Chapter 125

"Mother!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Qin Yanzhou hurried out of his room.

Turning past the moon gate, by the faint moonlight, he saw Qin Shaozong holding Dai Li in his arms.

The black-robed man had broad shoulders and a thick back. The full moon was to his side, barely illuminating his sharply contoured face. Shrouded in darkness, he seemed to merge with the endless ink-black night, forming an imposing, menacing dark tide.

Qin Yanzhou's pupils contracted for a moment, the muscles in his back unconsciously tensing.

Dai Li turned her head slightly, her gaze sweeping over her son behind her. Her voice had calmed down, "It is nothing, Zhou Zhou, go back to sleep."

Qin Yanzhou stood motionless.

Dai Li pushed Qin Shaozong. Failing to push him away the first time, she reached for a bit of his leather belt and pinched him through his clothes. "Does the Marquis wish to feed the mosquitoes here? Even if you do, I certainly do not."

Winter had already arrived; where would there be mosquitoes or bugs?

Qin Shaozong stared at the woman in his arms for a moment before finally, slowly loosening his long arms. He remained silent. Dai Li reached back to grasp his wrist, pulling him along to leave together.

Qin Shaozong's bone density was greater than that of ordinary people, and he was tall, not to mention covered in smooth, well-defined muscle. Dai Li initially struggled to pull him; it was only after she looked back at him again that the man finally followed her.

"Why did you speak of marriage so suddenly?" Dai Li asked him.

Originally, it was just a casual topic to let her son see that she and Qin Shaozong were leaving while chatting leisurely, but bringing it up actually ended up irritating Dai Li herself.

"You did not even discuss this matter with me, just rashly blurted it out, leaving me completely unprepared. Qin Changgeng, if you act like this next time, I will not let you off easy," Dai Li said with dissatisfaction.

Just speaking was not enough to vent her frustration, so she pinched him again.

"What preparation does Madam need?" His voice lacked emotion, and his face was entirely steeped in the night, making it impossible to see clearly.

Dai Li: "Naturally, to let me give Zhou Zhou a heads-up first. When you brought it up directly at dinner today, you scared the child silly."

As they spoke, the two had already walked quite a distance.

Qin Yanzhou watched the gradually departing pair, listening to the voices carried over by the wind, and lowered his eyes thoughtfully.

The extinguished lantern had been forgotten by its owner; the young man picked it up, and after he could no longer see his mother, he turned and returned to his room.

...

Having completely left her son's courtyard, Dai Li breathed a sigh of relief and let go of the hand pulling him.

She just let it go.

The man did not speak, nor did he react in any way.

Dai Li's heart inexplicably skipped a beat. Given her understanding of Qin Shaozong, she felt this was unlike his usual behavior.

When things are abnormal, there must be a demon at work. Could this man be brewing...

On the way back to the main courtyard, Qin Shaozong said nothing else, but a certain premonition in Dai Li grew stronger and stronger.

Turning into the moon gate of the main courtyard, the main room where they usually slept was right before their eyes.

Dai Li suddenly stopped in her tracks. "I suddenly remembered..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Dai Li's vision suddenly spun, and her feet, which had been touching the ground, were lifted into the air.

She was picked up entirely.

No, rather than being held, it was more like being slung over a shoulder.

He scooped up her legs with one hand and wrapped his other arm up around her waist. After hoisting up the woman who wanted to run away, he strode inside.

"Qin Changgeng!"

Nianxia and Bipo in the side room heard the commotion and hurriedly ran out, only to be completely dumbfounded.

The man walked hastily, taking massive strides. The two women only saw the wildly swaying beads of her golden-winged hair ornament and the bright, beautiful arc of her pale pink wide sleeves fluttering in the air.

Bang. The door closed, cutting off the view from outside.

Nianxia and Bipo shuddered simultaneously at the sound.

"This, are the Marquis and Madam having a conflict?" Bipo said hesitantly.

They had never seen such a scene before!

Nianxia pondered for a moment. "It should be fine. They say couples fight at the head of the bed and make up at the end of it. You and I have served the Marquis and Madam for so long; when have we ever seen them have a real conflict?"

