The Marquis doesn't support his beloved wife's ambitions, so I'll take the imperial e

The color drained from Jiang Zhenxue's face inch by inch, but a completely different flame ignited in her clear eyes.

That wasn't despair, but rather the madness of a desperate fight to the death when pushed to the edge of a cliff.

She suddenly smiled.

"Xiao Qingyan," she looked up, meeting his determined gaze, her tone chillingly calm, "What if I say no?"

"No?" A cruel smile curled at the corner of Xiao Qingyan's lips. "Do you even have the right to say 'no'?"

He released her, as if watching his prey's last struggle. "If you don't come back with me, I'll burn this study down."

"Oh." Jiang Zhenxue nodded, her expression not one of fear, but rather one of deep thought.

"According to the laws of the Great Xia Dynasty, malicious arson that destroys other people's property, if the amount involved is substantial, is punishable by exile for three thousand li." She looked at him and solemnly explained the law, "My lord, you are breaking the law."

Xiao Qingyan's expression froze for a moment, as if he hadn't understood what she was saying.

"I am the law." He quickly regained his arrogant demeanor, the mockery in his eyes deepening. "You think you can escape my grasp on my territory?"

"Look, you've broken the law again." Jiang Zhenxue counted on her fingers and continued to settle scores with him. "Unlawful detention, forcibly restricting another person's personal freedom, according to the law, is punishable by eighty strokes of the cane and three years of imprisonment."

A vein throbbed uncontrollably on Xiao Qingyan's forehead.

He thought the woman must be crazy.

"Jiang Zhenxue, you are deliberately provoking me." His voice was so cold it could drop ice crystals.

"No, no." Jiang Zhenxue spread her hands innocently. "I'm just helping you understand yourself. Look, you just committed the crime of damaging private property, now you've committed the crime of restricting personal freedom, and—"

She paused, then looked at him with an expression that said, "You're terminally ill."

"The crime of blind self-confidence."

Xiao Qingyan: "..."

He had lived for over twenty years, wielding immense power and having the authority to decide life and death, and this was the first time he had ever heard such an absurd and utterly ridiculous term.

"Is this a crime?" he asked almost instinctively.

"Of course!" Jiang Zhenxue said confidently. "You think you can make everyone bow down to you just because of power, and that all the women in the world should cry and beg to love you? What is this if not blind self-confidence? This is a disease, and it needs to be cured!"

Looking at his face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot but also looked somewhat comical due to his astonishment, Jiang Zhenxue's pent-up anger finally dissipated a bit.

Reasoning with him is useless, but confusing him with "reasoning" that he doesn't understand seems to work quite well.

"Good, very good." Xiao Qingyan finally snapped out of his daze at the absurd "crime." He laughed angrily, "It seems I've spoiled you too much, giving you the leisure to argue with me over words."

He decided to stop wasting words with her and take action directly.

He stepped forward and reached out to grab her wrist.

Jiang Zhenxue, instead of backing down, met his gaze and suddenly said, "Fine, going back with you isn't out of the question."

Xiao Qingyan's hand froze in mid-air.

He narrowed his eyes, not believing she would give in so easily.

"However," Jiang Zhenxue looked at him with a sly smile, "once we return to the Marquis's residence, I'll be unfamiliar with the place and bored every day. Since I have nothing to do, I'll beat you every day, okay?"

Xiao Qingyan felt as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"You beat me every day?" He laughed angrily. "Jiang Zhenxue, don't you know that I have no temper? I can crush you with one hand."

"Look!" Jiang Zhenxue immediately seized on the loophole in his words, her voice suddenly rising, "You admitted it yourself! You yourself said you could crush me with one hand! So why should I go with you?"

Her gaze sharpened and became clear, like a scalpel dissecting all his elaborate disguises.

"Xiao Qingyan, what makes you think I would willingly follow someone who can crush me at any moment back to a cage I barely escaped from?"

"I'm not a masochist! I have hands and feet, I can earn money to support myself, why should I go back to see your face, try to please you, live in fear, and even be afraid of not waking up the next day when I sleep?"

"You want a docile, obedient plaything who will do anything for you? There are plenty of noble ladies in the capital who would be willing to climb into your bed! Why do you have to ignore them and insist on clinging to me, who's eager to run away?"

Do you actually like me, or do you just enjoy the pleasure of 'controlling' me?

A barrage of questions, like a machine gun, left Xiao Qingyan speechless.

He had never thought about these issues.

In his view, if he likes something, he should have it. If he likes a woman, he should keep her by his side. It's a matter of course, a matter of course.

But now she tells him that she is not an object, she is a person.

A person who feels pain, feels fear, and desires freedom.

"I..." He found himself speechless for the first time.

I'm tired.

Just as Xiao Qingyan was still reeling from the huge mental shock, Jiang Zhenxue suddenly yawned and rubbed her eyes.

The past few days of hard work, coupled with the exhausting argument just now, left her feeling extremely tired.

"What?" Xiao Qingyan thought he had misheard.

He was struggling with his inner turmoil, contemplating the ultimate questions of life and philosophy, when she actually said she was tired?

"I said I'm sleepy and want to go to bed." Jiang Zhenxue pointed to the recliner in the outer room. "My lord, it's getting late, you should rest early too."

"Jiang Zhenxue!" Xiao Qingyan felt like she was driving him crazy. "We haven't finished talking yet!"

"What are we talking about?" Jiang Zhenxue looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Haven't we said everything we needed to say? You don't want me to leave, and I don't want to go back with you. Neither of us can convince the other. What's the point of arguing any further besides wasting our breath?"

She straightened her clothes, walked past him, and headed straight for the recliner.

"Stop right there!" Xiao Qingyan grabbed her arm.

"My lord, what are you trying to do now?" Jiang Zhenxue turned around, her face full of exhaustion and impatience. "If you have so much energy you don't know what to do with, you can go to the courtyard and practice some martial arts. Can't you stop torturing a weak woman like me here?"

"Me, torment you?" Xiao Qingyan was so angry at those four words that she almost vomited blood.

"Otherwise what?" Jiang Zhenxue shook off his hand, her tone as calm as if stating a fact. "Xiao Qingyan, I ask you, when I fled the capital, did I do anything to betray you?"

"I haven't used your name to flaunt my power, I haven't been involved in any ambiguous relationships with other men, and I've never thought of scheming against you or getting revenge on you. I just want to move to a different place and live my own life peacefully."

"I opened my shop and earned money through my own brains and skills. Was I wrong?"

"And you?" Her gaze was fixed on him. "The moment you showed up, you injured my people without saying a word, then used your power to scare away my friends, and now you're holding my life in your hands, forcing me to go back with you."

"Tell me, between the two of us, who's really tormenting whom? Who's being unreasonable?"

Xiao Qingyan was completely stunned by her words.

He looked into her clear, yet weary and disappointed eyes, and felt a sharp pang in his heart, as if something had stabbed him.

Yes.

She just wanted to survive.

In her own way.