Temporary reconciliation
The next day, dark clouds rolled in from the horizon.
The rain was heavy, and the pattering raindrops splashed into the lake, creating many small droplets. The droplets collided and dispersed, and from a distance, the entire river was shrouded in mist.
The mountain peaks on both sides of the river were covered with a layer of mist, appearing and disappearing like a fairyland. The whole world was quiet, with only the sound of raindrops.
The continuous rainy weather has made people feel irritable.
The thought of being confined to this room filled Fu Zhi Qiao with rage. That damned Xie Zhuo had actually resorted to such force, kidnapping her onto the boat and then preventing her from leaving for days. Fu Zhi Qiao decided to take the initiative and have a serious talk with Xie Zhuo.
A maid came in to help her wash and get dressed.
"I want to see Xie Zhuo."
The maidservant remained expressionless, as if she were deaf, and went about her business tidying up the handkerchief and basin of water before taking them out.
She was alone in the room again. Not long after, the door creaked open. Fu Zhi Qiao didn't turn around, but she knew from the footsteps that Xie Zhuo had come.
"I'm going out."
"Let's have a meal first." Xie Zhuo said calmly. This was their first meeting since boarding the ship.
Fu Zhi Qiao glanced up at Xie Zhuo and met his sharp gaze. His dark and charming eyes were filled with an inescapable coldness.
Never mind, a wise person knows when to yield.
Fu Zhi Qiao sat quietly at the table and ate breakfast with Xie Zhuo. Today's breakfast consisted of a bowl of fish porridge and two dishes of pickles. After finishing her breakfast in silence, she once again asked to leave the room.
Xie Zhuo picked up a white handkerchief and wiped his mouth without saying a word.
They were on a boat, and the entire boat was filled with Xie Zhuo's men. Outnumbered, they couldn't win a direct confrontation. Fu Zhi Qiao had nowhere to go. She couldn't just jump into the river, could she? It would take at least ten days to get to the capital by water, and she didn't want to stay in her room forever.
"Let me out."
Xie Zhuo merely glanced at her without saying a word, his eyes conveying a clear message: Go ahead and say whatever you want, I won't listen anyway.
Fu Zhi Qiao repeated, "Let me out!"
Xie Zhuo noticed the impatience in her tone and replied, "What if I let you out and you run off with someone else?" He couldn't let her leave without him noticing that she had gone to find another man to discuss marriage.
Xie Zhuo's subtext was: You can only feel at ease when you're under my watchful eye.
Fu Zhi Qiao was speechless at this reasoning. She knew that Xie Zhuo was subtly mocking her for going out to discuss marriage with someone else while he was away.
"Now that we're on your turf, I can't run away even if I wanted to, right?"
Xie Zhuo was very direct: "You have a precedent to follow."
Here we go again. She didn't mention her relationship with Zhou Lizhang in a single sentence, but every sentence revolved around it. Xie Zhuo seemed to really, really mind that she wanted to marry someone else.
"We're on a boat, where can I run to?" Fu Zhi Qiao tried to reason with him to bring him back to his senses. "If you keep locking me up any longer, you'll drive me crazy!"
She knew that Xie Zhuo had confined her to the room simply to make her submit, but unfortunately, she was not one to obey.
"Besides, you can lock up my body, but that doesn't mean you can lock up my heart."
After she finished speaking, she saw that Xie Zhuo's lips were almost pressed into a straight line, and if his eyes could be materialized, she believed that she had been stabbed countless times by his glares.
To be honest, Fu Zhi Qiao didn't think Xie Zhuo was so deeply in love with her that he couldn't extricate himself. She believed that Xie Zhuo felt his pride was hurt because she was going to marry someone else, so he couldn't swallow his pride and insisted on keeping her by his side.
Xie Zhuo's possessiveness is what she understands.
She continued to open up to him, asking, "Is it because you love me and can't live without me, or are you keeping me here just to prove a point?"
