Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 496 - 494

Chapter 496: Chapter 494

For the past two days, Shangguan Xuanyi had been very busy. This night, the moonlight of early spring was not too bright, and everything around was pitch black. Shangguan Xuanyi was slightly flushed due to the excessive alcohol he had consumed.

He jumped into Xiao’er’s room from the window. As his feet landed, he stumbled, accidentally bumped into the cabinet near the window sill. A vase of flowers on the cupboard fell to the ground and shattered.

Shangguan Xuanyi felt a bit dizzy and took a step.

Xiao’er, awakened by his noise, quickly warned, "Don’t move! Watch your step!"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Xuanyi paused, not moving as he looked at the figure on the bed.

From on her bed, Xiao’er could smell the strong scent of alcohol. Was he here to make a drunken scene? Xiao’er wondered to herself.

Despite these thoughts, Xiao’er quickly got out of bed and helped him sit at the round table.

"Miss, are you alright?" Yang Liu’s voice came from outside the door.

"I’m fine, just a stray cat knocked over the vase on the window sill," she said.

"Do you need me to come in and clean up?"

"No need, go back to sleep!"

Yang Liu had been keeping night watch outside; she naturally knew that Shangguan Xuanyi had jumped into the room from the window. Her earlier question had stemmed from concerns on the potential incident between the two.

Hearing Xiao’er’s response, she left, no longer keeping watch for her mistress!

"If you’re drunk, why are you still wandering around?" Xiao’er questioned.

"I’m not drunk."

It was typical that those who are drunk insisted they were not, but Xiao’er didn’t buy it.

She took out five olives from the space and gave them to Shangguan Xuanyi: "Eat these!"

Shangguan Xuanyi obediently took one, bit into it and then refused to eat anymore, "It tastes terrible!"

"These are olives. They help sober you up."

"I’m not drunk, so I don’t need any hangover remedies!"

"Even if you’re not drunk, you need to eat it!"

"It’s terrible! I don’t want it!"

A drunken Shangguan Xuanyi closed his mouth tightly, childishly refusing.

"If you won’t eat, then just leave. I need to sleep!" Xiao’er said, pretending to go back to bed to sleep without caring for him.

Shangguan Xuanyi grabbed hold of Xiao’er. His face flushed and his eyes were full of resentment and accusation.

"If I eat it, you’ll marry me!"

Seeing him act so childishly while drunk, Xiao’er found it entertaining and amusing.

"Okay!" She would have to marry him eventually, just not so soon.

Upon hearing her agree, Shangguan Xuanyi laughed, picked up an olive and put it into his mouth. He paused as if remembering something and continued saying, "Marry me next year! I won’t restrict your freedom; you can continue living just as you are now after we’re married."

This man was really hard to please, even when he was drunk.

But how could things stay the same!

Xiao’er sighed: "Brother Shangguan, it’s not about you restricting me. After getting married, we’ll have children. I’m just not ready to be tied down by children at such a young age."

Let alone being just over ten years old, she wasn’t physically ready for a child yet.

"Then let’s not have children," Shangguan Xuanyi definitively said.

He was really drunk! Seeing his dismissive attitude, it was apparent he didn’t understand the importance of having children to continue the family line.

"You really are drunk!"

Xiao’er didn’t want to discuss this matter with a drunkard. She held out the olives toward him: "Just eat quickly; it’ll help sober you up."

"I’m not drunk!" To prove that he was not drunk, Shangguan Xuanyi decisively ate several olives.

"I’ve finished eating. We’ll get married next year, and we won’t have children," Shangguan Xuanyi said, pulling Xiao’er into his arms and hugging her tightly.

"Not, ’we won’t have children’!" Xiao’er struggled slightly.

Shangguan Xuanyi held her even tighter: "Didn’t you say you didn’t want to be tied down by a child?"

She couldn’t use his being drunk as an excuse to think he was not clear-headed!

"I just want to delay having children for a few more years, but..."

Xiao’er voiced her thoughts.

"You’re overthinking it. When we marry, when we have our own children, that’ll be our own business. No matter the Emperor, Empress Dowager, or even the grandmother empress feel, I won’t take a concubine," Shangguan Xuanyi said as he buried his face in her hair, his nose filled with her sweet scent.

"Just like this time’s selection, didn’t the emperor compromise too? Could you still resist the imperial edict?" Xiao’er asked.

"The grandmother empress could indeed issue a decree to hold the selection, but could the grandmother empress also force the emperor to perform the rites of the Duke of Zhou?"

That ten maidservants live as widows in the palace and who would dare to send people into the palace in the future? In the end, it’s just having a few more mouths to feed. Even if they had to feed more than three thousand mouths, what would it matter? They could afford it!

Xiao’er fell silent. The decision really depended on whether the man in question was willing or not!

If a man wasn’t willing, then the woman would only become a useless vase.

"After we get married, the Emperor plans to confer me as a king. If you are worried about this issue, we can go to live in the fief. No one currently wants to manage Xiyue City; I can ask the Emperor for it as a fief, and we can live there. It’s similar to Prince An’s situation. Yet, while he moved to rich, fertile lands, we would be going to barren ones. The policies you proposed for the construction of Xiyue City, we could also slowly implement them. What do you think?"

Prince An had moved his whole family to his fief one year after aiding the emperor in his successful ascension. Now, he had returned to the imperial capital for the marriages of his son Shangguan Ruixi, and his daughter Shangguan Wanru.

Upon hearing this, Xiao’er was tempted. Moving away from the imperial capital, far from the future strife for the throne, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all, people change, and their circumstances can also change every year. Whether he still doesn’t want to be emperor years or even a decade later remains to be seen. Who knows? Can anyone guarantee it?

A popular saying is that even if one doesn’t want to, sometimes, life forces one to.

Just like many people who continue to work in jobs they dislike, they feel compelled to do so to survive.

Seeing Xiao’er’s expression, Shangguan Xuanyi knew she was tempted: "We’ll get married next year, and when you are ready to have a child, we’ll have one. Most girls are married by fifteen or sixteen! By seventeen or eighteen, if you’re still unmarried, you’d be considered an old spinster! Even after we’re married, I can take you to travel for four months every year."

Upon hearing this, Xiao’er decisively nodded, and then looked at him, who now didn’t seem drunk at all: "You aren’t drunk!"

This man must’ve been pretending to be drunk just to soften her heart!

"I told you I wasn’t drunk! After eating a few olives, my headache is gone."

But she just didn’t believe him! He was indeed immune to the effects of alcohol.

Xiao’er reached out and pinched his waist.

How dare he pretend to be drunk, play the fool and fish for sympathy!

Shangguan Xuanyi grabbed both Xiao’er’s hands, hugging his waist tightly as they held each other closely: "You promised! You can’t go back on your word now!"

Xiao’er leaned her head on his broad shoulder, giving a nod of agreement.

Shangguan Xuanyi breathed a sigh of relief. If she hadn’t agreed, he would have had to resort to knocking her unconscious and tying her to the bridal sedan chair.

They held each other quietly, neither of them saying a word, until dawn. Shangguan Xuanyi then carried a sleeping Xiao’er back to bed under the cover of dawn, using his Qinggong to leave.

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