Chapter 32 The Springtime Scenery Within the Palace Walls Leads to Delusion (Part 1) You think you're worthy of...
Hearing his explanation, Ye Yixiang's small knot in her heart finally eased.
A maid pushed open a carved wooden door, and a wave of warm, humid steam, carrying the scent of sulfur, rushed out. Ye Yixiang, slightly uneasy, was led inside by his hand, her heart inexplicably racing, and certain blush-inducing images involuntarily surfaced in her mind… He wouldn't be thinking…
Immediately, Chu Huaili's words interrupted her reverie: "I'm going to the tea room next door to handle some military affairs." He raised his hand and very naturally tidied the slightly messy strands of hair at her temples, his movements gentle. "If you feel unwell, have a maid call me immediately."
Hearing this, Ye Yixiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but a strange sense of loss crept into her heart. So... he didn't intend to stay.
"Madam, please come with me." The maid's sweet and respectful voice rang out just in time, bringing her back to her senses.
She composed herself and followed the maid into the inner room.
The interior is warm and cozy, with a gentle, airy atmosphere and an extremely elegant layout. It is surrounded by screens painted with landscape paintings, and in the center is a pool of clear, fresh water from a natural hot spring, from which wisps of white steam rise.
Two maids stepped forward to help her undress.
“No need,” Ye Yixiang gently stopped her. Having lived alone for so many years, she had long been used to doing things herself and was not used to having strangers serve her. “I can do it myself.”
"Yes. If Madam needs anything, we two will wait outside." The two maids were well-trained and immediately bowed, quietly withdrew, and carefully closed the door behind them.
She was finally alone in the room. The only sound in the quiet space was the soft murmur of the hot spring water flowing over the pool walls. She took a deep breath of the moist, warm air, and her tense nerves finally relaxed. The steam seemed to intensify the effects of the alcohol, making her feel slightly dizzy and lightheaded.
She squatted by the pool, extending her slender fingers to gently stir the warm water, feeling its soothing temperature flowing through her fingertips. Just as she was about to undress and enter the bath, a gentle breeze slipped in from somewhere, causing her pine-colored outer garment to slip down her right shoulder, revealing a section of her fair, jade-like shoulder and delicate collarbone.
Just as she was about to pull up her clothes, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a tall and slender male figure behind the screen painted with plum blossoms against the snow not far away.
The figure's silhouette was extremely familiar...
Her heart tightened suddenly, and with seven parts drunkenness and three parts surprise and doubt, she tentatively called out softly, "Yan Qing...?"
However, the response she received was not that gentle voice.
A deep, slightly mocking, yet utterly abrupt male voice rang out, accompanied by a very soft, ambiguous chuckle:
"So quickly, your heart can only hold him now?"
That once incredibly familiar voice, now like a thunderclap, froze her in place, as if the blood in her body had instantly frozen.
The figure behind the screen slowly moved out, bypassing the obstruction, and a face that had haunted her countless nights of dreams, filled with guilt and unease, appeared before her without warning.
He still had that gentle and refined face, only...
Her pupils contracted sharply, her breath caught in her throat, and almost instinctively, she forced out the three words she thought she would never utter again: "Lu Qingyuan..."
It was her deceased husband! Lu Qingyuan, who died on the battlefield and whose remains were never recovered!
How could he be here? And... he's wearing the narrow-sleeved, belted brocade robe typical of Northern Di nobles, with a ferocious wolf head embroidered on the front! Could it be... could it be that what Chu Huaili said back then wasn't false, and he really is... a traitor to the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry?!
"It seems my wife still remembers her husband." Lu Qingyuan's lips curled into a half-smile. On his once gentle face, a hideous scar had appeared at some point, slashing down from his left temple, across his brow bone, and ending between his eyebrows, like a centipede coiled on his face, completely destroying his former elegance and adding a touch of terrifying ferocity.
"You...you're still alive?" She finally found her voice, her voice dry and trembling as she tentatively asked, her heart filled with a mixture of emotions: shock, confusion, a lingering trace of old feelings, and a deeper fear.
"You're disappointed that I'm still alive?" He scoffed, his eyes, once brimming with tenderness, now filled only with cold mockery and scrutiny. He approached her step by step, his boots clattering on the smooth ground, each step feeling like a blow to her heart.
Ye Yixiang subconsciously took a few steps back, her back almost touching the cold screen, her mind a jumbled mess. "You're not Yan Qing, are you? The way you saved me back then... it was all a lie, wasn't it?" She recalled the "coincidence" of their first encounter in the mountains, her voice filled with disbelief and pain.
"A scam?" Lu Qingyuan seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world, a cruel smile curving his lips. "It was clearly you, my wife, who shamelessly clung to me, throwing yourself into my arms. Have you forgotten how you threw yourself into my arms in front of everyone back then?"
