Chapter 845: Chapter 590: Who’s in the Play_3
Truly, I wanted to just strangle Chunyu Yan to death.
But in just an instant, she calmed herself down.
Telling Xiaoman to place the box to the side, she didn’t open it but instead smiled and asked the emissary,
"How is the health of the Prince of Yunchuan?"
The emissary replied, "Thank you for your concern, Lady Xie. His Majesty is in good condition."
Feng Yun smiled faintly, "Good to hear he is well."
After the emissary left, Pei Jue didn’t ask much, and Feng Yun also refrained from provoking him.
Back then, when she had sent Ge Guang to Yunchuan to return the whip to Chunyu Yan, she never told Pei Jue. Not because she had any ulterior motives, but simply because Pei Jue had always disliked her connections with Chunyu Yan. She couldn’t be bothered to invite his displeasure.
Who would have thought that after all these years, the matter would come back like a boomerang?
Chunyu Yan had grown worse as a person.
If he had been a scoundrel before,
now he was utterly devoid of humanity.
She swore at him silently in her heart but remained tranquil on the surface.
Pei Jue, too, was calm.
Snowstorm raged outside, while a brazier warmed the tent.
A low wooden table held a wine pot. The two sat across from each other, with a map spread on one side. He studied it intently...
And that ebony box, always a thorn in Feng Yun’s eyes, was placed right on the low table before Pei Jue.
The tent was not like Huaxi’s manor—spacious enough to hide things at will...
No. Why should she even need to hide anything?
She hadn’t done anything that would betray him.
Feng Yun came to a realization and decided to stop wasting energy fretting in secret...
"Your Majesty..."
The moment she spoke, Pei Jue looked up at her.
Those deep black eyes fixed on her as he leaned slightly forward. His chiseled features carried an extraordinarily sharp aura, though his demeanor remained exceptionally composed.
"I have a thought I would like to discuss with the generals. Lady Yun, do listen as well."
Feng Yun swallowed back whatever she had been about to say.
Before the generals arrived, she personally brewed tea and filled the cups. She used this chance to quietly place the box into the chest of clothing.
Pei Jue acted as if he hadn’t seen anything.
Feng Yun, too, assumed he hadn’t noticed anything.
She exhaled a sigh of relief. But just as she turned gracefully, the man pulled her forcefully into his arms.
"Open your hand."
Feng Yun, quite brazen, tilted her face slightly upward and smiled as she looked at him.
"What kind of person is Chunyu Yan? You know well enough. If you’re angry about something as trivial as this, wouldn’t that just make him triumphant?"
"Who said I’m angry?" Pei Jue spoke with ease, his tone detached and light, his gaze betraying nothing.
Just as Feng Yun began to relax, thinking the storm had passed, he slapped her palm with force. Then, scooping her up by the waist, he carried her directly into the inner section of the tent.
In broad daylight...
Feng Yun caught sight of Xiaoman’s quickly retreating head and froze completely.
For the days they’d spent in the Dan Prefecture camp, Pei Jue had been exceedingly busy. Or perhaps they had been married long enough that he was no longer the same as he had been in their early years—burning with urgency like fire was licking his heels every time they met. Instead, there had only been a few instances of slow, tender intimacy...
In the past, he had been a raging tiger. Now, he was a housecat.
A tiger would see its prey and pounce without hesitation, eager to shred it apart and devour it bones and all.
A housecat, however... A housecat, well-fed and sated on its meals, had the leisure to toy with its prey. Nothing delighted it more than watching the prey stumble in chaos, beg for mercy, until it could bear it no more and clung helplessly, pleading for a cure...
With so many people in the camp and the tents hardly soundproof, he had exercised particular restraint recently to avoid unsettling the troops...
Which was why Feng Yun simply didn’t believe he would do anything outrageous.
She set her resolve. She would not beg for mercy...
And so, on this snowy afternoon, the man who claimed to be neither angry nor jealous pinned her against the tent window, forcing her to turn her back. The entire tent seemed about to tremble from his actions...
Feng Yun’s legs turned to jelly. Unable to stand firm, she bit her lip, stifling any sound, and relied solely on the strength of his arm to keep herself from collapsing...
In the meantime, generals and advisors began trickling in for the meeting...
Yet inside and outside the tent, all remained eerily quiet.
As if no one had the faintest idea what had transpired...
The man finally seemed to have pacified his fire. Interlocking his fingers with hers, his voice hoarse, he asked, "Will you dare defy me again in the future?"
