Chapter 107:
His expression was fierce and terrifying, but his gaze was clearly trembling, and his lips were shaking too.
Xie Wanning could tell at a glance that he was scared to death right now.
Gone was the earlier calm and composed demeanor, unhurried and poised.
A strange sense of happy welled up in her heart.
So Young Master Lu feared her death the most.
Want to try it?
Her neck was being strangled, which didn’t actually affect her speech much; rather, her overly agitated emotions made her unable to make a sound.
After a long while, she finally felt like she could breathe again. Xie Wanning grasped the wrist at her neck and gave him a sad smile: “Alright, let’s try it. How did you treat them?”
“I’m telling you, Lu Ziyan, unless you dislocate my chin, sever my hands and feet, and have people guard me day and night by my side watching me, otherwise, I’ll always find a way to die.”
Dislocate the chin, sever the hands and feet, guard day
If there was even the slightest mistake among these, she would unhesitatingly choose to die.
Pain overflowed bit by bit from Lu Ziyan’s gaze. He hurt so much that his vision went black, his face contorted ferociously.
“So unafraid of death?”
It seemed he had truly suffered a severe internal injury. The blood at the corner of his lips was still flowing, and as soon as he opened his mouth, the bright red blood flowed even faster.
He was in such embarrassment, but Xie Wanning felt no pity at all. She glared at him venomously: “Compared to being endlessly entangled by you, death is indeed not frightening at all.”
Such hurtful words made the hand at her neck loosen a bit in that instant, but the next moment Lu Ziyan seemed to react and gripped tightly again.
Just like grasping one’s own lifeline.
He was in too much pain to speak, merely gazing at her in this position, the panic and helplessness in his eyes completely undisguised, almost pleading as he looked at her.
Being looked at with such a gaze, Xie Wanning thought that she probably truly didn’t love him at all anymore.
Otherwise, why would there be not the slightest bit moved, not the slightest bit hesitant, not the slightest bit tempted by his gaze.
She could even smile at him and say, “I will really die. Lu Ziyan, do you want to force me to death again?”
Lu Ziyan looked at her with a face drained of color. She knew best how to stab at his heart to make it hurt the most, knew how to act to make him suffer the most.
He closed his reddened eyes, like a lone wolf, digesting his own emotions.
Xie Wanning began trying to break free from his restraints, but as soon as she moved slightly, it was as if she had caused a disturbance to something. The hand pinching her neck slowly shifted to the back of her neck, then suddenly exerted force to lift her entire body up.
Lu Ziyan lowered his head and leaned close to her ear, his tone gentle as he said: “My Wanwan truly has great courage… I just don’t know if your parents, your Xie Clan people, can also be as heroic and fearless as you.”
Xie Wanning stiffened all over, looking at him in disbelief.
Then he continued, “You don’t know yet, do you? In my past life, it took me five years to conquer the world and ascend to the throne as emperor. In this life, it probably won’t take that long. Believe it or not?”
His voice was clearly very gentle, with his warm breath spreading from her ear to her limbs and torso, yet it only made her feel bone-chillingly cold.
Yes, he will be the Emperor.
He will be the supreme ruler under heaven.
No one can defy him.
The young lady beneath him looked terrified. Lu Ziyan unconsciously pinched her stiff neck to soothe her, his tone becoming even gentler.
“I only want to treat you well. You don’t need to do anything—just obediently stay by my side. I’ll bring the best things in the world to you. Why must you resist me?”
“I know I owe you, know that you’ve suffered many grievances by my side. In this life, I’ll repay you one by one. I’ll compensate you doubly. Give me an opportunity, can you?”
He lowered his head and kissed her forehead gently, saying tenderly: “Wanwan, return to my side, and you will become the most noble woman under heaven.”
Xie Wanning blinked dazedly. Her gaze fell on his slightly protruding Adam’s apple, and she stared at it in a daze.
What does it mean to combine kindness and might?
This must be it, more or less.
First threaten with family, then promise the highest fame, fortune, and status.
One slap, one soft candy.
Could it only be said that he was indeed a man who could ascend to the throne?
If she knew her place, shouldn’t she obediently kneel down and thank him, this future emperor?
The room fell into a deathly silence, making the sounds from the outer chamber even more pronounced.
This time, even Xie Wanning could hear the footsteps.
The person seemed somewhat anxious but dared not rashly disturb those inside, pacing back and forth outside.
Lu Ziyan showed no reaction. He stared unblinkingly at the young lady in his arms, terrified that if he was not careful for even a moment, she would bite her tongue and commit suicide.
