In the beginning, Zhao Xiyan maintained a sulky silence, but eventually, unable to restrain himself any longer, he gave Zhao Chong a cold glance.
"Are you all deaf? Get moving and do as I said!"
Zhao Chong hurriedly responded and took Zhao Tai to handle the situation.
By then, Qi Yue was sowhat certain that Zhao Xiyan was mad because she hadn't spoken to him first upon her return, instead chatting with a bunch of unrelated people. She was secretly delighted, but her face showed none of it.
"Xiyan, I was only gone for a short while. Who dared to upset you? Tell , and I'll sort them out for you."
Zhao Xiyan quietly observed her for a while, his lips curling into a peculiar smile. He didn't respond but suddenly scooped her up and, with a few leaps, quickly left the smoky campsite.
Qi Yue, unsure of his intentions, started shouting.
"Zhao Xiyan, the battle below isn't over yet, we need to stay..."
The sound of wind whooshed by her ears, and Zhao Xiyan's pleasant voice carried a clear annoyance.
"If we stay, what do we need the others for?"
Upon hearing him speak, Qi Yue felt even more amused, and embraced Zhao Xiyan around the waist, resting her little head on his shoulder while her eyes fixated on his stunning face.
Initially, Zhao Xiyan had wanted to rush back to Yecheng and confine Qi Yue to her room to interrogate her on how she could fail to see him as her future husband.
But Qi Yue's incessant questioning and clingy laughter threw his heart into disarray.
At that mont, he was so captivated by her soul-searing, enticing eyes that he nearly forgot to maintain his martial power, and they fell from mid-air, still in each other's arms.
Fortunately, his martial power was profound, and he managed to stabilize their descent before hitting the ground.
However, due to the force of the fall and carrying Qi Yue in his arms, they landed on a gentle slope and couldn't keep their balance, tumbling down together.
Worried about hurting Qi Yue, Zhao Xiyan could only hold her tightly, rolling a couple of tis before they ca safely to a stop.
At that mont, any anger he had felt was cast far away, and he was solely concerned about whether the little woman in his arms was injured.
"Yueyue, how are you? Did you hit yourself anywhere?"
Even as he spoke, he started to rise to check on her.
With mischief in her heart, Qi Yue wouldn't let him get up, deliberately staying motionless on top of him, continuously shouting.
"Don't move, don't move, I twisted my ankle, it hurts when you move."
Zhao Xiyan was already regretting his distraction, and now hearing that Qi Yue was injured, he felt even more remorseful.
"Yueyue, it's all my fault, I should not have lost my temper. Let see the injury, and I will rub it for you."
As he spoke, his large hands slowly reached down, heading toward her ankle.
It was the first ti Qi Yue, a young girl, lay on Zhao Xiyan's chest, listening to his heart pounding like thunder, her body and soul already lting.
Suddenly touched so gently by him, her entire body went limp, unable to move, involuntarily letting out a moan.
"Xiyan... Xiyan..."
"Hm?"
At that mont, Zhao Xiyan held her tightly, tilting his body and gently rubbing Qi Yue's ankle.
"Yueyue, does it feel better now?"
"..."
Qi Yue felt too embarrassed to make another sound, allowing Zhao Xiyan to finish rubbing one foot before he moved to the other.
As a martial artist, Zhao Xiyan knew what a sprain was like. After rubbing her ankle and noticing no swelling and not hearing Qi Yue complain of pain, but rather hearing her voice soft with unending affection while calling his na, he began to understand.
Looking down, he saw Qi Yue's eyes tightly closed, her cheeks flushed, and her radiant white face glowing in the firelight like the rarest Peony, stirring his spirit.
"Yueyue..."
He called to her, unable to resist bending down to seek her lips, but landed a kiss on her closed eyes instead.
Her long, soft lashes brushed against his lips, seemingly caressing his heart, instantly igniting a fervent warmth spreading through him.
