Wei Cheng couldn't hear the phrase "new place." Looking at Qin Shaozong, besides being shocked that he didn't even recognize the name, she was also astonished by his... condition.
The man, over eight feet tall, wore a black robe. His ink-black hair was tied high with a crown and kerchief. His complexion was normal, heroic and majestic. With a ring-pommel sword hanging at his waist, his presence was as heavy as a mountain. He didn't look like a weak, injured person at all.
Not injured?
Then why had the news that the Marquis of Wu'an was hanging by a thread spread like wildfire earlier?
Could it be fake? Or did Old Mr. Ding's miraculous medical skills snatch him back from the King of Hell's palace?
Wei Cheng snapped back to her senses and hurriedly stood up from her seat, bowing to Qin Shaozong. "I pay my respects to the Marquis. May the Marquis enjoy good health and long-lasting blessings."
While lowering her head to bow, Wei Cheng kept secretly observing the head seat, surprised to find that the woman sitting there didn't move at all, as if she were glued to the chair.
And the man turned a blind eye to it, obviously used to it.
Used to her casualness, her casualness in all aspects, regardless of whether outsiders were present.
"Sit." Qin Shaozong walked over and sat down beside Dai Li. "I haven't seen Old Chief Clerk Wei for a long time. How has he been lately?"
Old Chief Clerk Wei was the father of Wei Cheng and the Wei brothers.
Hearing this, Wei Cheng immediately showed a sorrowful expression. "My father has been unable to swallow food lately..."
Before she could finish the second half of her sentence, the man at the head seat interrupted, "That might be because he is old and his teeth are bad."
Dai Li's hand holding the teacup trembled, and a little tea splashed out, dampening a small dark patch on her sleeve. She lowered her eyes to look at the cup, feeling very glad she hadn't had time to drink it yet.
Qin Changgeng's words were truly as unpleasant as always.
Just as she finished muttering in her heart, the person beside her looked her way.
Dai Li also turned her head, and their eyes met.
Qin Shaozong reached out and pulled a handkerchief from the small pouch at Dai Li's waist, using her handkerchief to wipe her sleeve. "Madam's clothes are wet. Why don't you return to your room to change first?"
Dai Li looked down.
It was indeed wet, but only a tiny patch, not even a quarter of the size of a palm. Perhaps if she sat here a little longer, it would be dried by the wind.
However...
"That's fine too." Dai Li was happy to be at ease.
This Madam Wei's purpose for visiting was not simple. The Wei family were his in-laws, so she would leave it to him to deal with.
Thus, amidst Wei Cheng's dumbfounded stare, Dai Li leisurely left with two maids.
Wei Cheng gasped inwardly, unable to believe that she didn't even turn her head back.
Less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea after Dai Li left, Qin Shaozong also left the main hall on the pretext of feeling unwell, leaving only his youngest son to continue entertaining the guest.
Dai Li had just returned to the main courtyard when Qin Shaozong followed right behind her.
"Madam, in a few days, my younger sister will bring her daughter to stay at the manor for a short while," Qin Shaozong said as he sat down beside her.
Dai Li now got a headache just hearing about guests. This one was even more of a heavyweight; not only was she bringing her daughter to stay, but she was also his biological sister.
Given her current relationship with him, she could completely imagine that his sister would ask her many roundabout questions after seeing her.
Dai Li propped her forehead with her hand, her eyelashes drooping low, only looking at the sandalwood desk in front of her. "Qin Changgeng, can't you go back to your Marquis Manor? You go back with Yun Ce, Qi Nian, and the others. When your sister comes, you can receive them there. I am not one of your people. I don't understand your twists and turns, and I can't handle it."
Regarding the guest reception today, Dai Li pondered over it on her way back. The more she thought about it, the more she felt he had an ulterior motive today.
Qin Shaozong was no idle man.
He made a special appearance and left after less than a moment. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed he was using Madam Wei as a medium to pass on some kind of message to the outside world.
But to be honest, Dai Li had absolutely no interest in the struggles among the prominent families of Yuyang. She didn't care which family gained the upper hand in the power struggles, nor was she interested in Qin Shaozong's future plans.
Previously, she had thought too simply, feeling that receiving a guest would just be like receiving an ordinary visitor. However, upon seeing her today, she felt something unusual after just a few words.
She treated the other party as a normal visitor, but the other party was not simply there for a chat.
"Madam, I let Hongying come back this time mainly so she can recognize someone." Qin Shaozong held her other hand.
Dai Li tried to pull her hand back. "Recognize who? Your sister is married off to another commandery. According to your rules here, she probably won't come back more than a few times a year. Why bother me?"
