Chapter 123: Will You Take Ruo’er as Your Wife in the Future?
Jiang Chen was stunned. He’d only been teasing Princess Gouyu and had cracked a joke with her, intent on intimidating her a bit. Who would’ve thought that with Princess Gouyu’s personality, she’d take it so seriously?
This made it difficult for Jiang Chen to back down, like he was riding a tiger.
Chuckling, Jiang Chen walked forward, reached out his finger and lightly tweaked Gouyu’s straight and s.e.xy nose. “Alright, then I’ll take this bit and call it even.”
In the moment that Jiang Chen reached out, Gouyu’s heart almost leapt into her throat. Although she possessed a strong personality and walked and talked like a man, in the end, she was still a lady.
She’d always concealed the shy bashfulness of a girl beneath a strong, dominant exterior.
When things really came to a head, the jade-like skin of the shy girl, whom no one had ever touched, still tensed up involuntarily.
At one point, she had really thought that Jiang Chen was really going to make a move.
Who would’ve thought that Jiang Chen would take such a serious att.i.tude towards this simple matter and only superficially tweaked her on the nose. This situation was very much like a big brother doting on the little sister from next door warmly and innocently.
Gouyu’s heart pounded furiously. Although she felt vaguely disappointed, she also seemed to feel a bit relieved. Her maiden heart was in a chaotic uproar.
“Let’s go and see Ruo’er.” Jiang Chen smiled, turned and took a few steps.
When Princess Gouyu saw that Jiang Chen truly didn’t possess any ulterior motives, she exhaled a long, easy breath and strove to calm her emotions. She gathered up her courage again and walked in front of Jiang Chen.
Her clear eyes and white teeth was all the more comely beneath the morning sun. Her eyelashes fluttered lightly, as if she’d gathered all the strength in her body to say, “Jiang Chen, it doesn’t matter how you view me, you’re the first and only man to have touched me. From this day forth, I won’t let a second man touch me.”
Princess Gouyu felt almost completely drained after saying this. She had never thought that it would be tougher to say some words than it was to face a million strong army.
“Don’t let your thoughts drift. If Ruo’er sees you like this later, she’ll really think that I’ve done something to you.” Jiang Chen chuckled.
A trace of a warm smile appeared on Princess Gouyu’s lips. “Ruo’er is so innocent that her thoughts won’t travel in that direction.”
“Innocent indeed, she didn’t even understand spitting blood from the mouth, haha.”
Jiang Chen laughed heartily as all of a sudden, Princess Gouyu’s face turned bright red again. She bit her lip lightly and stamped her foot, “Jiang Chen, you’re such a rogue.”
The allusion of spitting blood from the mouth originated from that banquet at the Soaring Dragon manor, when Jiang Chen had reposited against the heir of White Tiger, Bai Zhanyun.
He’d meant to allude to the scene of a woman giving birth, but Eastern Zhiruo hadn’t taken the hint at that time and had even asked Jiang Chen what he meant.
Even Princess Gouyu had thought for quite a while before understanding.
Princess Gouyu hung back and kept a distance from Jiang Chen. Her emotions were complicated as she gazed upon the back of the teenager.
When Jiang Chen had tweaked Princess Gouyu’s nose just now, the gesture had been warm, innocent and stirred up endless emotions from her.
Her elder brothers Eastern Jun and Eastern Lu, because they’d been born in a royal family, had been like machines with power and had never committed such an intimate act towards her.
Jiang Chen’s motion had let Princess Gouyu vaguely feel the affection of an elder brother, the emotions that a little girl would have towards the big brother next door.
Except, this Jiang Chen was five or six years younger than her.
As soon as Eastern Zhiruo woke up, her first thought was to find brother Jiang Chen. She was very excited when she saw Jiang Chen and Gouyu arrive and pulled on Jiang Chen’s hand, saying in her charming and innocent voice, “Brother Jiang Chen, do you know? Nowadays, I don’t like to ride a carriage when I travel in the capital.”
“Why is that?” Jiang Chen was perplexed.