"Yueyue, my dear Yueyue, let's get married soon."
In the distance, the firelight flickered, and the air buzzed with commotion.
But in their own little world, tightly embraced, it seed as if ti stood still, so tranquil, so enchanting.
Zhao Xiyan embraced Qi Yue tightly, greedily breathing in the sweet scent of her neck, unaware that Qi Yue was also intoxicated by his cool fragrance, utterly lost as to where she was.
Finally, the night suddenly lost its brightness, pitch darkness enveloped everything, the darkness before dawn arrived.
"Let go now, dawn is breaking."
Qi Yue whimpered softly, pushing him away with her small fist.
The man's chest muscles were rock hard, and just as she was beginning to exert so strength, her arms went limp again.
Zhao Xiyan chuckled softly.
"Can you still walk?"
Qi Yue humd twice in his embrace, struggling to get up, only to be held tightly around her slim waist by Zhao Xiyan.
"Don't move."
A crisp whistle sounded, and abruptly, with a "whoosh", a majestic white horse galloped towards them, its hooves thrashing the wild grass beneath until it rustled loudly.
Zhao Xiyan, holding her with one arm, got up and adjusted his robe, and the next mont, they were on the horseback.
From beginning to end, Qi Yue's shoes never even touched the ground.
The two, one in front of the other, arrived at the city gate in less than half the ti it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Guardians at the gate, recognizing the familiar white horse, imdiately opened the gates to let them through.
Upon reaching the mansion's gate, the sky was already faintly bright. Zhao Xiyan got off the horse first and was about to pick her up when Qi Yue, busy with herself, jumped down but ended up colliding fully into him.
Her small nose imdiately began to feel sour, and the corners of her eyes dampened as well.
"I told you not to move around recklessly, but you wouldn't listen."
Zhao Xiyan scolded her verbally, but his robust body bent to lift her up.
Qi Yue sobbed softly, her arms climbing around his neck.
"...and you bla ? If you hadn't ignored last night and got upset, would any of this have happened?"
"Hah. Yueyue is actually blaming ."
Zhao Xiyan laughed lightly, lowering his eyes to look at her, his gaze as soft as lted honey.
"After you left last night, I don't know how much I worried for you, yet when you returned, you wouldn't even glance at , busy talking with those irrelevant people. Was I supposed to be happy instead of angry?"
At this point, he slowed his brisk pace, his dark, deep eyes fixed on her, then suddenly he burst into laughter again, his mouth tilting up at the corners.
Qi Yue felt uneasy under his gaze and his strange laughter made her a bit embarrassed.
"Why are you laughing like that? You just said you were angry, and now you're laughing so peculiarly."
"I'm happy now," Zhao Xiyan answered still laughing, pulling her tighter to him as they continued towards the inner courtyard.
Qi Yue suddenly rembered the events of the previous night, recalling in a haze hearing Zhao Xiyan ntion hastily getting married, her heart stirred once again.
It felt as if her chest was filling with colorful bubbles, lifting her entire being.
Indeed, it was ti for her to get married.
Normally, girls here married around the age of fourteen or fifteen. At her age, most were already mothers with one or two children.
But she was an orphan, controlled by her disastrous uncle and aunt, until she was seventeen when she had a marriage of convenience with the Zhao family.
Who would have thought that it would end in separation after just over half a year.
One thing led to another, and in another half a year she would be twenty, truly becoming what people consider an old maid.
And Zhao Xiyan was a few years older than her, among the young masters, he too was considered of an older age with no children.
But she saw that Zhao Xiyan's eagerness to marry was not really about continuing the family line, rather it was because of that particular matter...
At that thought, her ears and by extension her whole face heated up, but she muttered dismissively.
"What's there to be happy about?"
"If it weren't for that mont, how would I have known Yueyue was so...."
Zhao Xiyan started to say, suddenly cutting himself off, rely continuing to walk forward with a smile.
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