A corner of Chu Lian’s mouth tilted downwards. She spoke honestly, as if she hadn’t noticed the doubts in He Sanlang’s eyes.
“I think that there’s something wrong with his mind. He keeps pestering me. You saw how he was like on the way we went back to the Ying Estate. Later on, he even tried to meet me at Defeng Teahouse on the basis of being acquainted in the past, but I rejected him. He’s my grandfather’s favourite pupil and he entered the Imperial Academy after just half a year of examinations so he has some smarts. I’m afraid he’s not someone to be trifled with.”
Although she hadn’t revealed some details in her complaints, everything she had said was true.
Chu Lian had read the original story before and she knew that Xiao Bojian wasn’t a good man. She had decided to draw the boundaries with him when she had arrived in the Great Wu Dynasty. Of course she wouldn’t let He Changdi have any misunderstandings of the relationship between her and Xiao Bojian.
She wasn’t the original wicked woman ‘Chu Lian’. She wasn’t the one who was hell-bent on loving Xiao Bojian and wanted to keep her body pure for him even after marrying someone else.
Chu Lian knew that He Changdi likely already knew about everything she had just told him.
Why else had he sent Wenqing and Wenlan to serve her?
Just because she hadn’t mentioned it outright didn’t mean that she was completely oblivious to what was going on. She knew that Senior Servant Zhong would add a letter for He Changdi every time they sent letters to the northern border troops. Even if she had never read those letters before, she could guess at their contents.
They were most likely reports about her.
Her goal had always been to be a layabout. As long as she had good food and enough money to live on, she would be perfectly happy. With her sister-in-law, Madam Zou, around, she didn’t even need to manage the household and she could just spend her time having fun. Thus, she had been too lazy to bother with controlling Senior Servant Zhong and the Wen sisters’ surveillance of her.
He Sanlang clearly hadn’t expected Chu Lian to be complaining about Xiao Bojian. When she had been talking about him, He Sanlang had been able to feel how much she disliked him from the disdain in her expression alone.
His brows wrinkled for a bit before he broke out into a sudden smile, “I didn’t know that you thought of Mister Xiao that way. You’ve really surprised me there. Don’t you know that Xiao Bojian has been the ideal lover of many of the noble ladies around even back in the Imperial College?”
He Changdi wasn’t exaggerating at all. If Chu Lian had been able to see for herself the carnage at Xiao Bojian’s victory parade after he had become the top scholar, she would probably have marvelled at the ladies going crazy over him.
Back then, it had been raining flowers all over. The girls on either side of the road had tossed flower petals at the top scholar sitting atop a horse. The streets that Xiao Bojian had passed had been left strewn with so many flower petals that they formed a thick carpet.
Chu Lian was already numb to the strange and abnormal aesthetics of the Great Wu Dynasty. She rolled her eyes hard and almost cringed as her imagination brought up an image of Xiao Bojian’s feminine face, all dolled up with a huge flower tucked into his hair, wearing his bright red scholar’s robe and parading about town.
The corners of her lips twitched. “In my eyes, you’re much better-looking than he is.”
It was He Sanlang’s turn to freeze in shock. He pressed his lips together. He wanted to ask if she meant it, but he just couldn’t bring himself to ask.
In the end, He Sanlang took a deep breath to calm the repressed yet happy feelings within him and told her the truth, “It was him. Xiao Bojian is in Su City right now.”
Chu Lian’s response was to open her eyes as wide as they could go to show her disbelief.
Xiao Bojian was in Su City?!
Going by the original story, Xiao Bojian and He Changdi didn’t get along in the first place. Did that mean that they had already crossed swords in Su City?
He Sanlang had successfully brought supplies back to camp. It was clear who had won their first duel.
Chu Lian suddenly felt a burst of pride. Although her husband was a little crazy sometimes, he was still pretty strong when it came to fighting!
She wanted to add something else, but He Sanlang patted her back lightly. His voice was still husky as he prompted her, “It’s late, hurry up and go sleep!”
Chu Lian swallowed her words and agreed.
She had been kidnapped suddenly and taken away to that hill where she spent all night trying to think of a way to escape. Luckily, the sneak attack she had suffered in that forest the last time had increased her caution. From then on, she had always kept some drugs on her all the time.
Once she had drugged those kidnappers and taken Urihan and her sons away, they had spent a whole day travelling through windy and snowy plains. Later on, they had killed the horses and hidden inside their bellies for warmth. After a whole day and night of tumultuous events, Chu Lian had already gone past the limit of her body and she was extremely fatigued.
If not for He Sanlang and his excessive use of force, she wouldn’t have woken up at all. The feeling of He Changdi’s gentle pats on her back brought her back to her childhood, when her mother had held her in her arms and soothed her to sleep with pats.
The sleepiness she had been holding back rushed back into her mind immediately. In less than a minute, Chu Lian had already slipped back into slumber, as evidenced by her long and shallow breaths.
He Sanlang cast his gaze down at her, scanning Chu Lian’s young features with unreadable depths.
He hugged the slender body in his arms more tightly and sighed.
In his past life, Urihan had saved him, so he had come looking for her family earlier in this life. He had given them some necessary supplies for winter. Later on, there had been too many military matters at hand keeping him busy until the war with the Tuhuns started. He hadn’t had any time to check on Urihan and her sons at all. He hadn’t expected her to appear at this time, and for her to have saved his wife.
Fate worked in strange ways.
It was as if the hidden strings of destiny had already connected all these events together.
Although the events seemed like random coincidences, it felt like they were simply following predestined paths.
