.3 - It was like a knife stabbing through his heart

Zhenguo General's Manor's first owner was not Zhan Shaoxi, but rather his grandfather. The old General spent his entire life was in war, and even died in battle in his latter years. Members of his family all joined the army. Often, they were the last of their family line, but they still did not hesitate to go into battle and die.

Zhan Shaoxi's father was also this way. In order to prevent the Emperor from becoming wary, he remained at the border and even kept his son with him. It wasn't until his death that the teenager was returned to the General's Manor. He surrendered all military power to the Emperor and only asked that the Emperor would not turn his jealousy onto the General's Manor so that his son could grow up peacefully and happily.

It was precisely because of this that the honor and favor of the Zhenguo General's Manor had never faded. Whenever a General died, he was followed by another General. Even if every time, they did not want their son to follow their own path, they ultimately could not avoid it. Zhan Shaoxi had grown up on the border, and he knew how bad the situation there was. So, he had was not in awe of the Emperor. If the Emperor did not only know how to sit on that high position and ignore everything else, uncaring if the soldiers on the front lines were killed or injured, and could never see anything beyond the power he held in his hands, his family would not have declined to the point where Zhan Shaoxi was the only one left.

Now, the Emperor gave him the title of General just to stop the public's words and prevent himself from being accused of harassing meritorious officials. In fact, Zhan Shaoxi had no real power in his hands. In addition, the Emperor had given him his favorite Royal Princess' hand in marriage. If he was not overwhelmed with gratefulness towards the Emperor, the civil servants would probably write him to death.

Being overwhelmed with gratefulness, huh…

Zhan Shaoxi turned his head back to look at the person who was following behind him, and thought that the only thing the Emperor had done right in his life was probably to give the Royal Princess to him.

In fact, the status of Zhenguo General's Manor in the past was somewhat awkward. They were a military family with a fairly honest disposition and never joined forces to seize power or anything of the like. They devoted themselves to war. There were many heroes in the family, but they were scarce.

Xue Ling bowed as he apologized to the ranks of ancestors and patriarchs. When Zhan Shaoxi met him in this life, there would probably be no more issues about inheritance. The family line would most likely end with this generation, but Xue Ling did not feel guilty at all.

After praying to their ancestors and meeting with the elders in the family. It was already time for lunch.

Xue Ling did not specifically state that he would eat alone in order to anger Zhan Shaoxi, and merely returned to his room after coldly and indifferently finishing the meal. He never made any eye contact with the great General the entire time, and barely looked at him at all. It made the General unbearably grieved and anxious, but he also could not put aside his dignity. He didn't eat much during the meal, and his face was ** as he watched Xue Ling leave.

In the afternoon, the deputy general noticed that the General was in low spirits and was rather curious. "General, did you strain yourself too much last night?" The General was newly married, and he could only come up with such a guess. "Indeed, you just married. I shouldn't have disturbed your private time with the Royal Princess with these official duties."

With a bitter laugh, Zhan Shaoxi replied, "It would be great if we could be intimate." His resignation really surprised the deputy general. The General had always been able to control his emotions, and this was the first time he had ever complained. With his face full of helplessness, he finally looked more like how someone his age should.

The General was a young man who had just gotten married, and there was no need to look like an old and steady man all the time.

"Oh. Although I don't know what kind of worries the General has, your subordinate is willing to do anything to help." The deputy general was middle-aged. After watching him grow up over the years, he was somewhat enthusiastic that he could finally act like an elder for once.

"You…" Zhan Shaoxi looked at him hesitantly, pressed his lips together, and finally opened his mouth. "How should you deal with it if you've upset your wife?"

The deputy general raised his eyebrows. He wondered how the newly married couple had already quarreled on the second day. But, looking at the general's appearance, didn't it seem as though he was really beginning to care about the Royal Princess? "Then you need to see why she is unhappy. You and your wife are newly married, and some compromises will always need to be made. Yesterday was also the first time you met, and it's normal if your characters clash. The Royal Princess grew up in the palace and has been loved and cherished by His Majesty since childhood. Although there has never been any bad rumor of her being arrogant and domineering, she is still a proud daughter of heaven. The General must not be angry with her directly. Girls are meant to be coaxed."It was unknown whether Zhan Shaoxi had heard the key point in his words, but his face was tight for a good while before he earnestly told the deputy general, "She's very good."

