rear palace.
To raise a child for the Emperor, and a legitimate son at that—what a great opportunity?
Once Lu Ziyan grows up, the Emperor gains a battle-hardened legitimate prince, while the Lu Family holds the nurturing grace over this prince.
How much palace intrigue or considerations of imperial power were in the Emperor’s actions doesn’t matter.
What’s important is that in the turbulent Great Khan’s realm amid storms, the needed successor is certainly not the renowned virtuous First Prince.
In a war-torn era, it doesn’t rely on winning hearts with virtue, but on…
Xie Wanning pieced everything together.
Lu Ziyan was right; he might have been the Emperor’s predetermined Crown Prince from birth.
As long as he doesn’t die, the First Prince truly can’t sit on the Crown Prince position.
Since he said he had taken revenge, she no longer needed to ask about the final outcome of her past life.
…He must have won.
Whether he reached the peak of the Imperial Throne or became the Crown Prince doesn’t matter.
What’s important is that he is the legitimate son the Emperor secretly cultivated for over a dozen years, now eighteen, with an unstoppable aura.
A general who greatly triumphed in the Northern Frontier, and born to the Empress.
She could guess how much hope the Emperor placed in this son.
If she really killed him…
It would be no different from carving out the flesh from the Emperor’s heart.
Leaving aside whether the Great Khan’s rivers and mountains would stabilize, the Emperor certainly wouldn’t let her go.
Even if Lu Ziyan truly cleaned up all the loose ends, there’s no wall that doesn’t leak wind in this world. She dared not bet that this matter could forever be hidden from the monarch.
As long as there’s the slightest suspicion, the Emperor kills with the principle of better to kill by mistake than to let one go.
Moreover, even if Lu Ziyan could prove he died from an old illness relapse, his death couldn’t be unconnected to her.
He rushed thousands of miles back to the capital for her, broke into Duke Pei’s Mansion at night for her, and his old illness was contracted because of her. How could the Emperor spare her?
Perhaps even the Xie Family would be implicated because of her!
Outside the window, wild winds howled as if a storm was brewing. Xie Wanning gripped the dagger tightly in her hand, standing motionless beside the table.
Lu Ziyan, sitting, tilted his head to look at her and smiled faintly. “What are you still hesitating about? It couldn’t be that you’re reluctant to part with me, could it?”
Hearing this, Xie Wanning’s eyelashes trembled, her gaze meeting his. Both could see each other’s expressions.
She, holding the sharp blade, looked panicked and at a loss, while the man sitting there awaiting her decision on his life or death was calm and composed.
She pursed her lips. “What if I don’t want your life, but instead sentence you to never appear before me for the rest of your life?”
“That won’t do.” Seeing the young lady before him dispel her killing intent toward him, Lu Ziyan was certain she still had lingering feelings for him. The tense knot in his heart finally relaxed, though it didn’t show on his face.
He said: “As long as I live one more day, I can’t stop myself from seeing you.”
Xie Wanning nodded stiffly and asked again: “So, incidents like today will keep happening endlessly? Even if you let me go back this time, as long as I go out in the future, I might be kidnapped and violated by you?”
Violated…
Lu Ziyan’s expression darkened.
“Don’t put it that way. If you don’t like it, I won’t force you anymore.” He smiled. “Since you don’t want to kill me, I’ll assume you’ll divorce that sickly person.”
“When do you expect the divorce? Give me a deadline.” Considering she had only been married a few days, a sudden divorce would seem suspicious. He said considerately: “Or I can figure out a way…”
He had already started thinking of ways to let her divorce safely on his own, but the dagger in Xie Wanning’s hand showed no sign of relaxing.
Clearly holding the sharp blade, she still felt pushed to a desperate end.
Overwhelming despair surged over her, with scenes from her dream vivid before her eyes.
All reminding her, warning her that the man before her was like a towering mountain, forever suppressing her, forcing her.
He seemed to give her a choice, but was certain she wouldn’t really kill him.
He was infallible in his calculations, perhaps having analyzed her psychology thoroughly, but Xie Wanning refused to accept it.
She was unwilling to be manipulated and entangled by him again.
Who said she only had those two choices?
From outside, where the wild winds howled, came several footsteps. As Lu Ziyan frowned and looked over, seizing the opportunity, Xie Wanning raised her hand and fiercely swung the dagger down.
The blade was aimed at her own chest.
Suicide by slitting the throat was too gruesome; her courage was only this much—she only dared to stab at her chest.
But even so, the dagger’s blade ultimately failed to pierce her heart. Lu Ziyan’s reaction was lightning-fast.
Almost the instant she raised her hand, his figure shot up like lightning, grasping her wrist with one hand. With a forceful twist, the sharp dagger clattered to the ground.
The next instant, Xie Wanning was pinned to the table, her neck gripped by him.
“What do you want to do?” His gaze was bloodshot, his pupils twitching neurotically. Gritting his teeth like a maddened beast, he growled, “What do you want to do!”
“Can’t… you see?” Xie Wanning strained her neck and laughed at him. “I’d rather die than be entangled with you for life. Why do my choices only have those two you gave me? You forgot—everyone can decide their own life and death.”
Life and death!
The palm at her neck trembled. Lu Ziyan glared at her deadly, his face shifting through expressions, finally spitting out a mouthful of blood.
“Who told you everyone can decide their own life and death?” Blood stained his teeth, making him look terrifyingly ghastly. “Do you know how your cousin and aunt begged me to give them a quick death? They wanted to die more than anyone, but they couldn’t. Wanwan, do you want to try?”
