Pei Ji couldn’t accept it, and his face showed it all, yet Xie Wangze acted as if he hadn’t noticed anything wrong: “Many thanks, Your Highness.”
Pei Ji glared at Xie Wangze. He just believed her like that? He could tolerate this?
Xie Wangze remained unmoved. He had endured far greater humiliations; this was nothing.
Chu Yunge didn’t want to drag it out: “You all can leave now. Pei Ji, come over tonight.”
Xie Wangze took his leave first. Pei Ji, being the first in line, wanted to say something, but when he saw Xie Wangze and Qingchen already leaving, he hesitated for a moment before following them.
Once they had gone, Chu Yunge was about to continue enjoying the view when the usually taciturn Yan Feng spoke up: “This subordinate doesn’t need special detoxification.”
Yan Feng was the youngest among them, yet the most serious. He spoke and acted with strict propriety, one step at a time. Whenever Chu Yunge looked at him, she always felt he gave off the vibe of a newbie in the workplace trying to act like an adult.
“Is that so? You’ve spent the most time following this princess, so can you guarantee the poison won’t flare up and affect your protection of this princess?”
Less contact was fine as long as he could guarantee it.
Yan Feng fell silent. He couldn’t guarantee it.
“Then we’ll go with this arrangement for now.”
Chu Yunge ate some fruit after the meal, her gaze finally landing on the three figures who had walked far away.
“Why are they huddling together again? Who knows what they’re saying.” Chu Yunge muttered to herself. She wasn’t afraid of them badmouthing her behind her back, but she was afraid they might be plotting how to kill her.
Chu Yunge was just talking to herself when Yan Feng’s voice suddenly came from behind her.
“Xie-gongzi, do you have something against me?”
Yan Feng spoke abruptly, his tone a bit odd. Chu Yunge turned to look at him.
She saw Yan Feng tilt his head, listening intently with an expressionless face, then speak again: “Oh, Little Marquis, why do you say that?”
Chu Yunge paused, then suddenly realized Yan Feng was relaying the trio’s conversation—or rather, repeating their words, even mimicking their tones perfectly.
The first line was unmistakably Pei Ji’s, and the second one sounded just like Xie Wangze.
Yan Feng’s imitation was a bit stiff, but pretty spot-on.
After confirming it, Chu Yunge was shocked. From such a distance, Yan Feng could actually hear them.
Moreover, she had only muttered that one sentence, and he repeated it right away, tone and all. He really was quite the loyal dog.
As Chu Yunge thought this, she unethically didn’t tell him to stop.
Meanwhile, Pei Ji followed closely on the heels of Xie Wangze and Qingchen, unaware that their words were being eavesdropped on.
“You… why didn’t any of you react?” Were the people of Heavenly Prosperity City all this open-minded now? Even less bound by conventions than jianghu folk?
“How would Little Marquis like us to react?” Xie Wangze stopped and looked at Pei Ji, asking flatly in return.
The late emperor and Pei Ji’s father had been friends despite the age difference, with deep bonds of ruler and minister. The late emperor had always valued and employed him heavily, and their private friendship was strong too. Pei Ji’s father never disappointed, achieving repeated military merits and becoming Chu State’s protector general.
The Pei Family was rare in having two marquises in one generation: Pei Ji’s father was enfeoffed as Protector of the Nation Marquis, his grandfather was posthumously honored, and later the eldest son earned his own merits to become a marquis as well. In the end, the family title passed to the second son, Pei Ji, who was called Little Marquis.
Pei Ji glanced at Xie Wangze: “Xie-gongzi, do you have something against me?”
Xie Wangze let out an “oh”: “Little Marquis, why do you say that?”
Pei Ji held it in for a moment: “If I hadn’t failed to rush back in time, Xie-gongzi would already be back in Chen State by now. It’s normal for you to blame me, but I really was delayed by something. It wasn’t intentional dodging the marriage, and I didn’t expect it would implicate you.”
Xie Wangze lowered his gaze: “Little Marquis already explained that earlier.”
“But you don’t seem to believe it.” Pei Ji felt helpless: “Xie-gongzi, for the sake of me getting my comeuppance too—going from principal husband to a face consort, and a ridiculous ‘side consort’ at that—can we put aside our grudges first? This concerns our innocence. We need to band together to detoxify and solve the problem.”
