Chapter 1301: [Linger] Joyous
Mu Linger didn’t want Gu Qishao?
Two years ago, Gu Qishao left without saying goodbye and then appeared at Rui’er’s one year old birthday party. After that, he rarely showed his face. He lost a bet to Mu Linger, but…did he never kiss her in the end?
Nobody could imagine it that “I don’t want Qi gege” could ever come out of Mu Linger’s mouth. How much courage and conviction did that take? After all, she had chased after him for over a decade! How much pain did she bear before voicing that sentence?
They all said it was more painful to be abandoned, but many times it was more painful choosing to give up! To Gu Qishao, there was never an issue of giving up anything. How could you give up something you never wanted? How could you be abandoned if you didn’t admit what you had in the first place?
But Mu Linger had chosen to let go the same moment she was abandoned. She couldn’t stop crying as she spoke. “Jin Zi, I…I think I’ve started to like you. Be a little happier, don’t force yourself, okay?”
How long had Jin Zi been waiting for those words?
How long had Mu Linger been considering this question?
In a flash, everyone seemed to see Mu Linger truly grow up. After all, she hadn’t chosen Jin Zi during her most painful time. She suffered for two years and was still painfully considering her feelings on her wedding day. She didn’t just make do with a solution. Nor did she reluctantly accept Jin Zi just to heal her own wounds. Although everyone said only a second love could heal the pain of the first, Mu Linger said she’d given up on Qi gege two years ago. Her hurtful love stopped two years earlier, so perhaps all the pain she felt when dealing with Jin Zi had nothing to do with Gu Qishao, but everything to do with herself. She had to figure out whether she was capable of love, willing to love, and daring to love.
Jin Zi’s brows creased tightly as he watched Mu Linger’s crying get worse. In the end he simply pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. No answer was more direct, convincing, and real as his kiss. It was fierce and passionate, wild and deep, drowning one’s self in deep feelings. Mu Linger subconsciously began to return the kiss, feeling completely unburdened for the first time. She placed her entire heart into it and felt so intimate to this man. There was no sense of distance, nor would he suddenly cast her away.
Jin Zi, not giving up on me was the kindest mercy you gave to my life.
Han Yunxi and the others exchanged looks before silently slipping out of the tent. Little Rui’er and Tang Tang were staring under the table at Ning Jing crushing Tang Li’s foot, but once she released him, they looked back up. By now Tang Tang was three and as pretty as a porcelain doll. She muttered, “See? My mother’s much fiercer than my father. In my family, my mother’s words are boss.”
Little Rui’er was more than two years old and resembled Long Feiye more and more, especially his eyes and the air of nobility between his brows. He didn’t speak, but clapped his hands and knees with a serious expression to stand up. That face and those features were simply a miniature adult, giving him more maturity than Tang Tang like he was her older brother.
But soon he saw Jin Zi and Mu Linger still kissing. His expression broke completely as confusion overwrote his features. Curious, he asked, “What are they doing?”
Little Tang Tang took a look before she shrieked and hastily covered her little brother’s[1] eyes. “Shame shame! Don’t look!”
The adults finally remembered the two children playing on the side. Han Yunxi and Tang Li burst out laughing while Long Feiye speedily picked Rui’er up and strode out of the tent. Ning Jing covered Tang Tang’s eyes, not sure whether to laugh or cry. “You know it’s ‘shame shame,’ so why are you still looking yourself?”
Yes. While Tang Tang had covered her little brother’s eyes, she was still staring openly at the two shameful adults.
Once everyone had left, Lil Thing rolled off the rafters in the ceilings while cheeping in laughter as it rolled on the ground.
The little master had another embarrassing episode again!
Every time it saw the little master make a fool of himself, it was like see Papa Long getting humiliated. It made him so happy! Judging from the little master’s personality now, he would probably grow up like Papa Long. If it could manage to use human speech by then to talk about his embarrassing history as a child, what would the little master think?
Lil Thing glanced back and saw Miss Linger and Jin Zi still kissing each other intensely and couldn’t help but shiver as it scurried outside. It immediately leaped on its gentleman’s shoulder, glancing at Qin Min beside him with no malice. It didn’t know the relationship between the two, but it was sure the gentleman hadn’t consummated his marriage with Qin Min on their wedding night. They were only pretending to be a couple. Although the duo had been riding in the same carriage to Northern Li’s military camp, they sat far apart and spoke very courteously to each other with full decency. No matter how tired the gentleman felt, he never laid down in the carriage. Qin Min was the same, only leaning against the seat to doze off even if there were pillows to sprawl on.
Lil Thing bounced a few times on the gentleman’s shoulder before leaping to Qin Min’s. She looked at it and lightly stroked its chin while Lil Thing enjoyed it fully and nestled against her palm. Qin Min was so docile that Lil Thing liked her immensely.
Jin Zi’s men arranged a new tent for Long Feiye and the rest to continue the banquet. According to etiquette, Jin Zi as the bridegroom should come treat them to drinks. While his masters Long Feiye and Han Yunxi were still at the dinner table, he shouldn’t leave them alone. But the couple didn’t mention his absence, nor did anyone else dare make a fuss about the usual rules.
