Chapter 11
Zheng Yingluo was speechless after Song Lingxi's remark. Sensing something was wrong, she turned around and saw Qin Heng standing not far away. The red light of the palace lanterns shone on him, and his expression was cold and indifferent, as if he were watching a joke.
She was stunned, and stammered, "Aheng..."
Seeing everyone's gaze fall on him, Qin Heng stepped out from behind the pillar, a slight smile playing on his lips as he spoke to Zheng Yingluo with a reassuring tone: "It's a bit cold outside, why are you all standing here? Why don't you go back inside and sit down? You've just been sick, why are you still so careless about your health, lest you get sick again?"
Zheng Yingluo felt a little lighter. Qin Heng was still on her side. After all, Qin Heng had been deeply in love with her for so many years. In his previous life, he had not married for ten years. How could a little girl like Song Lingxi have managed to seduce him?
Men are all fickle, but Ah Heng has always been devoted to her. No one can take Ah Heng away in this life, and she will never let Ah Heng down.
Zheng Yingluo shook her head and said coquettishly, "It's boring inside the palace, and no one talks to me. It's cold outside, but you're here."
Qin Heng shook his head helplessly, then turned to Song Lingxi and politely greeted her: "Miss Song, you truly deserve the title of talented woman. Yingluo is straightforward, so please don't take it to heart. I apologize on her behalf."
Song Lingxi quickly shook her head: "It's alright. I was just too anxious. Sister Zheng, please don't take it to heart. It's just that I didn't intentionally take someone else's poem today. Sister Zheng has misunderstood."
Zheng Yingluo pursed her lips but didn't say much. She just followed Qin Heng and urged him in a low voice, "Let's go for a walk in the Imperial Garden. His Majesty specially allowed us to enter today. I heard from the palace servants that there are many exquisite palace lanterns hanging in the garden."
Qin Heng nodded, then turned and accompanied Zheng Yingluo down the steps.
Watching the two figures walk away, Song Lingxi was still conflicted. What exactly were Qin Heng's feelings for Zheng Yingluo? The book only described their daily life, but the comments below were like sharp eyes, meticulously digging out all sorts of details, only proving that Qin Heng's feelings for Zheng Yingluo after his rebirth were just ordinary. He was only coaxing her because of the Zheng family's rising power behind her, and using that power to seize the Qin family's title.
Song Lingxi firmly believed in this argument, but seeing how they interacted now, she couldn't help but wonder if Qin Heng's feelings for Zheng Yingluo could really be true love.
She returned to the palace just as the Hu envoy, Wushilantuo, came to toast the Empress. Looking at the ladies in the room, he made a boastful remark: "Princess Yuxiu is beautiful and charming. Her marriage to our King is a match made in heaven, truly enviable. I have come to the Great Sheng Dynasty this time. I wonder if Your Majesty could also act as my matchmaker?"
The Empress frowned slightly for a moment before smiling and saying, "I am naturally pleased that the envoy has such intentions. It just so happens that the Shangsi Festival is coming up in a few days. I have prepared a flower-viewing banquet at Pingshan Garden and look forward to the envoy's arrival. Whether it will be successful or not depends on fate. However, the women of my dynasty are naturally reserved, which is quite different from the customs of your country. I hope the envoy will be understanding."
Regardless of the expressions of the others in the hall, Wu Shilantuo laughed heartily and said in a phrase of the official language of the Sheng Dynasty that he had recently learned, "I would certainly not be disrespectful to the beauty. Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Song Lingxi had an idea. She had almost forgotten about this Hu envoy. If there was anyone a noble lady was most afraid of being associated with, it would definitely be a Hu person. There was Princess Yuxiu, who was sent to marry a foreign ruler, and half a year later, her fate was still unknown. This time, the envoy came to ask for a marriage alliance. It was just a matter of which lady would be unlucky enough to be chosen.
What if she, like a butterfly, gently flapped her wings and Xie Qinghong was chosen?
After the banquet, everyone went home. Xie Qinghong couldn't resist the urge to sleep and went to bed early, but she slept very restlessly. She dreamed again of the day Zheng Yingluo knocked her into the water. She vaguely felt that there was light ahead in the water. The feeling of being on the verge of suffocation forced her to swim upwards, but she could not touch the surface of the water no matter what she did. She struggled in vain and only saw Qin Heng jump into the water and carefully rescue Zheng Yingluo and bring her ashore.
She often had this dream during the two weeks she was sick, but she would always wake up naturally. This time, however, she felt that she was following the light, and then the lives of Qin Heng and Zheng Yingluo were presented to her like a book.
The book describes how Zheng Yingluo was madly in love with Qin Zheng in her past life and married him as the eldest daughter-in-law of the Qin family. However, Qin Zheng did not change his philandering nature after marriage and had many female confidantes. Zheng Yingluo was advised to be magnanimous and abide by the duties of a matriarch. Qin Heng watched helplessly as the girl he admired became his sister-in-law and finally suppressed his feelings. For ten years, he focused on his career and eventually rose to the rank of one of the Three Dukes through his own efforts. Even the Qin family had to rely on his power.
However, Zheng Yingluo died of depression ten years after marrying into the Qin family, while Qin Heng died from injuries sustained abroad. The two were reborn at the same time, returning to the year they were seventeen.
When Xie Qinghong saw this, she felt it was absurd. They had fallen into the lake together, so how come they were reborn, but what about her? Was she unworthy?
She watched on, holding her breath, until she finally saw her scene. Qin Heng said he had a cinnabar mole in his heart, a mole who had once admired him in her youth, but he only had eyes for Zheng Yingluo at the time and firmly rejected her. Reborn, Qin Heng remembered that in her previous life, the mole had been married off to a distant land for political reasons, without any support and suffering a miserable fate. So he wanted to save her life. After falling into the water, he and his mother went to visit her family to propose marriage. However, Madam Xie didn't approve of him, and the two were ultimately not destined to be together.
Thus, the fate of the woman with the cinnabar mole followed the same trajectory as in her previous life, leading to a miserable marriage to a distant land.
To hell with your cinnabar mole! In my past life, I was entangled with Zheng Yingluo for ten years, and in this rebirth, instead of going to the Zheng family to propose marriage, she came looking for me. It seems her deep affection was as worthless as weeds, yet she arrogantly accused my family of being ungrateful. And Zheng Yingluo too—before her rebirth, she chased after Qin Zheng; after, she chased after Qin Heng. Doesn't she realize they're all cousins? Can a good bamboo shoot emerge from a bad bamboo?
This book must be Qin Heng's own fabrication, full of nonsense and embellishments! Xie Qinghong angrily closed the book, then woke up from her rage. Upon waking, she learned that she would soon be attending a matchmaking banquet, a matchmaking banquet prepared for the Hu envoys.
She analyzed rationally that although it was fabricated, it could also be based on reality. Thinking that she might be married off to a distant place for political reasons, Xie Qinghong finally bowed to Buddha: Buddha, this believer thinks that the Prince of Nan is really very good, a respectable person.
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