Tears Of Kai Yuan

-11-(Edit)

"Sometimes what? You wish you could cut out my tongue? Wring my neck? Send me as a prisoner to the Khitans?" Despite my mood, I laughed at that. "Something along those lines."

We fell back into silence as we continued our journey towards the Qi Zhao Liang manor.

We couldn't travel nearly as fast as I had hoped; the poor servants had enough trouble keeping up the pace we were at now with the sedan on their shoulders.

The wedding sedan.

She was to come back to Chang'An in it, and the fact made my melancholy return. My glower resettled on my face as I stare onward.

"She doesn't hate you Ah-Xiao, on the contrary I would say."

I huffed unbelievingly at that. Beggar-girl had a weird way of expressing her emotions, even weirder than myself. "You would be the one to know, it seemed that she was more entranced with you and so much more keen on getting me to marry her eldest sister instead." Wuji stroked the mane of his horse softly, all playfulness gone from his voice. "Then why are you marrying her?" I sighed.

"I don't want her sister, I want her. Only problem there would be the fact that she hates me."

Wuji smirked without amusement before speaking once more. "You never finished telling me what had been said in that conversation with her...after you asked her who she really was." I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. "She asked to be excused, almost as if she couldn't bear the thought of being in the same room as me."

"And yet, you spoke with her again and again. And yet, the more you found out about her, the more you wanted her."

He was right. In our visit, I found out just how much she loved lilies, how much they reminded her of her mother. Her favorite color was the blue color of the sky, it reminded her of her name. Zhen-Ting and her were nearly unseperable after they began living together. She loved children, could tell stories for hours, was the only one of her sisters learning any form of martial arts, never got along with her Second Eldest sister (not a surprise), and more and more...

Wuji kept going.

"And yet...you're still marrying her. Li Xiao, either you're a fool who forces himself on a young woman or a man who realized somewhere that it was all a façade that she had put up to push you away...I'd like to say the latter, and you?"

The horses slowed down as we once again reached the steps of the entrance of the manor. I looked up at the doors and frowned to myself. "I guess I'll be finding out soon enough, won't I Wuji?"

...

Tang Zhen-Ting

I stood at the end of the line and bowed, forcing my eyes to stay downwards as the General and his cousin entered the main hall. The only time I glanced upwards for a moment was to look at Jiayi...only to find him staring at me carefully. I didn't bother to look away after that.

There was a eunuch who had accompanied them, one who seemed to be from the palace.

"Before we get to anything else...Zhao Ren Yi, receive the imperial edict."

And we bowed to the ground in kou tou as he read.

"It is with great pleasure that I received the news that my nephew Li Xiao had found a bride from the esteemed daughters of Zhao Ren Yi. I am sure that Zhao Jiayi of Luoyang will be a great asset to my precious general and beloved nephew as both a wife and a comrade in his life. Therefore, after the evaluations of the imperial matchmaker, she will be brought back to Chang'An and the wedding date will be set. I have also sent some wedding gifts for the Zhao family. I hope that Zhao Jiayi's transition into being a Li will be a swift and sweet one."