Chapter 158: Various Guesses All Having Doubt
“Wangye, can you let go a little?” It was practically just like getting wrapped up by a giant python, was there a need to hug this tightly?
When Li Hong Yuan who had his eyes closed heard this, not only did he not let go, he even flipped over, having Jing Wan entirely pressed underneath. Jing Wan heavily gasped a breath. A grown man’s weight, moreover, one that was fit and muscular, not the least bit weak and thin, this was not letting him have his fill, so want to have her squished to death? Was there a need to be this mean!
Sensing Jing Wan’s ‘dying struggle’, Li Hong Yuan finally ‘mercifully’ moved a little. However, his chin still remained resting on Jing Wan’s shoulder, his face glued to hers, softly muttering by her ear, “Jiao Jiao, Jiao Jiao……..”
(T/N: 娇 (Jiao) means pampered or lovable, it’s a pretty common nickname; as awkward as it is, it was also my childhood nickname from my parents.)
That’s right, Li Hong Yuan didn’t call her ‘Wan Wan’ again, purely because at a certain moment earlier, Jing Wan suddenly requested this.
And who was Li Hong Yuan, he instantly connected the dots. He previously already knew that Jing Wan had misunderstood him for having her viewed as another woman’s substitute. He although nearly wanted to vomit blood in anger, but under the circumstances of not being able to explain, towards those words of his towards her, this ‘misunderstanding’ was actually the most reasonable explanation. In reality, he actually can have that excuse he gave Luo Pei Shan told to Jing Wan, telling her his care towards her, but he knew, she can accept the cruelest truth, yet still dislike others lying to her. That’s why, even if his lie will never be exposed in this lifetime, he still didn’t want to lie to her. Moreover, through his own out of the ordinary experience, he deduced that Jing Wan was also out of the ordinary, so it was hard to guarantee that in the future, during their time together, Jing Wan won’t discover any clues. He didn’t want a little lie right now to cause her to be unhappy in the future.
Jing Wan’s little request midway actually made Li Hong Yuan quite happy.
Even if Jing Wan didn’t say anything, he still was able to guess her thoughts inside. Getting used by his own wife, although wasn’t pleasant, it was still the gentlest way to advance and achieve his goal. But, for her, aside from this title, she didn’t care for anything else related to him, and perhaps would even feel guilty towards him for exploiting him. That’s why, she will be a ‘virtuous wife’ after they marry to compensate him.
So for her to suddenly make this request, it meant that she cared. At least, in that moment, she didn’t want to become someone else’s substitute. Even if at that time, she herself wasn’t sure whether he was thinking of her or ‘Wan Wan’.
This realization made Li Hong Yuan happy, but at the same time, also made him somewhat between laughter and tears. The end result was just he didn’t call her Wan Wan anymore, instead calling her a name that was completely incompatible with her personality, yet was the goal he was striving towards——–Jiao Jiao, having her turned into a ‘Jiao’ (pampered). Afterwards, when he went down, he was even more ruthless in his act. Li Hong Yuan stared into her eyes, kissing her already reddened shoulder, “Like it?”
Jing Wan blushed, flying into a rage out of embarrassment, to the point of speaking incoherently, “Shut up.”
Li Hong Yuan softly chuckled, “Jiao Jiao, this is thinking of something strange again? A good young lady needs to be reserved.”
She was thinking of something strange? She wasn’t reserved? To even dare counterattack! Jing Wan gritted her teeth in anger, this bastard, scoundrel, pervert. Jing Wan even began to suspect that she actually returned to being a real fourteen fifteen year old, else how would she be this easily stirred up by him, really want to bite him to death. For better or worse still a wangye, how can you be this shameless. You should still at the very least retain a bit of elegance, right? Turns out, it was similarly all eaten by dogs!
