Chapter 54

Liu Changning, who had been drowsy, instantly became alert.

She narrowed her eyes and looked up at the man standing casually beside the bed.

Her dry lips pressed into a straight line as she frowned and asked softly, “Why did you just swear to stay away from me, hm?”

Her voice wasn’t as cold as usual, having just woken up, with a hint of hoarseness.

Her full weight rested on the pear blossom wood bed, her clothes loosened from the earlier tugging, revealing her round, fair shoulders.

Gone was her usual coldness and rigidity. At this moment, with her shoulders half-exposed and her usually cold face flushed from the pillow, she was alluring without realizing it.

Pei Yuanshao held back his trembling lips, turned his gaze away in frustration, and arrogantly lifted his chin at her. Looking at the beam above, he asked knowingly, “Does Liu Jie Yuan really want to know the reason?”

Liu Changning pulled her collar together and fastened the buttons. Only then did she look up at him, her expression solemn, and said in a low voice, “Let’s talk. After that night, you’ve been avoiding me… Why?”

Having slept for half a shichen, she finally had some energy. She didn’t expect that as soon as she got up, she would be teased by her convenient husband as if she were a male concubine.

Liu Changning looked him up and down, her gaze falling on his buttocks wrapped in dark red brocade. Her eyes gradually darkened.

This person was now pretending to be coquettish, making her hands itch to hit him.

The old cadre Liu Changning had never been able to tolerate flirtatious, pretentiously licentious men in her life.

But the person before her now was smirking, standing crookedly by the bed, with peach blossom eyes glancing around flirtatiously. His crimson lips curled upwards, giving her a seductive smile.

He smiled with exaggerated charm, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. His ink-black eyes were full of disdain. His nostrils flared as if he had smelled a foul odor from her body, and he dramatically retreated several steps.

Covering his nose, he glanced at her sideways and raised an eyebrow, saying, “What does Liu Jie Yuan want to talk about with this prince? About swearing to stay away from you? Haha! Jie Yuan must be forgetful. I’ve told you before, my heart belongs to someone else. Now you seem to have developed deep feelings for me. For your own good, I should stay away from you.”

Liu Changning’s lips pressed into a straight line. She straightened her clothes and sat up on the pear blossom wood bed, asking calmly, “What do you mean by that?”

The man opposite her, as if boneless, leaned against the carved wooden screen and chuckled, “Liu Jie Yuan, with your great talent and exceptional brilliance, do you truly not understand the real meaning behind this prince’s words?”

Pei Yuanshao looked up with a half-smile, his peach blossom eyes scanning her back and forth. His voice suddenly turned cold, “I advise Jie Yuan not to harbor vain hopes. If you don’t want to be a male concubine played with by me in this Ming De Chang Di Qing mansion, then stay far away from me.”

“Do you remember what you promised me that day at Xiangyun Restaurant? You said you would retreat three steps when you saw me. It’s laughable. Everyone says the Cangyu Resident keeps her promises and has a noble character. She never goes back on her word to others. Is Liu Nü Jun going to break that promise now?”

Liu Changning narrowed her almond eyes. She put on her embroidered shoes, stepped forward, and stood in front of him, her gaze level with his.

Her tea-colored eyes showed a hint of tolerance. Her dry lips parted as she said softly, “Yes, Cangyu is not a saint, and indeed, I’m going back on my word now. Shao’er, be good. I’ve wanted to ask you something ever since I took your body a few months ago. When I become the top scholar, may I ask the Empress for your hand?”

Pei Yuanshao’s hands were tucked into his sleeves, his fingers clenched into fists, the fingertips deeply imprinted in his palms. Blood seeped from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground.

The pain from his fingertips spread throughout his body, but the pounding of his heart grew louder and louder, disturbing his clarity of mind.

He clenched his jaw, swallowing the “yes” that almost escaped his lips.

His gaze fell on the exquisite pastries in the open package not far from the ground, and the warmth in his heart was doused by a bucket of cold water. He suddenly became clear-headed.

The cold wind of late February blew on his face, chilling him to the bone.

Pei Yuanshao couldn’t help but shiver. He narrowed his eyes, concealing the ugly jealousy in them.

He had waited for so many days, finally hearing her say she would marry him, but she… she would still marry other men.

A man who, because of her love for bamboo, had personally embroidered a handkerchief for him. That day at Xiangyun Restaurant, that handkerchief with its fine stitching and lifelike green bamboo must have taken a lot of effort.

A man who, because of her love for bamboo, had personally made dried food for her before her imperial examination, with bamboo, her favorite, on top. His culinary carving skills were ingenious.

Such blatant affection, all centered on green bamboo.

A woman as intelligent as Liu Cangyu, he didn’t believe she didn’t know the love of her so-called “junior brother”, yet she accepted such gifts.

She must like him too. There was another man in her heart.

Pei Yuanshao swallowed his bitterness. That day when she had taken his body, she wanted to give him an explanation! Marry him!

But he didn’t want that! He didn’t want to marry her in this way!

His wife-master’s eyes should only be for him. He couldn’t tolerate his wife-master having three husbands and four attendants. He couldn’t bear to share…

Years ago, the Empress Mother had declared that he was born rebellious. Jealous and strong-willed, outside the bounds of the three obediences and four virtues, arrogant and difficult to train.