His gaze swept over her chest, which rose and fell slightly with nervousness, and he said in a flippant tone, "Back then, my wife didn't care that so many soldiers were present. She hugged me with tears streaming down her face and begged for my protection."
"As for me... I just couldn't bear to see a beautiful woman shed tears, and I was just too soft-hearted for a moment."
The Northern Di scimitar hanging at his waist reflected a cold, sharp light in the indoor light, making her eyes sting slightly.
"You shameless!" Ye Yixiang trembled with rage. All the tenderness of the past had turned into sharp blades of humiliation, cutting her all over.
"How can I be the shameless one?" Lu Qingyuan retorted, his tall figure pressing closer with an oppressive aura, his shadow almost completely enveloping her. "No matter who you loved or who you held in your heart before, you are now my lawfully wedded wife! And now you're dressed so thinly and dressed up so extravagantly."
"And who was that dance for just now? Hmm?"
His words were like a venomous snake, hissing and flicking its tongue: "Just based on the days and nights you spent with me, you already bear my mark." He sneered, then suddenly grabbed her slender wrist and forcefully pulled her into his arms. The scent of the Northern Di men, a mixture of the stench of cattle and sheep and the smell of leather, instantly enveloped her.
"A woman like you, fickle and promiscuous, is exactly like my mother who was sent to marry a foreign ruler by the Ling Dynasty! You're not so naive as to still be fantasizing that someone of Chu Huaili's status would sincerely marry you, are you?"
"Stop dreaming! Let's not even talk about how he doesn't mind those passionate nights you spent with me. Just based on your shameful past as a concubine or second wife, you wouldn't even be a chance to be his mistress!"
These words were like ice water poured over Ye Yixiang's head in the dead of winter, leaving her feeling chilled to the bone, a bone-deep cold shooting straight up from her feet to the top of her head. What he said... wasn't it a bloody reality? Those obstacles she had deliberately ignored and refused to think about were so nakedly and cruelly exposed by him.
"Be a good girl and come back to Bei Di with me," Lu Qingyuan said, looking at her pale face, his tone coaxing yet cold, "For the sake of our past relationship, I can let bygones be bygones regarding your unclear relationship with him these past few days!"
"Who exactly are you?" Ye Yixiang endured the excruciating pain in her wrist and the turmoil in her heart. She suddenly raised her head and met his eyes, which were light amber in color, whether due to mixed race or some other reason. The gentleness that once existed in those eyes was gone, replaced only by ambition and coldness.
She had been branded a jinx for "dying" for him, and had worked tirelessly to clear his name of the fabricated charges of treason, enduring countless accusations! But she never imagined that he was not only alive, but also hiding such an astonishing identity!
boom--!
A sudden change has occurred!
The exquisite screens on all sides were violently knocked down from the outside by a huge force, and the sound of the wooden frame breaking was deafening!
In an instant, countless soldiers clad in black iron armor and wielding powerful crossbows and sharp blades surged in like ghosts, completely surrounding the hot spring chamber. The chilling murderous aura instantly dispelled all warmth and moisture.
"The general has given the order! Capture the Right Tuqi King of the Northern Barbarians! Alive!" Pei Hong, the leader, shouted sharply, his voice echoing in the enclosed space.
Lu Qingyuan's eyes suddenly darkened, like a wild beast cornered in a desperate situation. He reacted swiftly, shielding Ye Yixiang behind him, and let out a cold sneer: "You actually fell for his trick!"
Ye Yixiang's heart skipped a beat at the sudden turn of events. Before her were shattered screens and the chilling glint of armor. Amidst the chaos, through the gaps in the swaying figures, she saw two figures slowly emerge from behind the armored soldiers.
A man in blue robes and with dark hair stood tall and straight like a lone pine tree on a precipice. It was Chu Huaili, who had just left to handle military affairs under the pretext of doing so. His face was calm as water, but his deep eyes were filled with an unyielding frost.
The other person standing next to him was wearing a brocade robe with wolf head patterns unique to the Northern Di royal family. He had a deep face and shrewd eyes like a hawk. It was none other than Geshu Lin!
Ge Shulin's gaze swept with interest over Ye Yixiang, who was instinctively shielded behind Lu Qingyuan. A knowing smile appeared on his lips as he laughed loudly at Chu Huaili beside him, "General, you are indeed a brilliant strategist! I should have known that even if my good brother could abandon thousands and had a heart as hard as iron, he would eventually be unable to escape the charms of a beautiful woman."
These words were like a poisoned ice pick, instantly piercing through all of Ye Yixiang's luck and expectations, freezing her last glimmer of hope completely.
She understood everything! All of Chu Huaili's unusual closeness and protection towards her these past few days, those unquestionable declarations at the Nie residence, those seemingly profound vows…
Everything was nothing more than a meticulously planned, interconnected drama!
In Qiankunfang, he loudly proclaimed that she was his wife, but he was only using her as bait to lay this trap.
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