In the carriage, Mo Xuetong put down the curtains.
“Are you still hungry? I’ve had people prepare dinner. I haven’t had it so can you have it with me?” Feng Yuran unwillingly averted his eyes from her face. He suddenly raised his lips in a smile and then pointed to a small chest under the tea table. “Look over there.”
Mo Xuetong’s mind was still on what she had seen and didn’t instantly react. When she realized, she found there was already a smile on his handsome face. His slim finger was right beside her, pointing at that place. Suddenly, she remembered the feeling when his hand tightly hugged her so she blushed.
To cover it up, Mo Xuetong hurriedly turned to take a few bowls of dishes from the chest under the table.
The dishes had been kept warm. When tearing open the protective thick cloth, the aroma of food permeated.
“Let’s go back!” Feng Yuran lazily said.
Instantly, the carriage drove slowly and steadily.
“You actually slept with an empty stomach and didn’t even wake up when I carried you out. I don’t know what you’ve done to exhaust yourself so much!” Coldness flashed across Feng Yuran’s eyes, and he thought inside, “People in Mo Manor really don’t how to look after her.”
“Eat some. I’ll send you home later.”
It was indeed different from her last life. He, was not Sima Lingyun!
Just now, she was comparing him with Sima Lingyun. However, they couldn’t compare at all. She had been worried that he might hurt her. Now, she found it really funny. He cared about her health, and it greatly eased her mind.
Moving the tea table over, she scooped a bowl of rice for Feng Yuran and then prepared one for herself as well. She sat aside, bit the chopsticks, and found that those should all be dishes she enjoyed. At that moment, she turned to look at him.
“This is your favorite, stir-fried vegetables in season. Have a state. It’s still warm.” Feng Yuran tidied his robe, titled his body and put a cushion to support himself. It was really inconvenient for him when he had injuries in his chest and stomach.
“How do you know I enjoy this?” It was stir-fried fresh bamboo shoots and they should be very rare right now. It was just in spring and they should just come on the market not long ago!
Feng Yuran’s beautiful eyes contained pride and many other kinds of affections. Darting a glance at her, he languidly said, “Isn’t it easy to know what you like?”
His words left Mo Xuetong speechless. Then, she pouted and picked up some bamboo shoots to have a taste. It was so fresh and crisp that she almost screamed.
It was a really well-cooked dish, but, most of all, the fresh bamboo shoots in season whetted her appetite.
Seeing her enjoying the dish, Feng Yuran picked some more with his chopsticks and put them into her bowl, smiling. “Eat more if you like them! If you keep losing weight like this, you’ll be bony when you marry me.”
His words made Mo Xuetong blush. She didn’t say anything and just glared at him in embarrassment, picking some dishes and placing them in his bowl.
Feng Yuran was a little surprised and then squinted his handsome eyes. Satisfaction filled his phoenix eyes and he quickly took a bite of the food.
It was quiet in the carriage. The atmosphere was sweet and there was an affectionate feeling in the air!
When they finished dinner, Mo Xuetong cleaned the table a bit, sat back on the couch, and gave him a handkerchief. Feng Yuran was grinning from ear to ear and wiped his mouth when the handkerchief was still held by Mo Xuetong. When she placed the handkerchief back on the table, he grabbed her hand and said, “Tong’er, how about I marry you first?”
His words startled Mo Xuetong, who raised her hand to feel his forehead in surprise and then feel hers as well.
“I mean it. Tong’er, you should just marry me first. We don’t need to live together for now. You can still be in mourning for your mother. Two is better than one when you’re in mourning. And I can stop worrying about you when I know I can take care of you. Now, things are getting messy. It’s true that your father has a high rank, but he won’t necessarily be able to protect you.” Feng Yuran pulled her white, delicate hand and pressed his cheek against it, coaxing.
