The Beauties of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 13

Su Li bit her lip, staring at her with a hint of resentment. Her eyes were moist and filled with glistening tears, and her scream suddenly became hoarse, "Miss, how could you forget the Prince of Yan! How could you!"

The Prince of Yan?

Sure enough! The letter from three days ago must have been sent by Su Li, probably to disrupt the hard-won peaceful relationship between her and Zhao Defang. But seeing that they haven't reacted at all in the past three days, this girl panicked? So she came to hurt Xu'er?

"Su Li, I'm sorry, but amnesia is something I can't control—"

"You said it!" Su Li suddenly screamed, "You promised that you would never betray the Prince of Yan, no matter what! You actually... you actually got pregnant with the Prince of Qin's child, you liar!"

When did Wanlan ever make such a promise? Didn't she give up on Zhao Dezhao?

"Su Li, calm down first." Wan Lan stared worriedly at the child tightly held by Li'er, her brows furrowing slightly—why always have to use the weak as a threat at times like this? This bullying of the weak and fearing the strong is truly a timeless phenomenon.

Seeing her worried gaze fixed on the child in her arms, Su Li suddenly lifted the swaddled baby up again and said coldly, "Miss, he shouldn't exist in the first place. Now that His Highness Prince Yan has returned, you should go with him. This child is fine to have!"

After saying that, he loosened his grip and let the swaddled baby fall to the ground without warning!

Wanlan felt her heart stop abruptly, as if the whole world had vanished instantly. She was completely silent, stunned, but instinctively rushed forward to catch the child—

With a loud "crack," a red ribbon burst through the window, seemingly possessing its own will, and wrapped around the child who was barely half a foot off the ground. With a twist, it carried the child out of the window. Wanlan, unable to stop in time, missed her target and collapsed to the ground. She looked up in astonishment through the broken window and was met with a pair of dark eyes that remained indifferent but subtly contained anger.

Zhao Dezhao!

The name of that person flashed through her mind, and she hurriedly got up and rushed out of the room. She saw that person standing at the bottom of the steps, holding a child in one hand and a red silk that he had casually picked up from the eaves in the other, staring straight at her with a pair of clear eyes.

"The child..." Wanlan opened her mouth, her eyes instantly stinging with unbearable pain. She choked back a sob, staggered forward, and grabbed his sleeve. "Give me back the child..."

Zhao Dezhao silently handed the baby to her. Wanlan, tears welling in her eyes, carefully took the baby. Looking at the peacefully sleeping child in her arms, tears streamed down her cheeks, "Xu'er... Xu'er..."

What's going on?

Zhao Dezhao stood with his hands behind his back, coldly watching Su Li walk out of the room, and said in a deep voice.

Su Li lowered her eyes, curtsied to him, and quietly replied, "Your Highness, this servant is helping you."

"Help me?" Zhao Dezhao sneered. "You want to harm the son of the King of Qin today, and you dare to say that this is helping me? Don't you think that this statement might harm me?"

Su Li was startled, and suddenly looked up at him, "Your Highness! This child should never have been born. Otherwise, what about the vow you made with Miss a year ago? Miss has lost her memory now, have you lost your memory too—"

"Shut up!" Zhao Dezhao shook the red silk in his hand, and the long, soft silk instantly became as hard as a steel knife, striking Su Li's body hard. Su Li flew out and crashed into the vermilion pillar on the edge of the corridor, falling helplessly down the steps.

"What are you doing!" Wanlan grabbed the hand of the man beside her, who was about to wave the red silk again, in shock. She raised her head and glared at his cold eyes. "What are you doing? Do you want to kill her?"

"She deserves to die," Zhao Dezhao said calmly, moving her hand away and about to step forward—

"Stop!" Wanlan flashed in front of him, blocking his way. "Tell me what you mean by 'she deserves to die'? She was devoted to you. Even if what she did today was wrong, her intentions were genuinely for you. And you want her dead? Zhao Dezhao, don't you think you're being too heartless?"

