Chapter 290 Nonsense!
"What are you doing?" The man glared at her, leaning back slightly, giving her a look that said, "Don't mess with me."
They were practically saying, "Get lost!"
Yao Qingling looked at him with a half-smile: "I was wondering which dish tonight had vinegar on it, why does it taste so sour? Didn't you drink wine?"
The man's face turned even redder, and he said in a gruff voice, "Yao Qingling, I'm in a bad mood."
"Yes, I see." Yao Qingling nodded. "Anything else?"
"Anything else?" Lin Shiyuan glared at her. "What else do you want?"
Qingling thought that Lin Shiyuan, who was half-drunk and half-sober, was very cute.
Indeed, a tall man with a stern face who never smiles and is ruthless to the end, a man who has killed countless people with a long knife, would never imagine that he could be associated with the word "cute".
Qingling knelt on one knee on the kang (a heated brick bed), raised her hand to hook his neck to prevent him from escaping, and quickly kissed him on the lips.
The man stiffened slightly, his face flushed as he looked at her.
His face didn't look so sour anymore.
Yao Qingling sat down next to him and said, "My carriage was damaged, and I couldn't find another one. I didn't want to ride in Prince Xin's carriage, but I reluctantly took his."
"Do you want me to come back soaked to the bone?"
Lin Shiyuan frowned and muttered something. Yao Qingling didn't hear him clearly, but guessed that he was reluctant to part with it.
She smiled and said, "Besides, I just remembered that I had something to tell him."
Lin Shiyuan's sharp gaze immediately swept over: "What is it?"
Seeing that he seemed a little out of it, Qingling worried that if she mentioned the painting, he might do something rash in a moment of passion.
He shook his head: "It's nothing important. The Lady of Xincheng told me that she rejected the Grand Princess's offer of marriage. The Grand Princess didn't look at me well today. She probably realized that I've sided with the Empress and is taking it out on me."
Lin Shiyuan frowned slightly: "You really are everywhere."
She could be linked to the breakdown of those two marriage alliances.
Qingling was also helpless. This was clearly Zhou Zhining's fault, and they should be blamed instead.
“...The Grand Princess was always certain that I could return to the Duke’s mansion. Moreover, I had used the Grand Princess to protect me and Zhao’er. But looking back, I realized that I had only used her as a stepping stone to board someone else’s ship, so it’s understandable that she was angry.”
Yao Qingling does not shy away from admitting her despicable nature.
But the Grand Princess had also used her, so Qingling had no reason to feel guilty towards the Grand Princess.
She shouldn't just be a pushover, someone who gets used and then just accepts her bad luck.
She didn't want to only try to please others, even if that pleasing did her no good.
If someone takes what they want from her, then it's fair for her to take what she wants from that person.
Lin Shiyuan was still very wary of Princess Deyang.
Throughout the entire court, the power of the Duke of Zhan's mansion was immense and should not be underestimated.
Just as Lin Shiyuan was lost in thought about Princess Deyang, he suddenly felt someone doing something to his neck.
He looked down and saw that Yao Qingling had put a collar around his neck.
It is made of gold and inlaid with jade, and has a longevity lock hanging on it.
"What is this?" No matter how Lin Shiyuan looked at it, he couldn't believe that this was a New Year's gift from Yao Qingling.
Qingling said, "It was a gift from Her Majesty the Empress to Zhao'er."
Lin Shiyuan raised his hand to take it off: "Nonsense."
It's indecent to put a child's things around his neck!
He was a great general who commanded 100,000 troops and had countless lives on his hands!
Qingling pressed down on his hand, preventing him from taking it off. She picked up the longevity lock with her other hand and played with it, saying, "This necklace is too big. Zhao'er is still too young to wear it."
Such collars could be worn by teenage boys. However, they were worn by pampered boys in aristocratic families.
Empress Zhou bestowed this bracelet upon Qingling solely because of its value, to demonstrate her high regard for her.
For Zhao'er, it was simply a matter of her son gaining status because of his mother.
Qingling said, "I want to see what Zhao'er will look like wearing this necklace when she grows up."
She looked at Lin Shiyuan.
