Chapter 36:
In the reception hall.
The old steward stood at the door. Seeing Xie Wanning arrive, he hurriedly bowed in greeting and welcomed her inside.
The people inside heard the noise and looked over.
As soon as Xie Wanning entered the door, her gaze met his directly.
Appearance follows the heart. Lu Ziyan’s features were like his temperament—sharp and fierce.
His gaze was deep, his nose bridge straight. Even sitting there silently, he exuded a cool and detached air.
After waiting half the afternoon, there was not the slightest impatience in his eyebrows and eyes. Seeing her arrive, his stern facial expression seemed to soften a bit.
He moved his lips: “Wanwan…”
Xie Wanning ignored him. Instead, she took out a handkerchief to wipe her sweat while instructing the maidservant to bring a bowl of iced milk.
She had always been afraid of heat. Though it was just early summer, she had hurried all the way here, and a thin layer of sweat still formed on her forehead.
Once the servants had all withdrawn, she had no mind for polite small talk. Holding the iced milk, she crossed the spacious hall and sat down opposite him, saying directly: “If you have something to say, just say it.”
Her attitude of completely disregarding him made Lu Ziyan narrow his eyes slightly.
He still couldn’t get used to this young lady being so cold toward him.
But it was indeed he who had hurt her heart; it was his own fault.
Suppressing the slight discomfort rising in his heart, he stood up and walked over.
“Stop right there!” Thinking of his improper actions the previous two times, Xie Wanning said warily: “Say whatever you have to say from there.”
Lu Ziyan’s steps paused slightly. He said softly: “I just want to talk properly with you. You don’t need to worry that I’ll do anything to you.”
He continued walking over, his gaze falling on her face. “There are guards from your estate right outside the door. If I act improperly, you can just call them in.”
Xie Wanning’s hand holding the jade bowl paused, her tone impatient: “If you had never acted improperly, why would I be worried.”
She couldn’t very well tell him that as soon as he got close, her mind filled with scenes of their interactions from the dream.
They had been a couple.
In the dream, not long after their marriage, Liu Manrou was rumored to be pregnant, and Er Xia had not yet been taken by him. During that time, he visited her Shao Guang Courtyard quite frequently.
Each time he came, after not even two sentences, he would pull her into the bed.
At that time, they were newlyweds, and she had not yet lost hope in him. She still wholeheartedly believed that his doing those things to her meant he also liked her, and she never refused him.
No matter how recklessly indulgent he was, to make him satisfied, she endured and complied with him, letting him manipulate her as he pleased.
Later on, under his day after day of neglect and favoritism, she finally saw clearly where his true feelings lay.
How laughable. She, a proper main wife, was no more than a backup option after his concubine became pregnant and could not serve him.
Thinking of this, Xie Wanning’s expression turned cold. She set down the jade cup: “What exactly do you have to say? Say it quickly.”
Last time at the Wuyuan Marquis’s Estate, when she confirmed the dream was real, there were still servants following at a distance. Now, after Lu Ziyan returned to the capital, this was their first time truly alone together.
Her whole body was resisting. Lu Ziyan was so perceptive that he naturally noticed. He sat down beside her, thought for a moment, and said apologetically: “That day at the Qu Cheng Marquis’s Estate, I was abrupt. I did not intend to be rude to you.”
He had only seen her embracing Pei Yuqing, overcome by jealousy that clouded his consciousness. If he had had a spear in hand, there probably would have been blood that day.
Even recalling it now filled him with lingering hatred.
Lu Ziyan’s gaze darkened. “Wanwan, you and Pei Yuqing…”
Xie Wanning frowned: “Is that what you came to ask?”
Her tone was truly impatient, and Lu Ziyan fell silent for a moment.
He had not come today to make her angry, but he minded it too much in his heart.
After a brief standoff, he said: “He is so much older than you. Don’t…”
“Enough,” Xie Wanning interrupted him: “That day, I just twisted my ankle, and he helped me up.”
She said mockingly: “You don’t need to project your own assumptions onto others.”
He was a certain kind of person, so he assumed others were the same.
Their marriage was called off, and that was Lu Ziyan’s fault. Xie Wanning had no intention of taking the blame.
Her tone was mocking, but Lu Ziyan heard it and a curve hooked at the corner of his lips. The sour ache in his heart that had persisted for days finally eased. He said: “I believe you.”
He believed she still had him in her heart, just like him—overcome by jealousy, hurt by his words that day.
Thinking this way, he softened his voice even more: “Wanwan, can you ask me again what you asked that day?”
Xie Wanning’s brows furrowed even tighter.
Had he taken the wrong medicine?
Thinking of his promise to talk and then break off the engagement, she endured her impatience and said: “I don’t remember what I asked you that day.”
“I remember,” Lu Ziyan said: “You asked me who Liu Manrou is, how I planned to settle her, whether things between us were pure, and also asked…”
Xie Wanning listened expressionlessly to her own past foolishness and said indifferently: “If I ask again, you’ll agree to break off the engagement?”
Lu Ziyan hummed in affirmation.
“Fine,” Xie Wanning repeated calmly: “I asked you, who is your Rou Niang, how do you plan to settle her, and whether things between you are still pure.”
“She is not mine.” Lu Ziyan’s gaze fell on her hand resting on the table.
The young lady’s ten fingers were slender, lightly tapping the tabletop. In the hall with only the two of them, right before his eyes, her every move carried a wordless temptation.
He very much wanted to hold it in his hand and play with it properly, best if he could also hug her again, but he held back.
He raised his eyes, his gaze shifting to her profile, and said slowly: “Liu Manrou is a maidservant from a vice minister’s estate in Bianzhou. I brought her back to the capital and planned to arrange for her to enter the Lu Family’s second house as a concubine, but things between us are pure. I have not touched a single finger of hers.”
“Don’t believe those rumors. She is indeed pregnant, but it is not my child.”
Xie Wanning turned to look at him, stunned: “What do you mean by that?”
Why couldn’t she understand it?
He was going to take Liu Manrou into the second house as a concubine, but the child in her belly was not his.
Wasn’t that contradictory?
Xie Wanning raised her eyes to look at the top of his head. Apart from the ink jade hairpin, she didn’t see any green light.
Her gaze was straightforward. Lu Ziyan’s eyes paused, and he pursed his lips, not arguing with her about it.
He only said: “Does Wanwan still remember my second uncle?”
Xie Wanning nodded. She had been ten when his second uncle died in battle, so how could she not remember.
She clearly remembered that although the Lu Family’s Second Master was not the heir eldest son, his military merit was outstanding, and his fame was no less than his elder brother’s.
Such an upright and valiant man was also deeply devoted to his wife. His back courtyard was clean, with only his main wife.
The couple was deeply affectionate. Back then, which noble madam in the capital did not secretly envy the Lu Family’s Second Madam.
Her husband had no divided affections, his eyes holding only her one woman. Their two sons were both outstanding, and the mother-in-law was very tolerant, never sending anyone into her sons’ back courtyards.
People are going crazy. Every time, the chapters from two books get uploaded wrong. I’m dying here aaaaaah.
