CH 48

Xie Ke breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Zhiyu gradually falling asleep.

He had been to many worlds and learned a lot of things. Fortunately, he had such skills to come in handy at this time, as if it was prepared specially for Zhiyu.

Fu Zhiyu was comfortable and hummed in a low voice in his sleep. He was willing to be obedient in front of him at this time. Xie Ke cherished this moment extremely. After massaging his legs, even if his heart was burning, he didn’t dare to really do anything else. He just looked at Fu Zhiyu intently and couldn’t help it; he leaned down and kissed his forehead extremely lightly, for fear of waking him up.

He watched like this by the bed all night, without feeling sleepy at all, only submerged in a faint sense of happiness and satisfaction. This mood all came from the sleeping man lying on the bed.

When Fu Zhiyu got up the next morning, Xie Ke was no longer there. He naturally remembered what happened last night, subconsciously moved his legs, and felt that this man was inexplicable.

After eating breakfast, he told Yuan Mingdao about the events of yesterday’s reward ceremony, and also let him know the current situation in the court.

Xie Ke was mentioned in one sentence. Fu Zhiyu didn’t really want to mention him in front of Yuan Mingdao. Xie Ke was also a scar to Mingdao, and the memories he brought were very unpleasant.

Fortunately, Mingdao had been focusing on scimitar practice recently and hadn’t been out of the courtyard much. The Lilac Courtyard where Xie Ke made the most trouble was far from where Yuan Mingdao lived, so he shouldn’t have heard about it.

“What?” Yuan Mingdao keenly captured the point and turned his head abruptly, “Where is General Zhenyuan’s residence? Across the street?”

The half-moon scimitar in his hand was raised at that moment.

Fu Zhiyu looked amused and said, “What? Are you going to find trouble?”

Yuan Mingdao snorted and said, “Master says that we won’t actively seek trouble, but if Xie Ke really dares to come, I’ll skin him.”

Rongrong pricked up his ears and followed suit with a loud “woof”.

He has been here several times, without you knowing, Fu Zhiyu muttered silently in his heart.

But he was really annoyed by Xie Ke these days, so he just asked Steward Zhou to set up a kennel in his room and let Rongrong accompany him.

“Sleep with me from now on,” Fu Zhiyu squeezed Rongrong’s paws, “Don’t let weird people in.”

Rongrong: “Woof!”

Advertisements

At night, Xie Ke really climbed the wall again. As soon as he got in through the window, he was bitten by Rongrong on the leg of his pants and stopped from going forward. Fu Zhiyu was already awake. Xie Ke knew that Fu Zhiyu loved the dog, so he didn’t dare to touch it. 

“Don’t come from now on,” Fu Zhiyu said, “It’s really annoying.”

“I’m sorry, Zhiyu, I didn’t want to disturb your sleep, I just wanted to take a look,” Xie Ke quickly explained, and asked cautiously, “Do your legs still hurt? Shall I massage them for you again?”

Fu Zhiyu: “…None of your business, hurry up and leave, don’t touch me, touch me again and I’ll let Rongrong bite you.”

I’ve already been bitten more than once…

Xie Ke was not afraid of the wolfdog, but he was afraid of his wife.

After that, he was quiet for a few days. When Fu Zhiyu went to the palace to see his mother as usual, he found that Consort Yun had a few scrolls, looking at them left and right, as if studying something.

“What is Mother Consort looking at?”

Seeing him come in, Consort Yun told him to sit down and explained: “The Crown Prince’s marriage will happen soon. There are two Wangs on the side of Linyue Tower, and it’s time to discuss marriage for them. It’s actually the same for you, but the things were delayed by the war. The emperor spoke to me yesterday and gave me these.”

When Fu Zhiyu looked at the scrolls, they were all portraits of women.

“Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t think about it now?” Fu Zhiyu didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, “We won’t stay here for long, so why bother to waste the others’ time.”

“I know, I’ll find an excuse to refuse after a while,” Consort Yun said, her face still full of excitement, “But what’s wrong with looking at them now? What mother doesn’t care about this? Xiaobao is also an adult, it’s time to get married. Besides, as you know, I have put off this matter several times, and it is not so easy to put it off again. Sooner or later, you will have to take time to go and take a look.”

“I’m not going,” Fu Zhiyu lowered his head and ate a peanut, “I don’t want to go.”

Consort Yun sighed, stretched out her hand to touch his head, and said solemnly: “Zhiyu, that’s about it for your mother. I’ve met the wrong person, but you’re still young, maybe you’ll really meet someone you like?”

Fu Zhiyu: “……”

He didn’t know how to explain to his own mother just how much of a failure his love life was, no better than hers, so he hastily changed the subject, putting all those scrolls aside.

Advertisements

The war had just passed and not only the imperial family was in full swing discussing marriage, but so were the courtiers below.

At the reward ceremony, a group of young people was promoted, particularly Xie Ke, Du Yin and Lu Linhai. And there was also a group of imperial examination students headed by Shen Yang. All of them were yet to marry. Jilin was very open-minded in this regard. Many of the women’s families took the initiative to hand out olive branches, and some women directly came forward to express their affection. The residence of General Zhenyuan had not been fully arranged yet, but there were already matchmakers on the threshold.

Where Xie Lin came to visit his son, he had to squeeze through the crowd of matchmakers smelling of grease and powder.