They were not father and son, but Lin Shiyuan had a handsome face, and the collar did not make him look effeminate; it only softened his hard features and gave him a childlike innocence.
"Lin Shiyuan, did you have this kind of collar before?"
What she really wanted to ask was how his parents treated him when he was a child.
She had never heard Lin Shiyuan mention his parents; she only knew that his parents had died early and that he and Lin Qiao depended on each other for survival.
No one is born a butcher. What was it that eroded his innocence, leaving only murderous intent in his eyes?
Lin Shiyuan glanced down at the necklace, his brows furrowing slightly, as if he was unwilling to bring it up.
He said, "Yes, I have."
"He became a soldier guarding the city gate?" Qingling asked in confusion, but then she thought that he must have been unable to make a living if he had to become a soldier guarding the city gate in order to raise Lin Qiao.
Seeing his somber expression, Qingling didn't ask any further questions.
She then asked, "I heard that Empress Zhou wants to bestow a marriage upon you. What are your thoughts on that? I couldn't hear what you were saying at the banquet."
Lin Shiyuan snorted, took off the collar and stuffed it back into Qingling's hand, saying, "What could I possibly be thinking?"
Taking advantage of Qingling's unpreparedness, he grabbed her and pressed her onto his lap.
His large hands encircled her waist, and his burning lips pressed against hers, lingering for a long time before stopping.
As she gasped for breath and desperately needed to catch her breath, he said in a low, hoarse voice, "Yao Qingling, you know perfectly well that the only person I want to marry is you."
Qingling's mind was spinning, and her eyes were filled with tears.
Hearing the man's words, her heart melted, and she almost nodded and said she would marry him, but her rationality had not completely disappeared.
After a while, once she had caught her breath, she dared not provoke him any further. She moved to the side, leaned against the low table, and poured herself a cup of tea.
He gulped it down in just a few mouthfuls.
Pour another glass and hand it to him.
The man took the glass and sipped from the rim of the cup she had just drunk from.
Yao Qingling watched him finish his water and said, "You drank quite a bit tonight; you smell strongly of alcohol."
Lin Shiyuan ignored her complaints.
He closed his eyes, leaned against the cushion, and tried to calm the surging blood in his body.
Qingling got up, put the necklace in the box, then turned to the cabinet and put it in along with the set of gemstone jewelry.
In the spacious room, there were her light footsteps and the soft sounds of her movements.
Lin Shiyuan watched her walk around with half-closed eyes. The room was warm and cozy, making one feel that this was home.
After a busy day, chatting by candlelight is a comfortable and pleasant experience.
Qingling walked back and sat on the edge of the kang. She said, "Even if Empress Zhou's suggestion is unsuccessful, there will still be many prestigious families who want you as their son-in-law."
Lin Shiyuan scoffed dismissively: "I come from a poor family, do you think they would even look up to me? Ha, they'd be running away from me like the plague."
His reputation as a butcher, coupled with the ruthless methods he used in this investigation, has stained his hands with even more blood.
He was notorious among the nobility, and he also incurred a lot of criticism from the common people for "persecuting" Yao Qingling.
Those powerful families are too afraid of him to dare to invite this plague into their homes.
Yao Qingling said, "Just considering how much the Emperor values you, it's not a big problem. Besides, for these powerful clans, all they need to do is send out a concubine's daughter to marry you, and that would be a great favor for you, a military general from a humble background."
In powerful and influential families, the descendants, men and women, are countless. Every marriage is a pawn in expanding and consolidating the family's power.
Otherwise, how could we say that the veins beneath the walls of the imperial city are intertwined, powerful, and deeply rooted?
Lin Shiyuan's face darkened, and he snorted coldly: "What a load of bull! I don't care to get involved with these people."
His tone was very bad, almost hateful.
Qingling glanced at him; his reaction was too much.
Qingling didn't ask for the reason for the time being, and said, "The Emperor values you highly, and perhaps he will bestow a marriage upon you soon."
When the emperor bestows marriages upon his subjects, it is also a way to win their hearts and minds through favors.
Emperor Jingyan would not casually allow Lin Shiyuan to become the son-in-law of any prominent family.
He wouldn't allow the knives he sharpened to be possessed and used by others.
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