Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Although I had deceived him, Lord Fuyong did not make things difficult for me. After I was sent back to the estate, the family head wanted to proceed with the original plan and give me to Lord Wei.

Though he and Lord Fuyong were born of the same mother, Lord Wei was obsessed with war and conquest, and his temperament was dark and vicious. He had once annihilated an entire kingdom from top to bottom just to abduct a princess. That alone was proof enough of his brutality.

Naturally, I was unwilling. I begged bitterly for a long time, pleading with the family head to give me one more chance.

He agreed.

To prevent me from failing again, he allowed me only a thin long cloak over my dancing dress. If I turned back now, I would surely freeze to death in the wind and snow.

And so, this chance was precious beyond measure.

Outside the little courtyard where snow was falling, I hesitated and paced back and forth several times. My feet had long since frozen numb.

From within the fence wall came a few low voices.

“My lord has been gloomy and unhappy for days…”

“If we could make him brighten up, why would we be standing here sighing?”

“Alas!”

Hearing their sighs, I was just about to knock when their murmuring suddenly turned sharp.

“My lord hates outsiders coming near!”

“Get lost!”

I pulled my long robe tighter around me and said in a soft, delicate voice, “This slave has a plan that can make my lord smile.”

A long while passed.

Then one of them said, “You, a slave girl, can truly make my lord laugh?”

“If he does not laugh, my lords may kill me!”

Hearing my solemn vow, the two hesitated.

“If she can amuse my lord and make him happy, what harm is there in letting her in?”

“If she cannot make my lord brighten up, we will kill her at once!”

“Precisely, precisely!”

With that, the two of them laughed heartily.

Then the courtyard gate opened.

I walked along a fine-sand path. Ahead was a long corridor. Lord Fuyong, draped in a reddish-brown sable-trimmed cloak, held a small hand warmer in both hands and sat amid the winter scene of white space and melting snow, like the single stroke of deepest color in an ink painting.

Seeing me approach hesitantly, his gaze fell on me with the detached chill of an onlooker.

“Who let you in?”

From the shadows came two thin voices, hastily defending themselves.

“She was the one who said she could make my lord laugh with a single sentence!”

“If my lord does not laugh, we will kill her immediately!”

At the sound of them, I secretly peered into the shadows, but I could only hear their voices and see no figures.

These two had to be swordsmen of grandmaster level!

The lingering fear I had suppressed with sheer reckless courage began to surge up. Beneath the corridor, the nobleman drew his cloak around him and curled his lips faintly at me.

“Oh?”

“Let me hear it.”

I immediately threw myself flat to the ground, my voice trembling. “This humble girl wishes to emulate Daji and Baosi and become a generation’s ruinous consort!”

The words fell.

There was no reaction.

While I was still uneasy, the man on the corridor suddenly knocked the lid off his cup and pointed at me.

“You? With just you?”

I was bewildered. “What… what is wrong with me?”

Not far away, two voices laughed at the same time.

“This slave girl merely told a joke, yet my lord actually took it seriously!”

“It is not a joke!”

I lifted my head, my expression exceptionally earnest. “This humble girl merely lacks an opportunity at present!”

“One day, this slave will surely become a ruinous consort who brings calamity upon the state!”

At that, Lord Fuyong’s brows drew together slightly, and he looked around him.

He seemed somewhat astonished, an expression of suppressed laughter surfacing at his lips. “Good heavens! She… she is actually serious?!”

Before he had finished speaking, he laughed!

When the two grandmaster swordsmen heard him laughing nonstop, they hurried to laugh along with him. Today’s brush with life and death could be considered survived!

Three people, three mouths, all laughing until my skin crawled.

“I heard people say Lord Fuyong’s reputation for virtue has spread far and wide. I did not expect that you, too, would be like ordinary men, looking down on me merely because I am a woman!”

This could be considered an extremely bold thing to say.

But when his gaze settled on me, his smile stiffened for an instant, yet he did not seem particularly angry.

The next moment…

He laughed even louder!

Lord Fuyong’s laughter was like osmanthus blossoms stirring in a clear, lofty sky, like moonlight rippling over the center of a lake. It sent me into an inexplicable tremor, and I even stood there in a daze like a fool.

At first, I had worried he would not laugh.

Now that he had laughed, I felt unbearably humiliated.

“A man’s battlefield is the imperial court. A woman’s battlefield is the Yeting Palace. You fight, and so must we. Is that so laughable?”

The words fell.

Lord Fuyong suddenly stopped laughing.