The more people lack something, the more they love to flaunt it; this is an eternal truth.

Xie Qingyu turned her gaze to Wei Li, her smile widening. "If Young Master Wei has enough trust in the relationship between you and A-Dan, why say such things to provoke me?"

"I'll say it again: since Ah-Dan and I are old friends, our relationship is naturally closer than yours. If she wants my blessing, I should tell her myself."

Wei Li pursed his lips, a nameless fire rising within him, but he wouldn't show weakness in front of Xie Qingyu, so he retorted sarcastically, "Regardless of whether I'm confident in the relationship between A-Dan and me, she is still my wife, and you are just a former fiancé. If you had any ability, she wouldn't have been sent here for a political marriage, and if she hadn't been sent here, she wouldn't have fallen into my hands. What right does someone with no ability have to question the relationship between us in front of me?"

"Where were you when she was sent here for a political marriage? Since you couldn't even protect her, what right do you have to yell at me now?" You're so eager to teach me a lesson I can't even keep up with.

The last sentence seemed too vulgar, and Wei Li subconsciously swallowed it back in front of Xie Qingyu.

Finally, he managed to retort. The two faced each other, neither willing to give in, making it a 50/50 situation.

"Don't think that just because Zhao Xiheng is protecting you, I can't kill you." Wei Li curled his lips, mocking him.

Xie Qingyu smiled calmly, "You also know that A-Dan protects me."

Wei Li cannot kill Xie Qingyu, but that doesn't mean he can't hit people.

He clenched his wrist and punched Xie Qingyu in the face.

Xie Qingyu came from a family of scholars and generals for generations. Although he looked weak, he was quite skilled in martial arts. After being punched in the eye, he reacted immediately and dodged Wei Li's next attack.

After exchanging a few blows, Xie Qingyu was no match for Wei Li and was forced to retreat step by step, finding it difficult even to defend herself.

Wei Li struck Xie Qingyu's face hard; he had long disliked Xie Qingyu's face.

Even in this situation, Xie Qingyu didn't appear disheveled; instead, he evoked pity. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and asked, "Young Master Wei, do you love A-Dan?"

Wei Li's pupils shrank. "Nonsense."

“We’re both men, you can’t fool me. The way you look at Ah-dan, and everything you do, tells me that you like Ah-dan to the point of loving her.”

Wei Li's pupils contracted, he pursed his lips, and grabbed Xie Qingyu's collar, "Shut up."

"I can shut up, but can your heart shut up? The relationship between you and A-Dan is probably not as strong as you show me, so you keep provoking me, hoping that I will back down, right?" The more Xie Qingyu analyzed, the sharper and clearer her thinking became.

"It's precisely because you're worried that Ah-Dan will gradually drift away from you because of my appearance that you want to see this."

Wei Li felt a pang of pain in his heart, wishing he could just kill Xie Qingyu right then and there, as if that would save him his last bit of face.

That hidden, inescapable thing was almost exposed to the sunlight, leaving him nowhere to hide, and the sunlight burned his heart with a sizzling sound.

"What should we do? What should we do?" Two maids watched through the crack in the door as Wei Li beat Xie Qingyu almost unilaterally.

"You don't necessarily want to go in and break up the fight, do you?"

"Won't Young Master Xie get beaten to death?"

"No, no, Master Xie is a friend of the lady, and the lord knows what he's doing."

"Should we inform Madam?"

"Are you trying to betray your own people?"

...

Xie Qingyu found one advantage in Wei Li for the first time: his good skills.

The two parted on bad terms. It seemed that Wei Li had beaten Xie Qingyu up and won the confrontation, but in reality, Xie Qingyu had killed him and hurt him the most.

Wei Li entered the room with a menacing aura, his mind filled with the thought that Xie Qingyu already knew Zhao Xiheng didn't like him.

Another voice kept reminding and bewitching him, "You love Zhao Xiheng so much that you're no longer yourself. Zhao Xiheng could easily stab a knife into your heart."

Impossible. He's only like this because Zhao Xiheng is his wife. Isn't that how everyone treats their wives?

No, why did he get together with Zhao Xiheng in the first place?

He hated Zhao Xiheng and wanted to keep her by his side to torture and humiliate her, but what is he doing now? His actions over the past six months are completely contrary to his original intentions.

Wei Li couldn't even mentally refute Xie Qingyu's statement that it was wrong.

Zhao Xiheng was almost asleep on the dining table, and out of boredom, she started to rub Gou Dan'er. Gou Dan'er was rubbed into a cat-like shape and meowed. When he came back, Gou Dan'er complained a little, "You told me to wait for you to have dinner together tonight, why are you only coming back now?"

"Who upset you?" she asked, tilting her head.

Wei Li's eyes were bloodshot. He walked over, placed his hand behind her head, and pressed close to her. Their breaths mingled. "Zhao Xiheng."

Zhao Xiheng's heart skipped a beat. She grabbed his hand, sensing that something was wrong with him tonight. "What happened to you?"

"It's nothing." He was silent for a moment, then suddenly let go of her. "Let's eat."

He had some questions he wanted to ask her, but what difference did it make whether he asked or not?

