Chapter 109: Utter Confusion
Hometown knew well that he was a stubborn man—simply put, someone who clings rigidly to his convictions, with a temperament as obstinate and unyielding as could be. She could only soothe him gently, appealing to his feelings and reasoning with him.
“You’ve been here for more than just a day or two, and it was the Crown Prince who arranged for you to come in. With him around, you won’t be discovered. Besides, nothing has happened all this time, right? How could you possibly leave in your current state? It’s best you stay here.”
Yet, Lie Chang’an could not accept this. He felt it was far too risky. If discovered, he might suffer punishment, but more than that, the princess’s reputation would surely be harmed.
Pressing his thin lips into a tight line, he spoke stiffly, “Please inform the princess and His Highness the Crown Prince that my illness has been cured. I should return to my residence to recuperate. Staying here with the princess is truly inconvenient. If anyone with ill intent gets wind of it, who knows what consequences may follow.”
“Are you not just worried about sullying my reputation?” Hometown thought this man was rigid and inflexible beyond reason, as stubborn as a wild ox.
Her temper flared once more. She sprang to her feet, hands on hips, commanding, “Listen carefully—I won’t allow you to leave! I don’t even worry about my own reputation, so why should you? You will stay here quietly and recover. No going anywhere!”
After her outburst, she saw Lie Chang’an open his mouth, as if to speak again. Irritated and anxious, recalling how hard she had waited for him to awaken, only to find he wouldn’t stay with her even for a minute longer, her eyes stung and her chest swelled with helplessness. Suddenly, she broke down in tears.
“Lie Chang’an, are you doing this on purpose? You suffered so much to save me, yet you refuse to let me do even the slightest thing for you. Are you deliberately making things hard for me?”
Seeing her tears fall like glistening pearls, all the words he had prepared vanished, leaving him confused and unsure how to respond.
“Princess, I did not mean that… I just feel…”
Her sobs grew louder, and flustered, he could only awkwardly try to comfort her, “Princess, please don’t cry… I truly don’t mean that.”
“You say you don’t mean it?” Hometown saw this tactic working and grew bolder, her crying intensifying like a flood breaking through a dam.
“You just despise me! You think I’m a burden, always causing trouble. Even when I stubbornly took an arrow for you, it nearly cost you your life trying to save me in return. I’m utterly useless! That’s why you hate me, despise me, and don’t even want to see me when you wake—you just want to leave!”
“Princess, I swear I don’t mean any of that!” Lie Chang’an grew more ashamed and remorseful as her accusations grew more exaggerated.
“Princess, it was you who saved my life. You risked death from a strange poison to rescue me. It is only right and proper that I give my life to save you in return. When a ruler commands his subject to die, the subject must obey. How much more so when the princess has saved me? Naturally, I regard you as my benefactor, my second mother. There is no thought of finding you troublesome or resenting you.”
Hometown had intended to keep crying, but after holding back for a moment, his earnest and straightforward words made her laugh through her tears.
“They say bookworms are dull, but I think generals can be just as clueless.”
She smiled. “Besides, if saving you once makes you my benefactor and second mother, then what am I to do with all the times you’ve saved me? I fear I’ll never be able to repay you in a lifetime.”
A lifetime of debts unpaid was not such a bad thing.
If these debts lingered forever, then perhaps this lifetime would bind them inseparably.
With that thought, Hometown secretly smiled to herself.