Bipo suddenly realized, "You are right."

*

The room was unlit. The window was half open, welcoming a streak of moonlight, which became the sole light source in the room.

Qin Shaozong did not even take the time to enter the inner room. He merely placed Dai Li onto the long, soft chaise lounge by the window in the outer room, and immediately got onto it himself.

That long lounge, which had more than enough space for one person to recline, was now squeezed with two people, one high and one low.

The man positioned above was tall and burly. Kneeling on one knee against the outside of the woman's thigh, his strong, muscular arm propped up beside her like solid rock or an impenetrable iron pillar, tightly trapping the person beneath him.

The pale moonlight fell upon his deep, handsome profile, his brown eyes as dark and gloomy as a tiger in the night.

Being hoisted up and then dropped, Dai Li felt as if her brains had been thoroughly shaken. However, precisely because of this, her thoughts floated out of the mud and into an icy river, instantly calming her down significantly. "Qin Changgeng, what crazy fit are you throwing?"

Qin Shaozong did not understand her words; they went in one ear and out the other. He stubbornly sought an answer: "Madam, who is that man surnamed Zhong?"

Dai Li was blocked by him on the lounge. He was practically straddling her from above without putting his full weight down. Her back rested against the soft cushion, the wall was on one side, and his propped-up long leg and arm were on the other.

Unable to get up, Dai Li simply relaxed all her strength and lay completely flat. "Whatever you are to me now, that is what he was to me back then."

The words were not particularly explicit, but they were enough.

Qin Shaozong's breathing instantly changed. Dark tides surged within his narrow brown eyes, full of hidden sharpness. "Madam said that in the Peach Blossom Spring, it is one husband and one wife, with no such thing as concubines. And that boy Qin Yanzhou knows of the one surnamed Zhong, which means this person appeared at the latest after he could remember things. Did Madam's previous husband not care about this?"

Although she had previously kept calling him her late husband, the late in Qin Shaozong's mouth was more of a curse. Since the other party could not find his way here from the Peach Blossom Spring, it was no different from being dead.

He did not know that the man was actually gone, but that did not stop Qin Shaozong from discovering the contradiction.

She clearly had a husband, so why did a man surnamed Zhong suddenly pop up later?

If her husband was still alive, how could he endure it?

Dai Li was stunned. She had not expected this man's focus to be here, and so logically clear at that. "Zhou Zhou's biological father, he and I separated later on..."

Hearing this, Qin Shaozong straightened up slightly, staring at her unblinkingly. A moment later, his thin lips curled up, and the heavy, freezing air pressure surrounding them suddenly dissipated a bit. "So I was right before. He really has become a late husband."

He had always felt that if someone obtained such a smart, quick-witted, and knowledgeable beauty, they would never let her leave no matter what.

It seemed that he was not the only one with such thoughts.

Qin Shaozong locked onto the woman beneath him and said through gritted teeth, "Madam thinks I am more generous than that man surnamed Zhong, and that is it?"

The last few words were as if he had chewed them up and squeezed them out through his teeth, every word carrying steaming sparks.

This fox had initially said that each had their own merits, but after thinking about it later, she only came up with, He is alright, quite generous.

Alright... I guess.

What was with that tone? Why was her answer so reluctant!

He, the dignified patriarch of the Qin clan of the North, the Marquis of Wu'an personally enfeoffed by the Son of Heaven, was actually inferior to those ghosts and monsters?

How could Dai Li not see that he was burning with anger? Actually, at this moment, it was not impossible for her to patch up what she had just said.

For instance, she could say she was too embarrassed to praise him in front of their son just now, and casually throw in phrases like "strikingly handsome" or "extraordinarily heroic."

She was confident she could gloss over it. After all, Qin Shaozong was actually quite easy to coax, but...

Why should she coax him?

There was no need for that.

Those were all facts; there was nothing to hide.

If she coaxed him this time, the next time he threw a fit and acted up, she would have to waste her time and energy again. Setting this bad precedent would make things hard to manage later, which would be even worse.

