Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Gu Junzhu slanted his head to looked at her for a minute then, shook it while clicking his tongue. “No wonder books say that ‘it is better to offend ten gentlemen than offend one villain; it is better to offend ten villains than offend a woman!’ Those all-purpose literary works are truthful indeed!”
“Hey, you went off-topic!” In a bad mood, Ye Xingbei rolled her eyes at him. “The question I just asked was, why must you marry me, no matter what?”
“Nope,” Gu Junzhu glanced at her with smiling eyes. Those beautiful eyes shone brilliantly under the morning twilight, tempting a person’s heart to beat all over the place. “Didn’t my dad tell you already? As long as her surname is Jiang, anyone will do—it does not necessarily have to be you. The problem was that the Jiang family could not bear to let their other two daughters become widows by marrying someone on the brink of death, so they sent you over. That’s all.”
Ye Xingbei frowned, “Were the words that your father said that day truthful? I thought that they were lies.”
“Of course it’s true,” Gu Junzhu spoke indifferently. “Otherwise, do you think that—with the prestige and reputation of our family’s old man—how could he possibly do such a thing like allowing me to carelessly sleep with you while you were unconscious?”
“That’s true,” Ye Xingbei snorted. “Your dad still said that he didn’t know that I was being forced. What a liar! If I hadn’t been forced, how could I possibly be sent here in a coma? Hmph! Young liar, old liar, the whole family are liars!”
“This girl, what is wrong with you? Personal attacks at every turn?” Gu Junzhu pinched her face, “I’m accompanying you back to your parental home out of the goodness of my heart and this is your attitude?”
Ye Xingbei slapped his hand off and dodged further away from him as she looked coldly at him, “You should say a few truthful words at least. I may consider being a little nicer to you.”
Gu Junzhu raised his brow, “It’s a promise! Then, that’s what I’ll do!”
Ye Xingbei, “…”
Her sarcasm wasn’t obvious enough, was it?
The intent behind those spoken words was obviously to mock how he liked to talk big, okay?
Rambling on his own, Gu Junzhu started saying, “Simply speaking, my dad and your grandfather are comrades-in-arms so they made an agreement that year. If each of them had sons, their sons would become sworn brothers; if they had daughters, then their daughters would become sisters. If there was a boy and a girl, then the two would become a couple. In the end, your grandfather had three sons while my dad had two daughters and three sons.”
“Initially, my family and yours should have bonded to become in laws, yet the two daughters that my father had—also my two older sisters—all reneged on the promise of marriage.”
“Your grandfather had a son who went missing because he went to search for my sister, who had fled from the marriage. no one knows for sure if he’s dead or alive. Until we find his body, no one knows what happened to him.”
“Ever since your grandfather’s son went missing, our family started to meet with misfortune. People died one after another. Including me, my parents gave birth to a total of three sons and two daughters in their lifetime but they all died, so I’m the only one left.”
“One year ago, I was severely injured when I went out on a mission. When I remained unconscious and was on the brink of death, my dad nearly collapsed. He had never believed in superstition but since that day, he started to believe in it and went to find a ‘capable person’ that a friend had recommended to him.”
“That ‘capable person’ said that the misfortunes were our family’s retribution from breaking a promise. He let my dad fulfill the promise from that year and welcome a daughter from the Jiang family as a wife. Naturally, I didn’t agree and I had no interest in marriage because I didn’t want to be controlled by a nagging woman for my entire life. Isn’t it nice to happily live alone by myself?
When he finished speaking, he tilted his head to look at Ye Xingbei and spread his arms helplessly, “But afterwards, as you know, it’s easy to guard against everyone except a traitor. Especially since that traitor was also my own father. I didn’t manage to defend myself so once I awoke, there was an extra spouse on my household registration booklet.”
Shaking his head, he clucked his tongue twice and sighed regretfully, “What a pity about the virginity that I had guarded for over 20 years!”