Volume 15
Chapter 23: The Seventh Red Thread (Part 1)
Zhu Qiao first stole a glance at Lu Li. Seeing that he had no reaction, she finally moved slowly in front of Sister Xi. “…Sister Xi, isn’t this the ring gege prepared for you? Isn’t it a bit inappropriate for me to wear it?”
Lu Li was a little angry at Zhu Xi’s attitude. He didn’t know why the bad woman had refused him time and time again. But he still said gently to Zhu Qiao, “Little Qiao, put it on. This was prepared for you, and also for your Sister Xi. I prepared two identical ones for you.”
Zhu Qiao was an optimist. Hearing Lu Li’s answer, she no longer had any misgivings and happily put on the ring. “Does this mean I’m an official wife now?” Lu Li was infected by her and also started to laugh. “Not yet. We still have to get the marriage license, have a wedding…” “Then when will we get the license and have the wedding?” “It won’t be too long…”
Yes, Lu Li was planning to have the wedding before December of this year. Maybe they could have it in the autumn, when the weather was at its coolest.
Little Qiao chattered for a while. Seeing that Sister Xi was still silently riding on Lu Li, she felt the atmosphere was not quite right, so she took a piece of cake and carefully walked out the door. “Sister Xi, gege, I’m going to find Sister Baili to play… I want to let her have some cake.”
Lu Li smiled and said, “Go on, go on.” After Zhu Qiao had left, the smile on his face also faded, and he and Zhu Xi faced each other calmly.
“Your Highness, you see, you’ve even scared Little Qiao.” Lu Li deliberately addressed her as Your Highness, which, as expected, made Zhu Xi even more unhappy.
“Don’t call me Your Highness. Especially you. You’re not allowed to call me that, and you’re certainly not allowed to use honorifics!” Zhu Xi leaned down and bit his collarbone. Lu Li remembered the time they were trapped in the hunter’s cabin in the snow. At a critical moment of life and death, they had absurdly engaged in humanity’s most primitive movement. At that time, they had both wantonly vented their desires, as if it were the last day of their lives. At that time, his back, arms, and shoulders were all covered in Zhu Xi’s nail marks, bite marks, and the marks left by her sucking.
She was like an untamable wolf. She looked similar to a dog, but she would always, at certain times, remind people that she was a wild beast, not a partner who could become family.
Thinking of this, Lu Li felt a lot of disappointment in his heart.
Seeing Lu Li not replying, Zhu Xi looked up at him. For some reason, when she met the deep disappointment in the scumbag man’s eyes, she felt her heart tighten, as if something were draining the blood from it.
Afraid of losing something, she explained a little awkwardly, “I said… you already have six wives. I don’t want to be one of them… You know, I’m very competitive. The thing I dislike the most is being just one among the masses… so I… I… can you understand me?”
Lu Li quietly nodded. Of course he understood, but he couldn’t accept it. Zhu Xi’s upbringing had led to a lack of security and belonging. She maintained her small self-esteem through arbitrariness and autocracy. Lu Li hoped she could live a little more easily, a little more happily.
His eyes shifted, and he pushed the wedding ring in his other pocket a little deeper. Perhaps he should respect Zhu Xi’s thoughts and not impose his own values on her.
The title of husband and wife between a man and a woman is more important than imagined. The pioneers of free romance would advocate for unrestrained cohabitation and love, but when they got old, the two words “husband and wife” were, on the contrary, the most solid chain. Perhaps in twenty years, when people talked about Lu Li, they would talk about his six wives of different styles and unparalleled beauty, but they wouldn’t talk about Zhu Xi. That kind of social-level emptiness would only deepen her insecurity and lack of belonging.
“What’s in that pocket of yours?” Zhu Xi asked.
“A ring,” Lu Li answered.
