CHAPTER 234: CHAPTER 234: MARRIAGE TIES

Fengyu’s face turned red, her ears burning. "You... you’re crazy?"

"A little crazy." He hooked his arm around Fengyu’s neck, pressing her to his chest. "Listen!"

His heartbeat thumped wildly and intensely, every beat a yearning call for her. Fengyu heard it, her whole body heating up, her heart trembling.

When Fengyu and Xie Xun returned to the lake shore, the heat on her face had still not faded. Out of nowhere, Fengyu suddenly brought up the events of those two years to Xie Xun.

She hid many details, framing it as a story to tell Xie Xun, but her heart was always uneasy. Those events had weighed heavily on her mind for too long, never shared with anyone—not even Feng Shu—and yet here, amidst lotus fragrance and moonlight, she told Xie Xun. A self-inflicted pain seemed to stir within her, forcing her to shatter the most beautiful memory ruthlessly, tearing apart the person she had been in front of him, just to watch how he would perceive that past.

But she regretted it, offering only a half-truth, unable to lay bare everything. Fengyu was more conflicted, more anguished than anyone, and as Xie Xun pressed her heart to listen to his heartbeat, an even greater sadness overtook her thoughts.

If she told him everything, would he still treasure her like this?

In the end... she couldn’t! She dared not!

Someone like Xie Xun—raised with love, brimming with compassion—would likely never understand why she wanted to voice those shameful memories.

She believed that Xie Xun wished to spend a lifetime with her, together.

But if one day Xie Xun’s affections shifted, she wouldn’t even know what she might do!

"Isn’t that your sister?" Xie Xun’s gaze went cold. Fengyu followed the direction of his eyes and saw, in the imperial garden, the Crown Prince gripping Feng Shu’s hand, his expression dark and brooding, muttering something incomprehensible. Neither of their faces looked good. When the Crown Prince became agitated, he clasped Feng Shu’s shoulders, his expression wild with emotion.

Fengyu’s pupils constricted sharply—The Crown Prince and her sister? Fragments of peculiar yet disregarded images floated in her memory. Back in Ningzhou, when they were all still young, her sister fell from a tree, and the Crown Prince anxiously caught her. He frequently sent gifts to the four sisters, all tailored to her sister’s tastes.

In his youth, whenever the Crown Prince saw her sister, he always had a smile on his face. In his courtyard, the Eastern Palace’s main courtyard, roses bloomed in abundance. Despite his busy schedule, he still made time to meet her at Wangjiang Restaurant. That night, no matter when she glanced at the Crown Prince, his eyes were always on her sister, yet he never uttered a suggestive word, nor took a single step out of bounds. Fengyu didn’t think much of it then.

But now, with alarmed realization, she recalled something else—when the Marquis Zhenbei brought Xie Zhang to propose marriage, the Crown Prince had been at the side gate, his eyes red. Yet when she sought him out, he had disappeared.

"Sister..." Fengyu’s peripheral vision caught Xie Zhang passing through the corridor. She wanted to call out, only to have Xie Xun cover her mouth and pull her aside.

"What are you doing?!" Fengyu’s heart pounded wildly. What would Xie Zhang think upon witnessing this scene?

Xie Xun said gravely, "This is between my brother and your sister—we should not intervene."

Besides, it involves the Crown Prince!

Feng Shu could only think the situation absurd, resisting the Crown Prince with all her strength, but she couldn’t match his force. Coldly, Feng Shu said, "Your Highness, please let me go!"

"I’m sorry, Shu’er..." The Crown Prince, having drunk a few cups at the palace banquet, was gently intoxicated. Encountering Feng Shu in the imperial garden, drunkenness led his emotions astray. The feelings he had suppressed for over ten years erupted like a volcano—lava flooding through his chest, destroying his rationality.

He shouldn’t have lost control like this!

But he liked Feng Shu—had liked her for far too many years. As her wedding approached, his suppressed emotions grew exponentially, leaving him nowhere to hide, his desire and malice multiplying.

