“Big Brother Changtian, you know I’m like this.”
Liang Qin gently tucked a strand of green hair behind her ear and said with a serious tone, “If you really want to marry me, then I’ll marry you.”
“But if you don’t really want to marry me… let’s just be siblings then.”
“I’ll go talk to my parents about it, and I won’t let you suffer.”
“…”
Li Qin explained in a soft voice, while Wei Changtian listened silently, his heart not experiencing much emotional fluctuation.
On one hand, it was because he genuinely didn’t have any emotional foundation with this woman. On the other hand, it was because the other person’s words were quite sincere—
If you must marry me, I won’t resist, and I won’t cause trouble for both families.
However, if possible, it’s best if you don’t marry me, because I don’t really want to marry you.
To be honest, Li Qin’s candidness already surpassed Wei Changtian’s previous girlfriends by an unknown number of times.
Behind them, several fat carps in the small lake might have thought the two were about to feed them, so they swam over, wriggling and squirming.
They squeezed and nudged each other in the water beneath the two, waiting for half a day without seeing any food being thrown in, and gradually became anxious, trying to jump out of the water.
They did jump out, but unfortunately, they were too fat and couldn’t grasp their posture well, so most of them ended up falling back into the water with a “plop plop” sound.
Wei Changtian turned his head to glance at these carefree fish, asking casually:
“Do you have someone you love?”
“No.”
Li Qin shook her head, remaining silent for a while before continuing:
“Brother Changtian, do you want to hear about what I’ve been doing in Shu Province for the past three years?”
“Go ahead, tell me.” Wei Changtian sat up, stirring up a gentle breeze.
“Uh…”
Li Qin gently plucked a stray blade of grass stuck to Wei Changtian’s collar, hugged her knees, and sank into reminiscence.
“I’ve actually been following my father to eliminate bandits and slay demons.”
“You know I’ve never liked those things like chess, calligraphy, or music; I only liked martial arts.”
“Do you still remember when we were young and would follow our teacher to practice martial arts together? Every time, you would get tired after an hour and want to run away, and our teacher wouldn’t dare to scold you, so it was always me who went to find you.”
“I used to think that martial arts were for living a carefree life. As long as I became an unparalleled master, I could do whatever I wanted, kill whoever I wanted.”
“But after I arrived in Shu Province, I realized…”
Li Qin didn’t finish this sentence, instead pausing for a moment and changing her narrative approach.
“I still remember the first time I followed the government troops to eliminate mountain bandits… Brother Changtian, do you know what I saw?”
“Dead people, countless dead people.”
“A village with hundreds of people, all killed by the mountain bandits because we arrived half a day late…”
“Old people, children, women, even newborn babies, not a single one was spared…”
“The bandits piled up hundreds of corpses at the village entrance, intentionally leaving them for the government troops to see, and wrote four characters in blood on the ground.”
From noble mtl dot come
“Eliminate again, slaughter again…”
Li Qin’s voice trembled, and Wei Changtian waited for a moment before asking softly:
“What happened next?”
“Next…”
Li Qin took a deep breath: “A month later, we finally surrounded and killed those bandits.”
“Many government soldiers died, but not a single bandit escaped.”
“We came down from the mountain and rested for a night at the foot of the mountain.”
“And when we prepared to leave for the city the next morning… Brother Changtian, there were hundreds of people kneeling outside the camp, all dressed in tattered clothes!”
“Some people brought chickens and ducks from home, some clutched a few strings of copper coins, some carried baskets of mountain goods, and even some girls brought their dowry…”
“They didn’t say a word, just knelt there, waiting for us to pass by before they would come forward and stuff things into the government soldiers’ hands.”
“If the soldiers didn’t want them, they would pick them up from the ground and continue to stuff them, until someone accepted them before they would retreat…”
“Brother Changtian, it wasn’t until that day that I realized the world outside this peaceful capital was like this…”
“I also came to understand that practicing martial arts wasn’t for oneself, but for those who didn’t practice martial arts…”
“…”
The moonlight was as white as before, without any difference.
The few fat carps had already swum away, and the lake’s surface had returned to calmness.
It turned out that this was the reason why Liang Qin refused to marry.
Wei Changtian let out a silent sigh, understanding in his heart.
For a woman who had witnessed the hardships of the common people with her own eyes and had already reformed, it was indeed impossible to be willing to marry a tyrant who would bully the weak every day.
Wei Changtian didn’t say anything like “I’m different now.”
Even if he did, Liang Qin might not believe him.
Moreover, such words were meaningless anyway.
The two of them remained silent, Wei Changtian gazing at the night sky, Liang Qin gazing at him.
Until the woman reached out and took off a hairpin from her hair.
This was a coarse silver hairpin, or rather, a wooden hairpin wrapped in silver.
“Brother Changtian, this hairpin was given to me by a girl three years ago, and I’ve been wearing it ever since.”
“Today, I’ll give it to you. If one day you come to your senses, write a letter to tell me.”
“At that time, if you’re still willing to marry me… I’ll be more than happy to marry you.”
“…”
Wei Changtian looked at this woman he had only met today, reached out, and took the hairpin.
“Okay.”
…
Half an hour later, the Liang family’s carriage slowly drove away from the Wei mansion’s gate.
“What did you talk about with Qin’er just now?”
Qin Caizhen withdrew her gaze, looking suspiciously at Wei Changtian: “Why did she look like she had cried?”
“She just told me about what happened in Shu State.”
Wei Changtian clicked his tongue: “I don’t know why she cried.”
“You’re as wooden as a block of wood!”
Qin Caizhen couldn’t help but slap her son on the head, then began to analyze on her own: “It can’t be because you took Na Yao as a concubine, and Qin’er is jealous, right?”
“It doesn’t make sense either; Qin’er is definitely going to be a wife, why would she be jealous of that…?”
Qin Caizhen thought for half a day, and when she turned around to ask something, she found that Wei Changtian had already disappeared.
“Where’s my son?”
She hurriedly asked Wei Xianzhi.
Wei Xianzhi smiled and hid his hands behind his back: “He went back.”
“Went back? Why didn’t you stop him?”
“What’s there to stop him for?”
“The conversation wasn’t even clear yet!”
“Let the young ones handle their own affairs; you always like to interfere in everything.”
“I’m interfering? Ha ha, don’t touch me tonight!”
“…”
The two of them continued to bicker as usual, while Wei Changtian had already returned to his own courtyard.
Lu Jingyao was waiting in the hall, her expression slightly tense.
Ever since she had learned from Qiuyun that Liang Qin was a formidable figure, her heart had been racing nonstop.
With Xu Qingwan already on the scene, now there was another childhood friend, Liang Qin!
The competition was getting fiercer by the minute!
The more Lu Jingyao thought about it, the more anxious she felt, so when she saw Wei Changtian, she immediately ran up to him, wanting to show off her gentle and caring side.
But Wei Changtian didn’t give her a chance, leaving behind only a sentence, “Get some rest early,” before turning around and going back to his room.
Lu Jingyao was left standing outside the closed door, her anger boiling over.
Meanwhile, Wei Changtian was sitting at his desk, toying with the silver hairpin.
In his opinion, he wouldn’t have much interaction with Liang Qin in the future.
After all, Liang Qin would be leaving for Shuzhou in a month.
Long-distance relationship?
No way.
Wei Changtian treated this as a minor episode, but the subsequent events proved—
Fate’s true nature might be full of surprises.