"Dare what?" Feng Yun, utterly drained, asked weakly.
"Passing private objects in secret."
The gritted tone of his voice amused Feng Yun.
A heavy accusation—she certainly wouldn’t admit to it...
"How could this be considered covert dealings? Wasn’t this just flirting with my adulterer? Your Majesty, are you enraged or not? Come kill me if you dare."
Feng Yun had always been delicate and pampered. In the camp, she’d been cared for so well her skin was now as tender as silk, spoiling her temperament even further.
Buoyed by the remnants of lingering passion, she grew bold. Taking advantage of his unguarded moment, she bit him fiercely, glaring at him with eyes brimming with feigned fury.
"Pei Gou, you don’t dare."
Pei Jue firmly held her face, his body still but his eyes alight with a flame that smoldered dangerously close to igniting.
"You truly court death..."
He withdrew, brushing her cheek gently before straightening his own clothes, his expression softening slightly at last. "Tonight, I’ll deal with you properly."
He left Feng Yun inside the tent and went out alone.
The waiting generals couldn’t help but have slightly awkward expressions.
Sitting down, Pei Jue opened with a bombshell.
"I plan to issue a decree inviting the Prince of Yunchuan to join in the campaign against Qi."
The generals and advisors were collectively stupefied.
Bringing ten thousand soldiers and his own provisions, the Prince of Yunchuan’s intentions were as evident as Sima Zhao’s. His Majesty should be guarding against such a threat. How could he go so far as to welcome a wolf into the fold?
The generals opposed vehemently, while two advisors even knelt on the ground, offering their lives in protest.
Pei Jue merely said, "My decision is final."
-
This decision caused no small stir within the Da Yong military camp.
Xiaoman, having heard the news from Zuo Zhong, shook her head as she spoke to Feng Yun.
"Lady, why has His Majesty been acting so strangely?"
"Strangely how?" Feng Yun countered.
Xiaoman scratched her head furiously, trying to shake some wisdom out of her brain, but as a simple soul, no amount of thought could help her unravel the high-level strategies these men engaged in.
"Do you think the Princely Heir has really come to assist us?"
Xiaoman still harbored lingering fondness for the time Chunyu Yan spent in Huaxi, unwilling to think ill of him.
Feng Yun couldn’t help but laugh.
Assist? This was nothing short of creating chaos.
But then again, the world was already in turmoil. Everyone had their own ambitions. His addition hardly made a difference.
"He simply won’t give up."
"Give up? On you, my lady?" Xiaoman asked, puzzled.
Feng Yun chuckled and shook her head in denial.
"What do you think that soft whip represents?"
Xiaoman was stunned. "A whip is just a whip, isn’t it? What else could it represent?"
Feng Yun said nothing.
Wide-eyed and curious, Xiaoman pressed on, "The whip was something you seized from the Prince of Yunchuan, then handed back to him. And now he’s sent it to you once more..."
She waved her fingers in circular motions, then let them drop limply. "I still don’t get it. If the Prince of Yunchuan has ulterior motives, why would His Majesty even agree to it?"
Feng Yun smiled faintly and gestured for her to sit.
"Let me ask you, what is the most stable bond in the world?"
"What? Love?" Xiaoman ventured.
Feng Yun shook her head. "No, interests."
This time, Xiaoman understood.
Teaming up against Xiao Cheng was a shared interest between His Majesty and the Prince of Yunchuan.
She let out a small sigh. Her innocent eyes shone with both confusion and regret.
"Lady, tell me, why is it that the more capable a person is, the less they’re willing to live quietly?"
Feng Yun thought for a moment.
"Because capable people have the capability to be restless."
"Huh?" Xiaoman was utterly lost.
Feng Yun gave a small laugh. "Once you’ve had a taste of power, it’s impossible to let it go. It’s like rolling a snowball—if you want it to last, you have to keep rolling, making it larger and larger. Even though you know... the moment the sun comes out, the snow will melt, you still won’t stop."
"Oh." Xiaoman looked silently at Feng Yun.
Her ladyship was a capable person too.
But her ladyship seemed so calm and restrained.
Feng Yun’s lips curved up.
"Forget it. Kind advice can’t save a damned soul. Let them be."
When she had returned the whip to Chunyu Yan, it was, of course, a gesture of goodwill—an attempt to persuade him to let go of his grudges and obsessions, to preserve the century-long peace of Yunchuan, to keep it from being ravaged by war...
But with ten thousand miles of this land underfoot, who could ever truly convince another?
