124 New Year's Eve
◎ "I'm asking you about the princess?!"◎
Because she was about to meet the emperor, Xu Qinghe did not dare to wrinkle his clothes, so she leaned back and clutched the cushion on the couch.
By the time they closed their kiss, tears had already welled up in her eyes, and needless to say, her lips were red and swollen.
She gasped for breath and looked up at the man whose breathing was only slightly disordered: "You suddenly came back, is this all you do?"
"Of course not."
Wei Che moved closer, entangled the two people's breathing sounds that had been separated with great difficulty.
"I want to tell you that I have people inside and outside the mansion. Please stay here and wait for me to come back."
Xu Qinghe smiled, her eyes crooked. "Are you afraid I'll sneak away while you're gone? Why not build a cage and lock me up? That way it'll be easier and less stressful."
"I'm sorry, Qinghe, that's not what I meant." He defended anxiously.
But Xu Qinghe's expression suddenly changed: "What do you mean? Wei Che, how long have you been holding me captive in your mansion?"
Wei Che lowered his eyes, not knowing whether it was to avoid meeting her cold gaze or to hide the fragility in his own eyes.
"I'm sorry, I was just afraid you'd leave."
"You are the only one left by my side."
Are you afraid that she will leave?
After he left, Xu Qinghe looked at the void in the sky and suddenly smiled.
But she really wanted to leave him.
Leave this place that makes her feel so disgusted.
**
At the palace banquet, people toasted each other with glasses, everyone had a smile on their face, and kept saying happy new year.
It was a scene of peace and prosperity.
Since Wei Che got married, he changed his stupid nature. After entering the Honglu Temple, he secretly persuaded the third prince of Nanyi Kingdom to come to congratulate Emperor Yongshun on his birthday in March of the following year together with the three big countries of Dongyun, Xishi and Beiyao and dozens of neighboring small countries, in order to enhance the prestige of Daying Kingdom and win numerous awards from Emperor Yongshun.
Therefore, at this palace banquet, congratulations were heard everywhere around the Wei family.
Wei Che picked up his wine glass and responded to everyone around him with a smug smile on his face, but in his heart he felt more and more out of tune with this noisy and festive atmosphere.
What is that girl doing at this moment?
At this time, he must have taken a bath and was lying on the couch reading a book.
I wonder if the maids in the mansion have the tact to light a few more lamps when the princess is reading, so as not to damage her eyes.
...Maybe she didn't do anything at all and was just lying in bed sulking.
He shouldn't have made her angry when he left.
Or maybe she just took the opportunity to leave?
No, it's impossible, she can't leave.
He now has people inside and outside the Prince of Fuguo's Mansion, and they only obey his orders. It is absolutely impossible for him to let this girl go.
What's more, he has been guarding her closely these days, and she has no chance to plan with others. Even her confidant Nanzhi is under supervision.
She can't run away.
At least... he wouldn't let her leave today.
They haven't celebrated New Year's Eve together for six years.
Even though he had ruled out all possibilities in his mind, Wei Che still felt a little nervous for no reason. At this moment, someone he hated very much came up to him.
"Congratulations to Prince Wei for his rise to prominence."
The person who came was Wei Ming, who was dressed in gorgeous clothes. He said congratulations, but there was no sign of joy on his face.
Wei Che hummed lightly and raised his glass towards him without even saying a word in reply.
Wei Ming looked around and finally saw that no one was paying attention to him. He took a step closer and asked in a low voice, "What did you do to Qinghe?!"
Wei Che's expression instantly turned cold: "Lord Wei, please be careful with your words. It's better not to ask too much about people who have nothing to do with you."
Wei Ming said, "She has always been in good health. She has never been seriously ill in the five years since she entered the palace. Why would she suddenly fall ill now? I asked Princess Jing'an, and she hasn't seen Qinghe in over a month. Tell me, what happened to her?"
"Qinghe?"
Wei Che sneered, "Master Wei, you're calling my wife by her maiden name in front of me. Are you afraid I won't remember your previous engagement? But there's one thing Master Wei needs to understand. No matter what, Xu Qinghe is my wife, and will only be my wife. Master Wei, please be prudent."
Wei Ming paused for a moment, then immediately changed his tone: "The princess hasn't shown up in a few days. As his...cousin, I should say hello."
"Oh, it's my cousin." Wei Che said with a forced smile, "Don't worry, my wife just caught a cold a few days ago and is feeling lazy and doesn't want to move much. I'm sure the Queen Mother still has something important to discuss with you, so I'll take my leave now."
He glanced at the nanny walking behind Wei Ming, then turned and left.
After a long argument with the annoying person, Wei Che felt even more upset and couldn't help but think of the angry words the girl said when they had a quarrel that day.
——Xie Qi, why couldn't you let me go back then? Even if I had married into the Wei family, my situation would never be worse than it is now.
Is this really the case?
He began to wonder if he had really done something wrong. He should have let her marry into the Wei family. Only in this way could he completely extricate himself from what happened that year and no longer be in any danger.
Instead of being like now, recognizing the thief as the father together with him.
But if it really happened again, he thought, he still wouldn't want to see her marrying someone else in her wedding dress.
She can only be his wife.
No matter whether he is Wei Che or Xie Qi, she can only be his wife.
Wei Che's mind was full of thoughts. Sometimes he thought about the beauty of his youth, sometimes he recalled the five years of darkness, and sometimes he recalled this dreamlike year.
