Chapter 91 I Got It

"It's nothing earth-shattering." Pei Ji interrupted his hurried guess, and a very shallow arc slowly appeared on his lips.

He looked at Jiang Xi's nervous little face and spoke in a clear and steady voice:

"I just want to ask you guys to come together and help your future young lady take stock of my assets."

"The... the future young lady?!" Jiang Xi's eyes widened instantly, and his mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg. He looked as if he had been hit on the head by a stick, and he was completely frozen in place.

He stuttered for a long time before finding his tongue again, his voice changing tone: "Which... which family? Sir! Are you talking about Miss Luo Zhaohan from the Fuyuan General's Mansion?"

He felt his mouth burn when he called out the name.

Pei Ji's smile deepened, and he calmly met Jiang Xi's eyes, which were almost popping out of their sockets in shock, and nodded with certainty, "Yes."

With a loud "boom".

Jiang Xi only felt a bolt of lightning striking from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

Luo Zhaohan, it’s really Miss Luo!

He suddenly covered his face with his hands and let out a low cry of pain, "Oh my God! It's over! Last time at the wintersweet forest... Brother Jingchen and I were like we were guarding against thieves, giving her the cold shoulder! If she becomes a young lady in the future, she'll definitely hold a grudge against me for eight lifetimes!"

He was so anxious that he turned around in a circle, like a little animal with its fur standing on end. Suddenly, he remembered something, stamped his feet, and shouted in a low voice outside the door, "Jingchen! You must have known this a long time ago! And you kept it from me, you really screwed me over!"

After complaining, without waiting for a reply, he hurriedly opened the door and rushed into the cold and dark night outside.

The door was slammed shut with a bang.

The warm room suddenly became quiet, with only the crackling of candlelight and the occasional sparks from the red charcoal in the charcoal basin.

The faint smile just now slowly disappeared from Pei Ji's lips.

The warm yellow light sprinkled on his handsome yet still pale profile, leaving a clear boundary between light and dark, shrouding him in silence.

Taking inventory of property is just a necessary process.

If he wanted to propose marriage to the Luo family in an upright manner, his identity as the eldest son of the Changning Earl's Mansion, who had long been exiled and even forgotten by his family, was ultimately a hurdle that he could not get around.

Father, mother.

These two heavy names passed through my heart, bringing an indescribable sense of stagnation.

How would they view this unexpected marriage? Would they obstruct it? Would they accept Zhao Han?

Perhaps, they no longer cared who their eldest son married.

But this time.

Pei Ji's gaze penetrated the tightly closed window and fell into the endless darkness of wind and snow.

No matter what the road ahead holds.

He had to inform them.

We must also strive for it.

The home and place that belongs to him and Zhaohan.

This time, I won't back down.

…

The howling north wind blew up snow particles, which scratched my face like a knife, causing pain.

Xie Wuqi galloped on his horse along the silent palace road, and a thick layer of white fell on his dark brocade hat and fox fur.

He had just come out of the Ministry of War, and his heart felt like it was blocked by a piece of ice. The humiliation of the broad daylight court, the undisguised ridicule of Princess Liuyang, and Luo Zhaohan's cold and distant face all pricked him like thorns.

Passing by the quiet wintersweet forest, the faint fragrance floats in the air.

Xie Wuqi suddenly pulled the reins. The horse neighed loudly and left a few messy footprints in the snow.

Suddenly I thought of Liu Yueli.

At that time, he was so focused on how to humiliate Pei Ji and win back Luo Zhaohan's attention that he actually agreed to pick those wintersweets with her, but then he forgot about it!

Xie Wuqi dismounted and casually hung the reins on a dead tree beside the road. Braving the wind and snow, he stepped back into the wintersweet forest, one step deep and one step shallow.

The cold air was pressing, and the forest was even darker and quieter than during the day.

Against the backdrop of snow, the twisted branches intertwine.

Xie Wuqi quickly found a beautiful branch of wintersweet and was about to pick it.

At this moment, at the end of the sparse forest path ahead, a slightly staggering figure walked out alone from the depths of the forest.

Xie Wuqi's eyes were slightly cold, and his movements froze for a moment.

It’s Sun Honglei.

He was seen walking alone, still wrapped in the fur coat that had rolled in the snow and mud during the day, with no expression on his face.

But his eyes were so empty as if they had lost all light, his thick eyebrows were deeply furrowed, and the corners of his mouth were turned down.

Xie Wuqi immediately hid himself behind a dense cluster of wintersweet trees.

Then, another hurried sound of footsteps caught up, accompanied by a young man's loud voice full of indignation: "Hong Lei! Hong Lei, wait for me! It's not necessary, Hong Lei! What's so great about the girl from the Luo family? Even if she, Luo Zhaohan, is the general's legitimate daughter, so what! It's her blessing that you like her! She's ungrateful, but she broke off an engagement! Everyone in the capital doesn't know that she..."

