Chapter 205 - 146:
Pei Yuqing said, "You’ve caught a chill today, drink this ginseng tea first."
"..." Xie Wanqing was somewhat impressed by him. She lifted her hand to uncover the lid of the teacup, glanced inside, and took a sip.
Pei Yuqing naturally observed this sequence of actions. He asked, "What did Lu Ziyuan say to you?"
Xie Wanqing smiled and said, "I thought you would ask what he did to me."
As she spoke, Pei Yuqing’s eyelids suddenly lifted, looking straight at her, meeting her slightly challenging smile.
His gaze deepened. Just as Xie Wanqing thought he would once again assume that indifferent, emotionless facade, she saw him lean forward and grasp her wrist.
Three fingers rested directly on her pulse.
Xie Wanqing didn’t resist, allowing him to check her pulse, as curious as a child, she asked, "Can you really tell what he did to me like this?"
She was angry.
Even though she didn’t shout or show a furious expression, how could Pei Yuqing not see it?
He glanced at her, then lowered his eyes again to check her pulse earnestly.
After a long time, he withdrew his hand and said, "Don’t believe anything he says... Him abducting you to the camp was beyond my expectations."
Lu Ziyuan abducted her to the camp to show her Liu Manrou’s fate, a past life entanglement he couldn’t have predicted.
Xie Wanqing smiled and said, "So, in your expectations, whatever he does to me would only happen in the Samantabhadra Temple’s backyard, right?"
"Wanwan..."
"Answer me!" Xie Wanqing restrained her smile, interrupting him, directly questioning, "Did you deliberately let him see the bite marks on your neck and shoulders to lure him to me to verify everything?"
The always calm and composed man, under such interrogation, showed a trace of anxiety on his face.
He moved his lips, remained silent for a while, and then said, "I did want him to know we were already married, so he’d give up sooner, and besides, the Samantabhadra Temple is a significant site of the Buddhist Sect..."
"Absurd! That madman Lu Ziyuan wouldn’t care about the Buddhist Sect, are you gambling with me?" Xie Wanqing sneered coldly, "If in his anger, he does something irrevocable to me, would that fulfill your desire?"
"Wanwan!" Pei Yuqing’s expression changed, his voice unconsciously turning cold, "I never thought of it that way! You are my wife, how could I..."
He paused and said, "There are four Death Warriors secretly guarding you, and with many pilgrims at the Samantabhadra Temple, if he acts untowardly, there’d be commotion,... you would be safe."
"Creating a commotion to attract a crowd to watch was your true intention," Xie Wanqing marveled at her own sharpness, perhaps from being around smart people for too long.
She pondered for a long time, simplifying today’s events, and laughed coldly again, "What about those four Death Warriors? Did Mingjian take care of them all by himself?"
After all, Lu Ziyuan only brought Mingjian with him.
Could it be that Mingjian single-handedly overcame four Death Warriors without alerting anyone in the Samantabhadra Temple?
The answer to this question was found in Pei Yuqing’s silence.
Xie Wanqing was momentarily speechless.
She only knew that Ming Fengming Jian were retainers of the Lu Family, personally cultivated by Lu Ziyuan, loyally following him, but she hadn’t expected their combat power to be so high.
The Death Warriors raised by great families, feared by doom seekers, were silently dealt with by Mingjian.
Mere retainers under Lu Ziyuan’s command possessed combat power comparable to generals at the frontier.
Who could have imagined that?
Evidently, Pei Yuqing hadn’t foreseen this either, having miscalculated.
In his plan, everything could be resolved within the Samantabhadra Temple.
Amidst the public eye, a recently returned legitimate prince, intending to harass a minister’s wife in a significant site of the Buddhist Sect...
And she, protected by Death Warriors, remained unscathed, preserving her reputation while suppressing Lu Ziyuan’s arrogance.
Such a reckless and improper prince, no matter how accomplished, would not receive the officials’ support.
He wasn’t as generous as Lu Ziyuan claimed, willing to risk his own wife being truly violated to execute a scheme.
Thinking of this, Xie Wanqing’s swelling anger and the excruciating pain of betrayal finally eased a bit.
But using her to scheme against Lu Ziyuan was true, even if he provided her four Death Warriors, what did it matter that she was not defiled...?
If the plan succeeded, she would still become the subject of scornful gossip in the Capital City.