Chapter 212

Outside the inn, a carriage had indeed stopped, with the "fiancée" in red sitting on the carriage shaft, while Gu Fengchun stood beside it, holding a small bundle, looking as if he were truly about to depart.

Su Wan ran panting, fine sweat beading her forehead, her chest still rising and falling; she hurried forward, her voice trembling slightly: "You… you really are going to go back with her to get married?"

Gu Fengchun didn't answer, looked at her and asked: "Did you come out specially to see me off?"

Su Wan pressed her lips, fingertips gripping the hem of her skirt, and spoke hoarsely: "Do you really like her?"

Gu Fengchun said: "I don't."

"Then why......"

"Miss Su, I'm already thirty-two."

Su Wan's eyes rimmed red: "But you said before that you wouldn't settle for marriage, right?"

"I've changed my mind." Gu Fengchun said gently: "These days I've seen the Prince Regent and his consort loving each other, with children around, living so happily, so I suddenly thought having a family wouldn't be bad, even if I don't marry the one I love."

Su Wan suddenly fell silent.

Gu Fengchun waited a moment.

"Please, I'm still here, a grown person—don't flirt in front of me, okay?"

After speaking, she turned to Gu Fengchun: "Since you promised to marry me, you can't back off—hurry back to the stronghold with me to get married."

Su Wan blinked: "The… stronghold?"

The woman in red raised an eyebrow: "You haven't heard of Clear Wind Stronghold?"

Clear Wind Stronghold is a bandit den!

Su Wan exclaimed anxiously: "How can you marry a female bandit?!"

"Is this part in the script?" Gu Fengchun wondered.

The woman then chopped the carriage shaft with a knife, fierce: "Who said he's marrying me? I'm marrying him—he's to become my live-in husband in the stronghold! If I hadn't killed eight men before him, this bargain wouldn't have fallen to him!"

Upon hearing the last sentence, Su Wan couldn't take it and immediately said: "No, he can't be your husband living in the stronghold!"

The woman snarled: "What are you to him, and on what grounds do you say no?"

"I……" Su Wan choked, yeah, what right does she have to refuse for him?

Seeing Su Wan's troubled expression, Gu Fengchun no longer wanted to continue the act; he told the woman in the carriage: "I'm not going with you—go on your way."

The mission isn't done—how could the woman dare to leave?

Her eyes darted shrewdly; she immediately drew her knife and pointed it at him, snarling: "I saw early on you weren't willingly going with me—turns out you're having an affair with her!"

Such a forced-marriage scene is rare; already a crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch the spectacle.

Gu Fengchun glanced at the onlookers, frowned, and said to the woman in red: "Mind your words, miss—I'm fond of her, but she has no feelings for me, and we're not as despicable as you claim."

The woman in red snorted coldly: "Do you think I'm blind? If she has no feelings for you, why is she stopping you? Just full of yourself."

Gu Fengchun glanced at Su Wan; seeing her silent, a flicker of loss crossed his eyes.

He cupped his fists toward the woman in red in a martial-arts salute and said earnestly: "Please go back, miss—I once served in the court; being your husband living in the stronghold would hardly be proper."

The woman in red said: "That was in the past, not now—what's the big deal? Still, I, San Niangzi, don't want to force anyone; you may stay, but I won't make the trip for nothing."

"Cut off a finger, and I'll let you go."

Su Wan's heart jumped; she immediately said: "No!"

The woman in red replied: "It's not your place to say no!"

She shifted tone: "But if you're reluctant, you can do it for him."

Su Wan hardly hesitated: "Fine, I'll do it for him!"

The woman in red tossed the knife to her feet, cheerfully: "Go ahead! As long as you cut off a finger, I'll leave right away and won't pester him."

Su Wan picked up the pig-butchering knife and swallowed.

Just as she was about to bring the knife down, a slender hand shot out from the side, firmly grabbed her wrist, seized the knife, and flung it to the ground with a clang.

"Enough!" Gu Fengchun said displeasedly—this was aimed at the woman in red, clearly angered.

Su Wan panicked, afraid the woman in red might change her mind, and hurried to bend down to pick up the knife, but Gu Fengchun stopped her.

Su Wan nearly cried in frustration: "We have to do what she says, or else she'll take you back to be her husband living in the stronghold!"

Gu Fengchun, who had known her for so long and never seen her cry, felt his heart clench.

The woman in red sneered: "She's willing to cut off a finger for you and yet says she doesn't like you? Are the two of you teaming up to toy with me?"

The onlookers nodded, having seen through it.

Before Gu Fengchun could speak, Su Wan burst out angrily at the woman in red: "I do like him—so what? He doesn't want to be your husband living in the stronghold; what right do you have to force him to cut off a finger, to compel you by such means?"

The crowd turned and pointed at the woman in red.

After Su Wan realized what she'd said, her face flushed crimson, yet she seemed to summon courage, seized Gu Fengchun's hand, and declared to the woman in red: "He won't be your husband living in the stronghold—he's mine!"

At last she admitted it!

The woman in red made a show of backing down gracefully, waving her hand: "Forget it, forget it, boring as it is, I'll yield to you—there are plenty of men in the world; I, San Niangzi, won't fight over a man."