Not only should she not coax him, but she also had to thoroughly cure him of this terrible habit.

"Qin Changgeng, there is no point in talking about this now. Those things are in the past. I will never see them again, so why must you keep asking? Besides..."

At this point, Daili's tone grew heavier. "I haven't badgered you about your past affairs, so why are you so obsessed with mine?"

"My lady may ask," he said, the words heavy and suppressed.

Daili's mouth twitched.

She had absolutely no interest in his past, and his words were clearly just a way to give himself the green light.

Daili turned her head away. "The past is in the past. There's nothing to ask."

Qin Shaozong reached out with two fingers, pinched her chin, and forced her to face him. "Since my lady won't ask, then I will."

"What is there to ask? We are both the same, what's there to ask?" Daili raised her hand and smacked his arm with a crisp slap. In the quiet night, the sound was quite loud.

A fierce glint appeared in Qin Shaozong's eyes. "It's not the same!"

"How is it different?" Daili shot back.

The muscles in Qin Shaozong's jaw tightened as her words from that day seemed to echo in his ears:

"Speaking solely of arranged marriages where you have no idea what the other person is like before the wedding, living together afterward without loving each other is one thing..."

Loving each other.

So the men she had chosen must have been very much to her liking.

She liked every single one of them.

She had thought about marrying every single one of them.

She had planned to have children with every single one of them.

Except for him...

A surge of anger rose from his chest, rushing to his head, and then morphed into an invisible heavy hammer that struck his temples fiercely.

Unbearable, complex emotions intertwined, coursing down from the top of his head, burning through his chest, lungs, and spine, spreading to his limbs and bones, causing the veins in his arms to bulge and the hairs on his body to stand on end.

Qin Shaozong's mind buzzed. "I used to say my lady was full of wandering thoughts. It seems I wasn't wrong at all."

With so many hearts given away, how could she not have too many?

His words were vague, and Daili let out a questioning "Hmm?" with an upward inflection, not understanding what he meant.

Perhaps her confusion was too obvious, or perhaps his pent-up frustration refused to dissipate, but Qin Shaozong finished the second half of his sentence in a sarcastic tone: "Like a butterfly enamored with flowers, moving from one to the next. My lady is no less a sly fox, abandoning one den only to dig another."

She didn't understand at first, but combined with the second half, Daili instantly understood everything.

She was so angry she laughed at Qin Shaozong. "Qin Changgeng, can you be reasonable? Did you have few women in your past? Just from what I know, there were two in the Wei family, and I believe it definitely doesn't stop there. And who dictates that a woman must be faithful to one man until the end? If we get along, we stay together; if not, we part. Widows in Great Yan can remarry, and Peach Blossom Spring is far ahead of Great Yan. How could the women there not have the right to choose a suitable partner?"

She stared right back at him, giving him a strong dose of reality. "Let me tell you the truth. I did like a few men in the past. If you mind it so much, I don't think I need to give you my 'Response to the Marriage Proposal,' and we can just cancel the wedding next spring."

The brown eyes above her suddenly contracted.

"You dare?"

His domineering nature reared its head again, and Daili said without hesitation, "Just watch me and see if I dare!"

There was no response from above, only heavy, rapid breathing that felt as if it could spew fire at any moment.

Daili sneered, mimicking his sarcastic tone. "I'm so sorry to offend Your Lordship's eyes. Why don't you return to your Marquis's mansion from now on, and I'll live outside. It's best if we stay far apart, so this promiscuous fox doesn't bring ruin upon you..."

The rest of her words were swallowed by the man.

That fiery anger transferred over through their connection, blazing hot. Daili was already fuming, and being kissed by him now was like pouring oil on the fire.

This man was starting again.

Whenever he encountered something he didn't want to hear, he found a way not to hear it.

Daili clamped her jaw shut, biting down hard on the tip of his tongue.

The taste of blood spread, but he still didn't stop. He didn't even raise his hand to pinch her jaw and force her teeth apart like he had done before.

He let her bite him.

When bitten, he would pull back slightly, kissing and sucking at the corners of her mouth. Once she relaxed a little, he would push back in.

