Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
When Meng Fuyao was finally released and awoken by a certain someone, she only saw Zhangsun Wuji’s back leaning against the bed as he stared at the moon, his long hair in ripples behind him and his breathing steady and calm. When he heard the sound of her sitting up, without turning around, he said gently,
“Fuyao.”
Meng Fuyao hardened her face, refusing to reply.
“Princess Lotus is not my fiancée.”
Meng Fuyao was stunned for a moment.
Following that, she gave a cold laugh and said, “Zhangsun Wuji, you shouldn’t be so stubborn even if you want to shirk responsibility. This is the Five Region Continent, you’re the prince of the most powerful country, and she’s the princess of the most powerful country. Based on her status, if that wasn’t the truth, how could she have faced a complete stranger and said that she was your fiancée?”
The more she thought, the more ridiculous it felt and she laughed until her teeth were showing as she reached out a hand, grabbed Zhangsun Wuji’s arm and bit down viciously.
“I’ll bite you to death, you lying, black-hearted prince, who knows who you’ve cheated, number one crook in the Five Region Continent…”
Zhangsun Wuji let her continue biting him as he smiled mildly. “Ah, it hurts.”
‘Pain his ass!’ Meng Fuyao simply couldn’t bite down to begin with. Zhangsun Wuji’s skin was not steel-like like Zhan Beiye’s, but inner energy surrounded every inch of his body, and when Meng Fuyao bit down, she felt the inner energy rebound against her teeth and rubbing her sore teeth, she angrily let go of his hand and cursed, “Do you really think she’s just boy crazy, not caring about her pride and status to just grab a man and anyhow claim to be his fiancée…”
“She’s really just boy crazy.”
A simple sentence elicited a response more shocking than thunder as Meng Fuyao instantly jumped up, her voice even changing as she asked, “What?”
Zhangsun Wuji turned around. Although it was only a difference of a period, he actually suddenly looked somewhat exhausted, his face slightly pale under the moonlight, slightly translucent like jade. He replied mildly, “Princess Lotus, isn’t a normal girl.”
Meng Fuyao glared at him, not noticing his expression. She was thunderstruck by his reply earlier and asked again, “What do you mean?”
“I should put it this way, Princess Lotus isn’t a girl you can use ordinary girls in the Five Region Continent to compare with. She may look kind and benevolent, but actually, she’s extremely petty and paranoid. Her religiousness is also more or less just to adjust her temperament,” Zhangsun Wuji raised his eyebrows as he continued, “I still prefer to call her Feng Jingfan, and indeed I was once engaged to Feng Jingfan, and I once used a hand-drawn map of Xuanji as an engagement gift, but after that, I broke off the engagement.”
“Ah?”
“My breaking off the engagement caused quite a bit of trouble. Back then, Father was critically ill, and there was uncertainty within the nation. All the officials were uneasy, and I was still young and inexperienced then, not ready to serve the nation. The neighboring nation, Fufeng, was watching us closely and waiting for an opportune moment and I intended to head out to resolve the external problems. However, Father was afraid of offending Xuanji, worried that Xuanji would form an alliance with Fufeng and go against Wuji. Yet, I was adamant on breaking off the engagement, and hence used several tactics, forcing Xuanji’s leader to finally agree to it, but he made a single request to me.”
“Mn?”
“He said, Feng Jingfan has been different from the others since young and adding on to the fact that she had a deep infatuation with me and would not marry anyone else, the blow from having the engagement broken off be publicly announced might cause her to want to end her life. Thus, we only agreed to break it off in secret and wait until Feng Jingfan got older and found someone else to fill her heart with before letting the princess announce it publicly to the seven nations. Before that happens, he requested that for the sake of the Feng clan and the princess’s life, to keep it a secret.”
“Did you agree?”