"Heartless?" Zhao Dezhao tilted his head, looking at her eyes that shone with anger, and chewed on the word softly. Then he suddenly raised his hand and stroked her face, asking softly, "Lan'er, back then... you had resentment, didn't you?"

What?

Wanlan stared blankly at the man who had suddenly become gentle. She felt a tingling pain from his rough fingertips on her face and instinctively took a step back. However, she was stunned by the pain on his face and could no longer move.

This man... this man has such deep sorrow!

What exactly happened?

She sighed softly, and with a touch of pity, reached out to grasp his hand, which was frozen in mid-air. "Zhao Dezhao, are you alright?" She was sorry; she wasn't the Wanlan he wanted, and she couldn't comfort him.

Zhao Dezhao was taken aback. He stared at her intently for a long time, then suddenly pulled her into his arms, holding her and the child tightly in his embrace. His handsome face, showing a hint of vulnerability, was buried in her hair, and his hot breath was transmitted to her without missing a single detail.

"I'm sorry... Lan'er..."

Wanlan froze, too stiff to move, still holding the child in her arms! She tried to push him away with one hand, but he wouldn't budge. And yet, he whispered an apologetic sound in her ear that made anyone feel sorry for him. Wanlan sighed, and her left hand, which had been hanging limply at her side, finally patted his back—

"Hey, don't be sad, okay?" She really doesn't know how to comfort people, can't you just leave her alone?

"Lan'er... are you punishing me? Are you taking revenge on me by causing me to lose my memory?"

His anguished words echoed in her ears again, and Wanlan felt as if her heart had been suddenly gripped by a strong hand, the pain causing her to furrow her brow, filled with confusion—

She increasingly felt that... the story between Zhao Dezhao and Wanlan was not as simple as Su Xin had told her.

Recalling Su Li's words, she suddenly had a very bad premonition—

“One year ago…” she began slowly, pushing him away as he relaxed his guard, staring at him with wide eyes. “What is the vow Su Li mentioned from a year ago? Explain yourself.” A year ago… wasn’t that when Zehua and Wanlan got married? If Wanlan was going to marry Zehua, why would she have a vow with Zhao Dezhao, whom she should have severed ties with long ago?

Zhao Dezhao closed his eyes and whispered, "A year ago, when I left the capital, you suddenly found me and said that you could never forget me, and asked me to bring you into my mansion after I returned to the capital, even if... even if you were just a concubine."

"Wait a minute!" Wanlan exclaimed, "Didn't you say you had no feelings for Wanlan? How come you have a promise with her?"

Zhao Dezhao looked intently at her, and chuckled softly, “Unintentional? How could it be unintentional? Didn’t I make it clear to you back then? I couldn’t refuse to marry you, and you, being as stubborn as you are, were unwilling to be a concubine. But for some reason, you suddenly came to your senses, which naturally made me very happy. I never expected…” She suddenly got married.

Wanlan stared wide-eyed in disbelief, trembling with shock at the sudden thought that had entered her mind. "She made a promise to you, but then turned around and married Zehua, and even got pregnant. And all of this... you didn't know, did you?"

she?

Zhao Dezhao glanced at her strange words and nodded. "Yes, I didn't know. I only found out about the whole thing three months after you married Defang and became pregnant. At that time, I didn't think too much about it. You would never lie to me, so I always thought you were forced to marry him—"

"No!"

Wanlan bit her lip hard, her whole body trembling as she backed away step by step, staring blankly at him. "No...it wasn't out of necessity...she did it on purpose...she must have done it on purpose..."

Jiao Wanlan! You're terrifying!

Chapter 13, How Will the Past Vows End (1)

Jiao Wanlan refused to be a concubine, so she resolutely refused to continue her relationship with Zhao Dezhao and instead married Zhao Defang. This shows how stubborn and strong-willed Jiao Wanlan was. She had seen a woman like this before: a young and beautiful woman who loved her husband very much, but upon learning of his unexpected infidelity, she didn't give him any chance to repent and decisively signed the divorce papers.