Whatever her sister said next, Jun Qiluo didn’t hear. Blue eyes. The only Khitan she knew with blue eyes was him, Yelü Lie!
Could it be someone else?
Who would dare to enter the South so boldly? It would be like walking into a trap! It couldn’t be him!
Please don’t let it be him! If the imperial guards surrounded Hangzhou, those two Khitans would be doomed. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to come here and alert the authorities.
She gently placed her hands on her belly, biting her lower lip.
But… she had a feeling… it was him! Was he coming to die? What was he trying to do?
If it was him, he would be able to come and go without being detected. So why had the authorities been alerted?
Or… oh, she really didn’t know anymore!
Don’t think about it. Stay calm! Jun Qiluo, don’t panic—it’s not him! It’s not him…
At this moment, wouldn’t he be enjoying his new marriage, immersed in love with the three princesses? Why would he have the time to come here alone? Oh, she’d rather her heart break thinking that he was enjoying his new life than to believe he had really come.
Please don’t let it be him!
Jun Jiangjuan, thinking she had frightened her sister with her story, hurriedly said, "Big Sister, don’t worry. We’ll go to bed early tonight and post extra guards at the gates. Those two Khitans will be caught and executed sooner or later. Don’t worry; there’s an imperial guard and officials on their trail! Maybe tomorrow we’ll see their heads hanging in the city square, and I’ll finally find out if someone really has blue eyes…"
"No! Don’t!" Jun Qiluo shouted in a low voice, breaking out in a cold sweat. No matter who those two Khitans were, she didn’t want them to die, especially the one with blue eyes.
"Sister…"
"I’m so tired. I need to go upstairs, I…" She hurriedly stood up. Jun Jiangjuan quickly supported her and helped her upstairs, cursing herself for exaggerating and scaring her sister, who was about to give birth. Such bloody talk was really not suitable for a pregnant woman—it might even have a bad influence on the baby!
At dusk, Jun Jiangjuan, feeling guilty, said, "Sister, I’ll have someone bring up some nourishing soup and dinner for you. Get some rest! I won’t say things like that to scare you anymore."
"Alright. Go now, I need some time alone." She covered her face.
After Jun Jiangjuan lit the lamp, she left the room.
Immediately, her belly was kicked twice.
Jun Qiluo whispered, "Are you worried about him too? Oh, I hope it’s not him…"
When the maid brought up dinner, the sight of it only made her feel more nauseous. She went into the inner room, staring blankly at the bronze mirror, her reflection filled with fear.
"Oh…"
Knowing him meant she was destined to fall into this pit, unable to escape, not even allowed the freedom to stop thinking about him…
She covered her face and collapsed onto the chaise lounge, tears once again soaking her cheeks. Exhausted from crying, she finally drifted into an uneasy sleep, haunted by even more troubling dreams…
* * *
Who scared whom more?
Yelü Lie's blue eyes gazed in disbelief at the sleeping beauty before him—his woman.
She looked troubled even in sleep, thin and pale, but still stunningly beautiful! Yet despite her frail frame, her belly was so large that he couldn’t help but frown.
It was his child, he knew that. But why did her slender body carry such a large belly? Damn that Duo Luo Qi for not finding out she was pregnant—if he had known, he wouldn’t have stood there like a fool when he first entered her room, unable to move. He’d been staring at her belly as if he had been looking at it for a thousand years.
She really wasn’t dead!
Even after seeing her with his own eyes, he still couldn’t fully believe it. He needed to hold her, to feel her warmth and her breath, to be certain that she was truly there and that he hadn’t lost her.
Quietly, he sat down beside the chaise lounge, carefully taking her delicate wrist in his hand. There were still faint scars from where he had tied her too tightly in anger, injuring her. Yelü Lie hated himself for his past brutality and gently kissed the red marks on her wrists, silently vowing never to hurt her again. His unintentional strength had already caused her pain, and he would be even more careful in the future…
Then, he looked at her belly.
In the North, such large bellies were common, but Northern women were strong and robust! She, however, was a delicate Southern woman, yet she carried such a large belly… He began to worry. Carefully placing a hand on her stomach, he felt it move. His eyes widened in surprise and fear—was she about to give birth?
Looking closer, it didn’t seem like it; she hadn’t woken up. He breathed a sigh of relief and carefully lifted her, but even this gentle movement startled the uneasy sleeper awake.
She gasped softly, blinking repeatedly… Was it really him?
"Stop blinking, or I’ll think you’re trying to seduce me!" His deep, resonant voice murmured in her ear.
"You…"
She looked around in disbelief. It was indeed her room. So, he was real? Or was this just another dream teasing her? She reached out, gently touching his face, feeling the familiar warmth and contours… and his heart—it was beating!