“I want to protect you, but I don’t have a proper reason. Now, the Empress Dowager has targeted you and you couldn’t have explained yourself clearly just because your father hadn’t agreed on us yet. During the following days, King Ning will act more quickly and so will Eldest Brother, Third Brother, and Bai Yichen. It’s really wrong to promote you to be a princess recently. The Princess Royal wants to protect you but I’m afraid she’s stretching thin.”
He slightly squinted his eyes and coldness flashed across his eyes. He didn’t say the words in the depths of his heart. “Tong’er actually have been engaged, and she’s most likely to be engaged to…”
Such knowledge was enough to make him anxious.
No matter what happened, Tong’er would be his, and no one could take her away from him.
“I don’t think it will work!” Mo Xuetong considered and shook her head without giving an explicit answer. Recently, things indeed had happened to her one by one. In the harem, more than one had targeted her. Though Princess Royal was nice to her, as Feng Yuran had said, her ability fell short of her wishes. For instance, last time in the monkey incident involving Fifth Princess, Fifth Princess did it, but no one punished her in the end!
She could understand that, after all, she was not a real royal compared to Fifth Princess!
“Tong’er, you may rest assured that when you finish the mourning, I will explain it to Father. But I’m really worried about you now! If things like that happen again, I don’t know if I can still control myself.” Feng Yuran turned his head, affection and sorry in his black eyes obvious. He reached out to stroke her smooth air and said dejectedly, “I failed you and have let them kidnap you. I might head to the uncivilized south recently, and I’m worried that…”
The thick helplessness in his words swept away her hesitation like a gust of wind.
Moreover, the meaning of his words even made Mo Xuetong’s hair stand on end, and she instantly looked sober and alert.
In her last life, the man ruthlessly and publicly killed his mother’s family in the royal hall, then went to the uncivilized south, and had never been heard from again!
What made him commit such a crime and then exile himself in such a cruel way? How could a citizen of the central plains understand the uncivilized south? Being away from the central land meant staying away from the center of the fight over supremacy and also the throne itself. What made him so desperate that he ceased to care about anything in the Qin Kingdom?
If he went there, he might never return. Thinking about the possibility, she suddenly found that maybe heaven brought her back to life not just to avenge herself and stop the fall of Fu General Manor. Maybe heaven did it for the man as well, because she didn’t want him to lose his life in the barren south!
She didn’t want him to repeat his last life where he gave up on himself!
Her jade-white hand took the initiative to touch his face. At that moment, she made up her mind. She fluttered her eyelashes and looked at his pretty face. She suppressed the embarrassment in her eyes, bit her lips, and said while looking at him in the eye. “If you don’t go to the south, I’ll marry you earlier!”
Feng Yuran didn’t expect her to agree so easily. He was originally going to give her puppy dog eyes, but now he just froze. Luckily, he reacted fast to hold her and said in an excited tone, “Tong’er, are you really willing to marry me earlier?”
Feeling satisfied, he found his lips lifting up involuntarily. Well, he could finally sleep well then. His Tong’er was so fine that he lost count of the people who secretly wanted her, which was really disturbing! If he married her earlier, he could stop those people from coveting her. They couldn’t have expected that he married Tong’er when she was still in mourning.
“Don’t go to the south!” Falling into his arms while being careful not to touch his injuries, Mo Xuetong insisted.
“OK, I won’t go. I won’t go anywhere Tong’er forbids me to go.” Feng Yuran happily patted Mo Xuetong’s shoulder. The happiness in his black eyes settled down like dense ink. Now, he would regard whatever she said right and should listen to her, and he just agreed to everything she proposed!
Anyway, he was just saying and wouldn’t really go there.
“But, about my father…” Mo Xuetong hesitated a bit.
Feng Yuran immediately understood what she meant and, out of joy, patted his chest at once to promise her. “Tong’er may rest assured that I’ll talk to your father. I promise I’ll give you a proper title and won’t mistreat you in the future.”