He never wanted to experience again, for the rest of his life, the feeling of the person in his arms gradually growing cold bit by bit.
He said softly: “Let’s not make a fuss, okay? As long as you promise me you’ll divorce him, I’ll let you go back right now, and from now on, I’ll agree to everything you want.”
“Why do you have to force it?” Xie Wanning’s eyes were slightly red, stubbornly looking at him. “Why can’t you respect my wish?”
“If your wish is to live together with that sickly person, how do you expect me to respect that.”
Lu Ziyan gently stroked her temple hair and said, “You loved me so deeply before, how could you just stop loving me? Wanwan, you do love me. It’s just that I disappointed you and cooled your heart. Give me an opportunity, and I can warm you up again.”
“As long as you give me an opportunity, we can go back to the beginning.”
“But I don’t want to,” Xie Wanning took a deep breath, and tears finally fell. “I don’t want to. Do you really want to force me to death?”
“Don’t threaten me with the Xie Family. After I die, I won’t know anything about worldly affairs. You want to…”
Lu Ziyan’s gaze turned fierce: “Shut up!”
Xie Wanning stared straight into his eyes and continued, “I will die, Lu Ziyan. I really will go and die.”
She kept expressing her determination to die, but Lu Ziyan could do nothing except glare at her viciously.
She was right. As long as she was ruthless enough and had no weakness, she wouldn’t be threatened.
Even if he had heaven-defying abilities, he couldn’t do anything to someone who was determined to die.
Of course, if he was really willing to dislocate her chin, sever her meridians, and imprison her in the palace, that would be another story.
But Lu Ziyan couldn’t bear to. He couldn’t bear to touch even a single finger of hers.
He didn’t even dare to gamble on whether she could really be as ruthless as she said.
Once he let her leave from under his eyelid, he would live in constant fear and anxiety, wondering if she would really seek death.
He would be scared to death, living in perpetual unease.
How did it come to this.
How did it come to this!
Lu Ziyan’s eyes were bloodshot, like a gambler who had lost all his chips, his face full of despair with no way out.
“Why?”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
His eyelashes trembled slightly, and tears fell as well.
The teardrop landed right on Xie Wanning’s lips. Before she could wipe it away, many more fell.
Ice-cold, salty to the point of bitterness.
“You loved me so much before,” Lu Ziyan was utterly baffled, his voice choked. “How can you be so heartless to me now?”
Xie Wanning also recalled those foolish days of the past.
She was completely different from him. He could hide his feelings so deeply, restraining and enduring to the extreme.
But when she liked someone, she was completely open and unabashed, not stingy at all in expressing it.
If she liked him ten percent, she wished she could express twenty percent.
But no matter what, that liking was real. She really had liked him.
For the two of them to reach this point, there were misunderstandings and harm, but more than that, it was their temperaments not matching.
Xie Wanning raised her hand and pried his fingers open one by one. Once the clamp on her neck was gone, she reached out and pushed his shoulder again.
Lu Ziyan stiffened for a moment, then slowly straightened his body.
Having been pressed on the table for so long, Xie Wanning’s waist ached terribly. She also slowly stood up.
The two faced each other standing.
After a few breaths of silence, she said, “You became famous as a youth, the general invincible in battle, with a smooth official career without any setbacks. In your previous life, you even obtained the supreme position in the world. Probably no one has dared to refute your words for a long time.”
“You’re used to having the final say and won’t tolerate others refusing you. No matter what you want or for whatever purpose, even if it means using any methods, you will achieve it.”
At this point, she paused.
“Perhaps as you said, I am your obsession, your inner demon binding you. You can’t accept me remarrying someone else, so you disregard my wish and abducted me here. You can’t accept that I no longer like you, so you use my parents and clansmen’s lives to force me to compromise.”
“Indeed,” she lowered her eyes and said, “You hold high position and great power, with superior martial arts, and capable subordinates everywhere. No matter how arrogant and rampant you are, no matter how outrageous your actions, His Majesty won’t truly punish you for various reasons. You can indeed disregard my wish and abduct me. Even if you commit more excessive acts, it’s up to your feelings.”
“You are strong, and I can’t stop your behavior. But you ask why I would rather die than compromise. I can answer you.”
She pursed her lips, and the remaining wetness touched her tongue tip. That salty bitter taste assaulted her taste buds again.
This was the taste of his tears.
Feeling her throat somewhat dry, Xie Wanning pursed her lips and gently lifted her gaze: “Because I am a person.”
