Chapter 57:
Xie Wanning continued, “He saw the two of us alone in the flower field and thought that my firm decision to break off the engagement with him was because of you. In his anger, he refused to let me go.”
Pei Yuqing’s gaze remained fixed on her lips. After a long moment, his voice hoarse, he spoke: “He is no longer in the Capital City…”
“Yes, he truly is not in the Capital City right now, but he will come back.”
Xie Wanning was almost amused to anger by his oil-salt-won’t-enter demeanor and interrupted: “He is such a proud person—how could he accept that his fiancée, who has always been infatuated with him, no longer wants him? As soon as he returns to the Capital City, he will surely come to entangle me again. If I do not find someone to marry, I will have to keep entangling with him indefinitely.”
Just thinking about being entangled with Lu Ziyan for the rest of her life made her feel uncomfortable all over.
No matter what, she was determined not to marry into the Wuyuan Marquis’s Estate again and repeat the disaster from her dream.
Xie Wanning said, “At the Duke’s Estate with so many guests around, beside the rockery where people pass by at any moment, in broad daylight, Lu Ziyan dared to kidnap me and indecently assault me at will. Do you think that if I do not marry, he will let it go easily?”
Her voice was very calm, yet it carried an unmistakable anger.
She did not know if it was toward Lu Ziyan or toward him.
Pei Yuqing looked at her and struggled to speak: “It is my fault…”
He had arrived too late and failed to protect her well.
He had let her suffer such great humiliation right under his eyelid.
He paused, then said gently: “Shall I arrange a few secret guards for you? So no one can bully you again.”
“…” Xie Wanning fell silent.
She glanced at him and forced a smile: “Forget it. It is I who is being unreasonable and putting you in a difficult position.”
He had refused her from beginning to end, yet she had relied on understanding his feelings and pressed him step by step with full confidence.
But after repeatedly saying it to the extreme, he still had no intention of yielding.
…It was actually quite pointless.
Where was there such a thing as forcing someone to marry you?
She was not truly unable to marry—within three months, she could select someone and marry.
It was just that she wanted to make her own choice even when forced into this situation by Lu Ziyan.
Perhaps her smile was too ugly, for in the instant her words fell, the person before her gripped her wrist.
“It is not a difficult position…” As if having made up his mind, Pei Yuqing no longer avoided her question. He tightened his grip on her hand and gave a bitter smile.
Even in his dreams, he had dreamed more than once of the scene of marrying her.
How could it be a difficult position?
No one could know his hesitation and struggle. From the moment he met this young lady, he had been struggling.
When greed arose, he would think that one must enjoy life to the fullest when at its peak. No matter who he handed her to, he would not feel at ease—he would worry she would suffer grievance, worry she would not be treated well. The young lady at the tip of his heart should be protected in his arms by himself, cherished carefully.
But once he calmed down, he would tell himself that with his sickly body, he did not deserve to covet her lifelong happiness. If he followed his own feelings, he would only delay her for a lifetime.
He was so many years older than her and should think more for her sake—how could he drag a fine young lady in the flower of her youth into his bottomless pit?
Yet she always had to bring up things he desperately restrained himself from even thinking about.
Xie Wanning would not understand his thousand twists and turns of thoughts. She moved her wrist and said, “Let go.”
Pei Yuqing released her hand and sighed softly: “I will marry you.”
Xie Wanning looked up at him: “So reluctant?”
Pei Yuqing: “…”
He lowered his gaze to meet hers, his lips moving slightly as he said, “I never force myself.”
“…Then what was that just now?” Xie Wanning blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the inexplicable tears welling up, but her voice still betrayed her grievance: “Watching a young lady repeatedly beg you to marry her—is that very satisfying?”
With the little young lady so aggrieved, the man who had always been calm and composed immediately panicked. His fingertip brushed her eyelid gently, and seeing the golden teardrops still falling in strings, he hurriedly said, “Don’t cry. I was wrong.”
Xie Wanning turned her head to avoid his hand and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her tears.
Pei Yuqing’s hand froze in midair. After a long pause, he gripped her shoulder and said, “I did not mean to refuse you. You know I have a heart condition.”
Xie Wanning’s hand paused slightly as she wiped her tears, but she said nothing.
Pei Yuqing continued explaining on his own: “Several imperial doctors in the Imperial Palace have all taken my pulse. This illness cannot be cured and poses a constant life-threatening danger. I cannot have intense emotional fluctuations—perhaps this moment I am chatting and laughing with you, and the next I am unconscious.”
As he spoke, he released his grip on her shoulder, lowered his gaze to look at her, and said bitterly, “If you have regrets, it is not too late now.”
“As for Lu Ziyan, you need not worry too much. As long as I am here for one day, I will never stand by and watch him force you.”
Under the night sky, his gaze was gentle as water, just like him—seeming to have a very good temper.
Xie Wanning looked up at him for a moment and asked in return, “Why should I have regrets?”
Whether his body was good or not, whether he could accompany her until the end— what did that have to do with her decision to marry him?
Hearing her words, Pei Yuqing’s eyelashes trembled, and he stiffened for a long time before suddenly coming back to his senses.
As if he had finally understood her meaning, the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
He was silent for a long time, then slowly nodded: “Alright, I promise you. Whenever you want a divorce, I will let you go.”
So this was truly what she wanted him to promise.
So she did not just want him to marry her.
But wanted him to let her go free at any time after marrying her.
…This was also fine.
Pei Yuqing thought to himself that his earlier struggle had been overly affected.
This young lady felt at most a bit of novelty toward him from seeing something she liked. Even if she hastily thought of marriage to avoid Lu Ziyan, there were plenty of noble young masters from high families to choose from—how had it come to the point of having to marry him?
But with one turn of thought, Pei Yuqing understood why this young lady had chosen him.
He tugged lightly at the corner of his lips, forcing a smile, and said: “Tomorrow I will report to my parents, set an auspicious date, and go to your maternal home to propose marriage.”
“No need to specially select a date. Let our marriage be entirely simplified,” Xie Wanning said. “Best to complete the wedding ceremony within three months, before Lu Ziyan returns.”
The smile on Pei Yuqing’s face could no longer hold, and for a long time he could not say a word.
With the three letters and six rites, for any somewhat proper family, going through the full process would take at least a year. Her earlier engagement with Lu Ziyan, from the marriage proposal at age ten to setting the wedding date last year, had taken five years in total.
Now it was his turn, yet to complete the wedding ceremony in just three short months.
Xie Wanning gripped his sleeve and tugged gently: “I do not mean that I do not value this marriage with you. It is just…”
“Everything as you say,” Pei Yuqing interrupted flatly. “Three months, entirely simplified.”
Xie Wanning: “…”
Even if slow-witted, she could see that this person seemed to be angry.
She could somewhat understand what he was angry about.
End of month, begging for votes~~~~
