Chapter 140:
Xie Wanning had originally been somewhat lost in thought, but upon hearing this, she pursed her lips and glared at him.
“What are you annoyed about?” Lu Ziyan chuckled at her and said, “Didn’t I not take it?”
Normally, when he missed her, he could still rely on training soldiers and practicing martial arts to vent his abundant energy, but the three cups of Warm Affection Wine he drank yesterday had medicinal effects with nowhere to vent, causing him great suffering.
He had also been drugged, yet he could only think of her while resolving it himself, while that sickly person could seize the opportunity to get close to her.
In the end, his jealousy was hard to dispel. Lu Ziyan’s gaze darkened, the smile at his lip gradually fading as he quietly looked at her.
Xie Wanning felt her heart hairy from his gaze. Just then, the door was knocked on, and Ming Jian sent someone to bring in a charcoal basin.
Lu Ziyan released her chin and gathered her into his arms.
These were all his personal soldiers, most of whom had seen his fiancée. The military camp had many people with loose tongues, and given their current identities, they really shouldn’t let anyone know she was here.
Several basins of charcoal fire were brought in, and the chill in the room was quickly dispelled.
Before Ming Jian could retreat, Lu Ziyan instructed, “Go bring the person here.”
Once the door closed again, Xie Wanning couldn’t wait to leave his embrace. Lu Ziyan did not stop her and readily let her go.
“Why did you bring me here!” She retreated three steps in a row, her eyes showing vigilance. “If you dare act recklessly again, I’ll bite my tongue and kill myself!”
Unlike the emotional loss of control when she had just awakened her past life memory that day, this time as she lightly spoke of death again, Lu Ziyan did not panic. He merely lowered his eyes and looked at her.
After seriously looking at her for a long time, he suddenly smiled and said, “Wanwan, why do you always think that killing yourself will make me back down?”
“…” Xie Wanning was choked for a moment and said nothing.
He waited a while and, seeing her silent, slightly raised his brow and said, “Look, you clearly know how much I love you.”
Knowing how much I love you, how afraid I am of something happening to you, so you can use ‘killing yourself’ as leverage.
His implication was pointed but stopped there.
Xie Wanning heard it clearly but was speechless.
She wanted to righteously say it wasn’t like that, but she couldn’t even find a good reason to argue.
……Was there really one?
Clearly in her past life, he had been so bad to her, bullied her so much—how could she believe he loved her?
But if not, why would she think harming herself would be a weapon to make him yield?
The room inexplicably fell silent.
Xie Wanning was silent for a long time, and Lu Ziyan did not care.
He truly was not good at expressing his feelings; hiding emotions had been a required course for him since childhood, let alone saying those coaxing sweet words.
For the girl he liked, in his past life, his initial thought was to bear all the storms outside himself, while she only needed to stay under his wings, free from any worries.
But many things always went against his wishes.
Between them, he always bungled things cleverly into disasters, always making her feel aggrieved, always being self-righteous.
Xie Wanning thought for a long time until her head ached. Now, regarding everything from her past life, besides annoyance, she only felt exhaustion, which extended to extreme annoyance toward the man before her who kept making her recall the past.
“What exactly do you want by bringing me here?”
She didn’t want to sort out their already chaotic past entanglements at all, nor did she want to discern whose affection between them was deeper. She only said, “Lu Ziyan, I’m really fed up with your shameless pestering.”
‘Shameless pestering’…
Lu Ziyan slightly lowered his eyes, perfectly concealing the emotions in them.
Even knowing how ruthless this girl was toward him, every time he saw her looking at him with a face full of disdain, his heart still felt the tearing pain.
Lu Ziyan steadied his emotions, ignored her annoyance, and answered her earlier question.
“In my dream, I observed your past life’s experiences and know all the grievances you suffered.” He paused and said, “…Actually, after you were gone in the past life, I made them all pay the price.”
It was the same old tune again. Xie Wanning listened without any fluctuation, completely unlike the agitated questioning the first time. She didn’t even lift her eyes and found a chair to sit on by herself.
And Lu Ziyan’s voice continued.
He said, “I’ve thought about it—they harmed you so much, yet you never saw their consequences with your own eyes. That’s a regret. So in this life, I must let you vent personally. I won’t let a single one of them go.”
Upon hearing this, Xie Wanning finally reacted. She raised her eyes to look at him, but before she could speak, the door was gently knocked from outside.
Ming Jian’s voice came from outside.
“Master, the person has been brought.”
Lu Ziyan glanced at her and said, “Come in.”
