Heart's Devotion

On our wedding night, he tore off my red veil, unable to conceal his disgust as he said, "Why did I marry you?" I slapped the bed and retorted angrily, "Qi Zhan, what kind of talk is that? Do you think I wanted to marry you?" He furrowed his brows even deeper. "Look at you. You have none of the grace of a proper lady, making a ruckus like this. You're not even as refined as my Xuanxuan." Xuanxuan is the top courtesan at the Spring Breeze Pavilion in the city and is widely known as Qi San Gongzi's (Third Young Master Qi's) confidante and the love of his heart. On our wedding night, he brought up this matter, and I felt that this marriage was truly impossible. I stood up, preparing to leave, but he yanked me into his arms. He asked, "Where are you going?" I** his hand, straightened the slightly wrinkled wedding dress on my body, and sneered, "To annul the marriage. You can go find your Xuanxuan, and I'll return to the Yun family. From now on, we'll have nothing to do with each other." He rolled his eyes. "Yun Chu, don't be ridiculous. If you wanted to annul the marriage, you would have done it long ago. Who are you putting on this act for now?" Of course, I knew it was impossible to annul the marriage now, but that didn't mean I had to swallow this insult. Ignoring him, I walked straight towards the door. However, with his long legs, he blocked the door before me and clasped my wrist, preventing me from moving. He said, "Stop making a fuss. A spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold. We've already wasted so much time." I stared at him in disbelief. Listen, is this something a human would say? This man just mentioned his female confidante a moment ago, and now he wants to have a spring night with me? As expected of you, Qi San Gongzi. Even though I grew up with him, I still didn't fully understand the extent of his shamelessness. I wanted to slap him in the face, but he had already wisely restrained my hand. All I could do was glare at him and say hatefully, "You're shameless!" He just smiled indifferently at my scolding. The light in his peach blossom eyes flickered, reflecting the dancing candlelight. The shadows cast by his crow-feather-like eyelashes were like a small patch of darkness. If the young girls in the city saw this enchanting appearance, they would surely lose their souls. Unfortunately, I had long been immune to his charm. I only found his good looks rather detestable. He paid no heed to my continuous curses and forcibly dragged me back to the bed. I was a bit hurt by his rough actions. Just as I was about to continue cursing, I suddenly realized that something was amiss and looked at him warily. "What are you doing?" He showed that rascal-like smile again, slowly untying his sash, with a subtle curve at the corner of his lips. "What else can I do? Of course, it's to sleep." I suddenly felt a bit panicked and shrank back on the bed. "You... don't come over here!" "Why are you afraid?" He took off his outer robe and sat down. I could clearly feel the bed sink, and my mood sank along with it. "Qi Zhan, I..." I wanted to say that I wasn't ready and that I didn't want to do that with him, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. "Hmm? What about you?" He deliberately asked. I hesitated for a long time, and finally, in a fit of anger, I wrapped myself in the quilt and curled up in the corner. Fortunately, the bed was big enough that there was still room for another person between us. Then he also lay down completely and moved closer to me. One of his hands reached into my quilt. Before I could scream, he said, "There's only one quilt. You have to let me have half, right?" "..." Reluctantly, I loosened my grip but still kept my distance from him. Then I heard him say, "We've been through a lot today. Aren't you tired? Go to sleep early." ... So it turned out that I was being overly self-conscious. This scoundrel definitely did it on purpose! The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Finally, he pinned me down. "Can't sleep? Then let's do something else?" There was a hint of tiredness in his eyes, but he still teased me. I couldn't help but want to curse him, but he pressed his index finger against my lips. "Stop talking. Go to sleep." He paused for a moment and added, "If you can't sleep, come into my arms." ... This guy is used to coaxing girls. I don't know how many people he has said such things to. I warned him, "Don't use that trick on me," then turned over, facing away from him, and finally started to feel a bit sleepy. I slept through the night without any dreams. The four great families in the North City are the Yun and Qi families, among others. The Yun family has the longest history and is the head of the four great families, but in recent years, it has shown a slight decline. The Qi family, on the other hand, is a rising star and has established a firm foothold in Yuncheng in just over a decade, even showing a tendency to rival the Yun family. The relationship between the Yun and Qi families was ordinary in the past. The only ones who were truly close were from my generation, and it was also the result of deliberate cultivation by both families. My fateful relationship with Qi Zhan also began in this way. I think my father arranged for me to go to school with him mostly to let us develop feelings in advance, but the result was clearly not satisfactory. Although he was entrusted to take care of me a little, our friendship only went as far as me copying books for him, and he reminding me when I dozed off in class and was called out by the teacher. Well, if I had to describe it in one word, it would be "frivolous friends." Qi Zhan's ability to attract bees and butterflies has been outstanding since childhood. The girls in the school knew how to send him love letters and gifts at a young age. And he always liked to show off in front of me from time to time, and casually threw me the desserts he didn't like and the sachets he didn't need. I really couldn't stand his flirtatious appearance of accepting everything that came his way, and I couldn't help but question him, "If you don't like them, why do you accept their things?"