Having said that, she drove the carriage away.

The onlookers, having seen the spectacle, soon dispersed; a few who knew Su Wan teased her, asking when they could get her wedding candy.

Su Wan could only put on a brave face and say: "We'll talk about it later."

"Still later?" one old woman laughed and teased: "You'd better hurry—what if that female bandit regrets it someday, comes back and abducts Mr. Gu, then you'll have nowhere to cry!"

Upon hearing that, Su Wan's grip on the man's hand tightened.

She didn't notice that the elegant room on the second floor of the Xiangxiang Lou had its window wide open, with Shen Shuangning leaning on the sill, watching the whole scene.

Seeing the two below holding hands enter the main hall, Shen Shuangning then turned her head with a smile: "Where did you find that woman in red?"

Xiao Jingyuan put his arm around her waist and said nonchalantly: "Just a covert guard from the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"Still, you have a way—but how did you think of this trick?" Shen Shuangning asked curiously.

Hearing this, Xiao Jingyuan's deep phoenix eyes flashed a dark hue, fleeting and hard to catch; he lightly pecked her lips and said: "Naturally, it's because your husband is clever."

Xiao Jingyuan only thought of using this 'stimulating the general' tactic because he was someone who had been through it.

Although Xie Lin hadn't meant to provoke him back then, he still, under Xie Lin's repeated intentional or unintentional provocations, came to understand his feelings for Shen Shuangning.

What's more, when he later learned that Xie Lin was going to marry her, he got dead drunk for the first time, wishing he would never sober up.

Before leaving Suzhou, Shen Shuangning witnessed the wedding of Su Wan and Gu Fengchun.

The wedding banquet was held at the Drunken Fragrance Pavilion.

Their wedding lacked both sets of parents, which actually spared them much ceremony; Su Wan was remarrying and had wanted a low-key affair, but she hadn't expected so many people to show up that day.

Only upon inquiry did they learn that the day's farce of the 'female bandit forcing a marriage' had actually been turned by the teahouse storyteller into a fine tale of 'beauty rescues hero', which spread throughout Suzhou.

Many therefore came out of curiosity, hoping to share in the good luck.

After that, the Drunken Fragrance Pavilion's business became even more prosperous.

Su Wan only learned much later from Gu Fengchun that what had happened that day was a ruse.

"Great, you've kept this from me for so long! Gu Fengchun, how could you trick me into marrying you!!"

Gu Fengchun apologized honestly and earnestly.

Su Wan did not accept it; she stomped her foot, angrily turned and left, even throwing down, 'Gu Fengchun! I'm not staying with you!'

After a moment, a childish voice piped up.

"Daddy, is Mom really not staying with you? Is she going to abandon us?" The little milk ball tugged at his father's plain-colored clothes, the tip of his nose slightly red, as if about to cry.

On the kang, six-year-old Gu Xun counted on his fingers without looking up, saying, "This is the eleventh time this month Mom has told Dad 'not staying'—two more than last month, actually breaking the record!"

These years, Su Wan has completely relaxed at Gu Fengchun's place, unlike when she was in the Eastern Palace, where she lived cautiously, as if walking on thin ice.

Now she occasionally throws a little temper, which has become everyday fare; Gu Fengchun also enjoys indulging her.

Gu Fengchun helplessly glanced at his eldest son, then rose unhurriedly and gently admonished: "Xun'er, Father has you study arithmetic with the teacher to understand principles and keep accounts, not to have you record this. Don't always learn those weird things from Ningzhou."

Gu Xun stuck out his tongue, obediently answered 'yes', then lowered his head to play with the abacus in his hand.

"Where is Daddy going?" Gu Nian saw Gu Fengchun about to leave and hurriedly crawled over.

Gu Xun, quick-eyed and quick-handed, snatched the younger brother back, looking like a little adult with furrowed brows, and said in a mature tone, "Daddy is going to coax Mommy; don't go over there to cause trouble, Mommy will be back soon."

However, this time Gu Fengchun spent a longer time consoling his wife, taking an entire night.

The next day, Gu Nian saw the scratch marks on Daddy's neck and cried to Su Wan, "Wuwuwu! Mommy, don't fight with Daddy!"

Gu Fengchun calmly sipped tea.

Su Wan first froze, then realized what it was, a faint red rising to her earlobes, she picked up the young son and coaxed, "Niannian don't cry, Mommy and Daddy aren't fighting, really not."

Gu Nian sobbed, "I don't believe it; every time Daddy goes to coax Mommy, the commotion in the room is huge! And Mommy's voice... you guys are definitely fighting!"

Su Wan's eyes widened, her face instantly flushing red, not knowing how to explain.

Gu Fengchun promptly picked up the young son and took him out.

When he returned, only Gu Fengchun was there; he said, "Nian'er is afraid we'll really split up, so each time he hides outside to eavesdrop. He hasn't told anyone else these words—rest assured."

Su Wan listened, her heart suddenly softening, and she also felt a bit guilty.

She and her husband's petty quarrels are just the fun of a young couple, but to the child's eyes it truly worries that Mom and Dad might split up or argue.

After that, Su Wan never again said such angry words in front of the child.