Chapter 579

Chapter 579 – Where Did You Get Your Confidence?

“Yaoyao—” Ye Yaoyao called out to Ye Zhen in fear, unsure of the man’s intentions.

Right then, Leng Mei stepped in and stopped Ye Yaoyao who wanted to follow them, and said calmly, “Miss Ye, don’t worry. Our marquis only wants to say a few words to Third Miss.”

Hong Ying, who had come out with Ye Zhen, said coldly, “Her Highness doesn’t want to go.”

“Stop!” Leng Mei intercepted Hong Ying who wanted to follow her mistress. “That’s the marquis. Would he hurt Third Miss?”

“As long as Her Highness doesn’t like it, no matter who it is, they can’t just take her away by force,” Hong Ying countered.

Leng Mei narrowed her eyes slightly and suddenly hit Hong Ying. “You’re not allowed to disturb the Marquis.”

“Then let’s see if you can stop me,” Hong Ying retorted. She raised her foot and kicked the other’s hand away. Soon the two were embroiled in a fight.

By now Lu Lingzhi had taken Ye Zhen far away, so she was oblivious to the fact that her maid had already started fighting with Lu Lingzhi’s subordinate, and was still struggling to break free from Lu Lingzhi’s grip.

“Let go of me!”

After making sure there was no one within ear shots, Lu Lingzhi let go and said in a deep voice, “Yaoyao, you know that the emperor is about to appoint an empress. Why aren’t you giving up on him? Why do you insist on being entangled with him? How will this be good for you in any way?”

“You were watching me?” Ye Zhen was furious. Mo Rongzhan only came to look for her yesterday, but Lu Lingzhi found out very quickly. What exactly does he want to do? Did he send someone to monitor me?

“No, I noticed by coincidence that the emperor’s carriage was at the foot of the mountain last night. If he wasn’t here for you, why would he be so sneaky?” Lu Lingzhi couldn’t hide the jealousy in his tone.

This was the first time he knew what it felt like to be jealous. Perhaps because he had suppressed his emotions far too much when he was with Ye Zhen in the past or he knew the emperor would never like Ye Zhen, he had never felt like this before. It was also because no one had ever provoked him that he didn’t know he had already liked Ye Zhen from a long time ago.

Anyway, he wouldn’t lose her again this time.

“So what if I’m entangled with another person? What’s that got to do with you? Lu Lingzhi, you know that I’m not your sister!” Ye Zhen shouted angrily. She had already reached the limit of her patience with this man’s abnormality these few days.

“Right, you’re not my sister.” He smiled and continued, “I’ll talk to Grandmother. Yaoyao, I want to marry you.”

Ye Zhen originally wanted to turn around and leave, but after hearing those words, she stopped and looked at him as though he was a lunatic. “Lu Lingzhi, what did you say?”

Lu Lingzhi suddenly felt that the huge stone weighing on his chest was gone. He finally said what he wanted to say. There was no need to suppress himself anymore. If he didn’t know that the emperor still hadn’t let go of her, he wouldn’t have said it so quickly.

He was particularly worried that the emperor’s recent actions weren’t as innocent as they appeared to be. He was afraid that Yaoyao would still be the one the emperor wanted to marry.

“Yaoyao, I said I didn’t want to be your big brother. Do you know I was so happy when I found out that you’re not my cousin? Even though… Even though this will shock Grandmother, and she won’t accept it at first, believe me, everyone in the Lu family will like you and hope that you’ll become my wife.” He gently held Ye Zhen’s hand, his voice softening.

Ye Zhen chuckled and shot the man a mocking gaze. “You lunatic, why would you even think I want to marry you? So what if you tell Grandmother that I’m not my father’s daughter? Everyone knows that I’m the third daughter of the Lu family. Do you want to ruin the reputation of the Lu family that you established with so much difficulty with your own hands?”

“The Lu family—” Lu Lingzhi smiled bitterly. “For the sake of the Lu family, I even killed the woman I love. I just want to marry you now. I don’t want to care about anything else anymore. ”

“The woman you love?” Ye Zhen looked at him coldly. “Since you have someone you love, why are you still marrying me? Lu Lingzhi, don’t go too far! I’m not someone’s substitute.”

Lu Lingzhi nodded gently. “Even though you look the same, you’re indeed not her substitute. Yaoyao, I like you, so I won’t let you marry anyone else.”

Ye Zhen pressed the sleeve arrow on her arm with one hand. He said that she looked like the woman he loves? He actually said such a thing! “The person you like… isn’t Ye Zhen, right?”

“Yaoyao—” A silent sorrow drifted into Lu Lingzhi’s eyes. He looked at the girl before him who was a spitting image Ye Zhen, his heart ached so much that he couldn’t speak.

“Ha!” Ye Zhen laughed and swung the whip in her hand hard, hitting Lu Lingzhi’s face.

She finally knew that there was no limit to how much she hated someone. She used to trust this man so much that she even treated him as her confidant. She thought that he could help her get closer to Qin Wang*, but she died at his hands. And yet, he was saying all of this now? He liked her? Was there anything in the world more disgusting than this?

[*When she married MRZ he was titled Qin Wang, wang=prince of first-rank, hence she was wangfei.]

“Lu Lingzhi, don’t you feel ashamed? You said you love Ye Zhen? Don’t you think her ghost will be so angry that she might try to strangle you to death in the middle of the night?” Ye Zhen sneered.

Lu Lingzhi stood upright, his face burning with pain, but he couldn’t care less about this. He didn’t understand where her hatred stemmed from. “Yaoyao, I’m not treating you as Ye Zhen’s substitute.”

“Stop talking,” Ye Zhen said angrily and took a few steps back. “Where did you get the confidence that I’ll marry you? If I have to marry you, I might as well enter the palace and become the empress. It seems that the poison is yet to be purged, it hasn’t just consumed your body but also your mind.”

Ever since she came back from Zhao Jia Island, Lu Lingzhi’s attitude towards her was markedly different from before. Even though she vaguely sensed something strange, she still found it unbelievable so deliberately ignored it. Today, he finally made his stance clear, and she had the urge to tear him into pieces.

Lu Lingzhi said, “The emperor is just treating you well for the time being. Do you want to live a lonely life in the future? Yaoyao, the palace isn’t suitable for you.”

“Any place is suitable for me except the one you are in, Lu Lingzhi. That’s for certain.” Ye Zhen said coldly, “It’s up to you if you want to tell Grandmother about my background or do whatever you want, but you forget about marrying me. You aren’t even qualified to stand in front of me.”

“Yaoyao—” Lu Lingzhi did not expect her to hate him to this extent.

Ye Zhen turned around and walked back, just in time to see Hong Ying running towards her.  Her maid was injured, but her eyes were still full of worry. “Your Highness, are you all right?”

“Who hurt you?” Ye Zhen said in a sullen voice.

Leng Mei followed behind Hong Ying and said indifferently, “Third Miss, I just didn’t want her to disturb your conversation with the marquis.”

“You hurt my people?” Ye Zhen recognized that this was someone close to Lu Lingzhi. She walked to Leng Mei expressionlessly and waved her whip down on the servant heavily. “Who do you think you are? How dare you touch my people?”

Leng Mei stood rooted to the ground stiffly and glared daggers at Ye Zhen.

“What’s the matter? Can’t I beat you up?” Ye Zhen sneered and demanded.

“Of course, you can, Third Miss.” Leng Mei lowered her head and suppressed all her dissatisfaction.

Ye Zhen handed the whip to Hong Ying and said, “Let’s go.”

Lu Lingzhi watched the departing figure silently, his eyes turning cold and dark.

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