"She indeed won't come back many times, but she eventually needs to recognize the matriarch of the Marquis Manor." Qin Shaozong slid his long fingers through hers, intertwining his fingers with her pale, soft hand.
Dai Li froze. When she realized what his words meant, her originally weak attempt to pull back her hand suddenly turned into a lightning-fast retraction, as if she had been bitten by a snake.
Qin Shaozong didn't expect her reaction to be so drastic. He instinctively grabbed at it, but only managed to catch her fingertips.
Holding onto those pinkish-white fingertips tightly, his dark, large palm was like a tiger clamping down on its prey, refusing to let go. After pulling it back, his hand opened wide like a tiger's maw and completely enveloped hers.
"Dai Li, what do you mean by this?" He stared at her intently.
This question was asked despite knowing the answer. With how she shrank back as if seeing a ghost just now, how could he not understand?
She was unwilling to marry him, avoiding the position of the Marquis Manor's matriarch like a venomous snake or scorpion!
Dai Li's hand was held tightly by him. That burning, sharp gaze fell upon her, as if it wanted to melt her.
It wasn't that she didn't feel it, but she still didn't look at him. She continued to lower her head and look at the desk, as if she could stare a flower out of it.
"Dai Li!" He rarely called her by her full name.
Every time he called her like this, what he was about to say to her was definitely out of the ordinary.
Dai Li's eyelashes trembled slightly. She finally turned her head to look at Qin Shaozong, her eyes filled with deep helplessness. "Qin Changgeng, that's not good."
When she initially said she "would not be a concubine," aside from it being the most basic principle for her as someone with a modern soul, it was also an explanation she was forced to give when she was pestered endlessly by Mo Yanyun back then.
Not being a concubine was just the baseline; it didn't mean that satisfying this condition equated to being able to marry. She had never thought about marrying a native, feudal man either.
Ultimately, her views were different from his.
Some might feel that these words carried little weight and were harmless. But it wasn't so. A clash of values was like sprinkling a handful of sand, soil, and seeds between two people. At first, it might seem inconsequential.
As the days passed one by one, those discomforts and contradictions would grow wildly like weeds, eventually maturing into towering trees that neither side could endure or ignore.
The gap between the ancients' values and hers spanned a thousand years, like a massive chasm.
She couldn't cross it. She couldn't accept the three obediences and four virtues, nor her own man having a flock of wives and concubines. Qin Shaozong also couldn't understand being faithful to one person until the end, or why he needed to show respect to a young woman whose status and position were vastly inferior to his own.
These were all unsolvable problems.
Right now, she only wanted to quickly remove the Gu worm from Zhouzhou's body. As for the rest, whether it was his relatives or those concubines in his backyard, as long as they didn't hover around in front of her, she could bury her head in the sand like an ostrich and endure it for a while, for the sake of the painstaking efforts he had made for Zhouzhou.
"What is not good about it?" Qin Shaozong asked in a deep voice.
If a year ago, someone had told him that he would painstakingly set a trap for the prominent families of Yuyang, just to break his past promise of definitely marrying a daughter of the Wei family, he would certainly have laughed at them for spouting nonsense.
If someone had further told him that the lady he offered the position of the marchioness of the Marquis's estate to would dismiss it with disdain, and even reject him right away, he would have flown into a rage and twisted that person's head off to use as a wine goblet.
Yet now, apart from feeling the absurdity of it all, Qin Shaozong only felt an unspeakable frustration.
"We are not suitable for each other," Dai Li simply said.
He pressed on, "Your husband, I presume, will never have the chance to see you again. What is the difference between that and being dead? Meanwhile, the position of my wife remains empty. You are a widow and I am a widower. How are we not suitable?"
"It's not just about that. There are thousands upon thousands of widows and widowers in this world. If losing a spouse is the only criterion for pairing up, it would be far too absurd and arbitrary." As the last word fell, Dai Li clearly saw the veins throbbing on the side of his neck.
Qin Shaozong felt a rush of anger shoot straight to his head. The fury exploded in his chest, forming countless sharp, thorny balls that made him almost want to vomit blood.
Arbitrary.
How could she say it was arbitrary!
He forcefully suppressed his anger. "The matters of the Wei family are being handled, the renovation of the Marquis's estate is already on the schedule, and those concubines in the backyard have their own places to go. Tell me, Madam, which of these things is arbitrary?"
He knew that Peach Blossom Spring was extraordinary. Her hands were almost completely free of calluses, showing that she did not engage in manual labor.
With a solid family background, being learned, intelligent, and extremely beautiful, such a woman would be quite proud. The chances of her sharing a husband with others were very slim.