He was the Crown Prince, second only to the Emperor, ruler over all his subjects—why could he not have Feng Shu?

"But I do not regret it!" The Crown Prince, slightly drunk, let the night wind lift his long hair, brushing across his gaze. His inherently delicate appearance gained a shadowy edge, darkening his demeanor. "I should have told you these words when your marriage was decided."

"Your Highness, you’re drunk. Let’s pretend I never saw you tonight." Feng Shu pressed down her panic and said icily, "Get some sleep and forget all of this."

"Forget?" The Crown Prince’s eyes reddened slightly. "How could I forget? We grew up together as childhood friends. The first time you pulled a bowstring, I was the one who taught you. Your first bow—I was the one who gifted it to you. Back in Ningzhou, whatever you wanted to do, I indulged you. If you wanted to escape the city, I led you through secret tunnels. When you liked eating mulberries, I risked my life to pick them near Shaling River. Back then, both families tacitly understood that you were meant to enter my Prince Manor and become my Crown Princess Consort. When Xie Zhang proposed marriage, did you know? My mother was ready with wild geese, preparing to invite matchmakers to present the marriage proposal, my Prince Manor was set to hail you as the Crown Princess Consort—I was only a step too late."

Before the marriage proposal, Emperor Jianming and the Empress forbade him and Feng Shu from meeting, but he knew everything had been prepared. Clutching the rose hairpin he had personally carved for Feng Shu, he went to look for her.

His overflowing affection was met with ice.

The Marquis Zhenbei brought Xie Zhang to propose marriage. Feng Mansion hesitated slightly, but Feng Shu stepped out from behind the screen and asked why Xie Zhang wanted to marry her.

Xie Zhang said that one glimpse of her beauty had sealed his heart forever, no one else would do!

Feng Shu accepted the marriage proposal.

Feng Shu silently stared at him in shock, unaware that the Vassal Prince Mansion had also been ready to propose marriage. No wonder Fengyu had mentioned seeing the Crown Prince in the courtyard.

"Your Highness, back in Ningzhou, I was young and knew nothing of love. I never imagined that one day I might marry into the Prince Manor as the Crown Princess Consort. Grandmother, father, and mother never raised the idea. Two families separated by a single street, childhood companionship, I did indeed share a happy time with Your Highness. But those were moments between playmates, friends—never a love between men and women." Feng Shu said faintly, "Your Highness, it has been eleven years. I can barely recall those days in Ningzhou."

Feng Shu’s head throbbed painfully. She did not want to provoke the Crown Prince.

She felt some hidden realization in her heart but did not want to pursue it. The Crown Prince had always concealed his feelings well—he married the Crown Princess Consort, had a legitimate heir, governed benevolently, beloved by the people. Her relationship with Xie Zhang was deep and affectionate. Even if the Crown Prince had been vaguely infatuated with her, it was something that belonged to eleven years in the past. Neither of them wished to bring it up.

The Crown Prince would certainly not do something as outrageous as stealing a court minister’s wife. His repeated visits to her and Fengyu, supposedly for Jiangnan’s wealth, all those tests, heartfelt tenderness—Feng Shu had dismissed them as manipulative tactics to play on childhood ties and soften her resolve. Yet after one drunken episode, he dared to voice this forbidden sentiment.

She and Xie Zhang were nearly wed!

From their first meeting to today, she had only loved Xie Zhang. Never had she shared any affection beyond comradeship with the Crown Prince.

She had always suspected, but evading the subject stemmed from the fact that the Crown Prince had already risen to his position and never once crossed a boundary with word or deed. Now that the façade had been ripped away—what was it he wanted to do?

"You’re lying!" The Crown Prince cried out defiantly, gripping Feng Shu’s wrist tightly. "Shu’er, answer me! If I had proposed before Xie Zhang, would you have agreed to marry me?"