After the Alluring Beauty Was Forced into a Political Marriage - Chapter 15

As soon as she spoke, she attracted everyone’s attention. Just as Shen Lianzhi had thought, this woman was indeed bright-eyed and radiant. She raised a finger to cover her lips, an act that appeared quite charming.

The beauty was still young, and her face retained a hint of innocence, making her appear all the more piteous. She sat below Surina, diagonally across from Lianzhi and not far away.

Shen Lianzhi looked toward her only to find the woman leaning toward him. She raised a delicate hand and pointed at his empty bowl. “Is the Khatun not hungry? With such good meat, why have you not taken a single bite?”

“I,” Lianzhi began. He had not expected her to take the initiative to speak to him. He froze for a moment, but before he could offer a polite excuse to gloss over the matter, the Xia woman spoke again. “Is the Khatun not used to it?”

“Or perhaps the Khatun is so noble and precious that he finds our Great Xia food crude and disdains to eat it.” She let out a soft sneer.

Shen Lianzhi had not expected this Xia woman to target him, and his expression turned sour. Surina glanced at him and tapped the side of her bowl with her fingertip, her nail making a crisp clicking sound against the wall. “Saren, be quiet.”

Saren: Shen Lianzhi suddenly looked up, connecting this somewhat familiar name with the girl before him. Saren was also of Great Xia nobility and was honored as Princess Saren. This princess was recognized as the most beautiful girl on the grasslands, and the old Chanyu had even intended to betroth her to Siqin Bari as his queen.

If Shen Lianzhi had not arrived, Saren would have been the undisputed Khatun. It was no wonder she harbored resentment toward him. Saren was fifteen years old, a young girl with an uninhibited personality. She preferred riding horses to romance. To say she had a deep affection for Siqin Bari would be an exaggeration. However, her mother had raised her with the etiquette of a Khatun, and everyone around her had long regarded her as the future queen. To suddenly be displaced by a foreign man was a blow to her pride.

The little princess was the center of attention and no one dared to provoke her. Now that Shen Lianzhi had caused her to lose so much face, Saren had been holding onto a grudge. Before Shen Lianzhi arrived, Saren had vowed to make him suffer, but upon seeing him, her desire to bully him turned into a strange sense of boredom. Rather than bullying him, Saren felt more like teasing this shy male Khatun as if he were a small cat.

But before she could say anything more, Surina stopped her. Saren closed her mouth reluctantly, and the seating area fell silent, save for the occasional sound of servants moving between the tables.

Shen Lianzhi still remembered Saren’s words. Fearing that he would be criticized again, he clumsily reached for the piece of meat in his dish that was still streaked with blood. The meat felt warm and oily in his hand. Oil and blood dripped through his fingers onto the table, making his skin crawl. He practically pinched his nose as he stuffed the large piece of meat into his mouth. The greasy meat made his mouth ache.

The meat might have been delicious, but Shen Lianzhi was so tense he could barely produce saliva. He could only chew mechanically and swallow with great effort. However, the meat was too thick and heavy. Even though his jaw ached from chewing, he could not swallow it all. The chewed meat blocked his narrow throat, refusing to go down.

Shen Lianzhi broke into a sweat. He covered his neck with one hand, his face turning bright red. Surina looked at him and asked in confusion, “Khatun? What is wrong with you?”

Shen Lianzhi looked at her in despair. The meat was choking him, and he finally lost control, spitting the meat out. Even though Xiao Anzi quickly pulled out a handkerchief to cover his lips, everyone saw his flushed, coughing, and disheveled state.

The sound of retching and coughing echoed within the wide yurt. So many people stopped to stare at their Khatun making a fool of himself. Shen Lianzhi would have preferred they laughed at him rather than staring at him as if he were an alien. This was likely their true opinion of him. Lianzhi choked back tears, or perhaps he was already crying.

He wanted to go home.

Surina frowned at him and spoke in a tone of disbelief. “Khatun, do you not know that you must use a knife to cut meat?”

She tapped the table. Only then did Lianzhi notice a rounded leather sheath by his elbow containing a small dagger. Shen Lianzhi was mortified. If Surina had not told him so clearly, he likely would never have looked at the leather sheath. Xiao Anzi looked at him and then at the dagger, quickly grabbing it to cut the meat in the other dishes for Lianzhi.

He tried to laugh it off. “This servant deserves to die. I have failed in my service. Your Highness, please punish me.”