“Firstly, it’s because at the time the situation in the nation was unstable and we couldn’t afford to offend Xuanji. Secondly, I was still young then; I felt that I was at fault and that the princess was pitiable, that a girl wouldn’t be able to bear the burden so as a man I had to bear it, and agreed. I only requested that they return the map of Xuanji.”
“Did they return it?”
“No?” Zhangsun Wuji’s smile looked slightly cold as he said, “Xuanji’s leader made many excuses, first saying that the map was with the princess and that she treasured it a lot, taking it back would harm her life. After that, they said that the map was missing and not in the palace, and they promised me that they would find it back. In the end, after searching for so many years, not even a shadow could be found.”
Meng Fuyao was biting her finger, still in shock, and she asked skeptically, “Feng Jingfan really doesn’t know that you’ve already broken off the engagement?”
“I doubt that she doesn’t know,” replied Zhangsun Wuji, “I tried testing her. From the looks of it, she probably already knows something, but pretends not to know.”
Meng Fuyao mumbled, “You’re twenty-six and still unmarried, and she’s not young anymore either, yet she’s willing to wait around like this, could it be that she’s waiting for you to have a change of heart?”
Zhangsun Wuji smiled without saying anything. It was a silent consent.
Meng Fuyao rubbed her face, thinking, ‘No wonder Zhangsun Wuji never mentioned about this matter. There was never a fiancée in his heart to begin with.’
She thought of another question and asked, “You haven’t said why you wanted to break off the engagement?”
Zhangsun Wuji fell silent for a moment before responding, “I met someone else.”
“Nonsense!” Meng Fuyao immediately shot back, “Don’t use your feelings for me as an excuse, you hadn’t even met me when you requested to break off the engagement.”
“That engagement was a mistake.” Zhangsun Wuji looked at her intently and said, “Since it was wrong, I have to correct it no matter what.”
Meng Fuyao snorted and said, “How is meeting me not your mistake… Nevermind, let’s not mention that, oh right, you’re actually an arbitrator for the True Martial Arts Meet. I heard Yun Hen mention that you put on a good show at the Tiansha border. I didn’t get the chance to ask him, but it’s the same asking you, what good show did you put on?”
“Isn’t it just sending away a certain someone who made you jealous?” Zhangsun Wuji smiled as he twirled her hair slowly around his finger. “She said that a divine disciple of the Buddha was born in Tiansha and I insisted that there wasn’t. Getting rid of a nation may not be that easy, but getting rid of a ‘divine disciple’ is a simple task.”
“Why would I be jealous? Zhangsun Wuji, your greatest flaw is that you are too narcissistic.” Meng Fuyao thought for a moment and couldn’t help but sigh as she sat down on the bed and hugged her knees. She said, “It sounds very reasonable, fine, Zhangsun Wuji, I forgive you for your lie.”
Her nonchalant tone made Zhangsun Wuji crack a smile. Under the moonlight and the darkness, that smile was strikingly beautiful, and Meng Fuyao’s heart skipped a beat as she cursed silently…’That destructively handsome man…’
Zhangsun Wuji turned around, pressing his forehead softly against hers, his breath tickling her face. He cupped Meng Fuyao’s face gently and smiled. “Fuyao, I love your brightness the most. I want to keep you like this and never let you have to shed any of that brilliant light because of worldly conflict.”
The night was quiet and the cool evening wind of the summer carried a faint fragrance. One could hear the sound of crickets chirping under the window, their sounds melding into a long, soft tone, and the faint breathing amid close contact as the sound of their heartbeats drowned away the rest of the night’s symphony.
After a long time, Meng Fuyao awkwardly patted his hand away and turned around as she rasped, “Go away, pervert, don’t take advantage of me.”
Zhangsun Wuji ignored her. “Don’t be too urgent to be touched, I haven’t finished speaking… I don’t like it when you don’t mean what you say.”
“What?” Meng Fuyao raised her eyebrows, ‘Have I? Have I? Have I?’