“You’re not going to take it out?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Zhu Xi continued to lean down, wanting to kiss her. Since she couldn’t satisfy Lu Li on a spiritual level, she would compensate him on a physical level. But Lu Li, for a rare moment, did not stick out his tongue. Or rather, he did not intend to kiss. Lu Li just said, “I still have to go with Little Qiao… The proposal ceremony can’t be too simple. I can’t let her feel that I’m being partial. I was originally planning to propose to both of you at the same time. I’ll go find Little Qiao first and come back later, okay?” His tone was as gentle as ever, but Zhu Xi only felt that the feeling of her blood being drained from her heart was even stronger.
It was as if the partner who had been connected to her by a red thread in the backtracking had now chosen to accompany someone else first, even if that person was Zhu Qiao.
“Okay, you go.”
After letting Lu Li go, Zhu Xi stared blankly at the closed main door.
Her mood was not very good. Even the sound of dripping water from the bathroom was as disturbing as a clap of thunder. She hugged a pillow, thinking of the disappointed look in Lu Li’s eyes before, and her breathing became difficult. Without a doubt, she felt she loved Lu Li, had long seen him as family, but the indescribable emotion in her heart always made it impossible for her to lower herself to become a member of Lu Li’s harem. What would others say about her? The proudest, once most radical, and also most outstanding princess of the royal family, willing to stoop so low and become a man’s vassal?
She was a princess. She was Zhu Xi. Her pride was higher than anyone else’s.
But… if many years later, others were discussing the idyllic life of Lu Li and his wives, how would they mention her? They would probably say, “Ah, does Zhu Xi have any relationship with Lu Li’s wives? Isn’t Zhu Xi just Lu Li’s superior?”
The sound of the door opening and closing came from downstairs. Zhu Xi lay on the bed, seeing Lu Li and Little Qiao go out. Little Qiao had an excited look on her face, and Lu Li was also beaming with spring light. So good.
So good, she thought.
Perhaps many years later, the children of those vixens at home would surround them, calling them “daddy” and “mommy,” but they would only call her “great-aunt-in-law.” As if they weren’t a family. No, they weren’t a family to begin with… The man who had been through life and death with her, who had experienced time reversal with her, who had brought the Yan family back from the dead with her, was not her family. She was just a “relative.”
The blood in her heart was about to be drained dry. She suddenly felt she had no more energy. What on earth was she doing? For a little bit of pride, she had repeatedly refused Lu Li and even found all sorts of unconvincing reasons. Had she really considered Lu Li’s feelings?
She lay there in a daze until late at night, her mind blank, not even having dinner. At one or two in the morning, she heard Lu Li and Little Qiao finally come back. Little Qiao was still excitedly saying something. She must have had a romantic night.
Zhu Xi hesitated. Should she apologize to Lu Li? How should she concede to him… After thinking for a long time, and waiting until the footsteps had gradually faded away, she finally made up her mind. She put on her shoes, and while mentally rehearsing her next lines, she went to turn the doorknob. But just as she opened the door, the person outside also turned the door at the same time.
“Why didn’t you turn on the light? It’s so dark,” Lu Li’s voice said.
Zhu Xi’s eyes shone in the darkness. She had lost her usual cleverness and sharpness and stammered, “I… I… so… so…” What should she say after “sorry”? She had no idea, and she couldn’t even squeeze out the three words “I am sorry.”
Lu Li turned on the light. His face was still flushed. He hadn’t heard Zhu Xi’s stammering. He first pulled Zhu Xi over and said excitedly, “Zhu Xi, I’ve thought of a way. We won’t get married publicly, but we’ll actually get the marriage license, and we won’t announce it to the outside world. This way, you can still be the proud Fourteenth Princess, and in the future, you can also be a mother…” As he spoke, he suddenly saw Zhu Xi’s eyes were watery. Lu Li was a little panicked. “Zhu Xi, what’s wrong? Don’t cry, don’t cry. Hey, if you don’t want to, I’ll think of another way. Don’t cry, don’t cry…”
Zhu Xi threw her arms around Lu Li and wailed.
