Chapter 57
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…Husband.
Jiang Juan’s hand lost its grip, and with a rustling sound, the petals fell, making the peony branches sway and rustle in the night.
His heart seemed to skip a beat.
Call him husband? What for?
How weird, he didn’t want to call him that.
However—Jiang Juan tried to stay calm, “Huh? Call you what?”
Xue Fangli glanced at him, lazily spitting out two words, “Wife.”
Jiang Juan immediately responded, “Yes… huh?”
Jiang Juan: “???”
His eyes widened in shock. He intended to trick His Highness, but instead, he got tricked. Jiang Juan was dumbfounded, staring blankly at him.
Xue Fangli lifted his crimson lips, silently smiling.
His heart was pounding too loudly, too noisily. Jiang Juan felt both irritated and annoyed, so he raised his hand and threw peony petals into Xue Fangli’s face in frustration.
“…You’re so annoying.”
After saying that, Jiang Juan turned to leave.
Xue Fangli raised an eyebrow, not angry despite being showered with petals. He leisurely brushed them off, looking extremely pleased, his smile light.
Jiang Juan heard it. He stopped in his tracks, his back to Xue Fangli. Even if he couldn’t see, he had to say something, “Stop laughing.”
“What’s so funny?”
He complained loudly, and Xue Fangli slowly walked towards him, his voice deep and pleasant, “You’ve become bolder recently, daring to control even me.”
“You want to decide who I see and whether I laugh.”
Jiang Juan defended himself, “………I was just asking casually, who wants to control you?”
“Is that so?” Xue Fangli nodded, “If you want to know, I don’t mind telling you. But you said you were just asking casually, so you don’t seem to care much. Let’s forget it then.”
Jiang Juan: “…”
He did want to know.
No.
He had already been laughed at like this; he had to hold it in.
He had to maintain his dignity.
“Fine, don’t say it. It’s not like I really want to know anyway.”
Jiang Juan pursed his lips, pretending not to care at all.
This time, there were no more petals for Jiang Juan to pluck, and he couldn’t throw them at Xue Fangli’s face again. So he lowered his head and started stepping on Xue Fangli’s shadow on the ground.
For laughing at him.
For not answering him.
For wanting him to call him ‘husband.’
For randomly calling him ‘wife.’
Jiang Juan’s eyelashes fluttered, and he stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
Xue Fangli looked back at him. Jiang Juan snapped out of his daze, shook his head, rubbed his burning ears, and got into the carriage first.
His Highness was so annoying.
He was really so annoying.
Jiang Juan felt the atmosphere was strange, from beginning to end, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange.
He thought about it seriously for a while and finally came to one conclusion.
Between them, no matter what, strange or not, it was always His Highness’s fault, not his.
Blaming His Highness was always the right thing to do.
His Highness was just annoying.
When they returned to the prince’s residence, it was already late. Lan Ting attended to Jiang Juan as he went to bed.
It turned out that curiosity could kill a cat and also make a salted fish lose sleep.
Jiang Juan, who usually fell asleep as soon as he lay down, couldn’t sleep that night. He tossed and turned, thinking he was being very quiet, but soon, he was pulled into a tight embrace.
Xue Fangli asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Juan replied, “….I can’t sleep.”
Xue Fangli hummed, gently rubbing the back of Jiang Juan’s neck. It felt nice, but Jiang Juan’s mind was preoccupied, and no amount of soothing could help. Jiang Juan said hesitantly, “Your Highness…”
“Hmm?”
“I…”
He started stuttering again.
Jiang Juan regretted it, he really did.
He desperately wanted to know when His Highness had met the protagonist shou.
He wanted to know, he really wanted to know.
Thinking about this, Jiang Juan began to reflect on himself.
This wasn’t right.
He was a mature salted fish; how could he be so childish and petty?
He should be more magnanimous.
His Highness meeting the protagonist shou behind his back was no big deal.
—But in Jinjiang Literature City, His Highness’s behavior would be considered unfaithful, and he’d get hundreds of negative comments!
Xue Fangli held Jiang Juan, smelling the scent of the young man. Although he was well aware of Jiang Juan’s unusual behavior, Xue Fangli still leisurely said, “Are you still wondering when I met the second young master?”
“I thought you didn’t want to know?”
Jiang Juan: “…”
Damn, he was cornered again.
Jiang Juan desperately wanted to know, but he had to save face, so he sulkily said, “Of course not.”
Xue Fangli chuckled softly. “If not, then go to sleep.”
How could he possibly sleep? Jiang Juan buried his head in Xue Fangli’s chest, but after a while, he lifted it again and asked slowly, “Your Highness, are you asleep?”
Xue Fangli didn’t respond verbally but reached out and gently pinched his face. “What is it you want to say?”
“I…”
In the darkness, Xue Fangli looked down at him for a moment. The corners of his lips lifted into a rather malicious smile, though his tone gave nothing away.
“At the banquet, you only ate some crab meat. Are you hungry again?”
Jiang Juan wasn’t hungry at all, but what could he do? He reluctantly nodded and said in defeat, “Yes, I’m hungry.”
Xue Fangli nodded, released Jiang Juan from his embrace, and lit a candle.
As soon as Liangfeng Courtyard was lit up, a maid outside the courtyard knocked on the door. Xue Fangli ordered, “Prepare a meal.”
“Wait.”
It was so late, and Jiang Juan had no appetite. If the food was brought out, he wouldn’t be able to eat it. He reluctantly changed his mind and said, “Your Highness, I’m not hungry anymore.”
