Chapter 47  

Xu Lianqiao’s body was gradually recovering. Although she sometimes dreamed about that night, she felt comforted every time she opened her eyes and saw Ning Yuan beside her.

“Am I in trouble?”

She would occasionally ask Ning Yuan with concern, knowing that because of her, he hadn’t been able to sleep well for several days.

Even though she could sleep during the day with nothing else to do, Brother Ning still had to be out and about.

But Ning Yuan didn’t mind her troubles at all. He would just hold her gently and whisper comforting words to her.

“Don’t worry, Ah Qiao. Brother Ning will protect you from now on.”

“When we go to the northwest… we won’t have to face those people anymore.”

Xu Lianqiao knew exactly who Ning Yuan meant… her father, who had recently returned to Beijing after many years.

“I don’t even remember what he looks like,” Xu Lianqiao said softly. “It’s been so many years since I last saw him.”

That time, it was at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, and she clearly remembered how her grandmother had cried that day.

As she spoke, Ning Yuan gently patted her shoulder.

“Can anyone really become an immortal or a Buddha?” Xu Lianqiao asked, curious about something she’d always wondered.

“I don’t mind those who want to seek immortality, I just feel…” She thought about her parents. “I feel that if he wants to walk that path, he should do it alone. If immortality is his goal, then what’s the point of marrying and having children?”

“Brother Ning… if immortality were possible, which would you choose, immortality or marrying and having children?”

Xu Lianqiao half-rose from the bed, inching closer to Ning Yuan in the darkness.

But there was a light laugh from him.

“Here, Ah Qiao.”

Then Xu Lianqiao was almost pulled onto Ning Yuan. It was clear she nearly touched something she shouldn’t have.

Immediately, Ning Yuan’s lazy voice was heard in her ear: “Of course, I choose you, Ah Qiao.”

“You’re too sweet,” she teased, but still couldn’t hide her smile.

Seeing her smile, Ning Yuan’s lips curved into a gentle smile. “What about you, Ah Qiao?”

“Me…” Xu Lianqiao playfully acted mysterious. “Me… I would choose immortality.”

After saying it, she felt a little guilty inside.

“What did you say?”

Ning Yuan thought he had misheard. She was being so heartless.

“Ah… it was just a ‘what if’ question. What if immortality were possible?” she said.

But Ning Yuan didn’t take it lightly. He knew that if Ah Qiao were being playful, she wouldn’t have said it so seriously.

He half-closed his eyes, looking a little dangerous, and turned to change their positions.

“Ah.” The surroundings were dark.

“I… I’m going…”

Xu Lianqiao didn’t finish her sentence, and the rest of her words turned into soft sobs.

Though she and Brother Ning had kissed many times, this time felt different.

He began to gently nibble on the tip of her tongue.

Ning Yuan’s fingers intertwined with hers as they lay between the sheets.

Their noses brushed against each other, and their warm breaths mingled in the quiet air.

The sound of their breathing filled the room, creating a soft, melodious rhythm.

“Ah Qiao, you’ll marry me, won’t you?” Ning Yuan asked after breaking the kiss, his voice teasing but soft.

He had already asked for an imperial edict ^[1]which is an official decree.. Although he requested two months to wait for the right time for the Holy Emperor to issue it, perhaps Lianqiao had known about it already.

Xu Lianqiao responded softly, “Didn’t I already tell you?”

She wanted to be with him forever.

“Then, tell me you’re happy with me.”

He spoke like a child asking for a sweet treat.

“I love you.”

“You want to marry me?”

“I want to marry you.” Xu Lianqiao answered obediently, like a little rabbit.

“Good girl.”

Ning Yuan stroked her hair and kissed her lips again.

No matter how Xu Lianqiao tried to resist, she was afraid he might take advantage of her.

…

“It’s too heavy… Brother Ning, you’re too heavy.”

Saying this, Xu Lianqiao tried to push him away.

However, the hand she had placed on his chest was held by him again.

“Let’s see if you ever dare choose something else again.”

There was a hint of playful threat in his voice.

For some reason, Xu Lianqiao felt a little aggrieved.

Even though only a sliver of moonlight came through the window, it still reflected in her eyes.

“You bully me, you threaten me… why do you like me?”

What was wrong with choosing immortality? She had simply made her choice, that’s all.

“Woo…”

Ning Yuan couldn’t bear to see her crying like this. He quickly turned over and lay on the bed, half-kneeling in front of it as if admitting his mistake.

“I’m sorry, Ah Qiao.”

“It’s Brother Ning’s fault.”

He wiped her tears clumsily.

“You’re so heavy, you know?”

Xu Lianqiao complained, “You’re hurting me.”

“Yes, yes, Brother Ning is wrong.”

“Next time, let Ah Qiao be on top.”

What? Shameless, no shame at all.

