Chapter 25:
“Why are you here?”
Afraid of being discovered by the two people over there, Xie Wanning pulled the person beside her to hide behind a nearby tree trunk, her voice extremely soft.
Pei Yuqing stiffened and followed her awkwardly. Only after leaning closer did he hear her words clearly. He said softly, “I prefer quiet places and don’t like crowded and lively spots. This place is just right.”
……So he had also run into her by chance.
Xie Wanning nodded in response, but her hand clutched the tree trunk as she poked out half her small head, her line of sight unconsciously turning toward her elder brother.
She hadn’t noticed anything before, but now, why did she feel like her Elder Brother was being cornered by the Commandery Princess?
Look, it was just a narrow path, Pei Yuxuan standing in front blocking the way, her small mouth opening and closing as she looked up chattering endlessly about something, while her elder brother—though his expression couldn’t be seen—clearly hadn’t spoken.
“Hey,” she nudged the person beside her with her elbow and whispered, “Your younger sister is blocking a strange man like this, and you as her elder brother are just watching from afar?”
Pei Yuqing had already felt somewhat awkward hiding behind the large tree trunk with her, sneaking peeks over there furtively. Hearing this, he countered, “Then what should I do?”
——What should he do?
Xie Wanning thought of her own elder brother.
If it were her Elder Brother, wouldn’t he drag her home and nag her for ten days to half a month?
Pei Yuqing said, “Xuan’er is grown up and can discern her own likes and dislikes. I don’t want to bind her with etiquette and rules.”
Xie Wanning was slightly stunned upon hearing this. She instinctively looked up at him, and just then he lowered his gaze to meet hers. She blinked and said softly, “Then aren’t you afraid she’ll be harmed?”
Pei Yuqing smiled. “She has Secret Guards with her.”
“…” Xie Wanning felt like she was playing the qin to a cow.
She crooked her finger at him.
Pei Yuqing was momentarily stunned, then slowly bent down and leaned closer.
Xie Wanning enunciated each word softly, “What I mean is, aren’t you afraid she’ll be bullied—the kind even Secret Guards can’t help with.”
Pei Yuqing’s gaze fell on her face as he said warmly, “Your elder brother is a true gentleman and won’t do anything improper.”
Xie Wanning was momentarily speechless.
She opened her mouth, trying to explain, “That’s not what I meant.”
How could she worry about her elder brother not keeping to propriety? If anything, it was the other way around…
But saying that to someone’s face would be too presumptuous. Xie Wanning awkwardly turned her face away and peeked over there again.
Only to discover that the two people over there were gone.
She craned her neck looking for a long time, puzzled. “Where’d they go?”
Pei Yuqing’s voice carried a hint of amusement. “…They left a while ago.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Xie Wanning immediately switched from furtive peeking back to the poised demeanor of a noble lady. She patted the dust off her hands and was about to walk out openly when her foot slipped.
“Be careful,” Pei Yuqing said. He gripped her arm from behind to steady her and reminded, “There are no paving stones here; the path is uneven. Watch your step.”
Xie Wanning raised her head from the crook of his arm, opening her mouth to thank him, but the person before her caught her eye.
The spring sun shone brightly. He stood with the light behind him, his tone gentle, his eyes slightly lowered as he looked at her, his gaze warm and limpid, like an immortal detached from the mortal world, radiant and dazzling.
The “thank you” on the tip of her tongue halted. After a long moment, Xie Wanning moved her lips. “These years, you must rarely go out to banquets, right?”
Pei Yuqing’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he said gently, “Mm, very rarely.”
Xie Wanning thought to herself, As expected. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have only seen him for the first time at the teahouse a while ago.
Thinking this, she asked puzzled, “Then have you taken a liking to lively places lately?”
He had gone to their family’s coming-of-age banquet first, and now to the Qu Cheng Marquis’s Estate’s birthday banquet—this frequency wasn’t low.
Pei Yuqing paused at the question, about to speak, when he heard a ‘creak.’ He turned his head to look, his pupils suddenly contracting.
Xie Wanning sensed something wrong and followed his gaze.
Raising her eyes, she saw a broken tree branch hurtling through the air, passing between the two of them and stabbing straight into the adjacent tree trunk.
Pei Yuqing’s brows furrowed slightly as he tightened his grip, shielding the young lady beside him more closely.
The next instant, two hidden attendant guards appeared.
Xie Wanning finally saw clearly who had acted, her expression changing. “Lu Ziyan! What are you doing?”
Lu Ziyan wore a cyan narrow-sleeved robe, his tall figure standing still under a peach tree. As the spring breeze blew, pink petals drifted down slowly, a few landing precisely amid his cold eyebrows and eyes, accentuating his thin, stern gaze to appear even more chillingly cold.
“Is this your reason for ‘not liking’ him?”
His gaze fell on… her arm.
Xie Wanning finally realized how intimate her current distance from Pei Yuqing was. She instinctively shook off the hand on her arm and took two steps back in succession.
After this series of reactions, she felt a bit annoyed.
Who she chose to get close to now was none of his business!
Why act like she had a guilty conscience and been caught?
But her reaction only made Lu Ziyan’s expression colder, anger brewing in his brows as he strode toward them step by step.
His aura was terrifying, prompting the two Secret Guards to draw their blades to block him, but Pei Yuqing slightly raised his hand to stop them. “Stand down.”
Seeing him draw nearer, Xie Wanning nervously pursed her lips, then heard a gentle voice beside her.
Pei Yuqing said, “Don’t be afraid. Say whatever you want. I’ll protect you.”
Xie Wanning’s heart’s tip stirred slightly.
Lu Ziyan, now right in front of them, sneered coldly. “Is Young Lord Pei trying to take her from me?”
“I’m not yours!” Xie Wanning frowned in rebuttal. “Our engagement is off. I won’t marry you.”
This remote spot was one of the more desolate corners of the Qu Cheng Marquis’s Estate. Aside from the three of them, even the two Secret Guards who had just appeared had vanished.
The young lady’s voice was light and resolute.
Lu Ziyan stiffened for an instant, his gaze slowly settling on her as he carefully studied her eyebrows and eyes, finally confirming she meant it with true heart.
She had said to break off the engagement many times, but only now did he fully believe it.
He recalled what his mother had said.
A sudden surge of fury crushed the faint panic in his heart, his gaze sharpening abruptly as he gritted his teeth at her. “So you’ve really found someone else?”
He raised his hand pointing at Pei Yuqing standing quietly beside them, smirking mockingly. “Him? An old man eleven years your senior—we don’t even know how many more years he has left. If you want to anger me, couldn’t you pick someone else?”
It was the first time Xie Wanning had seen that beneath his reticent exterior lay such a venomous tongue.
“Speak!” Lu Ziyan took a step forward, a vein bulging on his forehead, his teeth grinding audibly. “Tell me, what are you doing here with him?”
He was ferocious like a wild beast on the verge of losing control, far from the indifference toward the “old man” he’d feigned in his words.