Wei Li originally wanted to discuss with her tonight who to invite to the wedding, but Xie Qingyu made him restless. Apart from exchanging a few words with Zhao Xiheng at the beginning, he remained silent all night and left without speaking to her the next morning.

Zhao Xiheng felt something was off and grabbed the guard outside the door, asking, "Where did our lord go last night? He didn't seem happy at all."

"It seems that our lord came out of Xie Langjun's courtyard last night, and he was unhappy after he came out," the guard said in detail.

Zhao Xiheng felt that Wei Li must have said something to Xie Qingyu last night. She pushed aside the people at the door and went straight to Xie Qingyu's courtyard.

This time, the guards at the gate didn't dare to stop her. They had tried to stop her last time, but the lady still managed to run out.

Whether they stop her or not, the result will be the same. Besides, even though the lady disobeyed the lord's orders and ran away last time, she was not punished. It can be seen that the lord's principles do not count in front of the lady.

"Songjie, Songjie!" Zhao Xiheng ran inside.

Xie Qingyu's face was covered in bruises. He dared not let Zhao Xiheng see him like this, as it would damage his image in Zhao Xiheng's eyes. So he quickly covered his face with his sleeve.

"Ah Dan, it's not convenient for me to see you right now."

"What happened to you?" Xie Qingyu's face was covered in colorful marks, and even though he tried to hide them quickly, Zhao Xiheng still noticed. "Did Wei Li hit you?"

Xie Qingyu nodded slightly, a hint of melancholy in her eyes.

"What did you say that upset him?"

Before Xie Qingyu could say anything, Zhao Xiheng's words almost made him choke on his own blood.

What do you mean he said something that upset Wei Li?

His heart ached as if it were being ripped apart.

“Ah Dan…” He wanted to explain, but found he didn’t know how to say it.

Zhao Xiheng looked at Xie Qingyu and suddenly felt a pang of sadness. She shouldn't have asked that question; how hurtful it was! She didn't know why she had blurted it out.

“Actually, Brother Songjie, I think that with your personality, you wouldn’t say anything really malicious. Wei Li is always unpredictable, petty, and easily angered. I apologize to you on his behalf.”

She then asked, "Has the medicine been applied yet? I still have some medicine. It's really inconvenient that there's no doctor in the manor. I'll talk to Wei Li about it later and ask him to have a few doctors stay in the manor permanently."

"It's nothing." What else could Xie Qingyu say?

The little girl who used to always call him "Brother Songjie" hadn't seen him for seven years. She was married, and her heart belonged to someone else. Just now, her words made it clear who was closer and who was less close. In A-Dan's heart, he couldn't compare to Wei Li. She would consciously apologize to him on behalf of Wei Li, as his wife.

But judging from Wei Li's reaction yesterday, it seems he didn't know about this.

Xie Qingyu wasn't some kind of saint, yet he insisted on helping the two open up and have a deep conversation; he was still holding back his anger.

"Ah Dan, please sit down." He gestured to the mat.

After the two were seated, he brewed tea for her. "There are no outsiders here. I'm asking you, do you really love Wei Li and want to spend your life with him?"

He assigned both maids to do chores.

“Who likes him? I don’t like him at all. He’s a terrible person. Who would want to spend their life with him?” Zhao Xiheng denied it outright.

Wei Li is a complete scoundrel; anyone who follows him is doomed. He's utterly useless except for his money and his looks.

"Would you like to come with me?"

"Is it going back to Jinyang? Zhao Mingjin wants you to exchange those beauties for me to go back to Jinyang? I don't want to go back." Zhao Xiheng confessed, "Actually, Brother Songjie knows that there's no good thing waiting for me if I go back, right?"

"Did Wei Li tell you?" He gripped the cup tightly, his slender white fingertips turning bluish.

Zhao Xiheng nodded.

"He doesn't hide anything from you. But why would I push you into a fire pit? Zhao Mingjin asked me to take you back so that he could marry you off to Jiang Su and then borrow troops from Jiang Su to fight against Zhao Mingchen."

But they fear you'll refuse and run away halfway, so they plan to deceive you, saying they'll bring you back to fulfill our marriage vows. If I don't come as an envoy, someone else will, and I'm afraid you'll be deceived.

Things would be much easier if Wei Li agreed to the replacement, but since he hasn't agreed, it'll be troublesome.

He took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, and looked at her with bright eyes, "If you are willing, come with me. Princess Jingcheng will fall ill and die suddenly on the way."

If Zhao Xiheng is willing, this is a fairly foolproof idea.

"I'm not willing." Zhao Xiheng refused him without hesitation after hearing this.

"Is it because of Wei Li?"

“No.” Zhao Xiheng hesitated slightly before firmly denying it.

"Leaving aside the fact that Wei Li won't let me go, and how difficult it was for us to escape from Pingzhou, if I really ran away, Wei Li would kill many people and track me down." Zhao Xiheng never doubted the truth of Wei Li's words.

"Moreover, I don't want the name Zhao Xiheng to die out."

Zhao Xiheng is dead in the eyes of the world, so what does Zhao Xinglie have left? He doesn't even have a daughter anymore.