After the Alluring Beauty Was Forced into a Political Marriage - Chapter 31

On the grasslands, the bonfires burned fiercely, their flames shooting toward the heavens and almost illuminating the dark, ink-colored night sky.

The wedding of Nuomin and Lakshen was far more boisterous than the one held for Shiqin Bari and Shen Lianzhi half a year ago. The Xia people were unrestrained, crowding around the fires with bare arms to wrestle. Dust flew beneath the feet of the sturdy men, and their shouts echoed endlessly.

Lianzhi sipped his wine with a faint smile.

The Xia were a passionate people who loved combat. Shen Lianzhi still remembered how, on his own wedding day, a group of Xia men had competed in wrestling to celebrate. At that time, he had been terrified out of his wits by such barbaric behavior, but today, he could observe it with composure.

The sky grew darker, like a giant black hand slowly pressing down. The singing and dancing had concluded, and the wine had been drunk in plenty. It was time for the feast to end so the newlyweds, Nuomin and Lakshen, could be sent to their bridal chamber.

Shiqin Bari cleared his throat, intending to dismiss the crowd, but someone was faster than him. “Great King, wait!”

“I have a great gift I wish to present to the Great King!” A man dressed in the attire of a Xia noble walked quickly toward him. Lianzhi recognized him; he was the brother of the King of the Qiulin tribe from the border. “I ask the Great King to graciously accept it!”

A furrow appeared between Shiqin Bari’s brows. “What is it?”

“Replying to the Great King, it is a loyal, fierce tiger!”

“As the saying goes, ‘like a tiger with wings,’ the Great King already has fierce birds of prey by his side but lacks a fierce tiger. Only by having both can the kingly aura of our Great Xia Chanyu be fully displayed!”

Shiqin Bari snorted. “Your words are pleasant enough. Stop the nonsense and bring out your fierce tiger so I can see for myself!”

The noble smiled and withdrew. This interruption woke the drowsy Xia people from their wine-induced stupor. They perked up, stretching their necks to look in the direction where the noble had gone.

When Shen Lianzhi was in the Zhou Palace, he had also seen a tiger. A Persian envoy had presented a month-old cub to the Emperor of Zhou as tribute. The cub’s eyes were not yet open, and it was a tiny, soft ball that was truly endearing.

Unfortunately, as the tiger grew larger, the Emperor became increasingly nervous playing with it. He eventually had it killed, and its pelt now cushioned the Emperor’s dragon throne!

Lianzhi’s impression of a tiger remained fixed on that soft, warm body and those moist eyes of a cub. Thus, when the noble led out a fierce, slanting-eyed, white-browed tiger, it truly gave him a fright.

An iron chain was fastened around the tiger’s neck, appearing to be at least six feet long. It was a massive creature with four paws as large as a man’s face. A single swipe could disembowel a person.

Shiqin Bari leaned forward slightly, his fingers tapping on the wooden table. “You say it is loyal. How is it loyal?”

The noble laughed loudly and said with pride, “Great King, I have trained this tiger since it was a cub. It never harms people!”

“Tsk,” Shiqin Bari curled his lips in disdain. “You say it does not harm people, so it does not harm people?”

“Take it away. A tiger is a tiger, not like a hawk or a hound. They can never be fully tamed!”

The noble said, “The Great King does not believe me? Then I shall show the Great King how obedient this tiger is!”

With that, he reached out and unfastened the chain from the tiger’s neck. The tiger shook its head briskly and let out a long roar toward the sky. Instead of intimidating the Xia people, this roar set their blood on fire. They stared at the tiger with wide eyes, not blinking once.

Freed from its shackles, the tiger did not go wild. Instead, it crouched obediently beside the noble. The noble reached out to stroke its head, then suddenly drew his whip and snapped it near the tiger. Dust flew as he shouted, “Rise!”

The tiger actually listened and sat up. The noble’s whip did not stop, snapping continuously beside it as he chanted, “Run, run, run!”

Driven by the whip, the tiger became like a horse, its feet flying. Despite its fangs and claws, it was chased by the noble to the edge of the bonfire.

When the tiger stopped, the noble swung the whip forward. “Jump!”

The crowd held their breath, all thinking that the beast surely would not obey this time. To their surprise, the tiger leaped over the bonfire without a moment of hesitation, not a single hair singed by the flames. It had clearly done this many times.

Saren marveled, “Is this a tiger? It is more obedient than the Great King’s Tala!”

The noble made the tiger jump back and forth several times, until even Shiqin Bari could no longer stand to watch. “Enough. This tiger has lost all its wild spirit. It can no longer be considered a tiger.”

The noble began to drive the tiger back as he had before, but just then, a sudden change occurred! The Xia man’s whip somehow struck the tiger’s rump. The tiger let out a roar of pain and suddenly went mad.

In desperation, the noble struck the tiger’s head with the whip. Instead of intimidating it, the blow knocked the tiger’s head aside. The tiger shook its head, its cold eyes suddenly fixing on a point ahead. It let out a roar and lunged!

It lunged directly toward where Shiqin Bari was sitting!

Shiqin Bari’s eyes sharpened. He leaned low and grasped the crescent-shaped scimitar at his waist. But before he could draw it, the tiger somehow changed direction and lunged toward Lianzhi, who was by his side.