The door was pushed open. Xie Wanning instinctively looked over upon hearing it, but just as she turned her head, before her gaze could focus, a figure appeared in front of her, blocking her view.
“Get out!”
Lu Ziyan instantly moved in front of Xie Wanning, one hand grasping her nape and pressing her head against his waist and abdomen to completely block her line of sight, while his other hand picked up the teacup nearby and smashed it out, landing right at Ming Jian’s feet.
It startled Ming Jian badly. Realizing he had made another mistake, he didn’t dare say anything and quickly dragged the bound woman beside him out.
Everything happened too suddenly. With his sudden outburst, Xie Wanning hadn’t reacted at all.
Until the door closed, Lu Ziyan reached out to lift her chin. “What did you just see?”
Xie Wanning stared at him blankly, her mind still on that fleeting scene.
A woman in thin clothes, hands bound behind her back, with exposed skin covered in bruises…
Anyone could tell what this woman had been through.
Her eyelashes trembled. “That was Liu Manrou?”
She had indeed seen…
Lu Ziyan’s fingertip stiffened for a moment, then he slowly released her and said, “I didn’t expect Ming Jian to just bring her in like that.”
How could such a filthy thing appear before her like this.
Even if it was to let her vent, it shouldn’t dirty her eyes.
Confirming who the person just now was, Xie Wanning felt her heart sink straight down, unable to describe the feeling for a moment.
This was the military camp!
The military camp!
She could hardly believe it. “You made her a military prostitute?”
Who was Liu Manrou?
In her past life, starting as a maidservant, she first became Lu Ziyan’s concubine, then was taken into the Lu Family as a concubine of the Second Wife, and finally became the Young Madam of the Second Wife.
She was also the birth mother of the Lu Family’s eldest grandson.
In everyone else’s eyes, Liu Manrou was Lu Ziyan’s absolute true love. Compared to her as the Young Lord’s Consort, Liu Manrou seemed more like the female master of the Wuyuan Marquis’s Estate.
She had been arrogant due to favor, repeatedly provoking, and loved to flaunt that child.
She had also killed Er Qing!
That was the person Xie Wanning detested most in her past life.
She had thought of punishing Liu Manrou, even thought of letting Liu Manrou die to compensate for Er Qing’s life.
But she had never thought of dealing with a woman using such methods.
In this life, at their second meeting, the other party had already fallen to becoming a military prostitute to reward the generals and soldiers!
Xie Wanning hoped for his denial, telling her it was all her own misunderstanding, but he merely gave a low hum.
“She was Lu Zishuo’s concubine. I brought her back to the capital and took her into the Second Wife to prevent the Lu Family Second Wife’s bloodline from being left outside. Later, I learned I was not Lu Family offspring and decided to give Lu Yunpei a legitimate identity, so I promoted her to main wife of the Second Wife.”
“Perhaps this action made her unable to recognize her own status and start fantasizing about more.”
Lu Ziyan’s voice turned icy.
“I never entered her courtyard. It was she who provoked and sowed discord, making you misunderstand me. No matter the consequence, she deserves it.” He said, “Even death by a thousand cuts wouldn’t relieve the hatred in my heart.”
In the dream, over those two years, her affection for him had, under his self-righteous decisions, no longer been as it was before.
But he still had a chance to salvage it. Without Liu Manrou’s constant provocation, they wouldn’t have reached that ending.
Xie Wanning was already stunned listening.
“So, your punishment is to make her a military prostitute to be trampled by all?” She stared at him blankly. “…Was it the same in the past life?”
Mentioning the past life, the scene of her spitting blood and dying reappeared before Lu Ziyan’s eyes. Such tragedy was engraved in his soul, and every recollection brought immense panic and pain.
His tense jaw muscle trembled uncontrollably. He reached out and tightly hugged her. “They all deserve to die, but death is too easy for them. Wanwan, I won’t let them have it easy!”
His voice carried a neurotic ruthlessness, as if trapped in some mad obsession.
In the two meetings after awakening her memory, she had noticed his state was somewhat abnormal, his obsession with her already pathological, but she hadn’t taken it seriously, thinking it was just him feeling sorry for himself.
Only now did Xie Wanning faintly begin to experience what her death in the past life had meant to him.
A knock sounded at the door again.
This time, Ming Jian cautiously asked, “Master, the person has been cleaned up. Shall I bring her in?”
Lu Ziyan released his arms and lowered his eyes to ask the girl in his embrace, “Do you want to see her?”
The scene she had just glimpsed was too shocking. Xie Wanning’s mind was somewhat chaotic. She thought for a moment and nodded lightly.