Despite knowing that Jing Wan was sulking, he was still very happy. As expected, compared to the calm and reserved her, he still liked the lively and energetic her more. Wanting to have Wan Wan raised into a ‘Jiao Jiao’ perhaps wasn’t as difficult as predicted?
Moreover, there was another thing that made Li Hong Yuan happy. Through this intimate interaction this time, he was at least seventy percent sure that his dear Jiao Jiao most likely has never experienced the matters between man and woman. Although he has already said long ago, regardless of her origins, regardless of what she’s experienced, he will wholly accept her without reservations. But, knowing that she just belonged to him from beginning to end, he still couldn’t help feeling exceedingly happy inside.
In reality, Li Hong Yuan’s possessiveness has been very strong since childhood, just in his past life, he restrained himself and didn’t behave that obviously. Afterwards, he became the Emperor. The entire world was all his, but by that time, there was nothing that made him particularly want to possess anymore. But after his rebirth, it wasn’t the same anymore. In addition to being used to being unruly and willful during his time as an Emperor, he also no longer restrained himself, to the point that his certain actions towards Jing Wan were all concluded by his old man as his possessive desires acting up.
Li Hong Yuan stroked Jing Wan’s already scattered black hair, soft and lustrous, shining black all the way to the tip, and there weren’t any split ends either. It can be seen, it has gone through meticulous care and maintenance. “Hungry yet? How about I let someone set the dishes?”
Jing Wan was half crushed by him, so even wanting to look at him was all impossible, feeling somewhat complicated inside. In reality, she was currently questioning this so called ‘extreme pampering’. Thinking back to these last two hours, setting aside those moments where he was specifically seducing her, his actions and conduct, even if placed in her past life, for the most part, one was all unable to find a man like him that would go this far for someone, let alone in this feudalistic society, where men were regarded as superior to women. If a woman doesn’t adhere to a man, her life will become exceptionally difficult. Under this kind of backdrop, where the other party was even a dignified qinwang, the Emperor’s most favored son, male superiority ideology with everything all revolving around oneself, that was suppose to be the norm. Their so called pampering, majority should be on materialistic things, and in other aspects, it was nothing more than just indulgence, then giving a bit of warmth, and if……………
Those beauties that Jin Qinwang kept, according to rumors, all were of very lowly birth. The best was probably just those young ladies from impoverished official families, but the proportion that these people occupied were all very small. Majority were women that came from brothels, dancer mills, and acting troupes. There was also a portion that were commoners. A person’s upbringing and environment determined one’s bearing and manner, as well as taste. Jin Qinwang, who was born into the imperial family, what he received was the best upbringing, and the palace maids that he came in contact with, their appearances and manners were all first class. Even if he left the palace and opened his own manor, his taste becoming unusual, but were these women capable of letting him have his self-address change from ‘this prince’ to ‘I’? Able to let him take care of all things, with everything in consideration of the other party first? And some things that were usually taken care of by the servant girls, he all personally took care of?
If it was just a single woman that made him love into his bones, perhaps there was still that bit of possibility, but for those whose ‘pampering’ didn’t exceed seven days, thrown away after playing————-He dared to talk back to his Majesty, dared to openly sort out his brothers, disregard the law, lash out against court officials, such a person would, for the sake of those women, humble himself to this degree? Was it possible?
She who had these deeds of his pressed onto the label of ‘extreme pampering’ must be the one having problems with her brain.
In the end, it was still because of that ‘Wan Wan’ he spoke of. Jing Wan really was quite curious, exactly what kind of woman was the other party, to be able to let Jin Qinwang, this kind of person, fall deeply in love, to the point where even if she was just a substitute, she was all able to let him have her cupped in the palm like this. Just, such an important person, how come her third sister-in-law never mentioned a word of? Shouldn’t have gone as far as to have the person hidden away completely to the point where the people outside didn’t hear the slightest news, right? But, was Jin Qinwang the kind of person that would keep things hidden away?
That’s why, regardless of which scenario, there seemingly were always places that didn’t make sense.