"Shut up!" A thunderous shout suddenly split the wind and snow.

I saw Sun Honglei in front of me suddenly stop and turn around.

His originally distraught face suddenly flashed with anger, and his tiger eyes stared intently at his companions who were chasing him:

"I told you to shut up! Who allowed you to slander her?!"

The young man who rushed up was obviously frightened by Sun Honglei's sudden rage. The rest of his words were stuck in his throat and the blood drained from his face in an instant.

Under Sun Honglei's almost fiery gaze, he shrank his neck, his lips trembling, and begged for mercy in a hurry: "Don't... Honglei, calm down! I'm a bad mouth, talking nonsense! I deserve to die! Please calm down!"

Sun Honglei's chest heaved violently several times. He glared at the man fiercely and waved his hand violently, as if to shoo away a fly: "Get out!"

The man was as if pardoned, and he ran away hurriedly along the same path, crawling and rolling.

Sun Honglei stood there stiffly for a long time. Finally, he just wiped his face tiredly, slumped his shoulders, and continued to walk out of the woods in silence.

The back figure looked particularly desolate and heavy in the wind and snow.

Behind the shadow of the wintersweet tree.

Xie Wuqi stood there motionless.

Sun Honglei, he also admires Luo Zhaohan? !

And was rejected by Luo Zhaohan?

The life-threatening behavior on the court during the day was now replaying rapidly in his mind like a kaleidoscope.

How could this be for Princess Liuyang? He was trying to prove something to Luo Zhaohan!

He wanted to overwhelm Pei Ji in front of Luo Zhaohan!

This realization burned Xie Wuqi's heart like a red-hot iron.

Why?

Whether it is Pei Ji or Sun Honglei!

Why are there so many people around Luo Zhaohan? She should belong to him!

She is his!

It's his wife!

Why, after he was reborn, did he become a rare treasure pursued by these men whom he looked down upon?

How has she changed? Or are these men blind?

The cold wind, carrying snow particles, hit his face. Instead of waking him up, it added fuel to the fire, making the bottom of his eyes slightly red.

No matter whether it is Pei Ji or Sun Honglei, no matter who of them finally marries Luo Zhaohan, the one who will find it hardest to accept and who will secretly make trouble will probably not be him, Xie Wuqi.

It was the Prince of Jin who also coveted the military power of the Fuyuan General's Mansion.

How could the King of Jin allow Luo Zhaohan to take that military power that could stir up trouble and fall into the hands of others?

These two people... are not good enough.

Xie Wuqi slowly loosened his tightly clenched fingers, leaving several deep crescent marks on his palms.

A cold smile slowly appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Luo Zhaohan...

After all the fuss she had made, she should finally marry him, Xie Wuqi.

Just right.

It also saves him the trouble of planning other methods.

That plan from the previous life.

It seems that God wants him to use it again.

…

On a winter morning, the villa outside Beijing was still shrouded in a cold silence, with remnant snow hanging on the dead branches.

A galloping horse emitting thick white mist neighed and broke open the gate. Xie Wuqi dismounted, threw the reins to the frightened servant who came towards him, strode through the courtyard covered with a thin layer of frost, and walked straight to the warm room in the east wing.

Liu Yueli had just gotten up and was being helped by a maid to wash and dress, with her black hair loose.

Hearing the noise, she saw Xie Wuqi coming in through the carved wooden partition, with a cold air. However, his face did not have the gloomy and irritable look when he left the house yesterday. Instead, there was a strange excitement in his face.

"Xie Lang is back? Is everything going well?" Liu Yueli turned around, her voice lazily as if she had just woken up, but her eyes were observing him sharply.

Xie Wuqi didn't say anything, his eyes swept over the polished pink jade vase next to her dressing table, which was empty.

He raised his hand and casually inserted a branch of wintersweet, which was covered with snow beads and cold fragrance and was picked from the plum forest in the imperial garden, into the mouth of the bottle.

The wintersweet branch stands somewhat lonely in the empty bottle, and the golden buds slowly open in the warm fragrance indoors, emitting a refreshing aroma.

Liu Yueli's gaze swept across the flower and then fell back on Xie Wuqi's face, which could not hide his excitement.

Although he didn't mention Luo Zhaohan explicitly, looking at his confident and relieved expression, it must have been done!

Xie Wuqi's move to frame Luo Zhaohan and ruin his reputation was successful!

A huge stone fell from her heart, but it was immediately filled with stronger ambitions and calculations.

