CHAPTER 689: CHAPTER 556: CHEESY BUT ENDEARING

Beside the carriage, Feng Xun’s hand hovered in the air.

He just stood there quietly, slowly lowering his hand.

"She is indeed thoughtful, Prince Feng. She treats you so well; do you still want to be with her? You will harm her," the voice of Heavenly Venerate drifted from behind.

"Heavenly Venerate, you must have never loved someone. If you had, you’d find that when you love someone, you become very selfish. You can’t bear to hand her over to someone else; that person can only be me," Feng Xun turned around and smiled faintly.

The conversation in the carriage continued.

A ripple of emotion, for the first time, appeared in the eyes of Heavenly Venerate, who had seen through worldly affairs.

How could he have not loved before? If he didn’t love, why would he willingly stand by her side for over a decade?

There’s a kind of love that is to hold the hand of your child.

And another kind of love that is to gaze at each other from afar.

Feng Xun is selfish, so he would rather die than let go of Ye Lingyue’s hand.

Heavenly Venerate also considered himself selfish, which is why, knowing Qing Feng and Feng Lan would not end well, he pretended to let go, yet ultimately, used his own methods to keep Qing Feng within his sight.

From Mercenary City to Emperor City, Ye Lingyue got along harmoniously with Earth Venerate.

Ye Lingyue also realized a different side of Earth Venerate; she felt that he seemed to be very concerned about Feng Xun.

But when facing Feng Xun, Earth Venerate reverted to his mute facade, remaining silent.

After spending about ten or so days traveling, Ye Lingyue and Feng Xun arrived at Emperor City.

This was Ye Lingyue’s second visit to Emperor City in less than a year.

Due to the unpleasant experience last time, Ye Lingyue had an average impression of Emperor City, not to mention, this ancient and powerful city was filled with people she disliked and unpleasant memories.

Last time she came, Beiqing was in its golden autumn, with traces of fall colors visible along the streets. This time, it was already the deep winter at year’s end.

Beiqing was much colder than Daxia, and the tall deciduous trees common in the north were now bleak and bare.

Against the backdrop of the imposing city walls, constructed from bluish stones that reflected an icy sheen, one couldn’t help but feel chilled to the bone.

The coronation celebration for Emperor Beiqing was only a few days away, and at the city gate, the carriages of envoys from various nations were coming and going incessantly, making the carriage of Ye Lingyue and Feng Xun seem particularly inconspicuous.

Just outside the gate of Emperor City, Heavenly Venerate came to take his leave; they were esteemed guests of Emperor Beiqing, and eunuchs from the court had already come to greet them.

It was evident that Emperor Beiqing and Heavenly Venerate were on good terms.

Ye Lingyue did not know whether Heavenly Venerate would inform Emperor Beiqing about her situation.

But even if he did, she was not afraid.

Before Heavenly Venerate took his leave, he gave Ye Lingyue a meaningful glance.

"Marquis Yue, you are a smart person, I hope you gain something from this trip to Beiqing."

With those words, Heavenly Venerate left with the air of a senior expert, while Earth Venerate looked at Ye Lingyue, handed her Little Zhiyo, who had been held in Ye Lingyue’s arms all this time, and without a word, boarded the Imperial Palace’s carriage.

"Old charlatan," Ye Lingyue murmured indignantly.

Feng Xun, standing beside her, turned to look at Ye Lingyue and took a silver-white fox fur coat, draping it over Ye Lingyue and carefully adjusting it for her.

The fluffy fox fur made Ye Lingyue’s small face appear even more lively.

Immediately afterward, Feng Xun slowly put on the black fur coat handed to him by the Sword Slave, and then stuffed Ye Lingyue’s hands, chilled to the fingertips from the cold, into his own embrace.

The couple, handsome and beautiful, standing together on the street corner, were already an eye-catching scene to behold.