Pei Ji’s blunt and unrestrained words left even Xie Wangze silent for a beat: “How do you plan to solve it? Do you dare to kill Her Highness?”
The last sentence came out so softly it scattered in the wind.
Pei Ji was startled by Xie Wangze’s own bluntness: “Of course not.”
He looked back to confirm Chu Yunge in the pavilion couldn’t hear before relaxing: “Xie-gongzi, don’t say things like that again. It’s scary.”
He paused: “Do you think she’s really just helping detoxify tonight?” Or does she plan to take advantage somehow?
“Probably true.” Xie Wangze’s answer was ambiguous.
Faced with their calmness, Pei Ji felt stifled: “Why are you two so calm? Tonight it’s me, tomorrow night it’ll be you, Xie-gongzi.”
“Exactly.” Xie Wangze nodded. It wouldn’t be his turn until after tonight.
Pei Ji felt even more stifled: “…She’s making each of us take one night. Isn’t this just like flipping the emperor’s plaques in the palace? Will she make green plaques to flip us later too?” As the first one to be flipped, Pei Ji’s face turned red, unsure if from shame or anger.
A flash of awkwardness crossed Xie Wangze’s face before he spoke: “The princess has Green Head Plaques already; no need to make new ones.”
Pei Ji let out an “ah” of shock, his face full of surprise.
Even Qingchen glanced at Xie Wangze. He had done it on purpose.
Xie Wangze smiled faintly: “Gifted by His Majesty. If she really flips plaques, Little Marquis as her side consort would definitely be on top.”
“I won’t let her flip me!” Pei Ji’s face grew even redder: “How could His Majesty give her that? I was going to go complain to His Majesty.”
Xie Wangze glanced at Pei Ji: “Complain to His Majesty? Looks like Little Marquis is quite familiar with His Majesty too, but it won’t help.”
“You weren’t in Heavenly Prosperity City, so you don’t know how much His Majesty dotes on Her Highness.” Xie Wangze lowered his eyes. The doting wasn’t normal.
“It’s just Green Head Plaques. Hasn’t His Majesty indulged the princess in treating you, Little Marquis, as a side consort?”
Pei Ji: “…”
Hearing “side consort” from Xie Wangze made his teeth ache: “So you’re saying we really have no way to deal with her? We can’t actually consummate to detoxify, right?”
Pei Ji hugged his own arms, feeling a bit sorry for himself: “I can’t. I have to cultivate.”
Who would have thought that he, a grown man, would return to Heavenly Prosperity City only to worry every day about losing his innocence.
His gaze turned to Qingchen—fellow sufferer, both monastics, yet the princess spared neither.
“Sigh, Qingchen-gongzi, you’re a monk too and can’t break your precepts. Even if you could, there are four of us in total… we can’t all…”
He really hadn’t prepared himself mentally for a one-wife-multiple-husbands life.
Others had one wife multiple concubines, but for him it was one wife multiple husbands. He didn’t even dare hope for one husband one wife.
Pei Ji felt life was hopeless. Looking at Xie Wangze and Qingchen made him even more despairing.
“Why do you two act like it’s none of your business? Have you decided to consummate for detoxification? Or just keep going like this? It’s only been this long, and she’s already snatched so many people—downright mad to even snatch Master Qingchen. Who knows what else she’ll snatch later.”
“Of course we can’t keep going like this.” Xie Wangze finally spoke upon hearing “consummate for detoxification.” His downcast eyes were icy cold.
Qingchen glanced at Xie Wangze: “Her Highness the Princess seems a bit different.”
“What’s different?” Pei Ji picked at his fingers, anxious about the night’s detoxification.
Xie Wangze stayed silent, but the princess did seem a bit different.
After the three finished talking and parted ways, Chu Yunge—who hadn’t missed a single word thanks to Yan Feng’s relay: “…”
Xie Wangze really was a scheming top; he had actually considered killing her.
Pei Ji mentioned the emperor and seemed jealous, turning into a lemon. But this CP, she really couldn’t ship.
As for Pei Ji, aside from overthinking, he hadn’t considered killing her. The detoxification tonight could proceed.
No matter how anxious or resistant Pei Ji was, that night, as the poison flared more unbearably, he eventually dawdled and sneaked over furtively, like a thief, to the Princess’s Bedroom.