Chapter 469: A Royal Decree 14

“I don’t have an opinion on this matter.” Of course, Jiang Yeqian could not show Li Ruoxuan that something was off. He smiled calmly and said to Qi Qingyao, “Lady Qi, I wish you happiness.”

Qi Qingyao rubbed her temples and watched as the two spouted nonsense at each other.

She really could not take this any longer.

She raised her hands to surrender. She licked her lips and said, “First of all, I would like to state one thing.”

State what?

Li Ruoxuan, Jiang Yeqian, and Lu Yan all turned to look at her at the same time.

Qi Qingyao said helplessly, “I don’t want to discuss this matter too much. You may ask Steward Zhang about this…” she pointed at Steward Zhang and said to Li Ruoxuan, “Si Jin left last night.”

Li Ruoxuan’s eyes narrowed. “Left? What do you mean?”

Lu Yan was somewhat surprised. He had not been expecting her to reveal the truth.

Jiang Yeqian’s expression also shifted.

Qi Qingyao shrugged. With a somewhat ingenuine relaxed tone, she said, “Leave, as in he went away on his own. He didn’t even say goodbye to me, just said he would be away for a while.”

Li Ruoxuan asked sharply, “Steward Zhang!!”

“State Preceptor…” Steward Zhang, who was at the door, explained what happened before as he trembled.

After listening to what he had to say, Li Ruoxuan was left utterly stunned. He muttered softly to himself, “He left without leaving anything behind. What’s going on?”

“Are you asking me that or someone else?” Qi Qingyao said unhurriedly, “You wanted to marry me just to use Si Jin, but now Si Jin is no longer here. To put it bluntly, I almost suspected that Si Jin was working for the Ghost Organization.”

“…” What she said made Li Ruoxuan’s entire body stiffen. He gave Qi Qingyao a strange look as he could not help but imagine the other possibilities.

Jiang Yeqian’s expression grew even more complicated.

Lu Yan, “…”

Qi Qingyao continued, retracting her previous suspicions.

“But after thinking about it carefully, I doubt the Ghost Organization would raise such a simple-minded child.

“From the way I see it, he probably won’t be returning anytime soon. I don’t even know what happened. Let thunder strike me if I were to speak even half a lie.

“So, you see, you don’t need to come back to get into all kinds of entanglements with me, threaten me or even get into a life or death struggle with me.”

…

With that being said, Li Ruoxuan’s mind fell apart. Could Si Jin be working for the Ghost Organization? This possibility seemed quite likely considering the myriad of resources the Ghost Organization has at its disposal.

“Qi Qingyao,” Li Ruoxuan.

Qi Qingyao looked up, meeting Li Ruoxuan’s unwavering eyes.

Li Ruoxuan said, “I would like to speak with you in private ”

Qi Qingyao narrowed her eyes and asked with a superficial smile, “Are you planning to threaten me again? Maybe kill me?”

“No,” responded Li Ruoxuan.

Qi Qingyao then nodded at Jiang Yeqian and Lu Yan. The two left and Li Ruoxuan personally went to close the door.

After he turned around, he walked toward Qi Qingyao.

Qi Qingyao was a little anxious. She was afraid that he would take the opportunity to kill her now that Si Jin was not around!!

However, what Qi Qingyao was afraid of something did not end up happening.

Li Ruoxuan stood in front of her. His remaining eye, which was not covered, looked uncharacteristically gentle.

He cleared his throat and then said, “Never in my life have I ever liked a woman this much. I find you very interesting. I’m willing to marry you, and I’m willing to care for the triplets.”

This left Qi Qingyao stunned.

Li Ruoxuan continued, “Everything I said just now was a deliberate effort to work you up.”

Qi Qingyao also felt that was the case.

Li Ruoxuan said, “As heinous of a person I may be, I would never lay a hand on your children.”

Qi Qingyao could not help but cut in. “So what is that supposed to mean? Should I be grateful?”

“You needn’t shed tears of gratitude, but I hope you realize that the essence of why I came here today is because I fancy you and would like to marry you.” Li Ruoxuan responded in a tone of forced affection.

Qi Qingyao said with a dark expression, “I’m a widow. Please be aware of that, State Preceptor.” This guy was still pretending to be affectionate, how nauseating.

Li Ruoxuan was rather taken aback by her reasoning.

“I realized that you’re very fascinating.

“You cursed me with many words the other day. If it was someone else, I would have killed their entire family for their words. But they were your words. Your flurry of curses made me ponder about many things for a long time. Am I really such a disappointing person?

“If I were really that disappointing, I would take my vengeance right now and kill you for the way you cursed me!”

“But I don’t want to.

“I don’t have any urge to kill you whatsoever. In fact, I feel like I should be the first to have you be mine before others start confessing to you.”

…

…

Before he could finish, Qi Qingyao cut him decisively. “Li Ruoxuan, can you stop being such a lunatic?”

Li Ruoxuan was in disbelief and was angered again. He said, “What part of me doesn’t match up to your standards? Tell me!! I’ll fix whatever I’m lacking!”

Qi Qingyao bit her cheek with her molars, her dark eyes deep and quiet as she said, “You, as the dignified State Preceptor, everything about you is good, very good. I’m the one who isn’t good. I really can’t afford to marry your Excellency.”

Was this woman hard-hearted? He, the State Preceptor had confessed to her, yet she was still so indifferent? Li Ruoxuan did not understand. “I really can’t figure out the kind of person you are searching for.”

With a hint of a smile, Qi Qingyao responded half truthfully, “If you must know, then let me tell you. The first quality is honesty!”

Li Ruoxuan replied angrily, “Am I not being honest enough with you? I’ve informed you of all my schemes in advance. I’m not hiding any conspiracies or tricks from you! Is that not honest enough?”

“…” Listening to this, Qi Qingyao cradled her forehead.

Li Ruoxuan had never met someone so hardheaded, with such a weird way of thinking!

“You, woman, really know how to discriminate good from bad. I don’t even know what you want. You won’t accept a State Preceptor’s confession. You remain ruthlessly silent when the richest person in Northern Liang wishes to marry you. Just how high are your standards? Don’t tell me you wish to search for an emperor to marry!”

“You’re insane.”

Qi Qingyao spat, unable to control herself.

…

…

Outside the hall.

Lu Yan and Jiang Yeqian were standing by the door. They gazed at the flower beds in the courtyard expressionlessly, like two beautiful statues.

The white cat escaped from Lu Yan’s arms. Like a trail of smoke, it climbed up onto the roof along the pillars and nestled itself in the corners of the eaves, wagging its tail lazily. The white cat glanced at the two men below.

It knew that Lu Yan fancied Qi Qingyao, and so does the Head Grand Secretariat, so why was he pretending not to?

The white cat could not really understand.

Hold on.

Si Jin also seemed to like Qi Qingyao…

The white cat was in deep contemplation, twitching its tail once again.

It listened quietly to the argument occurring in the hall.

This human was indeed very interesting.

She was not like other women, who would so easily be fooled by a man’s flattery. She was oddly calm in the face of the State Preceptor’s clever talk.

The calmness even rendered Li Ruoxuan, the cunning human, speechless…

The white cat suddenly gained a little more understanding as to why Si Jin was interested in Qi Qingyao…

She was indeed an excellent and shrewd human.

Almost as shrewd as his owner.

Hm.

Then who should it root for Qi Qingyao to get together with?

Morally, it should support Lu Yan. However, on the other hand, it wanted to support Si Jin… However, Si Jin was not a human being! He was just a fish…

Could a fish and a human be together?

The white cat pondered the question deeply..