Xu Lianqiao felt like she was going to lose her temper at him. “I’ve never cried this much in my life, and you made me cry.”

When her father became a monk, she didn’t cry. When her mother remarried, she didn’t cry either.

She didn’t cry when Jiang Huai treated her like that.

She only cried a little sadly when her grandparents passed away…

But in the past few days, he had made her cry.

Ning Yuan had no choice but to continue holding and comforting her.

Although Ah Qiao cried sadly, he was willing to comfort her.

“If you cry any more, you’ll turn into a little cat.”

He had seen men and women cry before.

He found it a bit annoying.

But not with Ah Qiao.

On the contrary, it was quite endearing.

“Then you comfort me.”

“Hmm…”

How was he supposed to comfort her? Ning Yuan quickly admitted his mistakes but had no experience comforting people.

“Once we get to the northwest, I’ll take Ah Qiao to see the snow, okay?”

“Sometimes when you step on snow, there’s a very clear crunching sound.”

“In the spring, I’ll take Ah Qiao to fly a kite. Even though the spring in the northwest is not as green as here, you can still plant trees. Let’s plant one and sit under the tree when we’re old, enjoying the shade.”

“In the summer, it’s not as hot as here, Ah Qiao should like it…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Xu Lianqiao stopped crying, comforted by him.

Who said he couldn’t comfort people? She felt he was pretty good at it.

“Brother Ning, tell me about your childhood.”

She realized Brother Ning had never talked about his childhood.

Ning Yuan froze when she brought it up.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Ah Qiao, he just didn’t know how.

“Can’t you tell me?”

Xu Lianqiao clearly noticed that Brother Ning stiffened.

“It’s not that…” Ning Yuan hesitated for a while and then slowly said, “It’s just that my mother passed away when I was seven years old, and then I went to a military camp… many things… weren’t interesting.”

His mother came from a prestigious family in the capital. After giving birth to him, she and his father moved to the northwest.

His mother, being from an aristocratic background, was not accustomed to the customs of the northwest and looked down on many things.

He learned this from the nanny who raised his mother.

But his father was different. He was rough and liked casual women.

Originally, his father hadn’t wanted to marry his mother, and after they moved to the northwest, his mother’s reserved temperament made him even less fond of her.

Later, his father took a concubine, a woman who could ride horses and wield a sword like his father.

His mother became depressed and eventually fell ill.

He was too young to realize that the charcoal delivered to his mother’s room every day was actually part of her poison.

The charcoal had oleander mixed in…

After his mother passed away, it’s unclear whose idea it was to send him, a boy under ten, to a military camp.

But whoever suggested it, his father arranged it for him.

However, he didn’t die in battle, as they had hoped. In fact, he survived.

Later, he discovered that the poison in the charcoal had been caused by his father’s concubine.

That year, he was thirteen.

He didn’t know if it was because the concubine was gone or if his father started missing his mother after her death.

His father quickly had the concubine executed.

But so what…

His mother wouldn’t come back.

Everything he went through couldn’t be erased.

People, indeed.

They are often unkind and unjust.

“Later, when I was fifteen, I went to Beijing and met you.”

He had originally thought he would always think like this, until he met a girl under the eaves of a Zen house when he was fifteen years old.

A girl with crooked eyebrows, looking at him.

His Ah Qiao.

_

Hearing this, Xu Lianqiao stopped crying.

She simply hugged Ning Yuan tightly.

“Brother Ning, if I have you in the future, I won’t want you just because others don’t want you,” she said.

“…and you shouldn’t want me just because others don’t want you either,” Ning Yuan replied.

“Okay,” Xu Lianqiao agreed.

This was their lifelong promise.

_

During the day, when Xu Lianqiao thought about this, she felt that her relationship with Brother Ning had grown closer.

However, as she looked at the letter in her hand, she couldn’t help but feel worried.

It was an invitation to a banquet sent by Princess Anyi.

Yes, it was Princess Anyi, the same person she had met at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha before.

The invitation troubled her. She wasn’t a social person at all and had never attended such a banquet before.

It wasn’t that she refused to attend; it was simply that no one had ever invited her before.

So, why had Princess Anyi thought of her at this time? She was, after all, just a divorced woman now.

And when she thought about that day, the memory was so frustrating… She really wished she could bury her head in the sand like an ostrich ^[2]phrase used to describe avoiding reality or difficult situations..

More than anything, she wanted to leave the capital as soon as possible.

Brother Ning had said that in the northwest, he was the boss, which made her the boss’s boss.

There, she wouldn’t have to bow to anyone or answer to anyone.

She could meet whomever she wanted and ignore anyone she didn’t want to see.

How wonderful that would be.

But for now, she had to wake up and face reality.

First, she needed to go to the house on the outskirts of Beijing to pack her things.

After everything that had happened, it wasn’t suitable to live in such a remote place anymore.

However, she hadn’t expected to encounter Jiang Huai there.