“I like riding the Goldwing Swordbirds.” Eastern Zhiruo encircled her hands around Jiang Chen’s arms and shook it lightly, pleading, “Brother Jiang Chen, how about you give me one of the Goldwing Swordbirds?”
It wasn’t uncommon to see little girls attracted to pets and all sorts of cool looking things. Riding a Goldwing Swordbird was much cooler than riding a horse carriage.
“A Goldwing Swordbird is an intelligent and civilized spirit bird. I’m afraid you’ll be unable to control it if I gave one to you. How about this, I’ll give you a baby Greenwing Swordbird. You can raise it from young. I’ll also give you a few pills so you can rear it slowly. It will surely evolve into a Goldwing Swordbird in a few years, and will be even more thoughtful towards you if you strike up a solid relations.h.i.+p with it.”
For some reason, although Jiang Chen was sometimes brusque and impatient towards Princess Gouyu, he was always exceedingly patient towards Eastern Zhiruo.
In his heart, he truly did view Eastern Zhiruo as a little sister. Perhaps this was because Eastern Zhiruo possessed a yin const.i.tution, the same condition that he had been afflicted with in his past life.
He played with and kept Eastern Zhiruo company very patiently all day.
During this day, Jiang Chen completely ignored all thoughts of an invasion by Darkmoon Kingdom and the situation of the Eastern Kingdom. He only accompanied Eastern Zhiruo on her random wandering all day.
Princess Gouyu also did the same.
Eastern Zhiruo still hadn’t had her fill of fun when the sun had gone down but she was a docile girl and knew that her aunt must have had an urgent matter that made her travel such a great distance to the Jiang Han territory.
“Brother Jiang Chen, Auntie, let’s go back. Ruo’er is also tired after playing all day.”
Upon returning to the River Wave city and after eating dinner, Jiang Chen smiled faintly at Princess Gouyu. She’d been about to speak, but she bit her lip in hesitation. “Go to sleep, the Jiang Han territory is the place where my Jiang family has been born and brought up in. Unless I, Jiang Chen, am no longer here, the Darkmoon Kingdom’s dirty iron hooves will never set foot on it.”
Princess Gouyu’s charming eyes moved faintly, as if water would drip out of them. She asked again, “What else?”
“What else?” Jiang Chen smiled faintly, “Isn’t this reason enough?”
“Not enough.” Princess Gouyu seemed to be feeling wronged.
“Then I’ll add Zhiruo as well, is this reason enough?”
Princess Gouyu’s gaze dimmed faintly, as if she seemed to have expected that Jiang Chen would say that, but she wasn’t able to keep herself from asking.
She also couldn’t help but feel a bit sad after asking.
“Ruo’er is innocent and kind. No one is willing to see her hurt in this world. Jiang Chen, you… will you take Ruo’er as your wife in the future?”
Princess Gouyu lifted her face as she stared unblinkingly at Jiang Chen, as if she would never let it rest until she received an answer.
“Just what are you thinking about everyday? Me taking Ruo’er as my wife?” Jiang Chen started laughing uncontrollably. “Ruo’er is innocent and naive, seeing her is like seeing my own sister. How could I have such weird thoughts?”
Jiang Chen wasn’t putting on airs as he truly didn’t have any other thoughts towards Ruo’er. Everything he’d done was because of Eastern Zhiruo’s honest personality, as well as her innocent and naive character.
In addition, there was Eastern Zhiruo’s innate yin const.i.tution. Two similarly afflicted people could empathize with each other due to their shared emotional resonance.
Whenever he saw Ruo’er, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but recall his past life. Protecting Ruo’er was a function of Jiang Chen protecting the complex knot of resignation he’d felt in his past life.
As for marriage, Jiang Chen actually didn’t have the heart to speak on.
Whether male or female, once one had a yin const.i.tution, they would then only give birth to generations of children with yin const.i.tutions.
It was a tragic fate.
This was to say, if Ruo’er gave birth in the future, her children would also possess yin const.i.tutions. It was unavoidable.
Although they would have to face this cruel reality sooner or later, Jiang Chen didn’t have the heart to voice it so early. He couldn’t bear for such an optimistic young girl like Zhiruo to shoulder a set of shackles upon her heart that didn’t belong to her in the first place.