As soon as she said it, Fu Zhiqiao felt a chill envelop her, and she couldn't help but shiver.
Anger surged in his chest, Xie Zhuo's eyes were bloodshot, and his hand under the table slowly clenched into a fist, the veins on the back of his hand bulging: "Fu Zhi Qiao! What exactly do you want me to do? What do I have to do for you to believe in my love?"
This sentence was practically squeezed out between clenched teeth.
Xie Zhuo's face was tense. He didn't understand why she always doubted his love. Hadn't he expressed it clearly enough? He had said he liked her, loved her, and would marry her, so why wouldn't she believe him?
He had to close his eyes and suppress his anger. The engagement with the Yu family was not his wish. To express his dissatisfaction, he rebelled against his mother. He had been trying to find a way to cancel the engagement.
She said she didn't like men with three wives and four concubines, so he refused his mother's suggestion to find him a concubine.
She said she didn't want to be a concubine, and he promised to marry her.
He traveled thousands of miles to Qingzhou just to see her. The only person he wanted to marry from beginning to end was her. Didn't she see everything he did?
Is she really that unwilling to trust him?
It felt like a huge hole had been ripped out of my heart, and the cold wind was howling in, chilling me to the bone.
Xie Zhuo gave a helpless bitter smile: "Qiao, what do I have to do for you to believe me?"
He felt wronged. Why did she insist that he didn't love her, push him away without listening to his explanation, and then go off to marry another man?
Seeing the blank and confused look on Xie Zhuo's face, Fu Zhi Qiao was also at a loss for words. It seemed as if she had fooled him.
She composed herself and said, "You did make a promise to me, but did you keep it? All you do is blame me. Haven't I been hurt in this relationship?"
Xie Zhuo's momentum immediately diminished by three points.
Fu Zhi Qiao looked up at him directly: "You didn't want us to be apart, and you wanted me to go to the capital. Didn't I go?"
"You told me to wait for you, and I did wait, but what I got was news that you were engaged to another woman. How am I supposed to handle this situation?"
Fu Zhi Qiao became increasingly sad as she spoke, "I came to the capital all alone, did I come here to see you marry another woman?"
The room fell silent.
When she spoke of her sadness, Fu Zhi Qiao pursed her lips tightly, her eyes welled up with tears, and her long eyelashes were wet. She tilted her head back slightly, widened her eyes, and tried to force the tears back.
She didn't want it to be like this; she didn't want to complain about the other person like a resentful woman, but the feeling of being wronged suddenly welled up inside her, and she couldn't control it.
She admitted that she was initially attracted to Xie Zhuo because of his looks, but later she also developed genuine feelings for him as they spent time together.
Fu Zhi Qiao dared not speak or make any expression, for fear that she would lose control of her tears and they would fall.
"Don't cry, Qiao, don't cry..." Xie Zhuo panicked immediately, admitted his mistake, carefully took Fu Zhi Qiao's hand, and said softly, "You're right, I broke my promise first, so it's only right for you to hit me and scold me."
Her fingers were very slender, with smooth skin, and felt warm and soft to the touch.
Fu Zhi Qiao flung his hand away and turned her face away, refusing to look at him again.
Xie Zhuo looked at his empty palms, pursed his lips slightly to hide his disappointment, and continued to apologize: "It's all my fault, Qiao, please forgive me?"
Xie Zhuo solemnly declared, "I swear! If I break my promise again, you may kill me or torture me as you please!"
His fingers were trembling slightly.
He was nervous.
Fu Zhi Qiao wasn't buying into sweet talk at all. "You can talk a good game, but do you think I'd kill you, a dignified young master?"
Xie Zhuo knew he was in the wrong and dared not retort.
"You always act according to your own desires. Have you ever considered my wishes?"
"I didn't disregard you..."
"Isn't it something you did to forcibly abduct me onto the ship? Is this how you show concern for me?"
Xie Zhuo: "..."
