After Lan Jinqin got off the carriage, the night breeze blew through her dazed mind.
Her clothes were clean, tidy, and without a single wrinkle.
She felt the silver note worth two hundred thousand taels in her bosom and couldn't help but look back at the carriage behind her.
The carriage in the darkness was as silent as a rock.
If she didn't know that Xiao Rencheng was sitting inside, she would really think it was empty.
She remembered Xiao Rencheng's suppressed words just now, "You can have all the silver, but you must promise me one thing..."
Xiao Rencheng placed his hands on her shoulders and gently rubbed them, as if restraining some emotion:
"From now on, you mustn't let him touch you again. Can you do it?"
Lan Jinqin blinked.
Although she didn't want to have a relationship with Wen Zilong in the first place, but...
After all, they were husband and wife. If it was really a last resort, for the sake of her life or the interests of her family, she would sacrifice herself.
If she promised Xiao Rencheng...
But for the sake of the silver...
Lan Jinqin finally nodded.
She would deal with it for now.
If it really came to a desperate situation, she wouldn't mind breaking her promise. Anyway, Xiao Rencheng couldn't watch her all the time.
So what if he found out? What could he do?
Xiao Rencheng let out a soft laugh, as if he had sensed her perfunctory attitude. He reached out and took the jade magnolia hairpin from her bun and put it in his hand. He said casually:
"Madam, this is the proof. If you break your promise, I will expose your affairs."
Lan Jinqin's face changed. She watched as he slowly leaned towards her ear and threatened in a low voice, "Madam colluded with bandits to rob her husband's family of silver and even intended to have an improper relationship with the bandits... If this comes to light, what will be your fate?"
Lan Jinqin shivered and looked at Xiao Rencheng sideways.
Riding a wooden donkey, being drowned in a pig cage, being slowly sliced to death... Various punishments flashed through her mind.
Xiao Rencheng was a madman!
Another madman who threatened her!
At this moment, Xiao Rencheng didn't know that his impression in Lan Jinqin's heart had changed dramatically.
Lan Jinqin gritted her teeth, put away the silver note, and said stiffly:
"I understand. Can I leave now?"
Lan Jinqin withdrew her gaze, without a trace of nostalgia, and quickly left the carriage.
The curtain behind her was lifted. Xiao Rencheng stared at the graceful figure entering the mansion. His pupils were as deep as the sea.
Eight years ago, when he went to the capital to take the imperial examination, he met this woman just like tonight.
She looked weak but was heartless and decisive.
That year, he entered the capital in the severe winter. It was freezing cold.
As a son from a poor family, he was dressed thinly. After a long journey, and especially that year when the heavy snow covered thousands of miles, almost all the farmland and crops north of the Yangtze River in the Great Ye Kingdom were frozen to death.
There were countless refugees, which led to large - scale famine and plague.
Xiao Rencheng's already meager travel expenses were used to relieve many refugees along the way. When he arrived in the capital, he was in a mess, disheveled, and penniless.
He stood at the city gate, looking at the ragged and wailing people wandering in the city. He was completely at a loss and couldn't believe that this was the capital of the Great Ye Kingdom.
"What are you standing here for?" A female voice came from behind.
The voice was soft and cool like water.
Xiao Rencheng turned around and saw a woman standing behind him. She was wearing a white cloak with green calyxes, a gray - squirrel - lined silver jacket, and a sable hat. She looked like a noble young lady.
At this moment, she was looking at him coldly.
Her eyebrows were extremely beautiful, hazy in the snow, making it hard for him to see clearly. There was a coldness in her bones that penetrated through layers of his body and faintly invaded his heart.
Xiao Rencheng was instantly speechless.
The ragged clothes on his body fluttered in the wind. The cold wind cut across his skin like a blade.
Compared with the noble woman in front of him, he seemed extremely humble.
Lan Jinqin withdrew her gaze and stuffed the freshly - bought kumquat dumplings into Xiao Rencheng's arms.
Before he could say a word, Lan Jinqin had already passed by him proudly, leaving only a casual sentence:
"There are porridge sheds and refugee camps in the north of the city. Don't stand at the city gate and block the way for other refugees to enter the city."
Xiao Rencheng watched her back.
Weak but decisive and heartless.
Even the words she said were so heartless, but he tightened his grip on the pastry in his hand.
