Qiao Zhen held Lu Yuanchuan's hand in one hand and a candied hawthorn in the other. She ate the candied hawthorn with a big smile, feeling extremely satisfied.
It's probably human nature to think that things we want but can't get are precious at first, and we feel very satisfied when we finally get them. Thinking about it, I even have the illusion that Lu Yuanchuan is playing hard to get.
Xu Ruankuang silently followed behind Lu Yuanchuan and Qiao Zhen with the sugar figurine in hand. Whenever Lu Yuanchuan turned around, Xu Ruankuang would bury his head deeply.
Qiao Zhen noticed that Lu Yuanchuan was turning around quite frequently, so when she turned around by chance, she caught Xu Ruankuang looking down. She struggled for a moment, then let go of Lu Yuanchuan's hand. "Chuanchuan, I'm going to say a few words to A-Kuang."
After she finished speaking, she turned and ran towards Xu Ruankuang, completely ignoring Lu Yuanchuan's outstretched hand that missed her.
Lu Yuanchuan silently curled his fingers and then withdrew his outstretched arm.
Qiao Zhen ran to Xu Ruankuang's side and then led him to the lakeside. "Ah Kuang, I know you're very good to me, but you need to have your own life. You are now a general of Qi Kingdom. You can marry and have children, instead of living around me. I have Lu Yuanchuan, and I can't selfishly watch you be all alone."
Xu Ruankuang handed the sugar figurine to Qiao Zhen, his smile tinged with bitterness. "Princess, ever since I was old enough to understand, my father has told me that I must protect you. I have been protecting you since I was twelve, and now I am twenty-five. I have been by your side for thirteen years. If you no longer need me, I have nothing to hold me back."
Qiao Zhen looked at Xu Ruan Kuang with a hint of heartache. He was using Xu Li's face, and she had even taken away his original name. Since she was already a scumbag, she couldn't erase the fact that she was now, and she really didn't want to hurt this honest man anymore. "Kuang, you have great talent and ambition. Do you see the prosperity of Yu Lake? You are now the top general of the Three Kingdoms. You are still young, and you have a bright future ahead of you. Before, you had no worries because you were constrained. Now that those constraints are broken, your life shouldn't only revolve around me."
Xu Ruankuang still held up the sugar figurine, saying, "I will."
Qiao Zhen took the sugar figurine. If Xu Ruan Kuang were a little more malicious, she could have confidently criticized him. But Xu Ruan Kuang acted so humbly that it made her even more sympathetic. "Thank you for the sugar figurine. I'm going to go shopping across the street with Lu Yuanchuan. You can think carefully about what I just said."
"Mm," Xu Ruankuang replied softly. Actually, he didn't care what Qiao Zhen wanted; he would do whatever Qiao Zhen asked. But he didn't want to burden Qiao Zhen with his actions based on "listening to Qiao Zhen."
Qiao Zhen didn't think that far ahead, assuming that Xu Ruan Kuang had taken her advice, so she turned around and went to find Lu Yuan Chuan.
Lu Yuanchuan stood in the same spot as before, his tall figure somewhat aloof. He lowered his brows and looked at the boats on Yu Lake, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
Qiao Zhen stepped forward and handed the candied hawthorn to Lu Yuanchuan, then took his hand and followed him as they walked aimlessly along the lake. "Chuanchuan, didn't I call his name when I was sleeping? It's because I've always been closest to him since I was little. My mother was injured when she gave birth to me, and my father didn't want to take any more concubines. I was the only princess in Li Kingdom, and there were no princes. He protected me since I was little, and no matter what bad things I did, he always took the blame for me."
“Once, when I sneaked into a brothel, my father was so angry that he wanted to beat me. My mother couldn’t stop him. In the end, he took the blame himself and was beaten dozens of times before my father calmed down.”
These were all things Qiao Zhen had dug up from the original owner's memories. "Chuan Chuan, I can't change what happened in the past. If you care about it, I don't know what to do to make you not care. I just treat him as my brother."
Lu Yuanchuan placed the candied hawthorn near Qiao Zhen's mouth and fed her a bite, without responding to anything.
Actually, when Qiao Zhen said her last sentence, he was no longer as concerned as before.
The two strolled around Yuhu Lake for a while, and then Qiao Zhen pulled Lu Yuanchuan to buy paper flower boats from a roadside vendor.
She placed a paper boat in front of Lu Yuanchuan. "How about this? It's a round little tiger. I can also use a little rabbit; they're such a perfect match."
Lu Yuanchuan couldn't see what Qiao Zhen meant by being a good match, but comparing people by analogy, he and Qiao Zhen were also a good match, so he didn't think about it further. "Hmm."
He took out a few copper coins to pay.
Qiao Zhen looked at the copper coin in Lu Yuanchuan's hand and said with curiosity, "I thought you'd be carrying big silver bars. When you were buying things, the vendors didn't have change, and you said confidently, 'Keep the change!'"
Lu Yuanchuan's gaze followed Qiao Zhen's, his eyes filled with a hint of helplessness, but he did not refute her.
Qiao Zhen and Lu Yuanchuan played until night, and their relationship slowly improved. People started launching flower boats on Yu Lake, and she dragged Lu Yuanchuan to join in the fun.
She stood on a large rock by the lake. "Chuan Chuan, look how beautiful this is!"
Lu Yuanchuan also looked down at the paper boat with candles inside. He was two heads taller than Qiao Zhen, so he could clearly see that the paper boats where Qiao Zhen was standing formed the character "珠" (zhu, meaning pearl), and the place where Qiao Zhen was standing connected the radical and component of the character "珠".
Qiao Zhen noticed Lu Yuanchuan staring at the paper flower boat beside her, and she subconsciously looked up as well. She circled around several times before finally noticing the character for "pearl." Qiao Zhen exclaimed in surprise, "Look, there's a 'pearl' here!"
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