Chapter 80:
It wasn’t until after dinner, when night had fallen deeply and the noisy sounds from the front hall had gradually quieted down, that Xie Wanning belatedly felt somewhat embarrassed.
……Today was the day of their marriage, and tonight was their wedding night.
Wedding night……
The maidservants cleared the remnants from the table, and Er Qing came over, curtsying as she said: “Young Lady, this servant will help you with your ablutions.”
Xie Wanning turned her head to look at the young man sitting on the couch, meeting a pair of eyes calmly smiling with amusement. Her face heated up from being watched, and she hurriedly entered the washroom.
When she came out again, the person on the couch had also changed out of his wedding attire, wearing only a thin nightgown as he leaned against the bedhead.
In the candlelight, his profile was handsome and coldly refined, without a trace of liveliness, like a lingxiao flower blooming on a steep mountain cliff, untouched by worldly dust.
If it were anyone else who saw him, they might feel deeply inferior and keep their distance out of respect.
But Xie Wanning felt not the slightest reverence; instead, she was filled with smug satisfaction.
No matter how coldly aloof he was, right now wasn’t he still waiting for her on the couch?
Thinking this, she sat down in front of the bronze mirror as the maidservants wrung out her hair, but she heard the man on the couch say: “All of you, leave.”
Er Qing was stunned, her gaze turning to her master.
Xie Wanning waved her hand, then led Yuan Zhu and Yuan Yue away together.
Once again, only the two of them remained in the room. The man on the couch then got off it, walked behind her, and picked up a cotton cloth to wring her hair.
The man behind her moved with gentle care. Xie Wanning enjoyed the thoughtful service, squinting her eyes to look at the person behind her through the bronze mirror. She was about to tease him when their gazes met, and she saw the complex, hard-to-discern emotions in his dark eyes, causing her to freeze.
“Did something happen?”
How was it that in the time it took her just to bathe, this person’s expression no longer held the earlier gentleness.
Hearing this, Pei Yuqing did not stop his movements, opening his mouth to reply, but at that moment, both of them heard a hoarse shout from outside the door.
“！！！”
Xie Wanning abruptly stood up, her face paling in shock: “Young Master Lu has returned?”
This was clearly Lu Ziyan’s voice.
“Mm, he’s back,” Pei Yuqing pressed her shoulders, saying: “Your hair isn’t dry yet. Sit down and talk.”
Xie Wanning’s mind was in turmoil, but seeing his calm and composed demeanor, she could only do as told and sit down, asking urgently: “When did he return?”
These past days, she had never once mentioned Lu Ziyan, truly believing he was still quelling the unrest in Yunzhou and couldn’t possibly rush back to cause trouble.
But now, the voice outside the door was clear as day.
It had come all the way to the door of the new bridal chamber.
Pei Yuqing said: “After our wedding date was set, Ming Jian deliberately investigated. It couldn’t be hidden for long.”
With only ten days, they had to send out wedding invitations to family and friends. How could Ming Jian, also in the capital city, not receive the news?
Once a letter was sent to Yunzhou, with Yun Jin’s speed, Lu Ziyan could receive the news in five or six days. With his famous steed Ben Yun, rushing back day and night without rest, he really could make it in time……
She had just sorted out her thoughts when the sound of clashing blades came from outside the door.
Pei Yuqing set aside the cloth in his hand, gripped her shoulders, soothingly leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her fragrant hair, and softly asked: “I’ll go out for a bit. Do you want to come with me?”
Xie Wanning’s breathing hitched, and after hesitating for a few breaths, she shook her head: “I won’t go.”
She was already married, now legitimately a woman of the Pei family. What would it look like for her to go see her former fiancé who had broken into her husband’s family at night?
Pei Yuqing’s gaze was gentle as he patted her small head: “Don’t be afraid. As I said early on, as long as you don’t regret it, he can’t take you away.”
With that, he draped on an outer garment, opened the door, and walked out.
No sooner had he left than Er Qing came in with a panicked expression.
Xie Wanning stood up, her gaze turning to the window: “What’s happening outside?”
“They’ve started fighting, and many guards have come,” Er Qing supported her, whispering: “This servant only saw Young Master Lu being surrounded and attacked by a group of guards. I didn’t dare look closely.”
Xie Wanning’s body stiffened.
The guests in the front courtyard hadn’t dispersed yet, and the commotion here was so great……
It was easy to imagine that after tonight, the three of them would become a topic of enduring conversation among the capital city’s populace during their leisure moments.
But Xie Wanning could no longer concern herself with that. She clenched her palms tightly, her mind flashing between the scene of Er Qing being beaten to death with a staff and Lu Ziyan’s deathly, desolate appearance shrouded in gloom.
She almost couldn’t hold back from rushing out to question him on what exactly he intended to do!
But in the end, after pacing back and forth for a while, she sat back down on the edge of the couch.
…………
Outside Xuan Hua Courtyard.
Lu Ziyan, who had rushed back through wind and rain without rest, gripped his spear, single-handedly fighting dozens of guards from Duke Pei’s Mansion.
Against an intruder wielding a sharp weapon who had broken into the private residence, the guards showed no mercy whatsoever, and Lu Ziyan struck with ruthless ferocity in every move.
From the moment he received the letter in Yunzhou, his chest had burned with unrelenting pain. Upon seeing the courtyard filled with lanterns and decorations, he completely lost himself to killing intent.
He speared flying one guard after another who lunged at him, but after several days and nights of continuous travel, his body was fatigued. Coupled with the intense turmoil in his mind at this moment, he was caught in openings several times, getting injured and bleeding.
His dark clothes were soaked with blood, but Lu Ziyan seemed oblivious. His gaze was fixed deadly on the brightly lit window not far away, plastered with large red double happiness characters.
That young lady was now inside there, in that new bridal chamber with another man.
……He had to take her back. He absolutely could not let her marry someone else.
This obsession kept him standing here without collapsing.
Until that door, which had remained closed, was pulled open, and a tall, slender figure emerged. Lu Ziyan paused for a moment, and in that instant, several guards seized the opening and pounced. He flipped his arm, his spear sending one flying guard airborne, but his left arm was slashed by a sword once more.
The man who hadn’t even frowned while fighting bathed in blood, upon seeing the man who had emerged from the new bridal chamber already changed out of his wedding attire, had his tightly clenched jaw tremble faintly, his heart plummeting as if weighted down by something heavy.
Plummeting into bottomless crimson depths.
While he was fighting for his life out here, what had they been doing inside?
Why had they changed clothes?
A sweet taste rose in Lu Ziyan’s throat. He abruptly halted his attacks, and the majority of the Pei mansion’s guards, intimidated by the fiercely surging aura around him, momentarily dared not advance.
Only a few were still swinging their swords forward, but they were stopped by the master who had come out.
Pei Yuqing stepped forward a few paces, his gaze falling on the man before him—a man he had once crazily envied, resented, and blamed.
After a long moment, facing the other’s eyes red with killing intent, he smiled faintly: “If you still have any reason left, then please leave. Continuing to make a scene will bring you no good.”
This was a marriage personally granted by His Majesty. For him to come and disrupt it was not only a disregard for Duke Pei’s Mansion, but also a slap to the emperor’s face.
No matter how great the merit, a subject was still a subject. Being arrogant from favor was a grave taboo.
Lu Ziyan seemed not to hear, gripping his spear pointed straight at the other man, saying word by word: “Pei Yuqing, do you know what the consequence will be for daring to touch my person?”
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