Chapter 86
The curtains were not drawn tightly, and cold wind blew in, causing the candle on the table to flicker and almost go out, and the entire tent became dim and bright.
Xie Zheng tapped his fingertips on the table a few times in a somewhat anxious manner. His handsome face was cut into flickering light and shadow by the flickering candlelight, and his eyes became increasingly darker and unclear: "Are you blaming me for keeping it a secret from you this time?"
Fan Changyu was about to speak when the candles in the tent were completely extinguished by the cold wind, and the entire tent was instantly plunged into darkness.
The words on her lips became: "I'll go light the candlesticks first."
When she stood up, she was grabbed by someone's hand. The force was not too strong, but it made it impossible for her to escape.
Xie Zheng's deep voice echoed in the darkness: "I told you before that I have a very powerful enemy. I almost died at his hands last time because there was a traitor in the army. He rashly dragged you two sisters into this. I'm afraid he would attack you. The more people who know about it, the more dangerous it is. That's why I took advantage of the situation and hid it from you after you mistook me for a small soldier in the army."
He paused at this point, "There is one more thing I have to apologize to you for. Your sister was kidnapped by thieves who mistook her for my Xie family."
When Fan Changyu heard Xie Qi mention this matter before, he had already guessed that the robbery in Changning was probably related to Xie Zheng. But after hearing what Xie Zheng said, he was still stunned for a moment.
A simple awning was built on a three-legged elevated brazier used for lighting outside the tent. With the light from the fire outside, everything inside the tent could be vaguely seen.
Xie Zheng saw the expression on Fan Changyu's face clearly and said, "You also recognize the man who kidnapped Changning. He is the rebel who pretended to be a grain-collecting officer and incited the mob to siege the city. He is Sui Yuanqing, the prince of Changxin."
Now Fan Changyu was really dumbfounded, that idiot turned out to be the traitor prince!
Her wide almond-shaped eyes were like a piece of amber. When her gaze turned to Xie Zheng, Xie Zheng's eyes dimmed slightly.
She asked, "The wound on your chest was caused by him when you rescued Changning?"
Xie Zheng's handsome eyebrows wrinkled slightly, not wanting to admit that he was injured by Sui Yuanqing and had been lying in bed for so many days. He released the hand that was holding Fan Changyu and said, "I captured him alive."
If Fan Changyu had listened to what Xie Qi said before, he would have felt quite guilty about Chang Ning's misfortune, thinking that he and Xie Zheng were too close and that this was the reason why she was harmed. But now that he understood the whole story, he felt even more mixed emotions.
If she had not made a feud with that idiot in order to save Qingping County, he would not have run to her house to seek revenge.
If he hadn't gone to her house to seek revenge, he wouldn't have seen the painting. If he hadn't seen the painting, he wouldn't have recognized Yan Zheng, and he wouldn't have kidnapped Chang Ning and used it to threaten Yan Zheng.
Unfortunately, there is no if, and even if she had the chance to do it all over again, she would probably still choose to kidnap the person to save Qingping County. But this time she would be more swift and kill the traitor with one knife.
Fan Changyu was silent for two breaths, and after calming down, he said: "The kidnapping of Changning is not entirely your fault. I am also responsible. Moreover, you were injured like that in order to save Changning. You don't owe me anything anymore, and you don't need to apologize to me. As for you lying to me in the mountains..."
She paused and continued, "You are thinking about us two sisters. I have no reason to blame you."
Her uncharacteristic calmness made Xie Zheng's brows even more restless. He could vaguely guess what she would say next. Just thinking about it made him unable to suppress the dark anger that was surging in his heart.
He put a hand on his forehead and tried to suppress the irritability in his heart: "When you say talk, do you mean you want to say something about breaking up with me again?"
Fan Changyu choked slightly, thinking that they didn't tell him how many times, and he had pretended to be a guest before, and that was also agreed in advance.
She said honestly: "We have never been together, so this can't be considered a breakup."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt the aura of the person next to him suddenly become fierce, and Fan Changyu's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
Xie Zheng slowly raised his eyelids and asked her, "Have you never been together?"
Fan Changyu met his oppressive gaze with a gentle but firm look: "If you are talking about those days in Qingping County, you pretended to marry me at that time, and we had an agreement beforehand. Besides, you used a fake name, and there is no such person as Yan Zheng in the world. That marriage certificate is useless, and we can't be together."
Xie Zheng didn't look at her again. When he lowered his eyes, his dark eyelashes looked like the folded wings of a black crow. "Then why did you come to me? Why did you ask me to go back with you? And you even took the initiative to go to the battlefield for me?"
