sjar Chapter 729 The position of Crown Princess, you should find someone else.
Chapter 729 The position of Crown Princess, you should find someone else.
Gu Qingchen stormed out of Qingfeng Tower, his anger simmering with nowhere to vent.
The crowd of onlookers had not yet dispersed, pointing and whispering about her departing figure.
As soon as she stepped down the steps, the luxurious carriage bearing the insignia of the Eastern Palace silently stopped in front of her.
The carriage curtain was lifted, revealing Zhao Chen'an's icy face.
"Get in the car." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable command.
Gu Qingchen didn't even glance at him, and walked around the carriage to leave.
"Gu Qingchen," Zhao Chen'an's voice turned eight degrees colder, "Do you want the whole capital to watch us fight in the street when I let you get in the car?"
His gaze swept over the surrounding crowd of people who were peering around, the threat in his eyes was obvious.
Gu Qingchen paused, took a deep breath, and ultimately did not want the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion to lose face completely in his presence.
She turned around abruptly, stepped onto a footstool without a word, and climbed into the carriage.
The carriage curtains were drawn, cutting off all sight and sound from the outside world.
The carriage was not small, and it was filled with the finest ambergris, but the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
"Gu Qingchen, do you even remember who you are?" Zhao Chen'an spoke first, his tone full of rebuke.
Gu Qingchen lifted her eyelids and sneered, "Identity? What identity? The Crown Princess?"
She looked at him as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world, and said with a sneer, "What virtue or ability do I, Gu Qingchen, have to be valued so highly by Your Highness? But I have never wanted to be the Crown Princess."
"It's not up to you!" Zhao Chen'an's patience had completely run out. He stared at her and said, word by word, "This is the imperial decree, my will, and the will of the royal family. Gu Qingchen, you have no choice!"
"I had no choice?" Gu Qingchen retorted sharply. "In this world, besides birth, aging, sickness, and death, what is there that I, Gu Qingchen, had no choice about?"
Seeing her prickly and unyielding appearance, the anger in Zhao Chen'an's eyes gradually turned into a trace of helplessness and frustration.
He leaned back against the car wall, rubbed his furrowed brows, and his voice suddenly became low.
I like you.
The three words that came out suddenly silenced the carriage.
“I’ve liked you since I was a child.” He looked at her with a complicated expression. “I like your flamboyance, I like your vibrancy, I like that you’re different from those rigid, wooden people in the capital.”
Gu Qingchen was stunned.
But he only paused for a moment.
She quickly recovered, her sarcasm deepening: "Fine, you like me."
She leaned forward slightly, her eyes shining brightly as she stared directly at him.
"What about Princess Jiahe? What is she?"
Zhao Chen'an was taken aback by her question, and a hint of annoyance flashed across his face.
He sighed helplessly, as if explaining, or perhaps trying to convince himself.
"I am the Crown Prince, the future Emperor. Matters of the harem are never something I can decide on my own. I need to balance the various forces and appease the court officials."
"That sounds nice."
Gu Qingchen interrupted him mercilessly, laughing mockingly.
"To put it bluntly, even if Princess Jiahe didn't exist, there would be Princess Lihe, Princess Zhanghe. You have three thousand beauties in your harem, and I, Gu Qingchen, am just one of your many women, aren't I?"
She sat up straight, her face bearing an innate pride.
“My father only ever had one woman in his life: my mother. He never took a concubine or a maid. My mother always said that a daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo’s mansion would never share a husband with another man. My husband would never have three wives or four concubines either.”
She stared at him, her eyes sharp as knives.
"The Duke of Zhenguo's mansion can only accept sons-in-law."
"I can't go to your Eastern Palace. You should find someone else for the position of Crown Princess."
Zhao Chen'an's face darkened inch by inch.
The air around him was terrifyingly low, and his imperial majesty was fully revealed in the cramped carriage.
He stared intently at Gu Qingchen, squeezing out a few words through gritted teeth.
"For Lin Jiayou?"
Gu Qingchen seemed to laugh in anger at his words. She stared at him, hardly believing her ears.
"Zhao Chen'an, are you out of your mind? Or are you stuffing chicken feathers in your ears?"
"Did I say I don't understand human language?"
She pointed to her nose, speaking slowly and deliberately, her voice low but firm.
"Looking for a son-in-law! Looking for a son-in-law! Do you understand?"
“Or,” she looked at his ashen face, then suddenly smiled brightly, but what she said could infuriate anyone, “you could give up your position as Crown Prince and marry into my Duke Zhenguo’s family?”
"You are presumptuous!"
Zhao Chen'an's anger was finally ignited at this moment.
He suddenly reached out and grabbed Gu Qingchen's wrist with such force that he almost crushed her bones.
Those eyes, which usually held a gentle quality, were now filled with only cold, tyrannical power belonging to someone in a superior position.
He stared intently at her, as if trying to see right through her.
"Marry into the Duke of Zhenguo's family? Gu Qingchen, do you even know what you're saying?"
His voice was forced out through clenched teeth, each word carrying a chilling edge: "Are you humiliating me, or provoking the royal family?"
Gu Qingchen winced in pain in his wrist, his brows furrowed tightly, but there was no fear on his face.
She raised her other hand and, one by one, forcefully pried open his fingers that were holding her captive.
"I'm just stating a fact." She broke free, pulling her reddened wrist back into her sleeve, her tone eerily calm. "Your Highness has your own broad path, and I, Gu Qingchen, have my own narrow bridge. Since our paths are different, there's no need to force it."
Her calmness frustrated and angered Zhao Chen'an more than any fierce resistance.
He seemed to have exhausted all his strength, slumping back against the car wall, his chest heaving violently.
Looking at the bright yet stubborn face before him, he realized for the first time that this woman, whom he thought he had in the bag, was actually an eagle that could not be caged.
"Fine, well said, those who walk different paths cannot make plans together." Zhao Chen'an suddenly laughed, but there was no warmth in his laughter.
He raised his hand and knocked heavily on the car wall.
"parking."
The carriage stopped at the sound.
"Get out." He looked out the window, no longer glancing at her, his voice as cold as ice.
Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Qingchen straightened his clothes, straightened his back, turned around, lifted the carriage curtain, and jumped down nimbly.
She didn't even glance back at the carriage that represented supreme power before heading straight home.
Inside the carriage, Zhao Chen'an listened to her receding footsteps and slammed his fist hard on the low table in front of him.
The fine sandalwood low table emitted a dull, loud thud.
The Qian family courtyard.
Qian Zhenyun was standing under the osmanthus tree in the courtyard, holding a pair of scissors, slowly and methodically pruning the branches and leaves.