Meanwhile, the crowd who had wanted to make the traditional ruckus at the bridal chamber gave up after seeing how Jin Zi had even left the emperor and empress in the dust. The lively wedding banquet continued deep into the night while Mu Linger and Jin Zi were sent to their quarters by the wedding nanny. Husband and wife sat on the bed and completed the marriage rites according to the nanny’s instructions.
Jin Zi had found the wedding nanny himself and requested for this ceremony. He was a homeless prodigal son, but marriage was so important that he couldn’t wrong Mu Linger when it came to the rites. What others had, she wouldn’t lack for either. He used the wedding stick to lift her red veil, drank the sweet soup, and downed the marriage wine. The wedding nanny cheerfully said a few auspicious words to him before leaving them alone. Jin Zi personally sent her off and bolted the door.
Mu Linger’s shy face was covered with a faint layer of blush and looked especially lovely under the light of the scarlet wedding candles. But her beauty reached its height when she lifted her eyes to give Jin Zi a bashful glance. Just now, she’d almost been suffocated by his kiss, but luckily the wedding nanny interrupted in time to send them inside.
Jin Zi walked over and crouched down before her, taking her hands into his own. The two of them fell silent, seemingly used to disliking each other. This sudden quiet was something they weren’t used to yet.
After a while, Jin Zi said, “I didn’t just settle for this. I’m serious.”
Of course Mu Linger knew what he meant. She said, “Sorry, I made you wait for so long.”
“It’s not bad. Just less than three years,” he said simply.
“Are you really not going to Mysterious Continent anymore?” she had been waiting to ask this for a long time.
“No more. Right now is pretty good,” he answered.
“Why?” she didn’t understand.
“You’re too much of a fool and don’t fit that place,” he was telling the truth. Judging from Feng Ying’s words, his identity wasn’t simple. He could command tigers but Feng Ying and the Black Clan couldn’t. There had to be a reason.
Since childhood he had seen Ning Cheng shoulder the mission of his clansmen, always restricted and controlled by his fate. He didn’t like it, nor was Mu Linger fit for it.
Their situation now was plenty fine.
Moreover, he couldn’t just marry Mu Linger and abandon Northern Li. Ning Cheng would resent him for a lifetime.
“You’re even stupider than me, all right?!” Mu Linger was displeased.
Jin Zi arched a brow at her in disdain. Seeing this, she creased her brows and declared, “You’re bullying me as soon as you marry me! If I knew this earlier, I wouldn’t wed you for the rest of my life!”
Jin Zi coughed softly. “Mu Linger, I don’t think I’ve done anything to you yet? Are you already regretting it?”
“What else do you want to do to me?” Mu Linger exclaimed angrily. Forgot about calling me stupid out of the blue, what else does he want?
What did him not going to the Mysterious Continent have to do with her idiocy? At most, he knew how to command beasts, but his martial arts skills were on the level of a three-legged cat.
Jin Zi stood up and Mu Linger followed, but she hadn’t gotten to her feet when he pushed her down on the bed. His body pressing against hers, he rested both hands on the sides of her head and said, very honestly, “Mu Linger, I’ve put up with you for long enough!”
Mu Linger thought Jin Zi was going to “bully” her again, but now she was lost. What about her was he putting up with?
“Hey, I didn’t provoke you right? What are you putting up with? Speak!” she huffed back.
Jin Zi was rendered speechless, but Mu Linger tugged at his collar and demanded, “Explain yourself.”
Jin Zi really didn’t want to say it, but he had no choice. Word by word, he managed, “Mu Linger, just, how stupid can you be?”
“You’re so random!” Mu Linger was truly lost.
Jin Zi watched her confused little face and really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, he could only rein in his patience and leaned down to whisper in her ear.
What about her was he putting up with?
After sleeping with her the first time, he’d spent night after night with a beauty in his arms that he could touch but not eat. If this wasn’t putting up with her, what was?
Mu Linger was so enlightened that the redness in her ears spread to her entire face. But Jin Zi was already nibbling gently at her earlobe and kissing his way up.
Unlike the night on the grasslands, tonight’s Jin Zi was especially gentle; tonight’s Mu Linger was especially clearheaded. She carefully felt his touch and personally experienced all the questions she had once been curious about.
So this is what it feels like.
When Jin Zi’s fingers gently entered inside her to explore her soft and sensitive parts, she lost her wits and cried out in shock, unable to bear the sensations. If that night on the grasslands was filled with pain, bitterness, numbness, and fear, then right now all she had was yearning. She craved his every touch, his every kiss.
It must have been love that made this so beautiful and carefree! When he finally became one with her body, only then did she feel so close, so possessed.
Jin Zi, from now on, Linger is yours.
Be happy…
1. Not actually blood-related. It’s common to call younger kids in your generation little sister or little brother. This is similar to how Tang Li refers to Long Feiye as his big brother despite having different parents.