The corners of his lips curled up, and his smile was cold.
Fan Changyu looked at him, her eyes gradually softening, but behind that gentleness, there seemed to be something stronger supporting her. She said, "Because you were Yan Zheng at that time."
Xie Zheng's usually cold and arrogant eyes showed a trace of confusion. He said in a hoarse voice, "Isn't that me too?"
Fan Changyu said, "You haven't changed, but what you represent has changed. You are Yan Zhengshi, and that's just you. You are Marquis Wu'an, and that's more than just you. You are a great hero admired by the whole world, and the only son of General Xie. The one who is worthy of the Marquis should be the kind of girl that the Marquis once said is gentle, virtuous, and good at managing the household. I don't have much knowledge, I only know a few words, let alone playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, and painting, I haven't even read all the Four Books, so I'm naturally not worthy of being the Marquis's wife, but my parents gave birth to me, and I can't despise myself and become someone else's concubine."
Xie Zheng stared at her with his dark eyes: "How do you know that I don't want to marry you?"
Fan Changyu was stunned by his words.
What a joke! If the famous Marquis Wu'an married a pig-killing girl, everyone in the world would laugh their heads off, right?
She panicked for a moment and said, "Don't talk nonsense..."
Xie Zheng interrupted her coldly: "Do you think this is nonsense?"
Fan Changyu frowned and said, "Those who marry daughters from low-class families, at best, are just rich ladies marrying poor scholars. Have you ever seen a princess marrying a poor scholar? Even if a princess is poor, she will marry a newly crowned top scholar. It would have been fine if I didn't know your identity before, but now that I know your identity, I can't take those words seriously anymore."
She still has this self-awareness.
When Xie Zheng heard her compare himself to a princess, veins on his forehead jumped. When he heard her say the following, he sneered angrily: "The emperor has the final say on who a princess should marry. I have the final say on who I should marry."
He lowered his eyes and looked at Fan Changyu: "I am the Marquis of Wu'an, so what? I haven't grown three heads and six arms to eat you alive, so I scared you to this extent."
Fan Changyu was shocked by his words and felt a little confused. After a while, he said, "Let me tell you a story. When I was a child, there was a tofu lady in the town. Although she lost her husband early, she was hardworking and managed the tofu stall alone. She lived a prosperous life. In addition, she was beautiful, so many men sent people to propose marriage to her, but she didn't like any of them. Later, a young man from a wealthy family in the county came to Lin'an Town with his friends. When he saw her, he was so distracted that he went to buy tofu from the tofu lady every few days. After a few visits, the two became familiar with each other. The young man was not a frivolous playboy. He always treated the tofu lady with courtesy. Later, he even told his family that he wanted to marry her."
Xie Zheng could probably guess the ending of her story, and said coldly: "Don't compare me with others."
Fan Changyu did not answer, but continued to tell the story: "How could the family of the official agree to let their son marry a widow? The old lady and the dowager lady in the mansion were so angry that they became sick. They also locked up the young man and ordered the bully to smash the stall of Tofu Lady. During that period, the whole town was full of gossip about Tofu Lady. Everyone thought that she and the young man had broken up, but who knew that the young man would go on a hunger strike. The official's family loved their son and finally agreed to the marriage, but only allowed Tofu Lady to be a concubine. Tofu Lady married a second time, and she married a wealthy family. She didn't expect to be the main wife, but just wanted the young man to be good to her. At the wedding, although it was a concubine, the ceremony was as grand as marrying a wife, with fanfare and excitement."
"Everyone in the town said that Lady Tofu was lucky and that she would enjoy a peaceful life. Whenever Lady Tofu came back to town, she would dress beautifully, but she became thinner every year. The only thing that didn't change was that there were still people who envied her, and there were also people who secretly said some unbearable gossips about her, saying that she was vulgar and shallow, not a decent woman, and that she had been flirting around after her husband died, and only married into a wealthy family after she hooked up with that young man. In the third year, Lady Tofu was driven out of the mansion, because she was from a good family. If she had been a slave, she would have been sold directly by the mansion's family."
Xie Zheng looked a little indifferent: "The man just changed his mind."
Fan Changyu said, "I used to think so too, but my mother said that people with different philosophies will eventually go their separate ways even if they get together for a while. It's like a person who chooses a piece of stubborn stone from a pile of gold, jade and gems. People will feel sorry for him. The stubborn stone will be envied and said to be unworthy. However, they don't know that the person who chooses the stubborn stone can always choose gold and jade again, but the stubborn stone will never have the opportunity to choose again. Tofu Lady is like this. When the gentleman likes her, she is better than a lady from a famous family. When the gentleman doesn't like her, she is no different from a restaurant lady or a tea lady."
