The Slender Waist-Chapter 348 - 244: How Unbearable to Be Exposed

"Why is the General here?"

Li Sangruo’s heart thumped erratically, and she instinctively asked in reply.

Pei Jue had only left the seat a step ahead of her.

It was not strange that he found Feng Yun first; what was strange was, where did Wei Zheng go?

Clad in a cyan-grey cloak, Pei Jue stood amid the hazy light of the night lantern, his expression stern and cold. His dark eyes barely glancing over, they seemed to hide a thick murderous intent.

"My wife cannot hold her liquor well and entered the wrong room. I just found her."

He wrapped Feng Yun entirely in his cloak.

"Your Highness, why are you here? Why did you barge through the door?"

Li Sangruo’s lips trembled as she hesitated, "Hearing that the General’s wife was missing, I was anxious and came out to help look..."

Her heart was in torment; she didn’t know how her voice managed to escape her lips.

"Is the lady alright?"

Pei Jue did not speak. His face was as cold as the ice in the twelfth lunar month, and inside his embrace, Feng Yun seemed deeply intoxicated, completely oblivious to the directions and the people around her, pressing against Pei Jue tightly, her body sensitively arched, her breathing hurried.

"Husband..."

She at least knew whom she was clinging to.

Pei Jue softly pinched the nape of her neck like soothing a small animal.

Feng Yun’s eyelashes fluttered a few times, peering out from his cloak, her drunken eyes hazily scrutinizing Li Sangruo, full of grievance from being disturbed.

"Why are there outsiders here... Husband... make her leave..."

She spoke softly, yet her hands possessively wrapped around Pei Jue’s waist, coquettish and seductive, the exact archetype of the vixen that Li Sangruo detested the most. However, it seemed Pei Jue did not think so. His arm tightened, restraining his restless wife in his embrace. It was meant to be a rebuke, yet not a hint of anger could be heard.

"Don’t make a fuss; this is not our home."

"Then let’s go home. Husband, let’s go home."

"Mhm."

Pei Jue responded, almost having to support her buttocks to keep the unsteady Feng Yun from falling. However, Feng Yun refused to behave, clinging to him like a limpet, her body restlessly squirming, slippery as an eel, uncontrolled and oblivious, not caring about those around them.

"Husband, hold me, hold me..."

Pei Jue’s body tensed, his breathing heavy amidst the high tension, his forehead and the small of his back drenched in sweat from her antics.

Li Sangruo felt as if she were about to go mad.

They dared to show affection in front of her...

Where did they place her, the Empress Dowager presiding over the court?

The boiling rage solidified in her eyes into icy needles, as if coated in poison. She glared at Feng Yun...

Wishing fervently...

Wishing to pull him out of Pei Jue’s arms.

Wishing to tear them apart...

But she could do nothing.

She watched helplessly as Feng Shi Er Niang acted drunk in Pei Jue’s arms, cooing and whimpering like a demoness, watched as Pei Jue held her tighter and deeper, accommodating her, coaxing her, without a trace of impatience, even bordering on gentle...

All of this was utterly unacceptable to Li Sangruo.

She thought of how her deceased husband treated her when she was drunk...

That look of disdain, not patient enough to glance at her one more time before he turned to another concubine’s chamber.

Her heart was in knots.

The man she had fallen for in her teenage years, aloof and proud in front of her, distant and unapproachable...

How could he be like this with another woman? Why could those dark eyes brim with such thick affection?

Not for her.

Not for her!

"Your Highness, please forgive me..."

Pei Jue was somewhat breathless from Feng Yun’s antics.

"I must take my wife home, so we’ll take our leave first."

Li Sangruo’s irritation was evident on her face, her eyes emitting a faint glow.

"The feast has not ended. Perhaps it would be better for the lady to rest awhile at Cuiyu, to sober up before leaving?"

Pei Jue’s eyes met hers, quickly shifting away, looking down at Feng Yun in his arms.

"No need. My wife is delicate and not fond of unfamiliar beds."

Li Sangruo, pitifully, felt her eyes fill with tears, on the verge of crying.

Whether it was when she entered the palace at a young age and was bullied by the Emperor, when she faced challenges from court officials as a widow and orphan, or even when her own father berated her, she had never shed a tear.

But at that moment, she longed to cry.

She longed to run over and embrace Pei Wangzhi, to weep bitterly.

The room fell silent, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Pei Jue paid no mind to Li Sangruo’s expression as he carefully adjusted Feng Yun’s clothes and lifted her by her waist.

Li Sangruo stood blocking the doorway, not moving aside as he approached, her reddened eyes narrowed, staring straight at Pei Jue.

"General, may I have a word with you..."

Pei Jue paused, "Please speak, Your Highness."

The two faced each other.

Li Sangruo’s eyes burned fiercely, while Pei Jue, holding Feng Yun, was clearly distracted, his attention split between managing Feng Yun’s mood and keeping his body rigid to control Feng Yun’s unruly hands.

Otherwise, he feared she might openly reach for him.

Even display it for Li Sangruo to see.

She was capable of it, this madwoman could do anything.

Pei Jue felt a headache coming on and was even less patient with Li Sangruo.

"If Your Highness has something important to say, please be direct. I need to attend to a domestic matter urgently."