Since she couldn’t make sense of it, she just decided to not think about it anymore. Right now, she was also hungry. Moreover, after such an exercise, in addition to already entering summer, never mind being countless times more exhausted than when she normally exercised, the sticky feeling also doubled, how uncomfortable. “Wash up first.”
“Alright.” Li Hong Yuan rubbed against Jing Wan’s face, sitting up and conveniently having Jing Wan pulled up too. He then pulled over the thin quilt, having her tightly wrapped up. “Someone come.”
Gong mama pushed open the door and entered, deferential and proper, “Wangye and miss wants water?” She was very familiar with Jing Wan’s habits.
“En.” Li Hong Yuan faintly replied.
Gong mama retreated out.
Jing Wan saw that Gong mama, from entering to exiting, in this brief moment, all didn’t raise her head. But even so, Jing Wan still couldn’t help shrinking back into the covers, just leaving everything above her eyes exposed outside.
Li Hong Yuan found it amusing, “Bathing and changing clothes for you, this prince shouldn’t have any problems, however, for make up and styling your hair, still need for your mama to do it.” That’s why, this while, no matter what she did, it was all useless. Later, one will still have to face. “Really disappointing, you’re the one that’s her master.”
Jing Wan just glared at him.
An angry glare that still carried the colors of spring didn’t have any threat at all. On contrary, it made a certain someone somewhat restless again, reaching out and pinching her nose, “Don’t entice me, else you probably won’t be able to go home today.”
Jing Wan adverted her eyes, inhaling a breath, telling herself, don’t bicker with this bastard.
Four servant girls lifted a two person super-large sized bathtub in. The inside of the tub was clearly filled with water, yet the four of them, who appeared to be no different from ordinary servant girls, lifted it steadily and securely, even appearing relaxed. Then carefully looking again, separately, one didn’t think much of anything, but looking as a whole, one will discover that their movements were shockingly identical.
Because of this discovery, Jing Wan suddenly lifted her head and looked towards Li Hong Yuan. Afterwards, two pairs of eyes intersected. That feeling was just like as if Li Hong Yuan was attentively watching her the entire time. That kind of seemingly having something going out of control feeling really wasn’t all that great.
“What’s wrong, have something you want to say to me?” Li Hong Yuan lightly rubbed her somewhat swollen lips.
“Nothing.” He was clearly telling her that he really wasn’t like what the rumors outside said, ‘having nothing at all’. And she also long guessed that he couldn’t possibly be that simple, but for him to have these secrets told to her this easily, what was the intention? Could it be for the sake of roping in grandfather? Jing Wan slightly scolded herself inside, she was being overly sensitive.
Towards his wife’s habit of liking to blindly worry for nothing, Li Hong Yuan was also very helpless. Him letting these people come serve was merely because these people were completely loyal to him, so his matters definitely won’t be leaked out in the slightest. It was nothing more than taking this girl’s reputation into consideration, else if today’s matter spreads out, even if he didn’t have her eaten cleanly, it would inherently still be the same as if he did.
Once the servant girls went out, Li Hong Yuan lifted open the quilt, carrying Jing Wan in his arms and walking down from the bed. He went around the screen and approached the bathtub, extending his long legs and stepping in. Soon after, their two bodies submerged into the water.
Li Hong Yuan lifted her chin, teasing, “What, this while, still embarrassed?”
It was better if he didn’t say, but once said, Jing Wan uncontrollably blushed. However, she felt this reaction of hers was too weak. Previously, it was her that stripped this one’s clothes off. Getting embarrassed now, wasn’t that just letting him see a joke? Thus, she had to remain calm at all cost, quickly letting the blush on her face subside. ———This one letting her discover his secrets was also forgotten about just like that? Not mentioning a single word? Jing Wan continued to ponder over this question from earlier.
Li Hong Yuan suddenly burst into laughter.