Rejected Beauty Practices the Villain Play

Chapter 831 - 809: Holding Hands

What Xie Jue is planning, Fang Chuning is perfectly clear. After the two left the Imperial Palace, they continued to walk slowly toward the inn. Fang Chuning asked, "How did you know that His Majesty would definitely send Dugu Jing to lead the troops? Did you talk to him before you left?"

"No!" Xie Jue chuckled and said, "You underestimate Zhixu. Zhixu is very smart. As long as Lin Xiao spreads the news without my direction, he knows what to do. It’s an understanding; no need for instruction. He’s learned power and balance for years and understands what’s necessary. He is no longer that Zhixu from years ago who would raid clan grain stores over supplies. Now, Beining has both him and Ayu, one inside, one outside. I’m quite relieved."

Fengyu might not understand this chess-like maneuver, but Zhixu definitely will. They wish for stability in the Beiman, which is more important to Beining than surrendering Sannan.

Only Sannan would think that after Beiman’s surrender, Beining’s first major issue is to recover Sannan.

Indeed, Xie Xun does want to reclaim Sannan. But waiting a few years is no problem. If there’s no opportunity, then he’ll find one. Provoking war at the border and doing it beautifully would suffice.

After Beiman’s surrender, Beining’s primary task is to settle how to make this group of ill-tempered, robbery-accustomed Beiman people on Beining’s land live in peace without causing large-scale upheaval. Xie Xun has been painstakingly figuring out a solution for this, almost agreeing to the High Priest’s ever-increasing requests to build temples for Beiman worship and open temples across the region.

As long as they have a sense of belonging, there won’t be large upheavals. If Beining is a tiger, then Beiman is a leopard. A tiger swallowing a leopard must digest it slowly. Only after digesting Beiman can it capture Sannan further.

"A mutual understanding!" Fang Chuning felt somewhat saddened. "Now the one you have that mutual understanding with turns out to be Xie Zhixu."

"..." Xie Jue didn’t bother to pay attention to him, finding it petty to be jealous over this. Yet, he succumbed to Fang Chuning’s teasing, saying flatly, "Just now, King of Sannan asked why you’d accompany me on this diplomatic mission. Guess what I said."

"Because we’re having an affair?"

"...You were eavesdropping?"

"Did you really say that?" Fang Chuning was stunned, grabbing him by the wrist. The two stood on the street, glaring at each other wide-eyed; it was clear Fang Chuning had been guessing.

Fang Chuning’s eyes were even brighter than the spring light in Sannan, with shock paired with a hidden thrill and joy that softened Xie Jue’s heart. "You guessed right."

"I knew it!" Fang Chuning laughed heartily. "We’ve been cautious and avoiding detection in the Capital City, but in Sannan, why care about others’ gazes?"

Xie Jue felt a twinge of bitterness in his heart. Months ago, he had planned to stop interacting with Fang Chuning altogether. But if it weren’t for them going on the mission to Sannan together, spending every day and night together, their warmth and attentiveness would already have been deeply ingrained, and he wouldn’t have been able to harden his heart. This fickle and uncertain attachment, with its anxiety, is his only indecisive matter.

"Really wish he’d spread the word, announce it to the world!"

"Your father would break your legs."

"You’ll protect me."

"I can’t protect you!" Xie Jue said coldly and unyieldingly. "Fend for yourself. I’m afraid the General might beat me up too. He might even assume I abducted you."

"Say that you did. I’m an innocent little white flower, forced by you. How about that?" No matter what, never sever ties. Once Ting Feng shows any signs of wavering, Fang Chuning would push further.

"Nothing will happen. Let go!" Xie Jue refused to linger on romance talk with him.

"Since you told King of Sannan, why not be a bit more audacious?" Fang Chuning raised an eyebrow, teasingly provocative and playful.

"How audacious?"

Fang Chuning’s hand moved gently downward, clasping Xie Jue’s hand. Fingers delicately brushed across his palm and entwined their fingers together. These hands he held many times in their youth, whether in Ningzhou or the Capital City. When they were young, they often held hands playing, and people only saw them as ordinary brothers, thinking nothing more.

During their study at the Imperial College, Fang Chuning often took Xie Jue by the hand for horseback riding and fun, causing Zhang Boju to scold him for favoritism. Who knows when they stopped holding hands like that.

Perhaps it was since then that they purposefully avoided suspicion, a sign of insecurity!

If it were aboveboard, why wouldn’t they dare?

"Anning..." Xie Jue’s heart raced out of control. He couldn’t help glancing around, and the Ningzhou Iron Cavalry behind him seemed stunned. As Xie Jue turned around, they didn’t have time to reclaim their shocked expressions. When Xie Jue looked back, because the Second Young Master Xie’s authority was immense, all the cavalry promptly raised their heads to look at the sky, pretending the blinding sun was the gentle evening moon, as if they were admiring moonlight, their actions remarkably synchronized.

For the first time, Xie Jue felt a shameful exposure of his privacy. Even though he and Fang Chuning had posed as a married couple in Beiman, even if their journey had been unclear, being led by the hand in broad daylight was fiery in the palm, especially with the eyes of the soldiers behind, making him feel a prickling discomfort.

"Let go!" Xie Jue reprimanded.

"Let go for what? You dared tell King of Sannan, so what’s wrong with holding hands?"

"That was said privately!"

"I am such a handsome man, a literate warrior, what do I have to hide? Why would it be a private matter?" Fang Chuning knowingly asked, pushing Xie Jue, disregarding all etiquette and rules.

"Fang Chuning, do you know how many spies are embedded among the Iron Cavalry’s thousands? Do you just hope they’d spread the word?" Xie Jue couldn’t help reminding him, "Your father might also have people amongst the Ningzhou Iron Cavalry. Are you certain?"

A force of several thousand, it’s impossible to seal completely.

"If you hadn’t stopped me, I’d have spoken already." Fang Chuning said, "I’ve always been clear about what I want to do, never wavered, Ting Feng, you know this. Once I’ve provoked you, it’s not easy to shake me off. Without the resolve to make an enemy of me, you’ll never shake free."

"What? Each to our own, you’d make an enemy of me?"

"Yes!" Fang Chuning scoffed. Though in a huff, his words carried an earnest weight, "Whatever the saying ’each to our own,’ for me it’s a lifetime of enmity."

Xie Jue, "..."

This temperament is entirely cultivated from his indulgence, and he can only endure!

He regretted indulging him so much over the years, fostering this tendency to overstep. While he was careful and courteous with others, with Xie Jue he’d throw tantrums, demand with abandon, more immature than Xie Xun.

Xie Jue couldn’t shake him off, so he could only let him hold their hands.

The soldiers’ eyes were bulging, some even rubbed them in disbelief. A young lad asked his companion, "Is the Prince and General acting for Sannan?"

"Yes, surely acting. How did I not think of that? I’ve been too corrupt!"

The crowd, "..."