Shen Lianzhi’s head was almost buried in his bowl. Even when Xiao Anzi placed the cut meat before him, he had no appetite left. Surina watched him for a while, her frown deepening. She put down the half-eaten piece of meat, took a handkerchief from her servant to wipe her hands, and spoke as if casually. “I heard the Khatun is intersex.”

Not long after his earlier embarrassment, Lianzhi felt all those thousands of gazes that had been withdrawn suddenly return to him. This time, he felt even more humiliated. The undisguised stares of the Xia people nearly stripped him bare. Even though he was wearing nomadic clothing, he felt as if he were naked. The Xia people looked at him as if he were a curious, lifeless object.

Shen Lianzhi suddenly remembered when he first met Siqin Bari. The youth had also been like this, cruelly forcing him to speak his most shameful defect aloud. Lianzhi felt an urge to burn down the entire tent, but he did not dare.

“Khatun.”

“I am,” Shen Lianzhi looked up, his eyes red. “I am.”

Surina noticed the shimmer in his eyes. Her lips curved downward as she said in a low voice, “No one is bullying you here. There is no need to act so aggrieved, Khatun.”

She was so high and mighty that she could not feel a fraction of Lianzhi’s pain. Surina did not even want to hear his defense. She asked directly, “Can the Khatun conceive and bear children like a woman?”

The gazes on him became sharper and deeper, like countless blades stripping away his skin. The Xia people did not just want to break his backbone: they wanted to crush it into soup. Shen Lianzhi knew he should timidly answer “yes” or offer an ambiguous “I do not know,” but for some reason, he did not want to answer that way.

He was angry, truly too angry. Shen Lianzhi took a deep breath and placed a hand on his lower abdomen. He shed his previous timid posture. “I cannot. I cannot conceive and bear children like a woman, not in this lifetime. The Princess should look elsewhere.”

After saying this, Lianzhi felt a sense of relief. He finally straightened his back, if only for a fleeting moment. He spoke those words clearly in the loudest voice he had used since entering the tent. He made sure everyone in the yurt heard him clearly.

Surina’s face turned extremely dark. Her hand moved to the side, her fingers brushing the small meat-cutting dagger. She gripped the handle so hard her wrist trembled. Lianzhi half-lowered his eyelids, his gaze quickly darting to her hand. After the words left his mouth, he realized his boldness. This was a public contradiction.

Lianzhi’s heart pounded, and a cold sweat broke out on his back. Saren looked at him and then at the explosive Surina, realizing the severity of the situation. She laughed dryly to smooth things over. “The Khatun is truly fond of joking.”

Surina still gripped the small knife. She tilted her head slightly, took a deep breath, and then slammed the tip of the dagger into the wooden table with a loud bang. The end of the dagger vibrated before suddenly snapping toward Lianzhi.

“Khatun, watch out!” Xiao Anzi’s pupils constricted. He grabbed Lianzhi’s shoulder and pulled him back. The dagger flew past Lianzhi to the edge of the tent, its sharp blade even slicing away a lock of his hair.

Lianzhi clutched his pounding heart and looked to the side. Surina had already stood up. She looked at the pale Shen Lianzhi and revealed a cruel smile identical to that of her brother, Siqin Bari. “The King said the Khatun was timid and afraid of trouble. I do not think so.”

She left those words and walked away.

Shen Lianzhi gripped his sleeves in fear. His mind was filled with the image of that flying dagger. He did not even know when Xiao Anzi helped him back to the King’s Tent. Lianzhi curled up on the fur rugs, the bed curtains pulled tight. He covered his ears and trembled all over. Even though he was pressed against the warm edge of the tent, his hands and feet remained ice-cold.

Just then, the closed curtains were suddenly torn open. Without the cover of the curtains, the cold air rushed in. Lianzhi lay motionless, like a frozen corpse. Then, a hot hand roughly flipped him over.

“Ah!” Lianzhi was forced to turn around. Suddenly, a handsome face he had not seen for days appeared before him. Siqin Bari loomed over him like a mountain, his shadow terrifying Lianzhi. Siqin Bari tightened his jaw and pinched Lianzhi’s soft cheeks with one hand. He stared into Lianzhi’s eyes, his body pressing down until he was almost flush against him.

“What are you screaming for?” Siqin Bari’s voice was as cold as ice. “Shen Lianzhi, I have not seen you for a few days. Your courage has grown quite a bit.”

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