A noble lady raised in a deep boudoir had only learned about places like brothels from storybooks.
As for military prostitutes, who were only sent to reward the army for female relatives of criminal officials, Xie Wanning had hardly even heard of them twice.
The door was pushed open. When Liu Manrou appeared, she was already dressed properly in a set of half-worn winter clothes, very fitting for the current season.
The wounds on her body could be covered by clothes, but the ones on her face could not.
There was a bruise on her forehead, her eyes swollen like walnuts, and even wounds at her lip corner.
Lu Ziyan glanced once and frowned slightly, already somewhat regretting letting her in.
But Xie Wanning couldn’t tear her eyes away for a long time.
Completely different from the poised woman in a plain skirt at their first meeting, at an age that should be most alluring, she was already haggard, her cheeks sunken from thinness.
Her despairing, hollow, lifeless gaze made Xie Wanning’s scalp tingle just seeing it.
It was hard to imagine what torment could turn such a fresh and tender woman into this state in such a short time.
And the wounds on her body…
Liu Manrou, brought out by Ming Jian from the reception tent, slowly blinked under Xie Wanning’s gaze.
Finally recognizing who was before her.
“Miss Xie!” Her knees gave way, and she knelt with a thud.
“This lowly maid knows her wrong. That day was all this lowly maid’s fault. This lowly maid shouldn’t have called you Elder Sister, shouldn’t have harmed you to argue with the Young Lord. The Young Lord has nothing to do with this lowly maid. He has only you in his heart, true heart toward you. This lowly maid knows her wrong now and dares not do it again!”
Liu Manrou kowtowed several times in a row, like grasping a lifesaver, and wailed urgently, “Please show mercy and spare this lowly maid this time!”
She was fine not speaking, but once she did, that hoarse, ear-piercing voice startled Xie Wanning to her feet, her eyes widening uncontrollably.
Her throat was injured too!
One must know, Liu Manrou’s original voice was authentic Wu Nong soft tones, enough to make one’s bones go soft.
And now, this woman alluring from head to toe had no good spot left.
Thoroughly ruined.
Xie Wanning instinctively stepped back half a step in fear. Lu Ziyan frowned and gave Ming Jian a look.
Seeing this, the latter grabbed Liu Manrou’s arm to drag her out.
How could Liu Manrou let go of this chance? She urgently crawled forward on her knees a few steps to hug Xie Wanning’s leg and beg, but before she could get close, Lu Ziyan kicked her aside.
“Get out!”
His kick was not light, but Liu Manrou forcibly stayed conscious. When Ming Jian dragged her up, she was still looking at Xie Wanning. Seeing her plea fail and that she was to be taken back to that demon’s den, intense hatred finally burst from her eyes, and she shrieked hoarsely.
Her already grating hoarse voice was even more shrill and terrifying when screaming.
Ming Jian chopped the back of her neck with one hand, then knelt to beg forgiveness.
Lu Ziyan waved him off.
Ming Jian carried the unconscious Liu Manrou out, a clear look of disdain flashing on his face as he hoisted her.
Everything happened very quickly. From Liu Manrou entering to being knocked out and dragged away, it was less than half a stick of incense.
By the time Xie Wanning recovered from her shock, the other party had already been struck unconscious.
Seeing Ming Jian about to take her away, she instinctively said, “Wait!”
“Where are you taking her?”
Ming Jian halted but didn’t answer her, instead looking to his master’s expression.
“To where she belongs.” Lu Ziyan said, “This is the punishment for provoking you.”
Where could a military prostitute stay.
Nothing more than the prostitute camp.
Using such methods to punish a woman, yet saying it was for her.
Xie Wanning felt stifled in her chest, both shocked and angry.
“Do you think I hate Liu Manrou, so seeing her in such a miserable state would make me feel satisfied?”
Such a situation, for Liu Manrou, might be worse than death.
But he wanted to torment her body, shatter all her dignity as a person, making her life worse than death.
“You’re wrong.” Her voice was taut from suppression. “As a fellow woman, I only find you terrifying.”
Lu Ziyan’s expression changed.
“You can’t bear it for such an impure-minded woman?”
He reached to grasp her arm, but after she urgently dodged, he gritted his teeth and said, “I’ve done wrong again, haven’t I? Are you going to pin another crime on me and shun me like a snake or scorpion?”
Xie Wanning said, “No matter how impure her mind, you could just execute her directly.”
“Have you forgotten what she said to you?” Lu Ziyan sneered. “She doesn’t love serving men? I’m indulging her, letting her serve to her fill. What’s wrong with that?”