Her voice was hoarse and hard to speak. Lu Ziyan listened in a daze, his expression stunned, staring blankly at her.
Xie Wanning said, “I was also born into a prominent family, well-versed in poetry and books from childhood. I can think, get angry, know honor and shame, and have my own independent personality. I am not a wooden stake for you to manipulate at will.”
If she succumbed to a few threats, living in fear and compromising in obedience to him, she would be unworthy of the Xie Family’s upbringing.
In this world, there are many who fear death, but there have never been a lack of true hard bones.
If she had to submit to his coercion and remarry into the Lu Family, even if she could reach the peak position in the end, she would rather die.
“Have you thought it over?” Xie Wanning smiled slightly and said, “Do you want a corpse, or are you willing to show mercy and let me live?”
The room fell quiet again, with no one speaking.
After a long time, Lu Ziyan’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and he blinked gently, as if finally understanding the meaning in her words. His lips parted, wanting to say something.
But he never uttered a single word.
This was truly forcing him with death.
Yet even his anger inexplicably vanished without a trace.
He was indeed mad.
Mad enough to almost forget how stubborn his Wanwan was, which was why she threatened him step by step like this.
Corpse.
The tragic past was vivid in his mind; he didn’t even dare to think about it, let alone face this word directly.
The gaze of the man opposite gradually became obscure and hard to express; Xie Wanning’s hands under her sleeves clenched tightly, not knowing if her all-or-nothing determination would work.
Whether it could shake him even a little.
She knew that if he was the enemy, she was gambling on how much the enemy cared about her life and death.
It was quite a ridiculous thing, but she had to gamble; she wanted a peaceful life and didn’t want to live in fear of being kidnapped by him every time she went out in the future.
She held a sharp blade but still couldn’t bring herself to stab him; could he really bear to push her to a desperate situation?
Lu Ziyan certainly couldn’t bear it; his gaze quietly fell on her.
Seeing her nervousness and unease, in the strange silence, he said, “Answer one question.”
Without waiting for her response, he asked directly.
“Do I still have a chance?”
As soon as the words fell, Xie Wanning was stunned, her thoughts racing instantly.
She had already experienced this man’s unpredictable moods; if she outright rejected him, he might change his face again.
But… no matter what, she was unwilling to feign civility with him.
“Wanwan,” his voice was hoarse, “you’re really not leaving me any room at all, sentencing me to lose you for life, I…”
At this point, he realized his words carried a hint of threat, so he paused, then asked in a low voice, “In this lifetime, do I still have a chance to win back your heart?”
Xie Wanning hesitated for a few breaths, then slowly spoke under his urgent gaze.
“Stop forcing me,” she raised her hand to wipe her lips and said, “No one likes the feeling of being forced, and no young lady would accept a man who forces himself on her.”
“The more you force me, the more I’ll hate you, fear you, and stay away from you.”
Lu Ziyan fell silent.
She wouldn’t even give him a perfunctory word; she was determined to cut ties with him and make him leave her world forever.
How could he do that?
Suddenly, a flash of firelight appeared outside the window, and someone holding a torch hurried toward the courtyard.
This time, the person who had been pacing outside finally couldn’t hold back and knocked on the door.
“Young Lord, the person has arrived.” Ming Jian’s voice came from outside.
Xie Wanning’s stiff body moved slightly as she turned to look at the door.
At this moment, given Ming Jian’s tone, the visitor could only be Pei Yuqing in her mind.
Lu Ziyan couldn’t stand seeing her eagerly awaiting another man to rescue her from the fire pit.
“He came pretty fast,” he laughed coolly, his gaze falling on her rosy lips, “Do you think he can tell what we did?”
Just like how he could tell at a glance the intimacy they had in the carriage.
Jealousy surging, Lu Ziyan’s tone was both sour and angry, “That sickly person can’t even get hard, yet he dares to kiss you.”
Xie Wanning couldn’t bear hearing him belittle Pei Yuqing like this; she gritted her teeth and glared at him.
“You’re really protecting him?” Lu Ziyan looked displeased at her glare.
“Lu Ziyan,” Xie Wanning said flatly, “He is my husband.”
Lu Ziyan clenched his teeth, “No need to remind me.”
Of course he knew this; even without consummation, their names were on the same marriage certificate as a couple.
Knowing Pei Yuqing had arrived, Xie Wanning didn’t want to argue with him anymore and stepped toward the door.
But he blocked her path.
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