Chapter 60:
“So he went to your boudoir overnight, wanting to catch up with you?”
His voice carried a rare light mockery.
Xie Wanning’s eyebrows slightly raised upon hearing this, carefully observing his expression, she probed, “Are you unhappy?”
Pei Yuqing: “……No.”
“You are unhappy,” Xie Wanning gave him a sidelong glance and explained, “Don’t be unhappy. He didn’t do anything too outrageous to me.”
“Too?” Pei Yuqing slowly repeated, his expression inscrutable.
Xie Wanning was stunned for a moment, finally tasting something.
Her lips curved into an arc as she said, “It really wasn’t too outrageous. He just held me like you’re doing now.”
Pei Yuqing’s breathing hitched, and he didn’t speak for a long time.
Since she had decided to say it, she planned to be frank.
Xie Wanning continued, “He also told me to wait for him to come back, saying that upon his return he would seek my parents’ consent to betroth me to him again, and to stay away from you and all other men.”
“At that time, he was aggressive, looking like he wouldn’t leave if I didn’t agree…”
“In that situation, I dared not provoke him and could only swallow my anger and agree.”
Recalling now that night when Lu Ziyan had cornered her on the bed in her boudoir, Xie Wanning still couldn’t dispel her hatred. Her hand gripping his lapel suddenly tightened, and she said viciously, “It was only after that day that I decided to find someone to marry me off to, to completely get rid of him.”
Being intruded upon in her boudoir at night by a man, forcibly held in his arms, and threatened to wait for him…
Just from her description, Pei Yuqing could imagine how much grievance this young lady had suffered at the time.
He gently patted the top of her head, his voice laced with aftershock fear, “It’s all my fault.”
It was all because he hadn’t anticipated that man would be so mad, and he had confidently sworn he could protect her.
…That night, if that man had truly wanted to do something to her, no amount of remedying afterward would have mattered.
“You really are at fault,” Xie Wanning huffed, still harboring some resentment, “Making a young lady take the initiative to propose marriage twice, and you still claim to like her.”
Pei Yuqing smiled bitterly: “……I was wrong.”
“You were the first person I wanted to marry, but if you didn’t agree, I couldn’t force you to marry me.” Xie Wanning said, “Do you know what I would have done if you hadn’t asked me to stay just now?”
“I would have gone and married someone else, whether one of my maternal cousins or my uncle’s disciples, anyone who could marry me within three months—I’d marry them, whoever it was.”
Anyway, whether she married a pig or a dog, she would never obediently wait for Lu Ziyan to return to the capital.
Pei Yuqing was already stunned.
Only at this moment did he truly understand how much this young lady resisted rekindling her relationship with Lu Ziyan.
Before this, Pei Yuqing had thought much like Lu Ziyan, assuming she had grown cold-hearted due to Lu Ziyan’s years of neglect and taking a concubine just before their wedding date.
But the affection between them couldn’t be faked. A few sweet words from Lu Ziyan, some patient coaxing, and she might still end up marrying him after all.
He hadn’t dared to rashly agree to marry her; besides concerns about his own body, he was more afraid she would regret it later.
He couldn’t bear for her to regret it, but once they were engaged and married, he would be even less willing to let her go.
Just like now, having just pulled her into his arms, he couldn’t bear to let go anymore.
He tightened his arms, lowered his head to kiss the hair of the young lady in his arms, and gently said, “Wanwan, I won’t let you regret your choice.”
Even if she was using the marriage to get rid of other men, the fact that he was the first person she thought of was enough.
Seeing the prey and feeling delighted—that was still delight.
She did like him.
Xie Wanning smiled faintly, burying her face in his arms, secretly thinking it strange.
In such an intimate state with him, she felt not the slightest discomfort.
During the days when she liked Lu Ziyan the most, she loved clinging to him too, pining if she didn’t see him for a day. As long as he was in the capital, she couldn’t resist running to see him every time.
But he always had a cold face, so she dared not get too close. When they were alone, there were rarely any warm words exchanged.
Back then, she only felt he wasn’t affectionate enough. Looking back now, having grown up together as childhood sweethearts, their most intimate moments had actually all been after she proposed breaking off the engagement…
That youth who wielded a spear had indeed restrained himself toward her when they were still an engaged couple.
Perhaps because she was now an outsider looking in, having escaped that quagmire, Xie Wanning suddenly could experience a trace of Lu Ziyan’s affection.
His repeated entanglements during this time weren’t entirely unwillingness, but as he himself said, he did feel something different toward her.
Thinking carefully, in those years when she loved clinging to him, she rarely missed him when she went to find him. For such a promising young man always so busy, she almost always got to see him.
Unless he was out on official business or training soldiers at the outskirts of the capital military camp and not at home.
Whenever he was at home, whether meeting guests in the study, chatting with friends, or even discussing important matters with his staff and subordinates, as soon as he heard she had come, even if he couldn’t free himself immediately, he would have Ming Jian come tell her and ask her to wait.
She always got to see him, even if he was taciturn, stern, and aloof.
Xie Wanning thought, perhaps that was why she had been able to persist with such enthusiasm for so long.
After all, she wasn’t stupid. No matter how much she disregarded gains and losses, she would feel tired. If he truly had no special regard for her at all, she might have woken up long ago.
No need to…
“What are you thinking?” She had been silent for a long time, so Pei Yuqing asked gently, “Tired?”
Xie Wanning closed her eyes and hummed, taking a deep breath and smelling the cool faint fragrance on him. Curiously, she asked, “I’ve always wanted to ask you—what fragrance do you use? It smells so nice.”
She had no idea what restraint was, seriously lowering her head to sniff the scent on a man’s body and saying it smelled nice.
Pei Yuqing’s whole body heated up, momentarily unsure if she was teasing him again.
“Don’t sniff anymore,” he gripped her neck, stopping her little head from wriggling in his arms, his voice slightly hoarse, “It’s Buddha’s Hand Incense, made by blending Buddha lotus flowers with several medicinal herbs. If you like it, I’ll give you some tomorrow…”
“I don’t want it,” Xie Wanning didn’t notice anything amiss with him. She raised her head from his arms, her gaze landing on his jaw. Smiling with narrowed eyes, she said, “This kind of clear, mind-calming fragrance suits a young master as gentle as jade like you. I’ll just sniff it.”
As soon as the words fell, she watched his slender neck, the slightly protruding adam’s apple slowly sliding down.
Xie Wanning: “……”
She was greatly surprised and, without thinking, reached out to poke it.
The next instant, her wrist was seized and stopped.
“Wanwan…” Pei Yuqing’s voice was unusually low and husky, “Don’t tease me.”