Deputy general: "Ah?"

The great General stressed: "She is very good, not arrogant or domineering at all. She looks very small, and her wrist is very thin, I'm always afraid that if I use too much strength, I'll hurt her." He meant that he did not dare to lift a hand against Xue Ling, but the deputy automatically came to another meaning. For a moment, his face was twisted with laughter.

He patted the General on the shoulder. "I can't give you any advice on this. You'd better think it over by yourself."

It would be better for an outsider like him not to be involved in bedroom affairs. It appeared that the couple had argued because of this kind of matter. The General was in the prime of his life; it was very normal.

If Xue Ling discovered what his thoughts were, he would probably give Zhan Shaoxi a severe scolding.

This was pedophilia! This man was really going further and further along this abnormal path, wanting to make a move!

The innocent great General: "…" ???

The Princess' grand wedding was naturally held on the most beautiful spring day. In this season, the temperature in the Capital was especially suitable for napping. Xue Ling made up for the last night's sleepless night and did not wake up until late afternoon.

It was still bright outside, and after eating the afternoon tea sent over from the kitchen, Xue Ling ordered the maids around him to withdraw and entered his rooms under the guise of practicing calligraphy.

In fact, he just wanted to discover any holes in the plot, make preparations to rob the heroine of her golden fingers, and wreck her encounters with the various men.

The first two people that the female protagonist had met when she came to the world were the Crown Prince and General Zhan. She had been robbed in the busy market, and General Zhan had thrown out a hidden weapon from the teahouse in order to catch the thieves. She used her assassin's skills to find General Zhan and thank him, making the General who had thought he had seamlessly performed his ** feel a little awkward and curious about the woman.

She met the Crown Prince because of business. Normally, royal children were not allowed to do business, but the fight for the throne required money, so the Crown Prince had many underground industries. When the heroine first came to the world, the lofty Gongqin Palace did not even provide her with money to help with her mother's sickness, and so the female protagonist no choice but to make a living by herself. Firstly, she aimed at the market for things that women would need, and made a lot of skin care products. The result was not bad, and they sold very well in the Capital.

In order to find support for herself and prevent others from robbing her, she took the initiative to find the Crown Prince's forces and expressed her willingness to cooperate with extremely open conditions, which caught the interest of His Highness the Prince who had just happened to be there that day on some business. Later, they cooperated and built a lot of money-making industries. The Crown Prince held her in high esteem, and slowly began to fall in love with such a clever woman.

It was only after learning of the Crown Prince's identity that the heroine met man number two, because man number two was the Prince's strategic advisor, who worked under the Prince. After the heroine had gained the Prince's trust, he let man number two deal with the heroine's business, and it was because of this that the two of them gradually became acquainted. He also began to develop feelings for such an unusual woman.

In the meantime, the heroine also saved a badly injured teenager in an alley, using medical skills from her previous life to heal his wounds. From then on, this naive and cheerful teenager who could both act cute and fight with incredible power became a loyal puppy that silently stayed by her side to guard her. The teenager had already had very good moves, and after being taken in by the female protagonist and trained for a while, he could even fight against the top master of the country, Zhan Shaoxi. The General was intrigued, and after they sparred, he discovered that the best martial arts master was actually the heroine. At this moment, he began to develop an interest and started paying attention to her.

These four men were the four male protagonists that showed up in the early part of the plot. Later, the Crown Prince ascended the throne and General Zhang went out to fight while man number two became the Prime Minister. The heroine finally had time to leave the capital and wander, so she took advantage of the fact that the three of them were too busy trying to earn her affections to attend to other things in order to run off and explore the martial arts world.

On the way, she met a wealthy businessman, became his confidant, saved the founder of a demonic sect, and made the other party almost turn into a demon for her. After that, she went to a neighboring country and attracted the attention of the neighboring country's tyrannical Emperor. All of a sudden, these seven men revolved around her, each of whom had great influence. It was not wrong at all to say that this woman could bring disaster to the world.

