The Young Marquis Regrets Too Late - Chapter 40

These words struck Jiang Jingchun like a hammer and nearly broke through her last line of defence. As expected, he was still holding a grudge over their last meeting.

Her face grew paler. Her palms clenched so tightly that her nails nearly drew bl00d. Yet, she still spoke, despite her trembling voice. 

“Song Xuan’an would never do something like that. Though he may seem unreliable at times, he is upright and honourable. He would never commit such an act…”

“You’d best stop defending him in front of me,” Gu Huaisheng coldly said to interrupt her. His gaze was transfixed on her.

The more he listened to her words, the more irritated he became.

Jiang Jingchun fell silent. Her lips pressed tightly together as she unconsciously bit down on them until they were flushed red.

Gu Huaisheng noticed her reddened eyes and the way they glistened with unshed tears. He also caught sight of her lips—untouched by any lip rouge yet strikingly crimson, and far too striking for propriety.

As his eyes lingered on her lips, an unwelcome memory surfaced in his mind. He recalled that day at the teahouse when she had stolen a kiss from him. It was a memory that had haunted his dreams ever since.

He broke his gaze and reached for the thin gold foil sheets hidden beneath the stack of books on the table. He held it up, gestured to it and said, “This was confiscated from Song Xuan’an. It was hidden in his brush handle.”

Jiang Jingchun looked at the gold foil sheets. The writing was so small that she couldn’t read it clearly, but she could easily guess its contents.

She picked up one of the gold foil sheets and held it against the light streaming through the window. The faint outlines of words became visible. They were passages from the Four Books and Five Classics.

So this was the evidence that caused Song Xuan’an to be arrested.

Jiang Jingchun set the sheets back down and looked at Gu Huaisheng. 

The way he kept the gold foil sheets seemed to indicate that he wasn’t planning to deal with Song Xuan’an just yet. But, what was his purpose in showing them to her now?

When Gu Huaisheng lifted his eyes, his gaze was shadowed and unreadable. The look in his eyes made Jiang Jingchun feel like fleeing right there and then.

After a long moment of silence, he finally spoke. With a faint smile on his face, he said, “Kiss me, Cousin.”

Just like that time.

That fleeting kiss had been enough to disturb his thoughts for so long, and perhaps the way to undo its effect was to return from where it all began.

Being handsome was indeed an advantage. Even when Gu Huaisheng spoke such audacious words, it didn’t come across as offensive because of how refined he looked. His crisp, clear voice also made it seem like the most natural thing in the world.

But to Jiang Jingchun, his words were deafening. Her ears rang, and her face flushed a pale red.

Tears began to spill from the corners of her eyes. Her voice trembled as she asked, “Is this how much you resent me? Must you humiliate me like this?”

He had clearly anticipated her coming today. He had watched her in her flustered, awkward state, and now he was forcing her to do this. 

If this wasn’t humiliation, then what was?

Gu Huaisheng heard her words and let out a cold laugh.

“Resent you? Humiliate you?” His voice carried a sharp chill. “So, when you kissed me back then, was that to humiliate me as well?”

He didn’t understand why she would think this was about humiliation.

He said, “Why would you assume that? I want you to kiss me because I like you—just as you liked me back then.”

His words carried a faintly flirtatious tone, given the charged atmosphere between them.

However, hearing him say that he liked her only made her face grow even paler.

Seeing that Jiang Jingchun still didn’t move, Gu Huaisheng decided not to force her further. After all, he never really intended to release Song Xuan’an anyway.

He moved to put the gold foil sheets away, but just then, Jiang Jingchun stepped closer to him. He paused and lifted his gaze to meet hers.

“If I kiss you, will you give the gold foil sheets to me?” she asked.

If she could obtain the gold foil sheets, there would be no evidence left to convict Song Xuan’an.

Jiang Jingchun made a quick decision with her muddled mind. 

Trading a kiss for someone’s future seemed like an easy bargain, so much so that lingering on it felt almost greedy.

Moreover, if Gu Huaisheng still held a grudge over the past, and a kiss could resolve it, why shouldn’t she just relent?