Having left Xie Zhu speechless, Fu Zhi Qiao felt a surge of satisfaction. "Fine, just as you said. If you break your promise again, you must let me go and stop bothering me!"
"Okay!" Xie Zhuo agreed without hesitation. "It was my fault this time, Qiao, please forgive me, okay?"
Xie Zhuo's sudden act of acting cute and apologetic caught Fu Zhi Qiao off guard. She was prepared to confront him for three hundred rounds, but Xie Zhuo's quick apology made her seem like she was being unreasonable.
"You were in the wrong first."
"Okay, I was in the wrong first." Xie Zhuo's lips curled up slightly, his eyes filled with tenderness.
The air in the room suddenly became sticky.
Seeing that her attitude had softened and she was no longer saying anything hurtful to provoke him, Xie Zhuo immediately seized the opportunity, pulling her into his arms with his right hand and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist in a completely possessive posture.
Fu Zhi Qiao snapped out of her daze and became displeased. "Let go. We need to keep our distance until you break off the engagement."
Xie Zhuo refused to let go.
Fu Zhi Qiao touched the back of his hand. Xie Zhuo felt the soft little hand covering his own and was overjoyed. He immediately wanted to hold her hand in his own.
However, the imagined interlocking of fingers did not happen; instead, a sharp pain followed.
There was no flesh on the back of Xie Zhuo's hand, just skin. Fu Zhi Qiao pinched the skin on the back of Xie Zhuo's hand and pulled hard. The sudden pain made Xie Zhuo gasp.
Knowing he had upset Fu Zhi Qiao, Xie Zhuo chuckled weakly, released her hand, and said hesitantly, "Qiao, then we've made up, right?"
"We haven't made up, we're just ordinary friends," Fu Zhi Qiao said, pouring cold water on his enthusiasm.
Even though they were just friends, they had made up, and Xie Zhuo finally showed a long-lost smile.
“I have one more request,” Fu Zhiqiao added, “We should maintain a stranger-like relationship when we are in public places.”
Xie Zhuo: "..."
Xie Zhuo was reluctant, but before he could speak, Fu Zhi Qiao continued, "I don't want to be scolded by your mother again. If you don't agree, we can't even be ordinary friends."
Fu Zhi Qiao agreed to Xie Zhuo's proposal because she simply didn't believe that Xie Zhuo could successfully annul the engagement, and she didn't believe that she and he could go all the way.
If the annulment of the engagement is successful, the relationship between the Prince's Mansion and the Minister's Mansion will definitely be affected.
After her marriage to Zhao Junhui was called off, her mother never saw Madam Zhao again. The two families never spoke to each other again after the verbal engagement was canceled. How much less would Xie Zhuo and Yu Yadan's engagement, which involved exchanging marriage certificates and going through the proper channels, be considered?
Both the Prince Duan's Mansion and the Minister of Rites' family are respectable families, and even for the sake of their respective reputations, they wouldn't easily break up this marriage. In addition, Zuo Murui is very satisfied with Ya Dan as her daughter-in-law, and Ya Dan is in love with Xie Zhuo. Under these circumstances, it is virtually impossible for Xie Zhuo to successfully annul the engagement.
Fu Zhi Qiao's heart, which had finally calmed down, was now churning with undercurrents again. She believed that Xie Zhuo's feelings for her were genuine, but she had no intention of challenging the rules.
No matter where you are, you have to adapt to the rules. Don't try to change the rules before you have enough ability.
If she had known from the beginning that Xie Zhuo was the heir of Prince Duan, she would have definitely behaved herself and never provoked him.
The gap between nobles and commoners was as vast as an insurmountable chasm.
The Great Wei already has a very mature social system, and class status has been solidified. Nobles and commoners will never have any interaction in their entire lives, and everyone lives peacefully. She has no need to break this balance.
However, Xie Zhuo's firm attitude softened her heart a bit. Rather than continuing to entangle herself, she thought it better to make a final deal and treat it as their last chance.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