Xue Fangli turned back to look at him, his eyelids drooping slightly. He didn’t seem displeased but asked, seemingly puzzled, “What’s wrong with you tonight?”
“Since the banquet, you’ve seemed unhappy.”
Jiang Juan thought for a moment. “I wasn’t that unhappy, was I?”
Xue Fangli asked him, “Why were you unhappy?”
After a pause, Xue Fangli thoughtfully added, “If it weren’t for being at the Eldest Princess’s residence, I’d think you were bothered by my meeting with the second young master.”
Jiang Juan: “…”
Great, he cornered him again.
Jiang Juan lay back on the bed peacefully and reached out to pull at the bead curtain.
The curtain swayed, making a crisp sound. Jiang Juan sighed, turned his head, and lightly bumped it against the armrest.
He had his pride, too.
But he was losing sleep over this.
Jiang Juan was lost in thought. With a sudden “bang,” he misjudged the force and hit himself harder than intended. He cried out, covered his forehead, and sat up, frowning. “It hurts.”
The next moment, Xue Fangli removed Jiang Juan’s hand from his forehead, lifted his face, and examined him. There was no blood, just a large red mark.
With his fingers gently brushing Jiang Juan’s forehead, Xue Fangli finally gave up teasing him. He looked down and, in a regretful tone, said, “It’s as hard to get you to tell the truth as it is to stop you from hurting yourself.”
“Little liar.”
Jiang Juan was taken aback. “Huh?”
Xue Fangli said slowly, “You want to know when I met the second young master, right?”
“How many times have you lied tonight?”
Jiang Juan instinctively defended himself. “Not that many times.”
After a brief pause, Jiang Juan realized something and asked in disbelief, “Your Highness, you knew?”
Xue Fangli nodded. “Yes, I knew.”
“I wanted to see how stubborn you could be.”
Jiang Juan: “…”
He had agonized over this for so long.
His Highness had been watching him make a fool of himself from the start, hadn’t he?
“How could you be like this?”
Jiang Juan was a bit embarrassed and angry. “You say I’m lying, but you kept asking questions you already knew the answers to.”
Xue Fangli chuckled softly but didn’t respond directly. Instead, he asked, “I’ll ask you again, do you want to know?”
Jiang Juan glanced at him, and his last shred of dignity made him choose to reply vaguely, “What do you think?”
“Should I decide?” Xue Fangli said slowly. “I think you don’t want to know.”
Jiang Juan: “…”
“Fine, I do want to know,” Jiang Juan admitted. “When did you secretly meet my brother?”
Jiang Juan emphasized, “I’m not bothered, I’m just curious.”
Still trying to save face.
Xue Fangli chuckled again but still didn’t answer immediately. He asked Jiang Juan, “Do you remember what I told you?”
Jiang Juan blinked, “Huh?”
Xue Fangli said with interest, “Call me ‘husband’ and let’s see.”
Jiang Juan thought for a moment and calmly said, “You tell me first. I need to prepare myself mentally.”
Xue Fangli: “Hmm? Are you serious?”
Jiang Juan nodded, “Yes, really, as true as pearls. You go ahead.”
Xue Fangli raised an eyebrow at him, his expression teasing. Jiang Juan couldn’t stand it and shook him a bit, “Hurry up and confess. If you don’t, I’ll assume you’re guilty and won’t deal with you anymore.”
Since Jiang Juan said he wouldn’t deal with him, Xue Fangli couldn’t keep teasing him. He said nonchalantly, “The day I took you to Baihua Garden, you were asleep. He accidentally entered Begonia Garden and talked with me for a while.”
Jiang Juan: “?”
Jiang Juan: “That’s it???”
“What else?” Xue Fangli looked at him, smiling. “With my wife being so strict, how dare I flirt outside? Besides—” “Since you entered Prince Li’s residence, when have I not been inseparable from you?”
Jiang Juan: “???”
He had lost sleep over this?
Jiang Juan lost all motivation and lay back down slowly.
Xue Fangli asked him, “Weren’t you going to call me ‘husband’?”
Jiang Juan shamelessly said, “I said I would, but not today. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
Expecting him to back out, Xue Fangli wasn’t surprised and just chuckled softly.
Today it was just ‘husband,’ who knows what it would be tomorrow.
Jiang Juan hadn’t been lying down for long before he thought of something and sat up again. He looked at Xue Fangli and said, “Your Highness, now it’s my turn to settle the score with you.”
“You laughed at me all night.”
Xue Fangli leisurely asked, “Oh? How do you plan to settle the score with me?”
Jiang Juan pretended to feel his heart, “Your Highness, you know I have a heart condition and can’t get angry, so…”
The lights in Liangfeng Courtyard had been on for too long. Steward Gao, worrying that something might be wrong, quickly dressed and hurried over. Just as he was about to knock, he heard their Royal Consort speak slowly.
“Get out. You’re not allowed to sleep here tonight. Just seeing you annoys me.”
Steward Gao: “?”
He was stunned and didn’t quite understand.
The next second, the door opened, and a man walked out expressionlessly. He glanced down at Steward Gao and coldly asked, “Is there something you need?”
Steward Gao: “…. N-no, nothing.”
Good heavens.
It seemed he had just witnessed His Highness being kicked out by the Royal Consort.
Wait a moment.
Wasn’t this His Highness’s Liangfeng Courtyard?
His Royal Consort had kicked His Highness out of his own courtyard.
Steward Gao fell silent.
Prince Li’s residence had now officially become Prince Li’s Royal Consort residence, hadn’t it?
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