Chapter 188: The Answer
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Yuwen Chu never expected Mingzhu’s question to be this. She was so serious and persistent that he couldn’t just brush it off. He might as well honestly admit that he liked her; otherwise, she might just step all over him with her temperament.
“Is it true?” Mingzhu persisted, unwilling to give up until she got an answer.
“What else do you think? Do you think I’ve been dragging on my marriage with Jiang Shanshan for so many years for no reason? Do you think it’s easy to kneel outside the Empress Dowager’s palace?” Yuwen Chu pondered for a long time before calmly saying, looking up at the canopy, “Do you want to find out? How many people can tolerate your misbehavior like this?”
Would a straightforward answer be fatal? He could easily spout shameless words that would make one blush and skip a heartbeat, but now he felt embarrassed. Mingzhu stared at him for a while, and for some reason, the frustration in her heart began to dissipate gradually. “Who knows? At least I know Yuwen Long would tolerate me as well. Maybe he’d send his people to disperse those in his house before I even had a chance to act up.”
If she didn’t speak, it would be fine, but when she did, Yuwen Chu looked at her with a half-smile and raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure? Do you want to argue about it?”
Mingzhu immediately remembered the wrestling match behind the artificial rockery and almost vomited, “Stop it, I’m going to be sick.”
Yuwen Chu sighed and laid down, “Do whatever you want. I’m tired and want to sleep.”
“And when did you start liking me? It couldn’t have been after we met at the Jade Emperor Temple, could it?” Mingzhu thought it mattered a lot when he started liking her. If it was after the Jade Emperor Temple, then he probably didn’t like her in his past life. If it was before, then there was a possibility.
Yuwen Chu refused to answer this question and pretended to sleep with his eyes closed.
“Then what if I hadn’t broken off the engagement and married Yuwen You, what would you have done?” Mingzhu had no choice but to change the subject and shook him while hugging him tightly.
“What else could I do?” Yuwen Chu got annoyed, “What do you want from me?”
Mingzhu used both hands and feet to push herself into his embrace, holding his face, “I just want to know, if I wasn’t your wife but someone else’s, and they wanted to deal with the Fu family, would you help them against us?”
Will she ever stop? Yuwen Chu sneered, “Fu Mingzhu, are you the one who drank too much today?”
Mingzhu begged almost pleadingly, “Just pretend I’m drunk. Tell me, would you?”
Actually, Yuwen Chu knew what kind of answer Mingzhu wanted. Regardless of the situation, she just wanted assurance that he wouldn’t harm the Fu family. But in reality, if the Fu family became his enemy, a life-and-death battle was inevitable. Fortunately, Fu Cong didn’t choose to be his enemy, and as for the Great Empress Dowager, an old woman of her age wasn’t much of a threat. He did have this level of tolerance.
“Hatred born from love? Don’t embellish yourself!” He sighed, feeling helpless. “Listen carefully, Mingzhu, I have no feud with the Fu family. Unless absolutely necessary, I wouldn’t choose to oppose them. I’m not one to waste energy on people and matters that have nothing to do with me.”
“Am I nothing to you?” Mingzhu felt uneasy again.
“Yes, you are very much a concern to me.” Yuwen Chu sighed, feeling exasperated. “You assumed you were already married to Yuwen You. Since you’re married to him, it has nothing to do with me. If you want it to be relevant, you’d have to have an affair. Are you willing to have an affair for me?”
If Yuwen You died of anger, that was okay, as long as it was Yuwen Chu. No, having an affair was wrong. It was foolish to lower oneself to the same level as the person they wanted to retaliate against. Mingzhu immediately retorted sternly, “Am I that kind of person? Even if I wanted to be with you, I would have to sever all ties with him first. Besides, you already have Jiang Shanshan. I’m not as shameless as her, eager to be someone’s mistress!”
“Oh, Your Highness, you are truly virtuous and pure,” Yuwen Chu didn’t know whether to be relieved or sad. Just as he was about to make some perfunctory remarks to end the topic, Mingzhu pounced on him again, her eyes red with tears. “Don’t change the subject. Answer me honestly. Will you?”
Yuwen Chu sighed again, solemnly saying, “I respect your father and value your brothers’ abilities. Unless it’s a matter of life and death between us, I will never harm Fu’s family, let alone help others harm them. Got it? Hm?”
In his previous life, he and his family had indeed never had any conflicts, so what he said should be true. That picture of Jiang Shanshan might not even be drawn by Jiang Shanshan herself. Mingzhu, thinking this, smiled through her tears. “Got it.” She emphasized again, “You must remember what you said.”
She smiled again. Yuwen Chu, feeling helpless, gently patted Mingzhu’s head, whispering, “What a bother.” No one had told him before that women could be so troublesome, utterly unreasonable. They could make a non-event seem so interesting, incessantly pestering him for so long just to get an answer that had no practical significance. But he hadn’t lied, so he would remember.
Mingzhu laid down quietly in his arms, absentmindedly drawing circles on his chest with her fingers, softly asking, “Do you want to know if that drawing was made by Jiang Shanshan herself?”
Yuwen Chu, in the middle of a yawn, was startled back to alertness. “I don’t want to know. Aren’t you the one who knows best?” He didn’t understand why Mingzhu insisted on denying it. Unlike others, when Mingzhu said she found it in ancient texts, he searched through all the ancient texts he could find, but found nothing. Since Mingzhu denied it, she must have her reasons, and it was useless to ask further.
“I’m not sure. Because this diagram wasn’t something I came up with myself. I just happened to come across it by chance, remembered it well, and wrote it down. I also don’t know who the real designer of this crossbow bed is. So I was thinking, if this diagram wasn’t designed by Jiang Shanshan and didn’t come from us, then there must be someone behind her. That person is the real designer of this diagram. Let’s find out who they are? Otherwise, it’s too dangerous.” Mingzhu patiently persuaded him. If Jiang Shanshan wasn’t the instigator, then Yuwen Chu was even less suspicious. From this perspective, she genuinely hoped there was someone else behind Jiang Shanshan.
Even if this diagram wasn’t drawn by Mingzhu, Yuwen Chu resolutely refused to believe it was designed by Jiang Shanshan. Firstly, Jiang Shanshan only presented the diagram after Mingzhu had already made the model, which didn’t make sense time-wise. Secondly, judging from Jiang Shanshan’s character and behavior, if it was truly designed by her, it wouldn’t have leaked out, let alone ended up in Mingzhu’s hands. So Jiang Shanshan was obviously lying, deceiving him. However, who actually designed the diagram wasn’t important. What mattered was that there was now a risk of leakage, so the priority was to plug the loophole.
“I will find that person with your fourth brother.” Yuwen Chu succinctly ended the conversation, “Now, go to sleep immediately.”
Having received answers to all her questions, Mingzhu looked at the canopy for a while before finally falling asleep, without even dreaming. There was too much to do, and she couldn’t dwell on it all. She could only take it one step at a time.
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