Chapter 34:
Pei Yuqing saw her hesitant and difficult-to-speak demeanor and smiled faintly.
This young lady was all talk and loved teasing people, but in reality, she was still a child.
He raised his hand to refill her teacup and said, “Don’t overthink it, and don’t feel any burden. I just don’t want you to be deceived, nothing more.”
They sat by the window, with the shutters half-open. It was the afternoon, the sun was high outside, and the early summer breeze wasn’t too scorching hot, yet Xie Wanning’s heart felt inexplicably scorching hot.
She thought of those dreams.
So, the news that Lu Ziyan had taken a concubine in the dream was also something he had deliberately told her.
He didn’t want her to be kept in the dark by Lu Ziyan and marry over.
But after knowing the truth, she still insisted on getting married.
Wasn’t that just letting down his good intentions?
Xie Wanning felt upset inside, raised her eyes to look at him, and said, “Have we met before?”
Pei Yuqing said, “We have.”
Xie Wanning asked curiously, “When?”
His appearance was unforgettable at first sight, yet she had no impression at all of when she had seen him.
As if seeing what she was thinking, Pei Yuqing curved his lips slightly and said gently, “Think about it slowly yourself.”
No matter how she pressed him, he wouldn’t say.
Xie Wanning thought for a long time but had no clue, so she simply set the matter aside and brought the topic back around.
She huffed, “I’ll see if Lu Ziyan has the face to not break off the engagement this time.”
Not yet married, and the concubine was already pregnant with offspring; he truly didn’t take the Yue Family seriously.
Pei Yuqing smiled upon hearing this and said, “I originally thought you’d be sad to hear this news.”
“I’m not going to feel sad for him anymore,” Xie Wanning said. “Now I just want to break off the engagement, stay far away from him, and have no more entanglements.”
Hearing her say this, Pei Yuqing wasn’t as happy as he had imagined.
He didn’t know how much grievance this young lady had suffered to become so disheartened.
His smile gradually faded, and he said faintly, “Yes, as long as you don’t want to marry, this marriage won’t happen.”
From their first meeting, Xie Wanning’s impression of him was that of a mild and reserved noble young master of the turbid world. Now seeing him withdraw his smile, she could vaguely discern a bit of majesty, and couldn’t help but feel somewhat surprised.
She called out, waiting for him to look over before saying, “How do you know so much about Lu Ziyan’s affairs?”
Pei Yuqing lowered his eyelashes. “Naturally, I have my ways.”
Xie Wanning raised her brows slightly and let out an “oh.”
She thought of how, at their first meeting, even the several madams of the Lu Family only knew Lu Ziyan had returned after people entered the door, yet he, at the teahouse, knew clearly that Lu Ziyan had returned to the capital that day.
She couldn’t help teasing, “Paying so much attention to my affairs, huh.”
Pei Yuqing raised his eyes to look at her, a faint ripple rising in his gaze, and said slowly, “Wanwan, I only want you to be well.”
His gaze was very light, warm and bright, without any aggression, looking like a good-tempered person.
But Xie Wanning’s heart jumped fiercely from that one look from him, and her not-thin face was dyed red in an instant.
She was actually made to blush by his gaze.
She pursed her lips looking at him. The two gazed at each other for a few breaths, and in the next instant when he shifted his gaze, she said, “Is your body really as the rumors say…”
Pei Yuqing gave a soft “mm,” raised his hand to pour out the cooled tea in front of her, refilled it again, and said slowly, “I have a heart condition and have been unable to have too great emotional fluctuations since childhood.”
From childhood, he had abstained from haste and irritability, cultivating his body and character, which fostered his upright and elegant demeanor.
Xie Wanning blinked, wanting to ask if the rumor that he wouldn’t live past thirty was true, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
She picked up the teacup and took a sip, her heart filled with an indescribable feeling.
Did she like him? It didn’t seem so.
Last time she asked if he was willing to marry her, it was to get rid of Lu Ziyan through marriage, and he was the best candidate.
This time, with the news of Liu Manrou’s pregnancy, if Lu Ziyan could cleanly break off the engagement because of it, she wouldn’t want to get married.
Whether him or someone else, she didn’t want to marry.
But even so, she didn’t want such a good person to not live past thirty.
In those dreams, she was in that small courtyard the whole time, and this person didn’t even appear from start to finish. She didn’t know if he was still alive two years later.
Thinking this way, Xie Wanning felt inexplicably sad. She set down the teacup, her expression extremely serious: “I also want you to be well. Can you do that?”
“Don’t believe those rumors,” Pei Yuqing chuckled and nodded, saying, “I’m twenty-seven now. Do I look like someone with only three years left to live?”
Xie Wanning let out a long breath of relief and laughed along, her gaze fixed on him as she said, “That’s good.”
Her smile was so open and pure, genuinely happy for him, without a trace of miscellaneous thoughts.
Pei Yuqing stared at her in a daze, his heart softening sourly.
Just like this, he told himself. This is the best state between you two.
Xie Wanning was completely unaware of his bewilderment and bitterness. She propped her cheek with one hand and said with a beaming smile, “Since you won’t tell me when we met, if I remember it myself later, will you promise me one thing?”
“Good, as long as I can do it, I’ll promise you,” Pei Yuqing agreed readily, then asked, “What do you want me to do?”
Xie Wanning waved her hand. “Can’t think of it now. We’ll talk about it when the time comes.”
With that, she stood up and walked to the windowsill, her gaze lazily looking down at the floor below. Across from the teahouse was the Lin Family Pastry Shop she often visited, and from this angle, it was all in clear view.
When she didn’t know, this person might have stood in this spot and watched her many times.
Thinking this, Xie Wanning’s heart felt a mix of emotions.
A man eleven years older than her liked her and silently paid attention to her from the shadows.
This should have been something extremely repulsive and something to resist, but she didn’t feel that way at all.
…She probably liked him a little too.
After all, he was really a very good person.
The room suddenly fell quiet.
That bothersome young lady stood by the window, facing sideways this way, her slender fingers gripping the window edge. No ornaments on her fingers, no nail polish, her ten fingers slender and pure as jade, dazzlingly white in the sunlight.
Pei Yuqing’s gaze almost rudely fixed on her.
Xie Wanning tried hard to ignore that scorching hot line of sight, feeling uncomfortable all over as she began to look around the side room.
This should be his private elegant room. The furnishings inside didn’t look like those of a teahouse for entertaining guests but more like a living room.
She looked around casually, her line of sight stopping on the ancient zither in the corner, and asked, “Do you play the qin?”
“How about playing a piece for me?”
Pei Yuqing looked at her and nodded gently.
He washed his hands clean, got up, sat down at the qin stand, didn’t ask what she wanted to hear, and directly plucked the strings.
The clear and lingering qin music poured out like a spring breeze with the plucking of his fingers.
Just like him, warm and upright, easily making people feel close.
Xie Wanning was quite knowledgeable about music and gradually became engrossed in listening.
Vote~~
