She felt a pang of nostalgia for the girl who had once smirked mischievously and demanded that she take off her clothes.
"This pen of mine is no ordinary pen; it only draws naked beauties." The fourteen-year-old girl spoke arrogantly, and she loved to do things that scholars would find shameful. She did whatever she wanted, and with her pen, she could paint mountains and rivers, or depict the beauty of nature.
Unfortunately... she's already taken.
She lowered her head sadly and said, "Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who can't let go of things. I'll live well and won't try to kill myself for you."
Ji Pingxi ignored her and focused on the busy crowd on the street: "Hmm."
Bai Xingyi chuckled in exasperation: "Is that all you're going to do?"
The princess grinned and said, "Yes."
After a moment of silence, she looked away from the young prince who could flirt and stir hearts even without saying a word: "It's good that you reacted this way. If you had said something pretentious to me, I might have been disgusted and wanted to punch you."
"..."
A strange person's friend is also a strange person.
A woman who can fall in love with Ji Pingxi at first sight is, in a sense, no ordinary person.
Throughout history, there has only been one holy maiden in the Northern Region, praised by the world for her purity. However, back then, she indulged in debauchery with a young girl who had not yet grown up, and the two of them consensually painted a picture of a naked beauty.
It was painted directly into the heart of the white-clad man.
It became a dream she could never forget for many years.
She'll probably only dream of this once in her life.
Upon returning to the Northern Region, she must still fulfill her duty as the aloof and unmoved saintess. It is her mission, and unless she loses her life, she will always carry this burden on her shoulders, never to be relieved.
"Well, now that I know there is such a person as you in this world, I've broadened my horizons and my life hasn't been in vain."
Bai Xingyi is a martial artist, and possesses the heroic spirit of one. She is ten years older than Ji Pingxi, and at the prime age of twenty-eight, she is capable of both taking on challenges and letting go of burdens.
The two clinked glasses and drank together. She smiled faintly and said, "If you ever get tired of your concubine, why don't you come to the Northern Region to find me? I'll elope with you to the ends of the earth."
Ji Pingxi smiled innocently: "No."
In my youth, I wandered far and wide, painting many portraits of beautiful women. But when I awoke from my wild dreams, the hardest thing to bear was the kindness of those beautiful women.
I only want to sleep with one person in this lifetime.
The saintess, feeling aggrieved by her defeat, blurted out the truth in her drunken state: "What does she have that I don't?"
Princess Changyang, in a rather frivolous manner, tilted her head back, picked up the wine jug, and drank, her drunken eyes smiling: "Nai... Cao?"
"..."
Bai Xingyi's face darkened, his teeth itched, and he kicked the unruly number one in the world away.
Ji Pingxi's footwork was exquisite. Leaning against the table, she laughed so hard her eyes disappeared: "Sister Bai, why can't you accept defeat?"
Who can't afford to lose?
Bai Xingyi had a sentence stuck in his throat, thinking: You haven't even tried it, how do you know I'm not good at it?
Unable to speak, she slammed her hand on the window frame, breaking it in two: "I'm leaving!"
They come and go like the wind.
Ji Pingxi threw down the wine jug and shouted, "Sister Bai, take care! See you again in the martial world, we'll still be friends!"
As for the "Beauty Portrait" and "Beauty's Grace," let's just leave them be.
People live two lives, and their sincere feelings are hidden in drunken jokes. The love and hate of adults can be as simple as a single word, "endurance," which encompasses everything they want to say. But when it comes to complexity, there are also wicked people like Yan Qing and Gu Chenzi who have caused great harm.
After paying for the window, Princess Changyang, reeking of alcohol, walked away on the wind.
Xunxunran buried her head in the warm embrace of Yuzhi.
"fragrant."
She was half-drunk and half-awake.
Yu Zhi put her arm around her waist, a hint of jealousy in her voice: "You've met your 'Sister Bai'?"
Under the scorching sun, Ji Pingxi glanced at her twice, and in the sunlight and amidst the cicadas' chirping, he pinched the beauty's chin and kissed her deeply.
"Zhizhi...will you marry me?"
--------------------
Chapter 85 I Want to Marry You
"I won't agree!"
In the dead of night, Princess Changyang awoke from a nightmare, her head covered in sweat, her chest heaving violently.
That's terrifying, absolutely terrifying! What could be more frightening than being swept out of the house by your mother-in-law in a dream, looking like a fierce demon?
If so, it means that her mother-in-law not only hit her with a broom, but also disapproved of her marriage to Zhizhi.
She sat on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, lost in thought.
The candlelight flickered.
Yu Zhi rubbed her eyes, woken up by her voice. A snow-white body pressed against her from behind, her eyes still sleepy, her voice full of lazy, tenderness: "Xi Xi..."
The soft, white snow pressed against her back without any cover. The panic brought by Ji Pingxi's dream receded like the tide, and her alluring beauty became chaotic. An unknown evil fire urged her to turn her head and lie down on the snow-covered mound of the beauty.
