Jiang Wei twisted the handkerchief in her hand.
Xiao Zhan smiled gently, his gaze fixed on her.
"Do you have something to say to me?"
Jiang Wei bit her lip. "I've never understood why General Xiao is so good to me. Today, he almost made my maternal grandfather and the others misunderstand."
At the dinner table, she refused when Xiao Zhan served her food, but he kept doing so. She didn't dare to refuse too strongly for fear of being discovered by her maternal grandfather and the others, so she had no choice but to let him do as he pleased.
Unexpectedly, they were eventually discovered by my maternal grandfather and the others.
Jiang Wei noticed that Xiao Zhan always picked out her favorite foods for her.
She couldn't help but wonder how Xiao Zhan knew her preferences.
"What misunderstanding?" Xiao Zhan asked her with a smile.
Upon hearing the gentle breeze, Xiao Zhan learned that the Vice Minister of Rites had dared to propose marriage to the Jiang family, asking Jiang Wei to become his concubine.
He dared not wait any longer. He wanted to wait for Jiang Wei to remember him, or for her to fall in love with him. But judging from his recent interactions with Jiang Wei, she probably wouldn't fall in love with him anytime soon, and she hadn't even considered romantic feelings for him. If he waited any longer...
What else does he have to do with this...?
He dared not think about it.
Therefore, he had to stand in front of the Chen family and Jiang Wei, so that she would know his thoughts as soon as possible.
Seeing that Jiang Wei blushed and didn't say anything.
"You really don't remember me?" Xiao Zhan asked Jiang Wei, looking somewhat disappointed.
Jiang Wei looked at the disappointment on Xiao Zhan's face and asked in confusion, "What?"
Xiao Zhan sighed and took out a jade pendant from his pocket.
He clenched his fist with his palm facing down, then suddenly released it, and a black jade pendant fell from his hand.
The jade pendant landed in front of Jiang Wei.
Jiang Wei recognized the jade at a glance.
Do you still recognize it?
Jiang Wei was stunned for a moment before taking the jade pendant from Xiao Zhan's hand.
She sadly held the jade pendant in her hand, examined it for a while, and then said, "How did you come to have this jade pendant?"
Black jade is extremely rare, and Jiang Wei is very familiar with the patterns carved on it.
"How did this jade pendant end up with General Xiao?" Jiang Wei's mood dipped slightly.
"So you still remember this jade pendant?"
Jiang Wei looked up at Xiao Zhan, "This is something my mother left me, of course I remember it."
"So you just don't remember me!" Xiao Zhan said sadly, leaning back.
Jiang Wei blinked at Xiao Zhan, not quite understanding what he was saying.
Seeing Jiang Wei like this, Xiao Zhan sat up straight and said, "Never mind."
He began gently, "Who did you give this jade pendant to?"
Although Jiang Wei didn't understand why Xiao Zhan asked that, she still answered, "Someone who is very important to me."
Xiao Zhan's eyes suddenly lit up. "Important? How important?"
"Yes, he was very important, but he has passed away."
Xiao Zhan: "???"
He died on the spot?
Jiang Wei saw that Xiao Zhan didn't understand and was staring at her blankly, his expression not very good.
She seemed to be recalling the past: "When I was a child, I went to Mocheng with my grandfather and met a boy who was a few years older than me. He played with me for a few days and I found out that he was only twelve or thirteen years old and had been on the battlefield for more than a year. It was unbelievable and unimaginable that such a small figure was fighting on the battlefield."
I remember the first time I met him, his clothes were so old and worn that they didn't fit him properly, and he was quite thin. So I bought him some clothes and various foods, and gave him this jade pendant.
Jiang Wei briefly and casually told Xiao Zhan.
"Is that all? You pity him?" Xiao Zhan didn't hear a single word he wanted to hear.
Jiang Wei didn't understand why Xiao Zhan asked that question. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Of course it's not out of pity. I never saw him again after that. Once, I ran into someone on the street who was about the same height as him and wearing the same clothes I bought for him. I thought it was him, but when I got closer, I realized it wasn't him. That person told me that he had taken the clothes from a boy who was about the same age as him."
The boy had already died.
But how did this jade pendant end up in General Xiao's hands?
"So you just believed it?"
Jiang Wei felt that Xiao Zhan was acting strangely today, and stared at him with her big eyes.
"No, it wasn't that. Later I went to take a look. Although I couldn't see his face clearly anymore, the shoes he was wearing were indeed the same pair he always wore." Jiang Wei spoke calmly now. She had been heartbroken several times after learning of Xiao Zhan's death.
"I thought you didn't remember me!" Xiao Zhan felt a little relieved.
"Why should I remember you? We hadn't met before General Xiao returned to the capital." Jiang Wei looked up suddenly, staring at the jade pendant in her hand. "Could it be..."
She looked incredulous.
"When I accompanied you to play in the plum garden, you said you would take care of my food and clothing for the rest of my life."
The day I left, you gave me this jade pendant, saying you would be my wife and that I should wait for you to come and marry me.
Xiao Zhan said indignantly, "You turned around and got engaged to someone else."
Jiang Wei's heart was in turmoil, as if she had suddenly fallen into the water and was finding it difficult to breathe.
"How could this be? I saw him die with my own eyes. Did he tell you all these things? How could you possibly be my little brother?"
"Impossible. Those people said he resisted fiercely, preferring death to surrender, and in the end, he didn't even leave her a proper burial."
Later, after those people left, she secretly gave them money to find someone to collect his body. When the person pieced the body back together, she didn't dare to look and just quietly shed tears.
“That person did indeed die in my name. At that time, our food supplies were running low. The Northern Barbarians knew that I had come to Mo City to collect food, so they wanted to ambush and kill me in Mo City and take our food supplies along the way.”
Xiao Zhan did not tell him how many groups of people were trying to kill him that time.
Jiang Wei couldn't believe it, "Are you really my little brother?"
Xiao Zhan took the jade pendant back from Jiang Wei's hand. "No."
He looked into Jiang Wei's eyes and said, "To be precise, I am your fiancé, which you decided yourself."
Xiao Zhan tightened his grip on his lap, almost forgetting to breathe, as he dared not miss the changes in Jiang Wei's face.
Jiang Wei's face flushed red instantly.
She didn't dare look at Xiao Zhan and lowered her head.
After a while, Jiang Wei slowly raised her head and found that Xiao Zhan was still looking at her.
“General Xiao, I was young at the time and it was just something I said casually. Please don’t take offense.”
Xiao Zhan angrily exhaled, but didn't say anything, still staring at her.
"General Xiao is a dragon among men; he can find any kind of wife he wants. There's no need to worry about a childhood joke."
If General Xiao hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have remembered it at all.
The air inside the carriage grew chilly. Xiao Zhan said casually, "Are you kidding? It doesn't count."
Jiang Wei nodded. "Could it be that General Xiao would marry me because of a joke?"
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