"It’s nothing important, just a trifling matter."

Li Sangruo, watching such a Pei Jue, felt a sourness in her throat, her fingertips trembling incessantly.

She actually had many words she wanted to say to him.

So many, many, many...

All of them blocked in her heart, no opportunity to speak, nor did she have the standing. Even though the suppressed emotions surged like wild waves, she still needed great courage, repeatedly tearing and struggling with herself, before she could cry out that address.

"Mr. Pei..."

"Have you really forgotten everything?"

The woman in Pei Jue’s arms quieted down.

She was listening intently, Pei Jue’s ears burned slightly.

"Your Highness, please be cautious with your words."

Li Sangruo couldn’t help but step closer, her eyes staring covetously at that ruggedly handsome face.

"If I hadn’t followed my father to the royal hunting grounds on that winter solstice and met the late Emperor, would we already be husband and wife now? Would we have had our children?"

The more she cared, the more she belittled herself.

She wished to degrade herself into the dust, but Pei Jue remained utterly calm.

"Please maintain your dignity, Your Highness."

Li Sangruo’s eyes were red like a rabbit’s, with a sense of reckless abandon, "All these years, there hasn’t been a day I don’t regret..."

"Your Highness." Pei Jue interrupted her, his gaze inadvertently seeking Feng Yun, visibly not wishing to bring up the past.

"I must take my leave."

"Husband..." Feng Yun lifted her head to watch her, with an expression eagerly anticipating the drama unfolding, "...have you not yet answered?"

Pei Jue frowned.

That small hand pinching his waist was about to pinch off his flesh.

He had long since forgotten these messy, old events.

Li Sangruo hadn’t brought it up, and he, frankly, would not have remembered any winter solstice hunt.

"No." Pei Jue was less responding to Li Sangruo than dealing with Feng Yun’s pestering.

"I was young then and did not wish to marry."

"Mr. Pei..."

Li Sangruo stared at him in shock.

Was he actually denying to her face that he had once considered marrying her?

Was it because that cheap woman was in his arms, afraid she would feel jealous if she heard?

Li Sangruo didn’t want to make a scene, but jealousy and indignation took the upper hand.

"Mr. Pei liked me, didn’t he?"

"No." Pei Jue’s expression remained cold and unchanged.

"We are on different paths, I am already married. Your words, Your Highness, are inappropriate."

"You did like me. Why won’t you admit it?" Li Sangruo suddenly raised her voice.

She yearned for Pei Jue to the extreme, her craving turning into madness.

When all material and power desires in the world could no longer satisfy her, all her joy came solely from the man before her.

To possess, to own, to transgress rules, to forget each other’s identities...

She advanced step by step toward Pei Jue, treading on taboos, challenging ethics, the thrill making her tremble all over, she stared intently at the man holding another woman, emotions wildly proliferating in her heart...

"Isn’t this nanmu bead bracelet handmade by you?"

On Li Sangruo’s fair wrist was a nanmu bead bracelet that didn’t look very exquisite; the beads were only uniform and the polish seemed rough, unworthy of Empress Dowager Li’s status, but she never took it off.

"Back then, when our families discussed marriage, the matchmaker brought this nanmu bead bracelet, saying it was made personally by you, Mr. Pei, as a token of affection for the Li Family maiden."

Li Sangruo treasured it greatly, wearing it for many years.

Pei Jue, however, said, "It wasn’t."

Seeing her agitated expression, Pei Jue didn’t want any misunderstandings, so he added:

"I, a mere warrior, do not indulge in the trappings of elegance, how could I personally carve bracelets?"

"Bracelet... what bracelet?" Feng Yun opened her eyes slightly; the emotions that had just calmed down flared up again as she struggled to turn her head, staring at Li Sangruo’s wrist.

The patina on the bead bracelet had almost been touched smooth, and it still looked rather attractive.

It was just that Empress Dowager Li’s complexion was pale and ashen, like the desolate moon over a cliff, mournfully bleak, somewhat frightening.

"I want one too..."

Feng Yun was apt at feigning madness on wine, clinging to Pei Jue’s neck as if fearful Li Sangruo wouldn’t hear her, her bright eyes alluringly searching.

"Husband, make one for your concubine too..."

Pei Jue: "I can’t..."

Feng Yun: "Just try, how can you know you can’t without trying?"

Nanmu bead bracelets, Le Zhengzi’s pens, Letters of Recovery, she loved these things.

"Alright." Pei Jue looked at her ambiguous eyes in the dim light, "I will learn."

Only then was Feng Yun satisfied, completely ignoring Li Sangruo nearby, snuggling up and rubbing her chin against his, planting a soft kiss.

"Husband treats your concubine so well."

Her destructive nature grew ever wilder, continuously testing his limits.

Pei Jue saw it all but did not point it out.

He embraced the charming temptation in his arms, his expression serene.

"My lady has a low tolerance for alcohol; my apologies if she has made Your Highness uncomfortable. Please allow us to excuse ourselves."

Li Sangruo was still blocking the doorway.

But she hadn’t witnessed their embarrassment.

She had only seen her own.

"General, please reconsider."

There was a moment when Li Sangruo felt utterly disheartened.

"Would you truly sever ties with me over one woman?"