Her figure blocked the sunlight streaming through the window. As she spoke, Gu Huaisheng’s eyes dimmed slightly. Almost involuntarily, he reached out, took her hand, and pulled her onto his lap. The light that her figure had blocked returned to his view, but the light in his eyes seemed to have completely faded.

Jiang Jingchun was startled by his sudden movement and let out a soft cry.

“What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”

She was flustered. Her eyes widened as she reprimanded him with indignation and anger in her voice.

A low chuckle escaped Gu Huaisheng’s throat. It was tinged with an unfamiliar darkness. He then said, “Haven’t you already decided?”

His face was now dangerously close to hers. His cool lips were devoid of any warmth or affection.

Jiang Jingchun was seated on his lap and had no way to retreat. The thought of what she was about to do made her tremble uncontrollably.

Gu Huaisheng noticed her unease and felt her body trembling slightly against his.

She was afraid.

Realising this made Gu Huaisheng feel a pang of pain—one even more intense than her own.

“Don’t be afraid,” he softly said. “Xiaochun, don’t be afraid.”

Xiaochun, don’t be afraid.

Jiang Jingchun’s mind flashed back to when she was 14. She had fallen into a ravine, and no one came to save her—until Gu Huaisheng did. At that time, he held her tightly in his arms and gently stroked her back as he reassured her, ‘Don’t be afraid, Xiaochun. Cousin is here.’

Back then, hearing those words made her feel safe. Now, sitting in his lap and hearing him speak in the same soothing tone only made her eyes redden even more.

Her tear-filled eyes met Gu Huaisheng’s eyes as she pleaded, “Cousin, please don’t do this to me—”

Before she could finish her words, a large hand covered her eyes and plunged her into darkness.

Then, a pair of soft lips pressed against hers, and her entire body stiffened.

Gu Huaisheng had covered her eyes because he didn’t want to see her reddened, tear-filled eyes.

The scene from his dreams played out once more, but this time, Gu Huaisheng had forced it into reality. Initially, the kiss was merely a fleeting brush of their lips, but then he mimicked what he had done in his dreams countless times—he pried open her lips.

Although this was only his second kiss, perhaps because it was something that had been endlessly replayed in his dreams, his actions seemed practised and effortless. 

One of his hands rested on her waist to hold her tightly and restrain her attempts to escape. She was pressed so firmly against him it felt as though she might meld into his chest. She tried to turn her face away to avoid his kiss, but Gu Huaisheng removed the hand covering her eyes and pressed it against the back of her head.

She had nowhere to run now.

His lips, as cool and indifferent as the man himself, turned feverish and scorching as they met her warm ones.

Although they were in broad daylight, the air between them was thick with an overpowering intimacy.

In the silent room, the faint sounds of their breathing grew unmistakably clear.

Only when Jiang Jingchun was on the verge of gasping for breath did he finally end the kiss. It left both their faces flushed. They stared at each other. For some reason, Gu Huaisheng’s eyes had also turned red.

Jiang Jingchun noticed his body trembling slightly, as if he was holding something back with great effort. 

She also felt something hard pressing against her but couldn’t comprehend what it was—perhaps it was his bone?

Such things were utterly foreign to her; no one had ever explained them to her.

She instinctively tried to lower her gaze to figure out what it was, but Gu Huaisheng suddenly pulled her into his embrace and had her head rest on his shoulder.

Jiang Jingchun instinctively wanted to push this scoundrel away, but his voice echoed softly in her ear. He said, “Xiaochun, marry me.”

Gu Huaisheng’s voice trembled faintly.

He was hurt. Everywhere hurt for him. 

That kiss had left him on the verge of tears.

Tears were the clearest indicator of a heart’s true feelings, and they betrayed the depth of his emotions.

He couldn’t bear to see her worry about another man. He couldn’t bear to watch her shed tears for someone else. Just the thought of her marrying another man made him sick with utter jealousy.

He had thought this kiss would put an end to everything, but at this moment, all his reasoning had collapsed.

This far from ended it. If anything, this had only made him sink even deeper.

So he said it. He asked her to marry him.

His voice, which was trembling with restraint, could only muster this sentence.

Jiang Jingchun couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She struggled out of his embrace and said anxiously, “That wasn’t what you said before! It was just a kiss! Do you expect me to take responsibility for it?”