After finishing the plot line, Xue Ling touched the goose bumps that had erupted all over his body. He admired the heroine a lot, because it had only been after he carefully looked through the story that he discovered that this not only was this a story targeted for women, it was also a reverse harem with multiple relationships and **. While developing relationships with all seven men and getting together with all of them, the heroine still managed to keep everyone happy, and nobody broke up. The entire article was full of romance and **, and it was unclear whether this had been written for girls, or men.

After calculating the time, Xue Ling found that at this point, the heroine should have already met the Crown Prince and Zhan Shaoxi. She would soon 'accidentally' meet the small loyal puppy, who coincidentally was a young Prince from the neighboring Xia Country. He had left the country because of struggles at the court, and after he grew up, he went back to the palace and finally became the Emperor of Xia Country in order to compete with the other men for the heroine.

"System, do you know where the heroine picked him up? Let's go ahead of her and grab him first."

"Of course." It was not difficult for the system to determine the appropriate time and place, but it was a little embarrassed and really wanted to ask its great host: Aren't you already married as somebody's wife? Will that man of yours really not get angry if you bring back a boy?

Xue Ling did not care about what Zhan Shaoxi would think. No matter how angry he got, he wouldn't choke him to death.

So, in order to purposefully deepen the estrangement between himself and Zhan Shaoxi, he must definitely pick up the little loyal puppy.

It was not until early evening when the sky had already darkened that a maid knocked on the door and asked if Xue Ling planned to have dinner. Xue Ling put aside his brush as he had more or less completed his plan, turned to leave the study and ordered dinner to be served in his rooms.

Yes, the wedding room has been tacitly been taken over by Xue Ling. As for that other man, Her Highness the Royal Princess expressed that since the General's Manor was so big anyway, he could live wherever he wanted. In any case, that man should not even consider entering his rooms for the time being.

With this in mind, he stepped into the room and came face to face with the black-faced General who was sitting in the central seat.

"Where have you been?" He had been waiting for his wife here for almost half an hour, and had not seen so much as a shadow. The maids all said she was practicing calligraphy in the study, and Zhan Shaoxi could not just rush over to see her. After all, he had nothing to say to the other party, and simply wanted to spend time together.

Well, there was nothing wrong with staying with one's wife, right?

Xue Ling was surprised to see him, but he didn't pay much attention to it. His footsteps hesitated slightly before he slowly sat down in a chair and washed his hands in the basin that a maid had brought over. Then, he spoke as he wiped his hands, "Great General must have a host of problems to deal with every day. How come you have time to appear in my courtyard?"

Zhan Shaoxi's gaze followed the movement of the cloth that he used to wipe his hands, wishing he could go up and replace the cloth to lick his pure white fingertips, but his expression remained icy as usual. "I came to accompany you for dinner."

Xue Ling wrinkled his brows and said with amusement, "Honorable General first asked me to know my place, but came over once again to put on a play. Could it be that you are afraid I'll go and tell my brother that you are not treating me sincerely?"

Just as Zhan Shaoxi wanted to defend himself, he heard her voice continue coolly, "Actually, you don't have to do this. I won't say anything outside."

He kept his gaze locked on Zhan Shaoxi's as he spoke, and every phrase seemed like a knife mercilessly stabbing him straight in the heart. "As you said, you just need me to be a decorative wife, and I am very willing to be one, too. Everyone has their own reasons, and the General has no need to give this false concern."

Zhan Shaoxi opened his mouth and could not say anything. He only felt a terrible pain in his chest as he clenched his hand into a tight fist, his nails puncturing his palm.

xiin: by this point, i started to feel bad for the ML…

on a more TL-y note, the author uses 'she' and 'he' when referring to Xue Ling throughout the entire arc. the inconsistency is probably a POV thing, so we've tried to keep it in. hope that helps with some of the confusion!

alamerysl: Lol MC gives no mercy. ML beware! You've angered your wifey and must pay!