The Privy Council had a new mission for him, he had to take a trip far away, and the Pei Family’s task was given to another. When he left, it was in the middle of the night, so hurried that he didn’t even get a chance to glance at the other party. By the time he returned to Shengjing, Pei Yunshu had already gotten married.
She married into Prince Wen’s Mansion.
Xiao Zhufeng, who was usually quiet and taciturn about everything, for the first time asked Yan Xu something unrelated to the mission, "Why didn’t the teacher stop it?"
What kind of man Prince Wen, Mu Sheng, was, all of Shengjing knew; Pei Yunshu marrying such a man could not foretell a good future.
"How do you know that I didn’t try to stop it?" Yan Xu replied coldly, the scar at the corner of his eye glinting dangerously in the firelight.
Originally, Pei Di wanted Pei Yunshu to enter the palace.
Pei Yunmeng was also aware of this matter, so he desperately sought the evidence left by Lady Zhao Ning’s maternal family to attempt a trade with Pei Di.
But no one knows what Pei Di said to Pei Yunshu, though it’s obvious upon reflection that the only one who could threaten Pei Yunshu was Pei Yunmeng. In any case, Pei Yunshu accepted the arrangement. She didn’t enter the palace—perhaps Pei Di also considered that a provoked Pei Yunmeng might do something from which both would suffer, so in the end, he chose a lesser option, marrying Pei Yunshu into Prince Wen’s Mansion.
Just like that, she was married off.
The girl who once wrote on a phoenix leaf, "The whole world knows of the lovers; they all understand the torments of love. The heartless do not recognize the meaning of affection; where the devoted and the indifferent finally settle, who can say?" that same girl who once had expectations for love, was now married off to a less than impressive Commandery Prince.
Xiao Zhufeng opened the poetry collection and when he saw the phoenix leaf inside, his heart felt as if it were being suffocated.
Pei Yunmeng returned to Shengjing. From initially not seeing eye to eye, to reluctantly cooperating, and then becoming partners who relied on each other, he always beat around the bush to get information from Pei Yunmeng about Pei Yunshu’s wellbeing, whether she had grown thinner, fallen sick, or suffered any grievances at Prince Wen’s Mansion.
Pei Yunmeng was shrewd, with a good grasp of human affairs, easily picking up on the subtlest of hints—especially when the other party’s concealment was far from clever.
"Do you like my sister?"
"No."
"Then why would you go so far out of your way to buy her lychees?"
"It was on the way."
"Xiao Er, why didn’t you make a move earlier?"
He remained silent.
The truth was, he hadn’t started to like Pei Yunshu during the days he spent in Zhao Ning Manor, even though he saw her every day, he merely regarded her as a mission subject he was tasked to protect.
Instead, it was after she was married off that he found himself constantly worried, unable to let go, sinking deeper, and just then realizing that this was what it meant to have feelings.
The woman he liked was now someone else’s wife, and he could only watch over her from the shadows, just as he did back in Zhao Ning Manor.
Pei Yunmeng often asked him why he didn’t express his feelings to Pei Yunshu now that she was divorced, but he always remained silent, evading the question every time.
Born with a silver spoon, the favored child of heaven, had no knowledge of what the Ciyou Bureau was. Without parents, without kin, following Yan Xu, perhaps one day he would die under an enemy’s hidden arrow. How could someone unsure of his own future provide a future for another?
For the sake of public interest, one must not indulge personal desires.
The autumn wind outside the window blew in gusts, causing the window shutters to rattle lightly. The Imperial Guards entered from outside the door and said, "Vice Envoy, the new soldiers’ roster has been delivered, the superior has asked you to go to the Martial Arts Field."
He put down the poetry collection, stowed it back in the drawer, and stood up to leave the room.
It was an autumn day, and the streets of Shengjing were bustling with people. He didn’t ride a horse, just walked down the street. As he reached an alleyway, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Mu Sheng, don’t you go too far!"
Xiao Zhufeng stopped in his tracks, quickly turning his gaze into the alley.
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