Xie Zheng said coldly: "That man is weak-willed. If I have decided what I want, I will rot with me in the coffin."
As he said this, his dark eyes stared at Fan Changyu without blinking, and beneath his calm look there was a chilling cruelty.
Fan Changyu's heart skipped a beat, but when he thought of what his mother had said to him, his eyes became firm and clear again: "My mother also said that it was not only these things that brought them to this point. A person cannot get rid of his past. The fact that Mrs. Tofu was once a widow will accompany her for the rest of her life. She is not liked by the mistress and will face all kinds of scrutiny and contempt in the mansion. The rules and etiquette of a wealthy family are not something she can learn in a short time. She is suppressed by her mother-in-law, laughed at by her sisters-in-law, and even looked down upon by the servants. The inferiority complex caused by the difference in voice and status is eroding Mrs. Tofu all the time."
"The only thing she could count on was the kindness of the young master, but everyone said she was not good. Some words can make you firm in your heart after hearing them once or twice, but if someone keeps saying them in your ears for years, it is hard to guarantee that you will not be subtly influenced. The bad things that you once ignored became particularly glaring at that time. The young master was born rich. When he was starting school, Tofu Lady might have been at home helping his mother with housework; when he was drinking and chatting with friends, Tofu Lady might have been busy making tofu."
"The young master is enjoying the pleasures of life, while the tofu lady is living a normal life. The young master does not think that the tofu lady's simple cooking is a big deal, because he has a large number of servants. The tofu lady does not understand the young master's taste in poetry and painting. They are not the same kind of people, so how can they know what the other is thinking? They think they are giving the most precious things to each other, but in the eyes of the other party, it is nothing. Small contradictions accumulate over time, and when you look back, they become an insurmountable gap."
At this point, Fan Changyu finally looked up at Xie Zheng and said, "You are a great hero, and only the daughters of princes and ministers can be a good match for you. I am a butcher, and if you marry me, you will be laughed at by the world."
When Xie Zheng heard her tell such a story to politely reject him, and then heard her say that he should marry the daughter of a prince or a minister, he was so angry that he laughed and said, "What does it have to do with the people of the world if I marry a wife?"
Fan Changyu was silent for a long time before he spoke: "I thought that after I said so much, the Marquis should understand what I mean."
Her knuckles unconsciously clenched together, and she felt a dull pain in her chest. For a moment, she thought, it would be better if he was just Yan Zheng.
Separated by a case, the two stared at each other in the dim night until Xie Zheng spoke: "Do you think that everything I said to you before was also a lie?"
Fan Changyu was startled, and before he could understand what he meant, he heard him say, "I told you long ago that there is no one left in my family except me."
When he said this, his expression was even a little cold, as if he was extremely reluctant to mention anything about his family.
Fan Changyu pursed his lips and replied, "I don't think you are lying to me."
Xie Zheng smiled, with an ambiguous expression, his face was perverse and a bit hurt, but was finally suppressed by his pride: "The story you told does not apply to you and me. The Xie family still has several branches. If you marry into the family, they will only try their best to please you, and there will not be stupid people who will mock and embarrass you like in the story you told. If you are too lazy to listen to their flattery, it doesn't matter if you don't meet them. After we wipe out the rebels and kill Wei Yan, I will apply to guard the Western Frontier. You will stay with me in the fiefdom. You will not come to Beijing for ten or eight years. The noble ladies in the capital who need you to deal with can be counted on one hand. If you avoid them like this, it will be difficult for us to get together in this life."
"You are afraid of being laughed at by the world, so you think I have other options. I will ask His Majesty to grant me a marriage. As long as I don't rebel in this life, I will only stay with you. No one in this world dares to object to this marriage."
"As for your interests, I either practice martial arts or review my studies when I'm free. You have a natural talent for martial arts and you study hard. It seems like we have similar interests and there is no contradiction."
At this point, he finally stopped talking, his clear and beautiful eyes reflected the appearance of the girl, and he said slowly: "Fan Changyu, if I marry you, will you marry me?"
Maybe he had been planning his future since he realized he was attracted to her. He did not feel it was inappropriate or reckless to ask this question at this moment. He just waited in silence for the answer to be settled.
The author has something to say:
After pulling their hair all night, they finally had mouths (cat crying.jpg)
It's even later. I'll give 100 red envelopes to the kids who have been waiting for a long time as an apology QAQ~
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