The pair of shining eyes was flashing with spectacular brilliance, so bright that people could not take their eyes off him. There was even a dazzling smile on his handsome, flawless face. Seeing him smiling so brightly, Mo Xuetong couldn’t help feeling happy and having a faint and shy smile on her lips as well. She tried to cover it up while leaning in his arms, feeling reassured like never before.
She didn’t have to try, and he would help her get rid of problems!
The feeling of being greatly doted on melted her heart, and it was never as cold as before!
Her heart shook, felt joy and sweetness, and even flipped and jumped…
Sensing Mo Xuetong’s joy, Feng Yuran smiled even more widely. When the lamp in the carriage cast light on his gorgeous face, especially when it did so to his eyes, they would shine like stars and flash with numerous strong emotions. At that moment, he didn’t know what to say and could only hold her tightly. Things quietened down in the carriage.
“Tong’er, you may rest assured that I will never betray you. I’ll only love you, only you!”
Feng Yuran’s words rang by her ears like vows. “He only wants me and will only love me…”
Mo Xuetong felt her nose turning hot and tears welling up in her eyes!
She already became lost for words. In her last life, she died because of the fight in the harem. If one were to really look at it, she would be considered as a loser. Though rising from the ashes in this life, she could still feel that shadow over her heart. Therefore, the best solution she came up with was to safeguard her heart. When she did that, she could finally turn ruthless.
Only by being heartless could she bear watching her husband keeping taking concubines and then coolly handle traps and plots from those concubines. Only when she became ruthless could she stay invincible, away from a broken heart or a mental breakdown, and have everything done in her way.
She would only need to be a strong-willed matriarch!
In the future, her children, the inheritance, and her love life wouldn’t matter!
She didn’t know when she started to believe that Feng Yuran only acted rakish to shun the war in the royal family, and he actually kept things to himself and had self-discipline. Nonetheless, it was all in her guess. Now, hearing him saying such words in such a sincere tone, she felt greatly touched!
She couldn’t believe her ears.
“Tong’er, are you listening?” Mo Xuetong didn’t respond, so Feng Yuran reached out, ready to scoop up her head. However, she clung to his chest and would not let go no matter how he tried.
“I am listening.” She said through a muffled voice, slightly wriggled, and then mildly added, “Thank you!”
Though she did not respond directly, this kind of reaction also made Feng Yuran’s heart flip, and he involuntarily held her even tighter.
“Your Highness, we’ve reached Mo Manor.” Outside the carriage, the coachman gently knocked. They didn’t know the carriage had stopped.
“Tong’er, I’ll walk you in.” Feng Yuran slowly sat up and Mo Xuetong hurriedly crawled out of his arms. While taking the time to straighten her hair, she wiped the tracks of tears by the corner of her eyes and then asked gently, “Do your wounds still hurt?”
“These kinds of wounds don’t matter when I have had them for you. Now, Qin Yufeng will at least stop messing around for a while. Since Eldest Brother has injured himself, my third brother really can’t do anything big on his own. We might as well take a break together.” He sounded jokingly, reached for the cloak by his side to wrap her up, and then carefully fastened it to reveal her face, which would make it easy for her to breathe.
The cloak tightly wrapped around the palm-sized, small face appearing pitifully before him; so Feng Yuran couldn’t resist stealing a kiss on her cherry lips. Then, when she was about to erupt out of embarrassment and anger, he again reached out to hold her and opened the door. He slid out of the carriage, treading the familiar road to her Qingwei Garden.
When Mo Ye opened the windows and accompanied Mo Xuetong into the room, Feng Yuran held her hand and gently said, “Wait for a few more days.” Then, he turned around to leave.
Mo Ye unfastened the cloak, helped her take off the coat and led her to the bed. Mo Ye had already prepared a stove and the bed was warm. Sliding between the sheets, Mo Xuetong couldn’t help but groan out of comfort. After a deep sigh, she suddenly remembered what she had promised him earlier and blushed scarlet. She lifted the quilt to cover the smile at the corner of her mouth!
