Chapter 211 - 148_3
"What will it take for you to calm down?" He seemed determined, pressing on, "What must I do for you to let go of your anger?"
Xie Wanqing replied, "Can’t we just continue like we did before?"
"That’s not really possible," Pei Yuqing said, his eyelids lowered, "Wanwan, I want to hold you while I sleep."
Xie Wanqing was silent for a moment, then couldn’t help but push him away a bit, angrily saying, "You’re acting like a lecherous demon!"
Pei Yuqing: "..."
This must have been the first time in his life he was called a lecherous demon, causing his expression to momentarily go blank.
After snapping back to reality, a hint of discomfort flashed across his face. He turned to the side, stood for a while, and awkwardly said, "Then I’ll leave."
Xie Wanqing simply acknowledged with a sound.
Only when the sound of the door closing echoed again did she raise her hand to touch her flushed face, full of remorse.
...How could she insult someone like that!
Also... why didn’t he even retort!
......
In the following days, despite being a consummated couple, they continued to live separately.
Soon, it was the New Year, the first time Xie Wanqing spent it at her husband’s family.
The Pei family wasn’t large, yet the New Year’s banquet was grandly organized.
After the New Year, during the first month, the ancestral rites at the ancestral hall were held for several days. This was not something for the new daughter-in-law, Xie Wanqing, to handle, and she was glad for the leisure.
Quickly, it was the Lantern Festival, and the court held a lantern banquet.
In the new year, Xie Wanqing entered the palace for the first time, but the circumstances were entirely different from before.
Lu Ziyuan had already reclaimed his prince status, changed his surname to Qi, and was inscribed on the Royal Jade Butterfly. The Holy Emperor even personally gifted a residence as his Prince Mansion.
Rumors that he was not born of the Lu Family reached the ears of the Lu Family’s ladies, and Old Madam Lu fainted on the spot. The elderly woman, already advanced in years, suffered a stroke despite being saved in time by the Imperial Physician. Her half body was paralyzed, and she was no longer able to move freely.
Madam Lu was also greatly shocked. It was then everyone realized that Old Marquis Lu had not informed the family women that the prince was fostered under their family name.
Before there was time to lament the end of the Lu Family’s valiant lineage, Lu Ziyuan revealed that the second branch of the Lu Family had an out-of-wedlock descendant, the child of a pregnant mistress he brought back from Bianzhou.
As it turned out, the second master of the Lu Family, who died on the battlefield, had a son living outside, and the pregnant mistress brought back by Lu Ziyuan was the widow of his son.
Now that Lu Ziyuan had reclaimed his prince status, Lu Yunpei naturally became the sole descendant of the Lu Family.
So... Lu Ziyuan neither kept an unwed mistress nor did he sire a child before marrying a legitimate wife.
He’s still the same man who abstains from women, only treating his fiancée differently, singularly focused on slaying enemies as the God of Killing.
...Yet, because of rumors, he ended up losing his fiancée.
Remembering the stoic young general who rushed back to the Capital from a thousand miles away just to stop his fiancée from marrying, many gentle-hearted noble ladies were deeply moved.
After all, an unexpected appearance of a grown prince, still a valiant legitimate prince with numerous achievements—a real-life transformation of tempered steel into softness—once the story spread, Lu Ziyuan was almost revered as the contemporary Saint of Passion among the people in the Capital.
These rumors circulated widely, inevitably reaching Xie Wanqing’s ears.
She was utterly shocked, unable to connect the term "Saint of Passion" with Lu Ziyuan, regardless of how much she racked her brain.
Thanks to this contemporary Saint of Passion, Xie Wanqing’s name once again became a hot topic in the Capital, from high-ranking officials and nobles to the commoners at their tea breaks.
However, this time, many who hadn’t seen her or weren’t familiar with her were extremely curious about her.
What kind of woman was she, to bend a talented young man like Lu Ziyuan to his knees?
Their love story had already spread with several versions circulating.
Most were series of unfulfilled love, where the lovers couldn’t be together despite loving each other.
Some even blamed Xie Wanqing for resolutely breaking off the engagement and then hastily marrying.
In any case, Lu Ziyuan, the young general as stalwart as iron, had become an object of pity in these stories.
Due to the festive season, Xie Wanqing hadn’t gone out for more than half a month, so even if she overheard some things, she hadn’t personally experienced any of it yet.
Until this palace banquet, when Xie Wanqing attended with Pei Yuqing, as soon as they entered the hall, she could feel numerous gazes focusing on her...