Zhangsun Wuji reached out a finger and lightly traced her cheek. Softly, he said, “A certain someone seems to have once promised me that, no matter what happens, she would always, believe me, understand me, and not be misled or swayed by those matters.” His voice was extremely gentle, and his tone carried equal parts mirth and equal parts warmth. He ran his finger lightly through her hair. “In the end… Did you do it?”
‘Eh, what a villain, countering the moment I retreated one step and shifting the blame so quickly.’
Alas, Meng Fuyao was willing to tolerate anything except being taken advantage of. She squatted on the bed and thought carefully back to the conversation at the inn in the Hua Region. Suddenly, she started sniggering suspiciously and retorted, “You’re trying to twist meanings again, I seem not to have promised you anything back then.”
Zhangsun Wuji laughed. Delightedly, Meng Fuyao said, “Who asked you to win all the time, you should lose once too.”
“Fuyao, you’re wrong.” Zhangsun Wuji lay down beside her. Slowly stroking her messy hair, he said mildly, “It seems like I’m always winning, but actually… against you, I’ve always been the one who loses.”
Who loves, who loses.
That kind of wholehearted trust, that kind of long-lasting feeling, that kind of banter, that kind of tentative yearning.
Within that kind of love, there was a kind of unspoken, excruciating torment.
And the reason why it would hurt, was only because he cared.
Meng Fuyao sucked in a breath lightly. In that instance, her chest suddenly started hurting again, that familiar, long-absent pain which burned through her meridians like a fiery blaze. Her eyebrows knitted together as she moved back slightly, sighing inwardly and reminding herself, ‘Lock your feelings, lock your feelings.’
Zhangsun Wuji seemed to have sensed it as well. Turning to glance at her, he did not say anything more, but simply reached an arm across her and pulled the blanket over her. He said, “Tiansha has a cold climate, even though it’s summer, you should use a blanket at night, don’t catch a cold.”
Meng Fuyao thought it was fine as well. With a blanket, she could avoid easy skin contact through their thin clothing. Not wanting to let that person help her, she pulled the blanket halfway over and said loudly, “Naturally, I too am afraid of catching a cold.”
Meng Fuyao was resolute, but Zhangsun Wuji said lowly, “You don’t have to feel bad for me, do you think I can’t take care of myself?”
Meng Fuyao’s tiny conscience was once again pulled out by that heartless prince, and she could only scrounge her nose and remain quiet. Suddenly, she spotted Lord Yuan Bao on the table scampering towards them with a huge pile of things on his back, before coming to a halt in front of them.
Meng Fuyao was surprised, but Zhangsun Wuji said, “Yuan Bao says he has a good show for me to watch.” Pulling Meng Fuyao towards him, he shared with her half a pillow and said, “Come, together.”
Meng Fuyao was deathly curious and so settled down comfortably to watch, and then… was angered until her nose was crooked.
It truly was a ‘good show’!
Lord Yuan Bao stood on the table and faced the two of them, first raising his short paws and simulated the movements of a snake, and then suddenly punching the air, pretending to beat up somebody, before jumping up and acting out a “vicious scolding”. Finally, he waved his paw around and acted beating someone up again.
Meng Fuyao already understood; he was complaining, he was saying that the two-headed snake from the night pond was silently advancing, that his well-intentioned warning was misunderstood by her. ‘This petty and narrow-hearted hamster, haven’t I already apologized to him!’
Smiling, Zhangsun Wuji said, “Yuanbao, common folk have the vision of a mouse, it is inevitable that they would not understand your wisdom.”
Meng Fuyao was speechless. Who was he scolding?
Lord Yuan Bao nodded his head vigorously and wriggled his plump behind, letting the pile of things on his back fall in a heap. He first pulled out a small teapot and placed it on the table, then he grabbed a needle.
Carrying the smooth and shiny needle, he hacked and slashed at the teapot, and following that he threw the needle aside forcefully and lunged at the teapot, its paws grabbing onto the lid. After that, he stood there firmly, looking up, not saying anything.
