Chapter 1546: Chapter 1553: Show Off Affection (6)
Xiang Yun buried her head in her food, and Wanyan Jingchen was also occupied, diligently picking fish bones for her, pouring tea, wiping her mouth, and occasionally, when he had a moment, casting covert glances at the table hidden in the corner downstairs.
Hehe, Mo Zili!
He truly is infatuated, hauntingly persistent enough to chase her all the way to Qing Luo Kingdom. Does he really think he still stands a chance? Does he truly believe he can win her back? How laughable!
Back then, when Ci Yue informed him that Mo Zili had arrived in Qing Luo Kingdom and was preparing to take action against him, Wanyan Jingchen stopped him. In his mind, the best way to defeat an opponent was not through violence but through making him—fail.
Hasn’t he been observing their lives all along, waiting for an opportunity to reclaim her? Fine, then let him see how deeply Xiang Yun loves him, let him see how happy they are together, and let him understand his place!
...
Mo Zili had already realized he’d been discovered, yet he wasn’t afraid. From the moment he saw her, it was as if he were under a spell, as if his soul had been stolen—he could no longer hide his feelings.
After months apart, she appeared fuller than before, more lively than before, and smiled more often.
Her smile was so genuine, so sweet, so beautiful that it nearly suffocated him. In the months since their separation, his longing for her hadn’t diminished in the slightest with the passage of time; instead, it had grown deeper, more piercingly unforgettable.
He saw her energetically getting out of the carriage, like a cheerful little swallow flitting across the street. She darted around, now looking at this, now touching that, her large eyes laughing like crescent moons, irresistibly charming.
She picked up a bamboo hat and playfully matched it to her head, then mischievously tried to place a silk flower on Wanyan Jingchen’s head. Wanyan Jingchen, protective and delighted, teased her as they laughed together. All the while, he was meticulously safeguarding her, because she... was pregnant...
Two months ago, when she first became pregnant, Qing Luo Kingdom declared amnesty across the land, announcing it to all citizens, which naturally meant he knew as well!
That day, in his house, he drank liquor from morning till night, drowning himself in a stupor to numb his agony. Because the moment he heard of her pregnancy, his heart ached so deeply he felt it might bleed. The woman he loved most, the woman who used to be his wife, was now going to bear another man’s child.
Although he’d known this day would come from the moment they were married, even after months of trying to prepare himself mentally, he still couldn’t overcome this hurdle in his heart.
She should have been bearing his child; she should have always been his. But now, she was bearing another man’s child. It is said that mother and child share a special bond—once she delivers someone else’s child, the hope of her ever returning to his arms would become even slimmer...
The drunken binge left him bedridden for two or three days. While lying on the couch, he often reminisced about the short, beautiful time they had spent together. Looking back now, he realized the happiest days of his nineteen years of life were those days he spent with broken ribs.
If he hadn’t met Du Wanqing, or had not succumbed to her allure, they would surely be living a loving, harmonious, fairy-tale life now. Her innocence, her sweetness, her obedience, her playfulness, her every smile and gesture — all of it would belong to him, and would have absolutely nothing to do with that damn Situ Changge.
If he had taken a step back and trusted her back then, if he hadn’t pinned the blame for Du Wanqing’s child’s death on her, if he hadn’t killed her nanny, their relationship wouldn’t have deteriorated to this extent.
Going back further, if he had stood firmly by her side when rumors of her and Situ Changge first arose, if he had understood her, comforted her, faced those rumors together with her, perhaps she would have been moved and forgiven him, for she had always been someone who valued feelings deeply and was easily touched...
Unfortunately, all those chances were lost one after another, leaving him nothing but endless regrets that tormented him daily, filling him with sorrow and pain!
For months now, since arriving in Qing Luo Kingdom, he had been tirelessly following her news every day. Each time he heard how loving she and the prince were, how the prince lavished his affection on her, his heart felt as though it were being stabbed with knives, aching so badly as if it might bleed.
His woman was being adored by another man, was passionately in love with another man. Especially at night, during moments when he lay sleepless on a solitary pillow, he always wondered what she might be doing at that moment.
At that moment, she was probably lying beneath that man, moaning softly, flushed with desire. The mere thought of this drove him to insanity; his impulse was to take his own life. Every unbearable night they could embrace and sleep peacefully, whereas he was left with endless night and the sight of time thinning away.
At times, he entertained delusions of forgetting her, of returning to Great Jin and starting a new life.
Yet her every expression, every footprint she’d left behind, were etched into his memory as though carved by blades and chisels, inescapably engraved in his mind, turning his longing into an obsession.
And so, he could only linger here, waiting, holding out for his barely existent chance.
Today, seeing Wanyan Jingchen carefully protecting her, his heart sank even further.
Even from afar, he could feel the love that man had for her, a love that, compared to his own, was no less deep.
He watched with his own eyes as the prince, disregarding his noble status, accompanied her in carefree antics through the streets, buying things for her, wiping her mouth in a tea house, joking with her, even personally feeding her.
And she, like a playful little kitten, sometimes pouting and acting spoiled with him, sometimes baring her teeth and playfully quarreling with him—it was clear she fully enjoyed her current life, that she was happy! Happier than when she was his wife. At the very least, when she was his wife, she didn’t have so many charming expressions or playful behaviors!