Shu Yun held the light, fluttering red paper, trying not to let it be blown away by the biting winter wind. She lowered her eyelashes and read it word by word.

"Thank you, Fu and Shuyun, may we be forever friends, our love as harmonious as the zither, and may we support each other through thick and thin, through life and death..."

Xie Fu rested his chin on her head, gently stroking her soft hair, his voice deep and tinged with amusement, "Do you like it?"

Shu Yun carefully held one corner of the marriage compatibility chart, not daring to use too much force, afraid of wrinkling it.

She felt that her facial expression must be extremely relaxed now, and the wrinkled heart in her chest for thousands of years seemed to have suddenly unfolded because of this light red paper.

Without any reason.

For a long time, she stood in that lofty position, caught between the Demon Realm and the Nine Heavens, unable to move. Given her status and identity, any slight movement could be over-interpreted by the Demon Realm and the Nine Heavens.

She seemed to always have a string taut in her heart, tightly bound by something, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but she dared not relax for a moment.

But after finding Jiang Yan, during the days she spent with him in the mortal realm, she felt the shackles binding her slowly loosening. Those things she had always valued highly and treated with utmost seriousness seemed to be nothing more than pressure she had put on herself.

Shu Yun held the marriage compatibility chart in her hands and lifted it up. The cold wind immediately blew up the bottom edge of the red paper, so she had to hold one side with each hand in order to unfold the paper.

Seeing her turning the paper over and over again, Xie Fu smiled and said, "You like it that much?"

Shu Yun responded softly, then carefully folded the red paper and added, "I like it."

Xie Fu released her, turned her to face him, looked at her with a pair of deep, beautiful black eyes, and said slowly, "What about mine?"

Shu Yun stuffed the marriage compatibility chart into her sleeve, but after thinking about it, she felt it wasn't quite right. What if it fell out of her sleeve? So she took the folded marriage compatibility chart out of her sleeve and held it in her hand.

It's safer to hold it in your hand. She was thinking about this and didn't hear what Xie Fu was saying.

Shu Yun looked up. "What did you say?"

Seeing her preoccupied with how to keep the marriage compatibility chart, Xie Fu couldn't resist leaning over and kissing her. Then he repeated what he had just said in her ear, "I said, when are you going to give me mine?"

Shu Yun was taken aback, "A marriage compatibility chart?"

Xie Fu: "Mm."

"..." Shu Yun looked up at him, hesitated, and said, "I didn't write it."

Xie Fu glanced at her but didn't say anything.

Shu Yun held the red paper in her hand. "I don't know your local customs."

Xie Fu lowered his eyes, "What are the customs like where you live?"

"Where we live..."

Shu Yun carefully recalled the immortal couples who formed celestial unions in Penglai. It seemed there were no ceremonies involved. Thinking back to her parents, it seemed they had also gotten together simply because they liked each other.

These long-lived deities dislike constraints the most, so everything is very simple for them. In the human world, however, a person's lifespan can be seen with the naked eye, lasting only a few decades, yet people hold grand and complicated ceremonies to signify that two people are to be married.

Perhaps it is because mortals have short lifespans, and their lifetime is so short, that they can easily make oaths to each other, unlike the gods in heaven whose words are law and who do not easily form contracts.

From Xie Fu's perspective, he could see her smooth, fair forehead and her long, fluttering eyelashes. She remained silent for a long time.

After a moment of silence, Xie Fu said, "If you don't have it, then forget it..."

Shu Yun suddenly looked up. "I remember now."

She curved her lips into a smile, and as she spoke, her eyes shone with tenderness. "Where we come from, when a couple gets married, they swear an oath to the mountains and rivers."

Xie Fu looked at her, slowing his speech, "Mountains and rivers?"

Shu Yun nodded, "We have great respect for the ancient gods who created the world. All the mountains and rivers in the world today are the transformations of the bodies of the ancient gods. When we swear an oath to the mountains and rivers, we are also swearing an oath to all the ancient gods."

Xie Fu's eyes were dark, and he curled his lips into a smile. "That sounds quite novel."

“However,” he paused, “now that you’ve arrived in Xiliang, you must follow the rules of Xiliang. You can’t escape this marriage compatibility chart.”

Shu Yun retorted softly, "I didn't mean to run away..."

"Young Master".

A person dressed as a guard came out from behind the two and bowed to them, saying, "Princess Consort."

"Get up," Xie Fu raised his chin. "What is it?"

"Young Master Qin Fanlan of the Qin family has sent you an invitation, inviting you to a meeting this afternoon."

The Qin family?

Shu Yun's eyelashes trembled. She had been in Xiliang for quite some time now, and her understanding of the situation there was much better than when she first arrived, when she was completely clueless.

Compared to the Wan family, which outwardly remained respectful to the Xie family, the Qin family's attitude towards the Xie family was much more perfunctory. At least, Qin Fanlan, the young master of the Qin family, did not show the same fear and respect that ordinary noble families would show Xie Fu on many occasions.

Xie Fu: "What's the reason given in the post?"

The guard said, "They said they invited you and the young masters from various noble families... to get together again before your wedding. After that, it might be... inconvenient to invite you."

Shu Yun understood; this meant that Xie Fucheng was bound by the marriage contract after marriage and could no longer conveniently visit brothels.

Xie Fu seemed completely unconcerned about the teasing undertones in Qin Fanlan's words. He looked down at Shu Yun and asked, "Can I go this time?"

When the two had their last disagreement, Shu Yun had already made it clear to him that she wouldn't stop him from going to any gatherings. For some reason, when things came to this again, he asked her again.

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