Doomed to be Cannon Fodder

Long Heng couldn’t help but feel a little vexed today, purely because he’d seen the two of them together. He didn’t realize this foreign emotion to actually be jealousy. All he could think of was how abnormally awful he felt.

Normally, Long Heng and Duan Yunying would have a long chat whenever the two of them met, seeking to probe each other out. However, Long Heng wasn’t in the mood for that at all today. All he wanted to do was to lock Bai Xiangxiu away to prevent her from meeting any other men.

But that was just a moment of impulse. When they returned, he immediately softened his stance after he saw her petite face. He only touched her cheek gently and asked, “What are you thinking about right now?”

Bai Xiangxiu was zoning out because she was too busy trying to remember the narrative of the story. She had no idea that he had walked into the room. She only snapped back to reality when she was startled by a hand touching her cheek. She faced Long Heng and asked with her thoughts all afluster, “What did you say?”

Her perplexed look rendered Long Heng speechless, so he immediately followed up with, “Perhaps you’d like to step out for a walk?”

“Sure!” Going out for a walk would definitely be better than perpetually staying in the room. At least she could hide from his territorial gaze when they were outside. And so, Long Heng tossed away all the bad feelings he had just now and took his woman out for a scenic stroll.

He genuinely enjoyed the walk as well. Although the weather was a little brisk today, the feeling of the wind blowing in his face felt very refreshing.

“Ah choo!” Bai Xiangxiu sneezed violently. The weather had definitely gotten colder in recent days. Small wonder, since winter was almost here.

It took some time before Long Heng finally came to his senses. He ordered the servants, “Go get a coat for your mistress.”

Xiaohuan immediately ran off to grab a coat after she heard his order. Long Heng also removed his outer coat a bit awkwardly and draped it over her shoulders. After that, he turned his head to look in a random direction, as if completely unaware of what he’d just done.

Isn’t this move just a show of his chivalry? For a modern man, it’d just be another way for them to show off their caring side. Why is this man being shy instead? Inconceivable! However, I must admit that he is quite a caring man indeed. Although he doesn’t seem like the gentle type, he is actually quite considerate towards his women.

“Oh, how is Miss Lin doing right now?” She subconsciously wanted to find a topic to chat about, but she didn’t expect that the male lead would immediately scowl after hearing the female lead’s name. Was this of the power of the plot between the two leads? Even though they had diverged so far from the script by now, they were still entangled with each other to the point where she could even affect his mood.

“Don’t bring her up.” His good mood had evaporated, particularly when he recalled what she had said to him as soon as he paid her a visit. “Your Highness, please show me some mercy! I can’t endure any more punishment!”

Wasn’t it just a night in the servant quarters? He hadn’t even deliberately tried to make life hard for her yet. There were no backbreaking chores involved, nor any unscrupulous actions towards her. Yet, from the way she complained, she made it sound like he had been abusing her. Long Heng had grown incensed and stalked off furiously after hearing her complaints.

Bai Xiangxiu was dumbfounded. Just what had she done to provoke him now? “We should return to the estate when her condition takes a turn for the better.”

“Mm.” Hearing Bai Xiangxiu’s rather soft reply, he deduced that it was probably because she was afraid to return to the estate. Who in the world would want to return to a place where someone was actively trying to kill them? “You need not worry. I’ve already dealt with the person who tried to cause you harm. You can be at ease for when you return.”

“What? Who was it?” Bai Xiangxiu was very curious. Who was the person that had contrived to harm her? And why? How had they been dealt with? It was no surprise that she was curious about such a thing. However, she also didn’t want to know too much in detail either. She just hoped that he would give her some closure.

However, why would Long Heng tell her anything scary when she was such a fragile rabbit in his eyes? Thus, he replied, “Why does a woman like you need to know so much? Just live well in the rear courtyard, we’ll see who still dares cause you harm now!”