Hadn’t he said earlier that a kiss was all it would take for her to get the gold leaf?

However, Gu Huaisheng’s burning gaze didn’t waver; he clearly had no intention of letting her go.

Jiang Jingchun grew flustered under his stare. She ignored everything else and turned to grab the gold foil sheets on the table. However, Gu Huaisheng was faster. He sensed her intent and captured her wrist to stop her from moving.

He chuckled softly. His eyes glistened, as though they were holding back unshed tears. “You little thief… Naughty child.”

Jiang Jingchun couldn’t stand it anymore and snapped, “Who’s the real scoundrel here? What exactly do you want from me? You said all I had to do was kiss you, but now you’re saying I have to marry you. How can you go back on your word like this?”

Gu Huaisheng let her scold him without interrupting and only replied lightly after she was done. He said, “I changed my mind.”

He said it so lightly and casually, as if it wasn’t anything that mattered at all.

Jiang Jingchun was incensed by his shamelessness. She struggled against his hold and tried reasoning with him. 

“Gu Huaisheng, what’s the point of this? What’s the point of forcing me like this? I don’t love you! Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“You think I’m forcing you?” Gu Huaisheng laughed bitterly. “Who’s really forcing who here?”

The pain in his chest was unbearable. He grabbed her hand and wiped his damp eyes against her sleeve, drying them in one swift motion.

He looked at her again. Although he was still smiling, his expression seemed to have turned even colder. He said, “You keep telling me you want to marry someone else. Why don’t you just kill me instead?”

Jiang Jingchun stared at him and found him utterly unfamiliar. Why was he acting so strangely today? Had he gone mad?

Her eyebrows knit tightly as attempted to persuade him again by coldly saying, “But you don’t love me, do you?”

“Didn’t you say it yourself before?” he replied, his tone biting. “The past is the past. Everything that’s passed is as good as dead.”

He remembered her words so clearly. Jiang Jingchun could only find it ironic. She replied sharply, “Well, my love for you is in the past too.”

In other words, she didn’t love him anymore.

Gu Huaisheng wasn’t ready to give up, though. He said, “Then we’ll create a future together.”

Jiang Jingchun realised she couldn’t reason with him; his logic was full of loopholes created by his own selfish desires.

She coldly asked him to let go. Seeing the resolve in her eyes, Gu Huaisheng finally released her wrist.

Her legs wobbled as they touched the ground and nearly gave out. Gu Huaisheng instinctively reached out to steady her, but she quickly braced herself against the table and left him no room to do anything. He stilled again.

Jiang Jingchun prepared to leave.

Since Gu Huaisheng was going back on his word and she had refused to meet his new demand, there was no point in staying. She scrubbed her lips vigorously as she straightened her appearance, then turned towards the door.

However, Gu Huaisheng’s voice stopped her.

“Cousin, do you know how severely our court punishes exam fraud? If Song Xuan’an is convicted, nevermind the punishment—he’ll never be able to take the imperial examinations again. He will be a son of a noble family doomed to live his life as a commoner. His family’s name will be disgraced, and he’ll become the subject of endless gossip. He will be drowned in everyone’s spit and left unable to ever step out of his house again.”

The once-proud young man would meet his end in this provincial-level imperial examination scandal.

Jiang Jingchun froze in place. She couldn’t take another step forward.

Gu Huaisheng continued. “Cousin, you said he wouldn’t cheat. That means he’d have to bear such a consequence for something that he didn’t even do. Isn’t that even more pitiful…?”

“Shut up!” Jiang Jingchun shouted at him after turning around. She couldn’t bear listening to him any longer. 

Gu Huaisheng fell silent, as she wished. However, his gaze remained transfixed on her.

As Jiang Jingchun met his eyes, her gaze burned with unyielding anger. “I will never love you. Never.”

Just as Gu Huaisheng had once cruelly pushed her away, she had made up her mind. She would never love him again.

“Shameless bastard. If you dare marry me, I will make you regret this for the rest of your life,” she declared.

Her words stabbed straight into Gu Huaisheng’s heart, yet he only smiled and said, “No matter. It’d still be better than watching you marry someone else.”

She might hate him. 

She might never love him.

But what did any of that matter to him?

So long as the person lying beside her every night was him, that’d be enough.