The Grand Princess

TGP Chapter 12: Confession

"Who broke their oath first and attacked the other party?"
_________

The water source was not far ahead. After fiercely quarreling, they both felt that their strength had been exhausted and no longer made any noise. Li Rong went down the small slope first and reached the level ground near the water source. Seeing that there were still some grassy areas not too far away from the water, Li Rong was so tired that she didn't care if it was clean or not and simply sat down.

Pei Wenxuan came over some time after her because he had been busy picking up some dry branches in the forest. When he reached the riverbank, he saw Li Rong sitting on the grassy patches. She seemed rather tired, but she still tried to sit up straight. At this moment, this arrogant and domineering person was quiet and had her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head was lowered, and her face was buried in her knees, not making a sound. Looking at her, she seemed a little pitiful.

Pei Wenxuan also found that he had gotten used to being ordered around by her. He felt a little uncomfortable seeing her this way. He arranged the dry branches and cleared away a patch of mud under the grass. After building a small dirt mound around it, he used a rock to ignite the firewood.

After the fire was lit, Li Rong brought her eyes up and looked in the direction of the source of warmth.

She was tired and sleepy, but the grass and ground were wet. If she laid down, her clothes would eventually get wet. She didn't want to lie down, but it was also uncomfortable to keep suffering like this.

She could vaguely hear Pei Wenxuan go into the woods again. After a while, he came back with a lot of things wrapped up in his outer robe. Li Rong looked up and found that Pei Wenxuan seemed to have collected a bunch of dead leaves.

He generously piled up the dead leaves and covered them with the outer robe. Then, he called out to Li Rong: "Come here and hold them down. Don't let the wind blow the leaves away."

After having said that, Pei Wenxuan turned around, rolled the hem of his pants up to his knees, tied his wide sleeves back, and headed to the river with a sword in his hand.

Li Rong was not someone who couldn't distinguish between good and bad. She got up and went over to the edge of the spread clothing and laid down. She felt much better in an instant.

After lying down for some time, she heard the sound of splashing water beside her and felt that she couldn't sleep anymore. She turned over, still lying on top of his clothes, and propped her upper body up and looked at Pei Wenxuan, who was not too far away.

Pei Wenxuan stood in the river with a sword in hand, motionless.

He had quite a bit of patience. Li Rong felt like she had stared at him for half a day, but she hadn't seen any part of him move except his eyes. He looked no different than when he was hunting down enemies in the imperial court.

Li Rong propped up her chin and looked at the young man in the distance, slowly feeling a bit intrigued.

As long as Pei Wenxuan didn't open his mouth, that face was indeed worthy of being "first class" in the Capital. There was handsomeness in his elegance but not an impression of frailty, and a bit of indescribable arrogance but not too much for it to be repulsive. Under the moonlight, the figure in white robes holding a sword that silently stood in the flowing river looked precisely like a banished Immortal, a descended Immortal emanating a brilliant light.1

[1] Pei Wenxuan's outermost robe is the blue, crane-patterned one from the Spring Banquet. This is referring to the white robes beneath them.

Pei Wenxuan didn't have many good points, but Li Rong genuinely had nothing to say when it came to his face, especially now that he was 20 years old again. He was in the most beautiful years of his youth. Compared to that old man later on, Li Rong liked this look on him better.