Bai Xiangxiu blinked her eyes in disbelief. What a chauvinistic man. Is it really okay for you to be protecting your concubine to such an extent? The female lead is now a maidservant! You should be abusing her instead!

“What’s wrong? Do you have other things on your mind?” Long Heng felt that she seemed a bit unsatisfied with his answer.

“Nothing.” Don’t think for a second that I can’t find out that person is just because you won’t tell me. I’ll know when I find out who’s missing when we return to the estate.

Bai Xiangxiu didn’t really want the male lead to tell her anything either, which caused the male lead a great deal of relief. After all, he was the primary source of all that trouble. Sun Hong’er had already admitted that she tried to kill Bai Xiangxiu because she was jealous that Bai Xiangxiu had obtained his favour. She had wanted to replace Bai Xiangxiu. Long Heng couldn’t understand why women would ever think like that. Were their brains somehow stunted somewhere when growing up? What was the point of trying to replace another person with themselves? All they would receive was a short period of favor. Besides, he wasn’t even the type of person who would be blinded by lust. Would he ever have a problem with differentiating between the woman he cared for and the women he didn’t?

Why would he want to have a replacement to quench his sorrows when he could just protect the original from harm? He didn’t want to leave any regrets for the future.

Regret was the thing that he abhorred the most out on the battlefield. Any form of regret would arise if he commanded his men to sacrifice their lives. So, he never allowed himself to commit that sort of mistake.

It seemed that tonight would finally be the night that he would have Bai Xiangxiu. He decided to chase away everyone in a one mile radius after he recalled what had happened the past two times he’d attempted to take her. He would definitely not allow any of them to disturb him this time. Anyone who attempted to do so would be heavily punished.

However, the matter about her monthly period had still quite caught him by surprise before. He mentally calculated the dates as he walked towards her room. Even though he was a man, he didn’t feel ashamed at all for keeping notes on her period. His memory was very good. He calculated that it had only been roughly over 10 days since her last period that day. Wasn’t this actually a great opportunity to finally do the deed? Since he had painstakingly removed any possible cause of disturbance and even spent the day nurturing his relationship with Bai Xiangxiu, he believed that it was finally time to pluck the fruits of his labors.

As a result, he had an early shower that night and made all sorts of preparations for the good times ahead.

The corner of Bai Xiangxiu’s mouth was twitching so hard that her entire face was almost spasming. Although the prince had a cold expression on his face as usual, even she could tell that the his eyes had a tinge of happiness to them tonight. Unexpectedly, she was actually looking forward to it as well after seeing the look on his face!

Why the hell am I looking forward to it for? What’s wrong with me?! He is the female lead’s man! The female lead will be sleeping with him sooner or later! If she found out that his first woman was actually me, won’t she hate me for the rest of her life?

But she didn’t know that the female lead was actually sick in bed and coughing endlessly. Lin Qianzi genuinely felt that she had been mistreated by her fiance as she coughed and coughed. Why had he forced a daughter from a noble family like hers to be a maidservant? She’d even gotten a cut on her hand when she was forced to clean up the the courtyard. Why wasn’t there the slightest hint of pity in him? She was the one who would be his wife sooner or later after all!

So thirsty... She needed a drink of water. She forcefully propped herself up to reach for a cup of cold tea on the table. But it was too far away, she couldn’t reach it from where she was. So she leaned over a bit more and....

Bam! She fell to the ground on her knees and couldn’t help but groan in pain. The cup of tea was still out of her reach, but to her it felt as though it was a thousand miles away.

Frustrated, she began to cry.

Someone suddenly handed that cup of tea to her. A voice fell on her ears, “Didn’t you just harm yourself by listening to them and hiding yourself away from me? Were you prepared to just let yourself freeze and die in hunger if I didn’t bother coming to find you?”

“It’s you, Luo Yunzheng.” He had appeared in front of her just when she was at her weakest. A morsel of warmth blossomed in her heart. Of all the people around her, this man right in front of her was probably the only person in the entire world who was genuinely concerned about her right now.