“No—Li Chunfeng, how exactly did you decide this?”
Li Xu was too frantic to keep complaining, and a sudden confusion struck him. “I know Xia Lengbai. That woman has always been proud and aloof. She’d sooner die than marry me.”
Regarding Xia Lengbai’s temperament, Li Xu was indeed qualified to speak. Back when he’d tied her to the bed and dripped candle wax on her all night, and later when she was rescued from the Chancellor’s Estate, the look of stubborn loathing in her eyes was still vivid to him.
“She had no choice.”
Li Chunfeng explained methodically: “Three days ago, Xia Haoran advised His Majesty to stop being obsessed with cultivation and neglecting state affairs, lest he become a ruler who ruins the nation and stinks in the annals of history for ten thousand years.”
“His Majesty flew into a dragon rage at this, threw Xia Haoran into a death-row cell, and had his family either exiled to the frontier or thrown into the Imperial Music Bureau.”
“I gave Xia Lengbai a chance. If she agrees to marry you, not only can she avoid the Imperial Music Bureau, but her whole family can walk out of prison safe and sound.”
Li Xu’s mouth twitched. “So you’re exploiting her misfortune—using the lives of Xia Lengbai’s entire family to force her into submission?”
Li Chunfeng neither confirmed nor denied. “Even if that’s so, what of it?”
Li Xu: “…”
Good, good, good!
Li Chunfeng, you’re having a great time playing the villain now, aren’t you? So noble, so magnificent—except the one getting hacked to pieces by Tang San isn’t you! In a couple of days, when you see my gruesome corpse, don’t you dare cry!
“I don’t agree!”
After his expression shifted through several shades, Li Xu resolutely waved his hand. “Xia Lengbai and I are destined to clash—our horoscopes are incompatible! I’d rather marry a female dog than marry her!”
“Don’t be ungrateful.”
Li Tian’ai couldn’t stand listening anymore. Her ethereal, icy mature voice cut in: “You know your own condition best. Of the three unfilial acts, having no offspring is the worst. When you die of illness doesn’t matter—but before that, you at least need to marry and leave Father an heir.”
Li Xu was choked speechless by his stepsister.
No—is that even human speech?!
When I die of illness doesn’t matter? Then do you know that if I don’t marry Xia Lengbai, there’s still a chance I could carry on the family line for Father—but once I marry Xia Lengbai, that old geezer will truly have his line cut off forever!
“Enough nonsense! Anyway, it’s impossible for me to marry Xia Lengbai. If I marry anyone, it’ll only be a woman I like.” Li Xu said impatiently.
“If you want to carry on the family line, Li Chunfeng, go take a concubine yourself. Don’t count on me!”
This utterly treasonous remark genuinely angered Li Tian’ai. Her cold mature voice suddenly rose. “You—”
Li Chunfeng raised his hand in timely fashion, stopping his daughter’s outburst. His weathered face still bore the refined composure that marked a scholar, and he regarded Li Xu calmly. “Is there a woman you like? Just say her name, and I can arrange for you to marry her.”
“…”
Li Xu was stunned.
Huh?
Had the old geezer’s desire for a grandchild reached this extent?
Or had his near-fatal illness three days ago truly frightened him—was he terrified of having his line cut off just like that?
After a brief silence, Li Xu tentatively probed, half-believing: “Li Chunfeng, you promised yourself—no matter whose name I say, you’ll arrange for us to marry?”
Before Li Chunfeng could speak, Li Tian’ai beside him narrowed her beautiful eyes into a dangerous arc and warned icily: “You’d better not say the name of some brothel’s top courtesan.”
Li Xu: “…”
Reminded by his daughter, Li Chunfeng pondered briefly, then added: “As long as the other party comes from a respectable family with clean origins, I can arrange it for you.”
“Good!”
“That’s exactly what I was waiting to hear!”
As if afraid his old man might go back on his word, Li Xu immediately and impatiently pointed at Li Tian’ai, who still had three question marks floating above her head. “Li Chunfeng, betroth Li Tian’ai to me! I’ve liked her for a long time—and it’ll bring our family even closer together!”
Li Chunfeng: “…”
Li Tian’ai: “…”
Closer together, my ass!
Silence…
The Chancellor’s Estate study fell into a deathly silence.
On Li Tian’ai’s noble, breathtakingly beautiful face, her brows twitched violently, and her whole body visibly stiffened.
Li Chunfeng drew a deep breath of air, and the originally calm, composed look in his eyes instantly turned sharp.
He’d tried his best.
From the moment the wicked brat stepped through the door, he’d been struggling to hold his temper in check. But now he really couldn’t keep it together.
“Li Tian’ai is only your adopted sister. Betrothing her to me is entirely proper.”
Seeing that neither of them spoke, Li Xu even got the illusion that he had a chance, and hurriedly went on: “Besides, Li Tian’ai will have to marry sooner or later. Marrying anyone is worse than marrying me—better to keep the rich water in our own field…”
“Get out!”
Li Chunfeng suddenly barked in fury, his expression no longer refined. Veins bulged on his forehead, and an overwhelming, terrifying aura burst forth from his body.
“Uncle Sun, take this vile spawn away!”
“Yes.”
As the words fell, before Li Xu could react, his vision blurred, and the steward Uncle Sun appeared before him like a ghost, pressing a finger to an acupoint on his chest.
“Mmph…”
Li Xu’s whole body went numb in an instant, leaving only his eyes able to roll about. He could only watch as Uncle Sun hoisted him onto his shoulder like a sack of grain and flew out the door.
Yes.
Because he was frail and sickly, no matter how outrageous a thing he did from childhood, he had never received any real punishment—but his old man and stepsister could make him disappear, simply out of sight and out of mind.
After the steward carried Li Xu away, the study remained silent.
How much time passed, no one knew. Li Chunfeng picked up the brush on his desk again to review memorials, and Li Tian’ai picked up the ink stick once more, standing beside him to grind ink, just as it had been before Li Xu entered.
“Tian’ai, you can return to the frontier. The Imperial Capital City has your father.”
After reviewing several memorials in a row, Li Chunfeng spoke, his expression restored to its original refined gentleness.
Li Tian’ai pressed her red lips together, hesitant to speak:
“A couple more days… after his wedding is over.”
“Mm. Very well.”
…
…
“Numb. Numb. This time I’m really numb.”
In a certain side courtyard of the Chancellor’s Estate, Li Xu was shut in a wing room, hopping about in a frenzy.
At the thought of his miserable fate of being hacked to pieces by Tang San in the original game, his scalp went numb uncontrollably.
“Just now I was thinking—if the old man insists on forcing me to marry Xia Lengbai and I’ve truly run out of options, I’d go all in and tell him about Tang San. But who’d have guessed the old geezer would just have me hauled off—didn’t even give me a chance to bust out my ultimate move.”
“Is my wanting to marry Li Tian’ai really so unacceptable that it makes him that furious?”
“I admit I’m not good enough for Li Tian’ai, but setting aside the facts—when you arrange a marriage for your son, shouldn’t you pick the most perfect wife for him? Where under heaven is there a woman more perfect than Li Tian’ai, who also knows me inside and out?”
“…No, wait. Li Tian’ai and I don’t really know each other that well. At least—I can’t read the karmic fortune behind those three question marks above her head.”