The stumbling block of Luo Zhaohan is about to be removed, so the next step is to take advantage of Xie Wuqi's complacency and consolidate his own status as soon as possible.

After all, it is not right for him to stay in the villa. We must strike while the iron is hot and let him go back to the mansion to make trouble.

"Thank you for your hard work, my dear. The flowers are in full bloom." Liu Yueli walked forward, stretched out her nail-stained fingertips, and gently stroked the petals of a newly opened wintersweet flower. As her eyes moved, she had already made up her mind.

Xie Wuqi glanced at her, and seeing her self-satisfied look, he snorted lightly from his nose without making any comment.

His mind was full of how Sun Honglei was rejected by Luo Zhaohan, and how he cleverly guided Sun Honglei's shame and anger into another more sinister revenge plan against Luo Zhaohan. He was too lazy to mention any of these dirty details to the woman.

He walked straight into the inner room and kicked off his riding boots. "I'm tired. Let me sleep a little longer."

The figure disappeared behind the partition.

Liu Yueli stood in the warm room, pinching the tender petals with her fingertips, the smile on the corners of her lips deepened, as if she had already seen the position of the hostess of the Xie Mansion waving to her.

The remaining candle on the windowsill flickered for the last time, and finally went out with a "puff".

…

The morning light was just beginning to shine, illuminating the snow covering the double eaves of the palace into a soft pale gold.

It was quiet in Zhuoming Pavilion. Only the burning silver charcoal in the bronze tripod in the corridor occasionally made a slight "crackling" sound, keeping the room warm.

Pei Ji had actually woken up a long time ago, but he was just leaning on the pillow with his eyes closed to rest.

Very light footsteps sounded outside the door, with cautious tentativeness, and then stopped at the door.

Then, there was the creaking sound of the door hinge being forced to a minimum.

A narrow slit of light came in, and a small figure in an apricot-yellow palace cotton robe tiptoed in like a frightened little rabbit.

It was the emperor’s grandson Chao Yunye.

He closed the door carefully, turned around, and seemed to want to walk lightly to Pei Ji's bedside. When he raised his eyes, he was met with a pair of deep and calm eyes.

Pei Ji had opened his eyes at some point and was looking at him quietly.

Chao Yunye froze in place like a startled deer. His lips trembled slightly, and his clear eyes were filled with confusion, shame, and guilt.

What’s even worse is that the bruises under his eyes are very obvious, obviously he didn’t sleep all night.

"Sir..." Chao Yunye called out in a hoarse voice, his small body trembling uncontrollably, almost crying, "Sir... Yunye..." He seemed to want to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat and he couldn't spit them out for a long time.

Pei Ji's heart suddenly tightened, as if he was scalded by boiling iron.

Looking at him like this, and thinking about the determination deep in the Crown Princess's eyes yesterday...this kid already knows everything.

Princess, this mother is indeed courageous!

Pei Ji propped himself up and sat up a little straighter, then pulled over an outer robe and put it on.

He looked calmly at the uneasy child in front of him. He did not rush to comfort him. Instead, with an extremely serious scrutiny, he slowly spoke: "Since Your Highness knows everything, then, how do you feel at this moment?"

The question is not "Are you afraid?" or "Did you cry?", but after knowing the danger and the truth, what are you, the grandson of the emperor, Chao Yunye, thinking? What are you going to do?

Chao Yunye's thin body trembled even more violently. He suddenly lowered his head, his two small hands tightly grasping the corners of his apricot-colored robe, his knuckles white from pinching.

He didn't answer immediately, as if he was trying hard to suppress something. After a while, he suddenly raised his head.

That tender little face was already covered with tears, which rolled down in big drops, hitting the front of his clothes and leaving dark marks.

But he didn't cry like an ordinary child. Instead, he sniffed hard, raised his hand and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, trying to force back the tears.

"Sir..." His voice was trembling and nasal, "Yunye understands! Why is mother always so tired... Why can't she sleep..."

"I understand why the teacher wants to teach Yunye so many seemingly difficult things, and why he wants to stand in front of Yunye..."

His chest heaved violently, his face was wet, but his eyes grew brighter and more determined.

"I understand Yunye can no longer just be an ignorant child protected in the palace, knowing nothing!"

He wiped his face vigorously again and raised his voice:

"Yun Ye is unwilling to sit back and enjoy the fruits of others' labor! Let Mother and Master struggle alone in danger to protect Yun Ye!"

He took another half step forward and was almost standing in front of Pei Ji's couch, his eyes looking straight at Pei Ji:

"Please sir, please stop treating Yunye like a child who can only be kept in the dark!"

"Yunye is already ten years old!"

"Sir, please allow Yunye to stand up and protect my mother and you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, big tears welled up in his eyes again uncontrollably.