Besides, with her around, keeping Concubine Li or Concubine Du was useless. If they were to be dismissed, so be it. Let them go out and eat someone else's rice.
Dai Li froze, suddenly remembering something. Back on the boat, Diting had said that the Marquis of Wu'an once had an agreement with the Wei family; if he were to remarry, he could only marry a Wei daughter.
And he said the concubines had their own places to go. Could it be that he dismissed them?
Dai Li admitted that for a man who had been bathed in a feudal environment since the day he was born to go to such lengths for her, she was not entirely untouched.
She also admitted that she quite liked Qin Shaozong now, but it was the most superficial kind of affection, staying entirely on a physical level. It was purely because this man was strong enough, skilled enough, and in tune with her in bed.
This superficial affection was replaceable. If not him, it could be someone else. There was truly no reason it had to be him.
Moreover, in this era, there was only the practice of divorcing a wife, with no concept of an amicable separation. The system of amicable separation was not officially written into the law and protected by the government until the Tang Dynasty.
Qin Shaozong was passionate about her now, but what about the future? She didn't doubt his sincerity, but sincerity easily changes.
"Qin Changgeng, let's not talk about this for now, alright? Zhouzhou's Gu poison hasn't been removed yet, and I have no mind to think about anything else right now," Dai Li said softly.
Her voice was very light, like the soft clouds in the sky drifting with light rain, and like the breeze brushing past the windowsill.
The ball of fire in Qin Shaozong's chest rolled back and forth a few times, burning so much that his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs ached.
Outside the window, the continuous chirping and twittering of birds reached Qin Shaozong's ears, only making him feel more irritated.
It was truly damn annoying.
The man took a deep breath and exhaled. After all, he was not a reckless and impulsive youth. He had the composure appropriate for his age and understood very well that some things could be said as a joke on ordinary days, but absolutely could not be said now.
This fox was already unwilling. If he provoked her with words again, she would probably hide in her hole and refuse to even peek out in the future.
"Fine, then we'll talk about it after Qin Yanzhou recovers from his illness." He compromised.
Dai Li gave him a surprised look.
Qin Shaozong was truly angered into a laugh by Dai Li's look.
In her eyes, was he really such an unreasonable and dictatorial person?
Dai Li watched the fire in his eyes flare up and opened her mouth to explain, but the large hand that had been holding her suddenly pulled her with force.
Amidst Dai Li's exclamation, her smoky purple robes flipped in an arc as she plunged into the arms of the man beside her. The latter clamped one arm around her waist, lifted her chin with the other hand, and lowered his head to kiss her.
This kiss undoubtedly carried anger. The flames churning and clamoring in Qin Shaozong's chest seemed to burn over through their connection.
Dai Li was swept up by him, bitten, and sucked. Her back pressed against his long arm, while her front was tightly pasted against him.
In the bright afternoon sunlight, the room was very well-lit, showing every detail clearly. And as always, he did not close his eyes when he kissed.
Those narrow brown eyes locked tightly onto her. Compared to the beginning, they now held many heavy emotions that could not be melted away, like thick ink.
Dai Li half-lowered her eyelids, not fully closing her eyes either. She only lowered her gaze, avoiding Qin Shaozong's eyes.
Suddenly, he hastily ended the kiss and pulled back a little, but his long arms still tightly encircled her.
"We can discuss that matter later, but Madam, grant me one request first." His breathing was heavy, and his chest heaved violently. It was hard to tell if it was because his anger had not dissipated, or if he was stifled by a hidden fire.
Dai Li felt it might be both, but she turned her head away. "I've already promised you so much before, why do you still want more?"
She was referring to when he caught her in Nanyang County, and she had agreed to many things on the bed.
"Not those." He leaned in, his kiss falling on her round earlobe. He first gave it a peck, then took it into his mouth, stroking it twice with the tip of his tongue before lightly biting it with his canine teeth.
A numbing tickle spread over her ear, reaching the back of her head and then the top, bringing about an electric shiver. Unable to break free, Dai Li could only say, "Tell me what it is first."
"Madam, promise me first," he said instead.
Dai Li really couldn't figure out what kind of medicine this man was selling in his gourd. If it was a serious matter, this wasn't the right state to discuss serious matters.
If it was about matters in bed, she had already agreed to them earlier.
Dai Li pursed her lips and said nothing.
Qin Shaozong pulled back a bit, straightened her up, and cupped her chin with his palm. He lightly pinched her fair cheeks with two fingers, making her red lips part slightly with a soft pop. "Speak. Say yes."
Dai Li: "...Alright then."
"Madam, call me Husband." His true intention was finally revealed.