This half-soft, half-hard approach left Daili at a loss. Finally, she had to turn her head away, letting his kisses fall on the side of her face and her neck.

In winter, there were few insects chirping, and there was no one else in the room. At this moment, there were only two rapid breaths intertwining and merging.

Qin Shaozong wrapped his arms around her waist and, with a forceful pull, switched their positions on the upholstered chair, which was not very spacious for the two of them.

Originally, he was on top and Daili was on the bottom.

Now he lay in her previous position, his back pressing against the spot she had just leaned on. In this increasingly cold winter, he could still feel her residual warmth there.

When Qin Shaozong was on top just now, he had supported himself with his knees on the chair, merely hovering over Daili.

But Daili didn't have his excellent balance, nor could she be bothered to exert the effort. She simply used him as a human cushion.

Qin Shaozong raised his hand, stroking her back over and over, as if smoothing the fur of a small animal, or as if trying to wipe away her anger and irritability.

Daili tried to prop herself up with her hands but couldn't get up. His other hand rested on her lower back, holding her firmly in place.

She didn't speak, and neither did Qin Shaozong.

Daili's eyes gradually half-closed. Just as she was beginning to feel a bit drowsy, she heard the man beneath her say:

"My lady, I didn't mean it like that just now."

When he spoke again, his voice held no trace of anger, only a hint of helplessness.

He had digested it all on his own.

The couch was near the window. The moonlight was a bit faint, but with the two of them so close, the expression of the person on the bottom could be seen with absolute clarity.

The man's thin lips were stained with blood, and the corner of his mouth was slightly torn. There was a bit of helplessness on his face, as well as a bit of... awkwardness.

Obviously, this man who had been aloof for the first half of his life and utterly dictatorial after seizing power had never bowed his head to a woman like this before.

Daili didn't expect this kind of feudal patriarch to be as proactive and considerate as a contractor at work. The fact that he could listen to reason just now, stop, and process things on his own was already an improvement.

What else could she do? She couldn't leave, so she would just have to train him slowly.

But then again, given his behavior, could it be that Qin Changgeng hadn't heard the plans she discussed with Zhou Zhou at the very end?

If he hadn't heard, that was absolutely wonderful!

Her mind raced with a thousand thoughts, even giving rise to a secret joy, but on the surface, Daili's expression remained calm. Even the "Mhm" she uttered in response lacked any ripple of emotion.

"You didn't mean it like that, does that mean you won't bring it up again in the future?" Daili struck while the iron was hot, maintaining her composure.

That large, dark hand raised again, stroking heavily down her back. This time, rather than soothing her, it seemed more like he was trying to smooth out the surge of frustration that had just flared up within himself.

Separated by a mere arm's length, their eyes met.

Qin Shaozong caught the subtle, cunning calculation in her eyes. It was as if a fluffy fox tail was wagging vigorously right in front of him, making him burn with anger yet leaving him completely helpless.

Striking a woman was not the conduct of a true man.

As for scolding her, she had an entire arsenal of words ready to counter him, each backed by her own twisted logic. And if he dared to lecture her any further, she would probably threaten to call off their marriage altogether.

He could neither hit her nor scold her.

This was the first time Qin Shaozong had ever encountered such a thorny predicament. Yet, ironically, he was the one who had personally captured this little fox from Nankang Commandery. He had brought this upon himself and had no one else to blame.

Seeing him remain silent, Daili raised the corners of her eyes slightly, the small cinnabar mole on her forehead seemingly coming alive in an instant. "Was not the Marquis quite the talker in the beginning? Your words were full of thorns, your tongue silver and sharp. Why are you so quiet now?"

Qin Shaozong's face darkened slightly. "Madam is being quite unreasonable. It was clearly Madam who resorted to harsh words first today."

Daili was indignant. "Qin Changgeng, do not try to turn the tables on me."

Qin Shaozong clenched his jaw. "Did you or did you not call me an old man with no self-respect today?"

Daili: "..."

She had only made one passing remark about him in the afternoon, and he had actually held a grudge about it until now.