Finally, when the palace banquet was over, he was so anxious that he didn't even wait for the Wei family and rode back on horseback.
People keep lights on on New Year's Eve, so the Fenghe Courtyard is still brightly lit.
Wei Che walked quickly, forgetting what he had told her before leaving that he would go in through the window. He pushed the door open recklessly, causing it to make a "bang" sound.
There was no one sitting on the tables and chairs in the main room, nor on the soft couch in the side room. He gritted his teeth and lifted the heavy curtains of the step-out bed in the inner room.
It's so late, she must have gone to bed, she must have.
Finally, he lifted the last layer of bed curtains with trembling hands——
Still empty.
Wei Che's eyes went dark, and he barely managed to stand by holding onto the bed frame. He called out to the maid while walking around the room again and again.
——But I still couldn’t find that familiar cold figure.
She didn't get upset about his behavior when he left, nor was she dissatisfied with the noise he made when he pushed the door open just now. Instead, she simply disappeared here completely.
"Where is the princess? Where did the princess go?!" He looked at the maid who responded.
The maids in the Prince of Fuguo's Mansion all knew that Prince Wei was the kindest person in the mansion and rarely made things difficult for those of them who served him.
They rarely saw Prince Wei so angry and panicked.
"I'm asking you about the princess?!"
The little maid's legs went weak and she fell to her knees with a thud. She felt that the prince in front of her was like a majestic mountain, about to press down on her, making it hard to breathe.
"The princess... the princess..."
"——Wei Che, what are you doing to scare people?"
At this moment, the voice as sweet as pearls and jade was like a refreshing rain after a long drought, extinguishing the panic and anger in his heart.
He turned around and saw the girl coming in through the curtain. The wind outside blew her skirt and ruffled her hair.
She just stood there gracefully, with the familiar look of anger on her face.
Before the brain could react, the feet had already been lifted and put down.
He quickly rushed to her and hugged her tightly in his arms.
"Qinghe..."
Only when I could truly smell her fragrance did I feel relieved.
"What are you crazy about? Get out of here. It stinks."
Xu Qinghe waved at the frightened little maid lying on the ground and asked her to leave.
The little maid ran away.
There were only two of them left in the room.
"You're giving me a headache, let go." Xu Qinghe patted his waist.
Wei Che obediently let go.
"Okay, I'll go take a shower soon. Wait for me to come back."
——Wait for me to come back.
He seems to like saying this a lot lately.
Ever since she fell seriously ill after learning the truth, even if he just went out to get some medicine, he would tell her very solemnly, "Wait for me to come back," as if he was afraid that she would disappear in front of him if he wasn't paying attention.
Xu Qinghe thought of the change in his expression just now, from nervousness at the beginning to relief later, and felt more and more irritated. He simply threw aside the book he had just picked up and stared at the candlelight in the corridor in a daze.
A quarter of an hour later, Wei Che washed off the smell on his body and came out, and saw the girl's gaze slowly move from outside the bed to him.
When her eyes met his, he found that there was a clear lake hidden in her eyes, which was extremely beautiful.
He raised his arm and sniffed it again, making sure that he could no longer smell any trace of alcohol before walking over.
Xu Qinghe watched him walk into the inner room, and after a while he came out with a small box the size of a palm.
He opened the box, revealing a pair of red agate earrings with excellent water content.
"I promised you a pair of red agate jewelry every year for your birthday, but something unexpected happened on your birthday this year, so I have to make up for it now."
Xu Qinghe remembered that they met again on her last birthday.
At that time, she was still in the palace, and was detained by Queen Mother Wei and forced to ride in a flower car to celebrate her birthday. She encountered danger on the way, and he finally appeared and saved her.
All in all, it was a terrible birthday.
And this time, she happened to be ill, so she had no mood to celebrate.
In fact, ever since she left the Southern Territory, she has always been indifferent to birthdays, as if it was just an ordinary day to her, not even as worthy of her concern as the birthdays of her parents and deceased relatives and friends.
But whether it was her last birthday or this birthday, he never gave her a birthday gift in time.
Maybe this is God's will.
They always miss out.
It was like she finally opened up to him, but he kept his identity a secret from her.
For example, he now wants to give her all the good things, but she just wants to leave.
When she came back to her senses, Wei Che had already led her to sit in front of the dressing table.
His slender fingers brushed her ears, and two red agate earrings with a lustrous texture hung on her earlobes.
The person in the mirror had a dull expression, but his skin was fair and his eyes and eyebrows were picturesque. Even if he was just sitting there, he looked like an immortal.
The person behind her looked at her infatuatedly, the love in his eyes almost overflowing.
Xu Qinghe thought, since he likes her so much, why not let her go.
In the following days, the Prince of Fuguo's Mansion was filled with a festive atmosphere. Xu Qinghe either stayed in the small courtyard and did not go anywhere, or was accompanied by Wei Che for outings.
I don’t know how Wei Che told the people outside, but no one has come to disturb her in more than a month.
On the ninth day of the first lunar month, heavy snow fell from the sky, and she and Wei Che did not go out again.
Xu Qinghe was wrapped in a blanket and sitting on the couch next to the fumigation cage. She turned her head to look at the chirping birds outside the window, watching them jumping on the dry branches.
“…It will be over soon.”
After the Lantern Festival, she will be free.
【Author’s words】
Bug fixing and plot modification
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