...
The Darkmoon Kingdom, within the palace.
The king of Darkmoon Kingdom sat on his dragon throne as he surveyed his surroundings, full of an arrogant and haughty air.
Qi Can had already returned to the Darkmoon Kingdom. This unremarkable character was actually one of lobbyists that the king of Darkmoon Kingdom relied on most heavily. He appeared a bit bedraggled right now.
He crouched on the ground, thoroughly recounting to the king of the Darkmoon Kingdom everything that had happened to him in the Jiang Han territory.
The king of Darkmoon was around forty years old, and had a wispy beard on his chin. His looks were dignified and solemn, his aura uncommon. In particular, his eyes were as ferocious as a tiger’s and they looked around brilliantly, appearing quite domineering.
His large hands grasped the dragon throne with vigor and force, giving others the ferocious feeling of being able to tear violent tigers apart and cleave through huge stone.
“Your Majesty, that Jiang Chen couldn’t tell good from bad. Your subject brought to bear all sorts of skills but Jiang Chen would hear none of it. He instead humiliated your subject and said that your subject was a frog at the bottom of the well. He further held my Darkmoon Kingdom in all sorts of contempt and was exceedingly discourteous.”
Qi Can also knew that it would be impossible to recruit the Jiang family. He decided to add fuel to the flames and fan up the flames of trouble, thoroughly exaggerating for a bit.
A trace of killing intent shot out from the Darkmoon monarch’s tiger eyes. “This Jiang family lad is quite ungracious. It is his honor that we wished to recruit him. This brat is ignorant in his youth and has no respect for anyone after gaining a few tricks. The a.s.sembled, combined armies of my Darkmoon Kingdom will use this Jiang family to spill the first blood on the floor!”
“May our king live ten thousand years, may Darkmoon live ten thousand years!” The a.s.sembled n.o.bles genuflected and called out.
The king of Darkmoon was greatly pleased and was in high spirits. “My Darkmoon Kingdom will begin its conquest of the sixteen kingdoms with the Eastern Kingdom!”
“Your Majesty, according to intelligence, the Jiang family is adept in compelling the Swordbird army. This type of aerial army poses great destructive power towards ground troops. The great armies of our Darkmoon Kingdom should prepare to face them seriously.”
“Humph. Although the Swordbird Army is strong, it’s not as if my Darkmoon Kingdom has no corresponding strategy. Firstly, my Darkmoon Kingdom also has the Black Riders, adept at aerial tactics. Although the fighting capabilities of the black crows are ordinary, when combined with a Black Crow Rider, their battle capabilities are quite astonis.h.i.+ng. Three thousand Black Riders are sufficient to contend against an army of a hundred thousand Swordbirds. There will be various elite archer troops on the ground, combined with numerous formations, why would we fear the Swordbird army then? Not to mention, does this mere Jiang family intend to fight against the entire combined army of my Darkmoon Kingdom with just the strength of one family alone?”
It was shocking to think of the strength of a single family fighting against the elite armies of an entire kingdom.
The officials and courtiers of the Darkmoon Kingdom were all extremely optimistic as they engaged in heated discussions and debates with anyone who volunteered opinions.
The king of Darkmoon smiled, “We have also considered this point, so we have obtained the services of the first general of the kingdom, General Ren Feilong, to personally lead the armies.”
Ren Feilong was hailed as the first general of the Darkmoon Kingdom. He had only risen to prominence within the last decade or so, but had accomplished countless achievements for the Darkmoon Kingdom.
What need did they have to fear from a mere Jiang family with him leading the armies?
This was practically a tiger hunting sheep, with no doubt about the conclusion at all.
Although the Jiang family was strong, and the rumors of them ending the Long family being quite miraculous, those of the Eastern Kingdom would be the only ones willing to believe and accept such legends.
To an enemy kingdom like the Darkmoon Kingdom, they subconsciously felt that the rumors had been exaggerated. From the bottom of their hearts, they did not believe that the Jiang family was as miraculous and strong as the legends said.