The Grand Princess

TGP Chapter 21: Finding Evidence

"It's me, Your Highness."

Li Rong looked into Pei Wenxuan's eyes and heard him inquire in a half-genuine, half-joking tone. After a while, she softly laughed: "Pei daren asks such a strange thing, how could I have never been wholeheartedly devoted? Bengong has always been wholehearted to all good-looking men."

"Does Your Highness know what it means to be wholehearted?"

Pei Wenxuan proceeded to ask. Li Rong tapped the palm of her hand with her small fan and only said: "Then according to Pei daren, what is wholeheartedness?"

"This humble official thinks that this so-called wholeheartedness is to have that person in your heart and mind. To trust him, love and protect him while not asking for anything in return, nor worrying about the future. Always one in heart and soul, without the slightest bit of deceit in your heart, and for the rest of one's lifetime, there will only be one person. Your Highness said that you were once wholeheartedly devoted, so I wonder who has Your Highness given your heart and soul to?"

Hearing this, Li Rong pursed her lips and smiled. She lowered her head like she just heard something amusing.

Pei Wenxuan frowned: "What is Your Highness laughing about?"

"Pei Wenxuan," Li Rong raised her head and used her golden fan to conceal the lower half of her face. Her eyes were full of amusement and teasing, "I didn't expect you to be so old yet still holding onto this kind of youth-like dream."

Pei Wenxuan's expressions stiffened when he heard this, then he put his smile away. He calmly turned and laid on his side, placed his hand on the back of his head and nonchalantly said: "It's because Your Highness has never thought about this before."

"Yes," Li Rong said with a smile, "Bengong does not have Minister Pei's leisurely frame of mind nor refined thoughts and hence could not have thought of these things. As one would expect from a person who has protected his feelings for a lifetime," Li Rong nodded, "Bengong admires such a pure and innocent heart."

Pei Wenxuan heard her ridiculing him and wanted to say something, but he felt that regardless of whether he explained or refuted it, he would be the one who would fall short. So he held back for a while, swallowing all the words down. He turned away and stopped talking as if pretending to sleep.

Seeing that he had turned his back to her, Li Rong lightly tapped her small fan, her smile slowly fading away.

She and Pei Wenxuan had completely different views when it came to matters of the heart. She had to be strategic and decisive when it came to feelings. Up until now, no matter how much the other person has given her, she can only reciprocate with a little less but never more. Between the two parties involved, there would only be you and me. She was stingy with her feelings and also had high demands, afraid to give yet she still wanted them to devote their heart and soul to her.

But Pei Wenxuan was much more generous. He only needs to confirm that he likes that person, and once he has, he can give the other person everything. He could like Qin Zhenzhen for a lifetime, even if the other person married, becoming someone else's wife, and did not give him any sort of response. He could silently hold onto these feelings and wholeheartedly devote himself to her, even if Qin Zhenzhen had been dead for almost 27 years, he could keep himself as pure as jade for that one person in memory of the deceased.

She had decisively severed all ties with Pei Wenxuan back then because for one, she could not accept that her feelings had been tarnished in the slightest, giving her feelings away had been a mistake. Secondly, she also vaguely felt that Pei Wenxuan might have actually had some feelings for her, but since Pei Wenxuan had previously vowed to love Qin Zhenzhen, he could not accept the fact that he had come to like someone else.