“I used to have this time too…” Xie Lin patted himself vigorously, stretched out his hand and touched his face, nostalgic, “When I was young, I was also a romantic figure in the capital, how many girls chased me, that scene, tsk…”

Xie Ke just walked out of the door. When he heard this, he said, “In the end, you married that idiot Xu?”

Xie Lin also knew what Xie Ke’s attitude was towards the matriarch of his family, but it was true that Lady Xu had provoked him first, and the backroom privacy really didn’t matter to people like Xie Ke. He cleaned up the people in Xie Lin’s mansion, large and small, and now they were obedient like sheep. Not to mention Lady Xu, sometimes even Xie Lin was a little scared of his son.

“She has always had this temperament, and I’m just used to it. For people like us, marriage is like this, often it’s just for benefit. I haven’t even met her before I married her. How could I know what kind of person she was?” Xie Lin finished smoothly, “Anyway, you now have your own general’s residence, and you don’t have to see her anymore, so don’t mind that woman.”

Xie Lin was not a polite person either. After he finished speaking, he walked to the hall and sat down on his own. He also stretched out his hand to get himself a cup of tea and said to Xie Ke: “I’m coming to you to discuss this matter. You have gotten your achievements now, and you are not young. It’s time to marry a wife. The emperor is also interested. This time, it is very likely that you will be able to marry a princess.”

Xie Ke raised his eyebrows and didn’t say anything.

Xie Lin was in high spirits, saying to him: “There are a lot of imperial princesses of a marriageable age. The Seventh Princess is two years younger than you. She is good-looking and has a quiet personality. She is also known as a talented girl. The Tenth Princess is a little younger, she is sixteen this year, and she has a lively temperament. I have seen her a few times in the racecourse. She is heroic and valiant. You might like her…”

Xie Ke also followed his words at this moment and continued: “I really have a crush on someone, but I don’t know if the emperor is willing to marry this person to me.”

“Who is it?” Xie Lin guessed, “The Twelfth Princesses? She’s a bit young, but not too much. According to the emperor’s current attitude towards you, whoever you like in Jilin, as long as it is not too outrageous, he will follow your wishes.”

“Really?” Xie Ke smiled slightly, “Good, go back to the emperor and say that I had a crush on the Ninth Prince and asked to bestow a marriage.”

Xie Lin’s mind hadn’t processed his words for a while. He thought carefully and was just about to reply that there was no Ninth Princess in the palace and Xie Ke was teasing him with some nonsense joke. And he suddenly realised something.

“Ninth? The Ninth Prince?” He couldn’t believe it, ”Wang Zhao? Are you crazy?”

“I am very sane. He is very good, just right for me,” Xie Ke lowered his head and took a sip of tea, and then glanced towards the door. That was the direction of Wang Zhao’s residence, just across the street, “Otherwise, why do you think I asked the emperor for this mansion?”

Xie Lin stood up all of a sudden. He looked at Xie Ke, only to feel that his brain was congested and he couldn’t think for an instant.

“If you have this kind of interests, just play in private! This is Wang Zhao! Even if his brain doesn’t work anymore, he is the emperor’s favourite son!” Xie Lin’s voice lowered, “Do you want to die?”

“I’m not playing,” Xie Ke said. He didn’t seem to understand why Xie Lin was so surprised. “Didn’t I tell you when I went to war? I have someone I like and he is hard to chase. I have to bet my life to marry him.”

“You, you, you…” Xie Lin pointed at him, his hand shaking, and finally the only thing he could say was, “Asshole! Unfilial son!”

“You’re talking nonsense again,” Xie Ke wasn’t flustered at all. “In fact, you know in your heart that it’s not a big deal that I like men, it’s just that that person can’t be Wang Zhao, can’t be the emperor’s son. But why?”

Xie Lin listened to this topic getting more and more out of control. Xie Ke took a step forward, stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder, saying softly: “Have you really never thought that the so-called General Zhongyong is not the end of the line? You can actually go further and no longer have to suffer from these troubles.”

The Xie residence was in a treacherous atmosphere, and across the street the Wang Zhao residence wasn’t much better.

Fu Zhiyu knew in his heart that the marriage matter couldn’t be easily put off by his mother consort, so she could only drag it on. There used to be good excuses. He was young and his elder imperial brothers were not married. The current war also made the situation tense and it was not appropriate to do a lot of things. But now even the marriage of the Third Prince was almost settled and these excuses were not very useful.

Even if he didn’t marry right away, he would have to settle on someone. But Fu Zhiyu really didn’t want to enter a marriage agreement. If a marriage agreement was made, it couldn’t be changed at will, which would waste the time of an innocent girl.

What made Fu Zhiyu feel even more creepy was that the emperor seemed to set his eye on the girl from the Xie family. This was also reasonable. The Xie family was the emperor’s confidant, and now they had great achievements. Of course, the chain of marriage was the best way to tie them, but this was not good news for Fu Zhiyu.

“Mingdao, why don’t you pretend to be a girl, and I’ll marry you,” Fu Zhiyu seriously put forward an idea, “I’ll just say to the outside world that you were originally a girl, but wearing men’s clothing.”

Yuan Mingdao, who was forcibly sex-changed: “???”

“It’s not impossible,” Yuan Mingdao couldn’t help blushing, his voice sticky, “Master can do whatever he wants, I will help Master.”