The Powerful Minister I Forcefully Married Won't Warm Up; After Rebirth, I Give Up the Chase - Chapter 15
Nian Xi subconsciously turned her head.
Her eyes met Pei Jian’s directly.
Pei Jian had a pair of beautiful ‘peach blossom’ eyes, with a slight upturn at the outer corners. When he looked at someone intently, it always gave the false impression of deep affection. Even though his face was clearly marked by aloofness and indifference, the extreme contrast only made people more drawn in, like moths to a flame.
She averted her gaze and, during a pause in her brother’s rambling, quietly said, “But I only like Gu Ci’s type.”
Wen Qingheng instantly felt a heart blockage.
Pei Jian also frowned, his eyes involuntarily falling upon Nian Xi’s face once more.
Today, Nian Xi was wearing a light grass-green silk gauze long skirt, with a hairpin comb of the same color tucked into her hair and a pair of green jade ear drops.
When she lifted her head to talk to Wen Qingheng, the ear drops swayed gently, catching the spring sunlight and reflecting streaks of shimmering light onto her fair skin, a delicate, captivating motion.
Pei Jian had never paid attention to what kind of jewelry Nian Xi wore before.
Jewelry made of gold, jade, or pearls—he couldn’t even recall if he had ever given his wife such gifts.
He was always busy, like a tireless horse with an endless list of things to do, unable to enjoy life and neglecting the people around him.
He remembered when he served as the Minister of Revenue: a war had broken out suddenly, and the entire ministry worked sleeplessly for several days until they finally managed to dispatch the military provisions needed for the northern campaign.
Qin Lang, his face flushed, asked him for leave, “It’s my wife’s birthday today. I haven’t been home for days, and she’s a sensitive person. She’s probably hiding and secretly crying again.”
Pei Jian found the idea perplexing.
He had met Qin Lang’s wife; she was even more talkative than Qin Lang. How could she secretly shed tears?
“Fine, I just miss her, alright?” Qin Lang stiffened his neck. As a former classmate, he was less constrained facing his stern superior than others were. “I don’t believe you don’t miss your wife.”
Pei Jian was stunned by the question.
Pei Jian had never been able to understand Qin Lang, and he found Gu Ci dull. It was only now, as Nian Xi’s green jade ear drops swung, casting ripples of light—like a stone thrown into a calm pool—that he dimly realized how much he had missed.
Nian Xi said she liked Gu Ci’s type.
He was stung by those words.
Upon being reborn, he had already planned his future, and Nian Xi was intentionally excluded.
He knew, of course, that she would meet other people, and that she would be with other people, just as they had been in the past.
But it wasn’t until Nian Xi explicitly stated it, making “that person” concrete—and, worse, his own friend—that a profound, visceral pain suddenly struck Pei Jian.
This pain combined with the pain from that evening in the previous life, when Nian Xi said she wanted a divorce and no longer loved him, hitting him with a multiplied intensity.
It turned out that human pain could be delayed.
After such a long time, spanning the length of a past and present life, Pei Jian finally felt a suffocating, piercing sadness.
Along with it came anger.
She actually fell for someone else. Just because of an accidental encounter, the affection that should have belonged to him was given entirely to Gu Ci.
When Nian Xi asked for a divorce, he thought it was just her bravado; he believed she couldn’t leave him.
And he, too, didn’t want to leave Nian Xi.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t true.
Nian Xi was not dependent on him.
Without him, Nian Xi would still love someone else with her whole heart.
Even though Pei Jian knew that the fifteen-year-old Nian Xi standing before him was not the wife who had accompanied him for years, he couldn’t control the agitation surging through him.
Pei Jian’s self-esteem was wounded.
For a man who stood at the pinnacle of power, he might dismiss romantic love, but deep down, his wife must maintain her decade-long, unwavering love for him—even if he didn’t reciprocate, even across a lifetime, and even if he had given up on her.
This was a hidden arrogance deep within his heart.
Nian Xi’s transference of affection made him feel humiliated.