The tiger was almost upon him. Lianzhi could clearly smell the nauseating stench of raw meat and blood from its gaping maw. He froze in place, not even knowing where to run. At that moment, a rich scent of spikenard enveloped him. A soft piece of fabric covered Lianzhi’s face, turning everything dark.

Then, he heard the tiger’s piteous roar and the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and bone. Lu Jingce, who had remained composed, had stood up at some unknown moment. He drew his sword and thrust it directly toward the tiger’s throat!

The tiger immediately twisted its head to avoid the blade and opened its mouth to bite Lu Jingce’s wrist. Lu Jingce retreated instantly, turning his sword to strike the tiger’s eye. When the blade entered, the tiger’s roar was piercing and shrill.

As its eye was pierced, another scimitar stabbed through its skull from below.

The sword and scimitar crossed. The tiger was not yet dead, its final death throes causing the two weapons buried in its flesh to hum as if they were clashing from a distance.

Only after the tiger stopped twitching did the two men pull out the sword and the scimitar. The sudden withdrawal brought out a large spray of crimson blood.

The Xia man who had brought the tiger knew he had caused a disaster. His face turned ashen as he knelt on the grass with a loud thud. This sound caused Lu Jingce, who was looking down to wipe his sword, to glance at him.

For some reason, the Xia man began to tremble even more violently.

Shen Lianzhi’s soul was barely settled. He clung to the cloak his cousin had draped over his face like a drowning man clutching a piece of driftwood. Lu Jingce put down his sword and turned to comfort him. “Lianzhi, Lianzhi? How are you?”

The moment before he could touch Shen Lianzhi, another hand pulled the shivering Lianzhi into an embrace.

Caught between life and death, Shen Lianzhi could not even cry. He instinctively leaned into the embrace of Shiqin Bari, who held him tightly. “Great King.”

“Great King.”

Lu Jingce’s hand, suspended in mid-air, froze for a second before he withdrew it as if nothing had happened.

However, beneath his blood-stained wide sleeves, his fingernails dug deep into the flesh of his palm.

Shiqin Bari looked down at Lianzhi in this state and felt a surge of pity. “It is over. Do not be afraid, Khatun.”

Lianzhi was still trembling. Shiqin Bari lowered his head to kiss his forehead and cheek, then suddenly stopped.

Shiqin Bari’s eyes slowly widened. He held his breath as he pulled away from Lianzhi’s face. His gaze moved down inch by inch, finally settling on the cloak Lianzhi was clutching to his chest.

The scent. The nauseating scent he had smelled on Shen Lianzhi yesterday, he smelled it again!

Right here and now! On his Khatun’s face! And this scent came from the cloak that had just been covering his face!

It was as if Shiqin Bari had been slapped awake. It was now obvious whose scent his Khatun had been carrying.

His mind suddenly became clear. Lu Jingce’s eyes, which had been shooting glances like hidden arrows, and just now, the way Lu Jingce had been willing to risk his life to stand before Shen Lianzhi!

What kind of cousin acted like this? Even biological brothers would not disregard their own lives to shield one another!

Shiqin Bari’s chest heaved. A fire was burning in his heart. Shen Lianzhi was completely unaware of his anger. Seeing his tense expression, Lianzhi thought he had been injured during the fight with the tiger and asked anxiously, “Great King? Great King? What is wrong?”

At this moment, Shiqin Bari was full of suspicion and wanted nothing more than to demand an explanation from Shen Lianzhi. He no longer had the heart to comfort him.

The brother of the King of the Qiulin tribe was still kneeling there, but Shiqin Bari was too distracted to interrogate him. He merely glanced at Xurigan nearby, dropped a cold “Kill him,” and hurriedly led Lianzhi away.

His grip was not light. Lianzhi’s legs were still weak, and he was dragged all the way back to the King’s tent.

That plier-like hand pinched Lianzhi’s upper arm painfully. He also became angry and was about to snap at Shiqin Bari, but he saw the little barbarian staring at him with such gloom that he looked no different from the man-eating tiger from a moment ago.

Lianzhi swallowed hard and called him tremblingly, “Shiqin Bari.”

Shiqin Bari was deaf to his voice. His gaze fell on the cloak Lianzhi was still clutching. The fire of anger in his heart flared up again. He violently snatched the eyesore of a cloak from Lianzhi’s hands and then pinched Shen Lianzhi’s chin. “Khatun.”

His voice was extremely deep. Shiqin Bari was doing his best to suppress his exploding rage. Those traceable suspicions were like insects gnawing at his heart, making it unbearable.

“Yesterday evening, after you left the feast early, where did you go?”

“Where did you go? Whom did you meet?” Shiqin Bari gritted his teeth. “What did you do with him? Account for every single thing!”

Shen Lianzhi did not know why he was bringing up yesterday’s events again. His teeth chattered as he said, “Great King, I do not know. I did not meet anyone. Ah!”

Shiqin Bari’s hand on his chin suddenly tightened. Lianzhi cried out in pain and grabbed the other’s wrist, trying to pull it away. But how could his strength, as someone completely ignorant of martial arts, compare to Shiqin Bari’s inhuman power?

“You still dare to lie!” Shiqin Bari said through clenched teeth. He kicked the cloak on the ground. “The incense on that garment is identical to the scent on your body yesterday!”

“You and that cousin of yours, what exactly is the relationship between you?”

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