Although the Empress Mother was cruel to him, this statement wasn’t wrong.

He indeed had his own pride. People are not born with distinctions of high or low, noble or humble.

One cannot decide their gender at birth, but as a man, to strive and believe in oneself rather than fate, to live in this world no less than a woman?

Men, except for being weaker than women in bed, controlled by pheromones and confused by desire. But in other matters, how could they be weak?

They have hands and feet, so why should they be self-deprecating, self-abasing, feeling inferior, confined within, waiting for their wife-master to favor them when pleased, and beat and scold them when displeased?

Pei Yuanshao sneered at the saying of the three obediences and four virtues. He would rather spend his life with the ancient Buddha than be a man who shares a woman with others for a lifetime.

He had his own persistence…

Moreover… Liu Cangyu now had too many deceptions towards him.

Possessing unparalleled talent, yet pretending to be a good-for-nothing farm girl. This was the first deception. It was to divorce him effortlessly.

Staging a big fire, burning everything of Liu Changning as a farm girl, this was the second deception. It was to burn away her past and future, and also burned half of his heart. For two years, the cenotaph he had set up for her in the mansion had become a naked joke.

Pei Yuanshao closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were clear.

He pulled out the long whip from his waist and suddenly used force, lashing it in front of the approaching woman’s feet.

His eyes shot cold light, filled with fierce color. He used the red whip to lift her chin, leaned forward, and met her gaze steadily. His lips parted.

He said coldly, “Remember, you can’t call me Shao’er. You… are not her! That night, if I hadn’t been drunk and mistaken you for her, how could you have made me submit beneath you?”

He took a step forward, sniffed at her hair, and sneered with disgust, “So smelly!”

“You’re indeed different from her. She was an extremely gentle woman, unlike you as I see now. When I was with her, she didn’t need to be in heat, didn’t need pheromones to seduce me, yet she could make me feel hot inside, wanting to be comforted, to be filled. But you…”

Pei Yuanshao looked at Liu Changning frivolously and sneered, “It’s not working! I’ve tried. Although I was drunk that day, my consciousness was very clear.”

“Affected by the pheromones you released, I could only numb myself, imagining you as her, offering my body. You need not feel guilty. What I want is only the love she gives. You… can’t do it. You can’t fill the half of my heart that I’ve lost. Not even as a substitute!”

Liu Changning looked at him steadily. The man before her lowered his eyes, the fake smile disappeared from his face, his emotions indiscernible. His voice was low and deep, with a hint of sadness she couldn’t understand.

She was the Old Ancestor of the Heartless Dao. The seven emotions and six desires of the human world she had only seen on TV in her previous life. She didn’t understand the sorrow and pain in his eyes.

Although her heart felt sour now, the thought of one life, one world, one partner that she had finally developed was trampled into the dust.

A bitter smile escaped her lips, her tea-colored almond eyes filled with helplessness and melancholy: “Does Your Highness believe in fate? A long time ago, there was a man who repeatedly told me that if you take a man’s body, you must marry him! Although that night was a mistake for you, I… I took your first time.”

The man in red opposite her frowned, about to refute.

Liu Changning interrupted him and continued slowly, “Don’t deny it. That night, I saw the dark red peony birthmark on your lower abdomen.”

She suddenly smiled, gently laughing at the embarrassed and angry man, “It was also my first time… You are my first man. Does that make you feel better? I thought after taking your body, I would marry you. If you can’t let go of the woman in your heart, then forget it.”

“Shao’er… Your Highness, take good care of yourself in the future. Living people are always more difficult than the dead, but there isn’t only one person in the world. You need to live well to keep the memories of you and her forever. I didn’t expect Your Highness to love the woman in your heart so deeply. Is it alright if this humble official keeps a distance from Your Highness in the future? Please don’t cry anymore.”

Her eyes, shimmering with a glassy color, looked at him with understanding. Pei Yuanshao awkwardly turned his gaze away, lowering his head, his ink-black eyes filled with sparkling tears.

He stood still, watching her stumble out the door, listening to her footsteps growing distant.

Tears slowly fell down his angular face. He roughly wiped the wetness from his face, stumbling out of the room, searching in the direction she had disappeared, but could no longer see that white figure.

Raindrops mixed with his tears fell to the ground, one drop, two drops.

The red-robed, black-haired man knelt on the muddy ground, his dry lips moistened by the rain.

He looked at the gloomy sky, tears covering his face. He tugged at his lips, smiling bitterly without a sound, “What a deep and scheming woman! Even when I’m determined to sever all ties with her, she still won’t let me go.”

His ink-black eyes looked into the distance through the misty rain, and he asked in a low voice, “How can you teach me not to cry? You are so excellent, so excellent that all the young men in the capital look at you shyly, even women like Jing Huan want to have you. And I, I only have you alone. I want you to only want me alone! It’s good that you’re leaving. What if one day, I can’t control the violence in my heart and use some means to confine you by my side? I would surely become a despicable person in your heart. I don’t want to become a jealous husband! It’s good that you’re leaving!”