From their first meeting yesterday until just now, his emotions had been stable. He had dismissed the sense of loss as mere dark, male possessiveness; he simply resented fate’s malicious joke.
But the moment Nian Xi admitted it herself, all the negative emotions rushed in like a tidal wave and a landslide, nearly crushing him.
Wen Qingheng was still rooted there; there were things Pei Jian couldn’t say.
Pei Jian’s thin lips pressed into a straight line, his jaw clenched. Before he completely lost control, he left the Wen residence.
It wasn’t until he was gone that Nian Xi quietly released her sweaty palms. No one saw the deep nail marks scored into her skin.
…
Nian Xi didn’t go to the Treasure Pavilion that day.
Her mood was clearly affected, and she remained somewhat listless until Gu Ci came to find her after finishing his official duties.
Gu Ci was completely devoted to her, and he naturally noticed her preoccupation. “Why are you unhappy? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Nian Xi shook her head, her reply vague. “Just a little, perhaps.”
Gu Ci had three older sisters and was not as slow to notice a woman’s changing mood as the average man. Seeing that Nian Xi didn’t want to elaborate, he formulated a plan in his mind.
“It’s a good thing I cast a divination before leaving home.”
Nian Xi knew he was trying to cheer her up, so she humored him with an “Oh.”
Gu Ci stroked a non-existent beard and said with mock solemnity, “The reading foretold that a young lady from a family named Wen on Yiqiao Street today, she…”
He deliberately drew out the last word, glancing at her with his phoenix eyes. Nian Xi was amused and urged him, “What about her?”
Gu Ci theatrically pulled out a small pouch and handed it to Nian Xi. “This old man predicted with a pinch of the fingers that this young Miss Wen must be craving a snack.”
The pouch felt quite substantial in her hand. Nian Xi didn’t open it right away, asking with a smile, “What is it?”
“Pine nuts.”
It was his first day on duty, and an old woman was selling pine nuts in the small alley near the Yamen office. The kernels were plump, and remembering that Nian Xi loved to eat them, he bought a generous amount.
“It’s nothing valuable.”
Nian Xi’s heart skipped a beat. She had refused Gu Ci’s jewelry yesterday because it was too expensive; today, he sent her pine nuts and specifically made sure to emphasize their lack of monetary value.
Thinking of this, she looked up and asked softly, “Do you want to give me gifts that badly?”
Gu Ci’s face flushed instantly under the gaze of her bright, watery eyes. After a moment, he cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly, his long, thick eyelashes fluttering slightly, then his eyes, which had briefly darted away, became resolute again.
Their eyes met.
He said, “I constantly think of you in my heart. Everything I see, I want to give to you.”
Nian Xi’s heart softened. She lowered her head and opened the pouch, freezing slightly when she saw that it was entirely filled with shelled pine nuts.
Gu Ci explained, “Before shelling them, I deliberately washed my hands three times with soapberry. They are all clean.”
Nian Xi quietly asked, “Such a time-consuming thing—it must have taken you a long time?”
“I saw you eat a few kernels yesterday at my house, so I figured you like them.” Gu Ci didn’t take credit for the effort. “But eating too many of these can cause heatiness, so you eat these for now, and I’ll shell more for you when you finish.”
A strange emotion flowed through her heart. Nian Xi looked up at him again. His handsome face held a pure smile, and his eyes were filled entirely with her.
How long had it been since she had been loved so completely, so single-mindedly?
Because of a simple action, he thought of her constantly, wanting only to make her happy.
The part of her heart that had withered because of Pei Jian was slowly coming back to life.
Gu Ci was her nourishment.
Nian Xi suddenly felt a sense of apology; she shouldn’t let herself be emotionally affected by a “stranger.” Cherishing the one in front of her—the most important thing for her to do was to abandon the past and enjoy the present.
It was at this moment that the complex emotions surrounding her reunion with Pei Jian were finally soothed.
Suppressing the warmth in her eyes, Nian Xi ate a pine nut and smiled gently. “Alright, you can shell more for me.”
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Periwinkleplum
The FL deserves all the love and more! Officially shipping Gu Ci x Nian Xi >.<