Some people had already recognized Feng Xun, and seeing him with a stunningly beautiful woman who seemed not to be of this world, they could not help but whisper among themselves.

Witnessing Feng Xun’s overt affection, Ye Lingyue felt somewhat embarrassed, struggling symbolically a few times, but when she felt the warmth in Feng Xun’s embrace, Ye Lingyue let out a soft exclamation.

"How is your body so warm? Don’t tell me you’ve got a fever on the road?"

Because of his Cold Syndrome, Feng Xun’s body temperature had always been lower than that of ordinary people, even when wrapped in layers of clothing.

But today, his body was warm, as if he had a furnace stuffed inside him.

"Ahem, Marquis Yue, the young master saw that you didn’t like using hand warmers, so he held one for a couple of hours himself to get it really warm," the Sword Slave interjected.

Ye Lingyue was a woman, and though she had trained in martial arts, her constitution was ultimately not as robust as a man’s.

Especially upon arriving in the Beiqing Realm, where she couldn’t adapt to the climate change immediately, the young master had someone prepare warm hand warmers. Yet Ye Lingyue found them inconvenient to hold and stubbornly refused to use them.

Feng Xun had no choice but to hold them himself, warm them up, and then serve as Ye Lingyue’s "human flesh hand warmer".

Ye Lingyue felt a warmth in her heart, touched by Feng Xun’s thoughtful action. Seizing the moment, Feng Xun pulled her tightly into his embrace, warming her to the point that she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Ye Lingyue thought to herself, might as well take this opportunity to use Cauldron Breath to check on Feng Xun’s Cold Syndrome. During the time they had been together, Feng Xun’s illness seemed to have not manifested at all.

Ye Lingyue placed her hand on Feng Xun’s body and silently infused Cauldron Breath into him.

Fortunately, the cold Qi hadn’t grown more severe lately, and the powerful energy that Ye Lingyue had felt before seemed to have suddenly become dormant.

Ye Lingyue felt somewhat reassured and withdrew her Cauldron Breath.

At that moment, Ye Lingyue could hear Feng Xun’s heartbeat.

One beat, two beats, and suddenly, Feng Xun’s heart rate accelerated considerably.

Her hand was swiftly grasped, and Feng Xun, holding her hand, gazed at her with eyes overflowing with an unspoken intensity.

Ever since she had agreed to Feng Xun’s marriage proposal, he had been doting on her excessively, beyond control.

"Let go, it’s embarrassing if we’re seen by others," Ye Lingyue mumbled, pretending to push Feng Xun away.

"What’s there to be embarrassed about when treating one’s own woman well?" Feng Xun laughed, revealing his dazzling white teeth. Already strikingly handsome, the jet-black fox fur against his pale face made him look devilishly charming.

The Sword Slave, standing by, felt goosebumps from the scene.

The young master used to be a very serious person, but why is it that ever since he met Marquis Yue, no, I should call her Young Madam now, he became so shameless?

Yes, utterly shameless!

Unknowingly, the two had strolled to the entrance of the Beiqing embassy. From the city gate to the embassy was a fair distance, but they hardly felt it as they walked along.

As for the carriage, it had already been sent ahead to the Beiqing embassy by the disgruntled Sword Slave.

"I’m going into the post station now. The embassy is crowded, and I don’t want to become a subject of speculation. For the time being, it’s better we don’t meet," Ye Lingyue struggled with great effort to separate herself from Feng Xun’s warm embrace.

"Not meet? No, we need to see each other at least once a day," Feng Xun said. He couldn’t bear a day without seeing Ye Lingyue, yearning to whisk her away to the Feng Residence, to adore her and never take his eyes off her every single day.

"It won’t do. We each serve different masters. Meeting every day—if word spreads to outsiders, what would it look like? We agreed not to meet, so we won’t," Ye Lingyue said, as she pushed Feng Xun onto the carriage and urged the Sword Slave to quickly take the seductive Feng Demon back to the Feng Residence.