Yu Zhi was used to her possessiveness and her unwavering dominance. Her sleepiness gradually dissipated amidst the rising and falling breaths. Her eyes were moist with a thin mist, and her soft red lips opened and closed slightly as she asked, "What's wrong?"
She gently pinched the princess's small earlobe, her expression purely coquettish, as if she were awake but not fully awake, like a fairy.
I want to marry you!
Her Highness spoke with a resounding thud.
"I want you to be my wife! We'll share the same bed in life and the same grave in death, never to be separated! No one can take us apart!"
Especially her mother-in-law!
Ji Pingxi, her eyes reddening and her heart filled with rage, gritted her teeth, ready to fight anyone who tried to steal her wife. She placed her hands on Yu Zhi's shoulders and asked, "Will you marry her or not?"
Yu Zhi's last bit of sleepiness was scared away by her. This person had just started talking in her drunken state and was now talking in her sleep. She suppressed her excitement, her willow-leaf eyes curving as she looked at her with doting affection.
She didn't speak, and Ji Pingxi assumed she was unwilling, so he immediately kissed her fiercely and gently bit her lip: "You have to marry me whether you like it or not."
Don't be fooled by the fact that this person seems fearless; in reality, he didn't get a good night's sleep.
As dawn broke, her eyes were covered with a pitiful blue veil. A night of nightmares had left her listless and weak, like a flower wilting in the summer sun.
Yu Zhi helped her get dressed.
Ji Pingxi said with a resentful expression, "You rejected me."
"Huh?" Yu Zhi looked bewildered.
Princess Changyang suppressed her grief and the urge to cry, sniffed, and repeated, "I wanted to marry you, but you rejected me."
"I don't!"
"..."
She was confused between her dreams and reality, and in her delirium, she wrongly accused someone. After staring at each other for a full quarter of an hour, Ji Pingxi's eyes started to ache, and she suddenly grinned foolishly: "That's good."
Yu Zhi glanced at her, pinched the hem of her clothes, and tentatively asked, "Do you really want to marry me?"
She nodded.
"Will you marry me?"
She nodded emphatically.
Talking about love can really affect a person's mind. After the princess realized she was in love, she pursued him in an unusual way, again and again, and her words of love were straightforward and domineering.
Yu Zhi kissed her chin, suppressing her overwhelming joy but unable to hide the shyness in her eyes. She still couldn't believe it and asked in a trembling voice, "You really want to marry me?"
"Will you be my wife? I won't be your concubine anymore, being a concubine isn't suitable."
Ji Pingxi pressed his advantage, afraid of hearing the words of rejection in his dream, and kissed her until she was dizzy and disoriented: "Zhizhi, I like you. It's not the liking for an object, but the liking of a fish for water."
Fish love water.
Because of those words she uttered that morning, Yuzhi was absent-minded all day long.
To keep someone, a proper title is essential. Ji Pingxi went to the palace to request an imperial decree to grant her marriage—she wanted to turn this concubine into a real wife before her mother-in-law learned the truth!
We must never give our mother-in-law the chance to hit us with a broom!
She acts on her words decisively and swiftly.
In the backyard of the princess's residence, Yu Zhi touched A Yao's swollen belly and muttered to herself, "Do you think what she said is true or false? Is it just a whim or does she really have feelings for me?"
The big black dog is almost two months pregnant and nearing her due date. She lies lazily in her doghouse, gently rubbing her head against her owner's warm palm.
"I desperately want her to love me and be unable to live without me..."
Yu Zhi stroked the dog's head, muttering something inaudible to others.
In June, the wind carries a fragrance.
In the Imperial Garden, the Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, with a clear mind, pointed a finger at his daughter's brow: "You, you, you don't come to see me without asking for permission, your heart and eyes are full of your branches."
"Father..." Princess Changyang accepted the tea offered by the chief eunuch Yang Ruo: "Father, would you like a cup of tea to soothe your throat?"
"You think you can get a royal decree and a wife with just a cup of tea?"
In the sweltering summer heat, Ji Ying didn't make things difficult for her and simply gave her a straight answer: "In the end, it is the royal family that owes the Liu family. You deceived Liu Boyan by pretending to be a concubine, which is already dishonest. If I were to grant this decree, it would seem like I was bullying them too much."
"Father!"
"Listen to me first."
Ji Ying slowly sipped her tea: "If you want to get married, you have to get past your mother-in-law. After all, it's her daughter getting married, and you have to show her the basic respect due to an elder. If you want her daughter, if you want to be the son-in-law of the Liu family, you have to show sincerity, otherwise..."
"Otherwise, even if I marry Zhizhi, my mother-in-law will feel like she has a fishbone stuck in her throat every time she sees me."
"It's good that you understand."
Thinking of the recurring nightmares she had experienced that night, the princess pursed her lips and said, "I'm going to find my mother."
She obediently bowed and took her leave, continuing to walk towards the Gan Ning Palace.