In the freezing world, only the palm of his hand was warm.
The second time they met, he was infected with the plague in the refugee camp.
He was delirious with fever, and his whole body was shivering as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Maybe he wouldn't survive this severe winter. In the endless darkness, he actually saw a face as pale as ice and snow in his coma.
The woman's back was shining with holy light, and her face was covered with a faint glow of snow. Looking at the dying him, her red lips parted slightly and said:
"He seems to be still alive. Don't burn him for now!"
Burn...
It was this sentence that made Xiao Rencheng fight desperately to survive.
Because he didn't want to be burned to ashes after death and have no bones left.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Lan Jinqin's back.
She was extremely noble, standing in front of him and giving orders:
"That person is dead. Carry him out and burn him."
"That person is coughing up blood. He is contagious. Take him to another room for isolation."
"That..." Lan Jinqin turned around and happened to meet Xiao Rencheng's deep eyes. She paused for a moment and said, "You... You're really lucky. You can't even die like this... Those who survive a great disaster will surely have good fortune. You're a blessed person. When you're rich and noble in the future, don't forget to repay me."
After saying that, she left proudly.
The scene in front of him flashed. Xiao Rencheng lowered his head and tightened his grip on the jade magnolia hairpin. He said in a low voice:
"Repay? The thing I regret most in my life is thinking that you liked Wen Zilong and watching you marry someone else without repaying you in time..."
"If time could turn back, I would choose to marry you, Miss Lan."
It was the same night, filled with the same strong affection.
A familiar smell filled the bed curtains in the Prince Yan's mansion's bedroom.
It was the common mark left by Cai Yu and Song Yinghuai on the bed canopy and the brocade quilt.
It made people recall those charming scenes just now as soon as they smelled it.
Song Yinghuai had just asked someone to prepare water for her to clean up, but the woman clung to him like a snake again.
The man slapped her plump and perky buttocks and said with a helpless smile, "You little vixen. Do you deliberately want me to die on you?"
Cai Yu grunted and pouted. Her eyes wandered around, "If you won't die on me, on whom should you die?"
She pulled Song Yinghuai's chiseled cheeks and said, "On Concubine Lü's body?"
"Maybe, you want to die on the Princess of Nan'an?" Cai Yu thought it made more and more sense.
Both women had come tonight!
Song Yinghuai's expression froze. He didn't care that his cheek was being pinched and asked in confusion, "Why are you bringing them up all of a sudden?"
"Hehe! Didn't the Prince go to the Qinhuai River tonight to meet them?" Cai Yu said sourly, "The new love is lovely, and the old feelings are hard to forget. You hugged each other tightly when parting and were reluctant to separate... The husband of Concubine Lü, the Crown Prince, was still standing beside you, but you were so unrestrained."
Song Yinghuai recalled for a moment and then remembered the scene when Lü Baiwei had hugged his arm on the shore.
The man's Adam's apple rolled slowly on his neck, indicating his uneasiness at the moment.
He thought this girl hadn't pursued the matter when she was sitting in the carriage, and she hadn't pursued it when they got back, so it was over.
Who would have thought...
Song Yinghuai coughed lightly and held her soft little hand.
Her skin was so smooth that he really couldn't put it down.
He said with a soft smile, "Can't you really tell what I went on the boat for tonight?"
Cai Yu pursed her lips, and her eyes flickered slightly.
She wasn't completely unable to tell. She had a vague guess.
But she didn't have the confidence and didn't dare to be sure.
"The Prince is the most scheming person in the world. How can I guess what's on your mind?" Cai Yu looked completely unenlightened.
Song Yinghuai thought she was cute and arrogant. He couldn't help but reach out his other hand to scrape her cheek and tease:
"The Princess of Nan'an was born in the military. She has been with men all year round. She has a strong self - esteem and is used to the dirty things in the military camp. She looks down on the dissolute behavior of men in the world..."
"I just got close to the Lü family to make her dislike me and give up the idea of an arranged marriage."
It really was like this!
Cai Yu pursed her lips. Her eyes wandered around the bed curtain and she didn't dare to face Song Yinghuai.
But Song Yinghuai didn't want to let her go. His scorching breath lingered around her ear and he teased:
"Someone is jealous and insists on coming to catch an affair, ruining my plan."
"What should I do with you?"