He sat on the bed, holding her tightly. What was she thinking? Her expression was so complex—surprise, disbelief, joy, shock, fear…
But in the end, her expression turned cold. Remembering that he now had three wives, her face immediately became as icy as frost.
"Let go of me!"
"I’ll never let go, not in this lifetime. Don’t think you can escape me again!" He almost forgot how easily this woman could provoke his anger, but he managed to suppress it.
Jun Qiluo pushed against his broad chest.
"If you don’t let go, I’ll call for help. This is Hangzhou, part of the Song Empire. The entire city is on high alert, searching for you. If I scream, your head will be on a spike at the city gate by tomorrow…"
"Then scream!" he growled, unconcerned; his eyes glinted with mockery and challenge. "Go ahead and scream! You’ll be a hero, helping the Song capture a member of the Yelü family. Maybe you’ll even become the first female official in the history of the Song dynasty! Scream!"
"Yelü Lie…" she bit her lower lip, glaring at him, but deep down she knew she could never actually scream. Oh, how infuriating he still was! Frustrated, she clenched her fists and pounded his shoulder.
He caught her delicate fists, frowning as he looked at her.
She coldly smirked and said, "Did that hurt? So weak!"
"You’ve got a lifetime to use your flowery fists on me, but for now, you’d better save your strength for giving birth." He placed his large hand gently on her belly, frowning again. "He’s moving again…"
"That’s none of your business!" She tried to push his hand away, but instead, he caught her hand and placed it together with his on her stomach.
"If it weren’t for this belly, I would have already given you a good spanking and carried you off. None of my business? Are you going to tell me that this child has nothing to do with me?"
His tone was calm, his expression dangerous, and his gaze menacing.
Jun Qiluo couldn’t escape his gaze, nor could she lie to him under such an intimidating expression. How could she deceive him? The child was nearly due, and by any calculation, it was clear that the child was conceived while she was with him.
"I won't go with you!" she said with a hint of smugness. "Besides, with the city on high alert, how do you plan to leave?"
"Your pregnancy was something I didn’t foresee, the only miscalculation. If I were to die, would you shed tears for me?" he asked calmly, his eyes filled with a teasing glint.
Her face turned pale.
"That’s not a funny joke!"
"Your joke about jumping off a cliff wasn’t funny either!" he growled, the memory still making his heart feel like it was being torn apart.
"You used death to show your dissatisfaction with me, to reject everything I offered. Why didn’t you wait for me to return?"
She sneered.
"Wait for you to come back? For another round of humiliation and shouting? Or to bring those three princesses to flaunt in front of me, to laugh at my misery?"
"You…" He took a deep breath and then exhaled, but the anger still simmered. Finally, he used the most direct method to stop her from provoking him further—and it was something he had wanted to do since he first entered the room but hadn’t had the chance. He sealed her lips with his, pressing his firm lips against her defiant mouth. His tongue intruded, wrestling with hers, effectively venting his anger and simultaneously quenching the aching longing he had felt for over six months.
Jun Qiluo, dazed, clung tightly to his neck. It was him! The man she loved so deeply she couldn’t escape, still taking everything from her with such force. In this moment, even the fact that he had married others couldn’t pull her back from this trance…
She missed him, missed him so much…
"Now, I want you to listen to me quietly!" he said, breathlessly trying to calm his physical need. His hand, which had been caressing her fuller breasts due to pregnancy, moved down to her belly, reminding himself that she was close to giving birth. With a sigh, he finally suppressed all his desires. "I didn’t marry anyone! If I were to have a wife, it would be that proud woman named Jun Qiluo, the one who seems to exist solely to destroy me!"
He hadn’t married? He hadn’t married any other woman? She grabbed his clothes, asking softly, "Why? Back then, I was ‘dead!’"
"If you hadn’t died then, I would’ve gladly strangled you myself. Do you have any idea what I felt when, after receiving the Khan’s permission to marry you, I rushed back to the estate only to find that everyone had been drugged and the bed sheets were stained with blood? I thought you had been killed, kidnapped! I couldn’t think about anything else but following the trail of horse hooves. And then, when I finally found you, you heartlessly jumped off a cliff, dying in front of me. How could you be so cruel to a man who loves you? If Dahe hadn’t knocked me out, I would have jumped after you, followed you to the underworld, killed you there, and then loved you properly!"
She couldn’t stop her tears from falling. She had been too impulsive! But at that time, what else could she have done in that situation? And why hadn’t he told her sooner that he only wanted to marry her? Why had things spiraled so out of control?
"Did you ever think about why I chose to end it all? I couldn’t feel your true love; especially when you compared me to Yang Yuhuan, I knew I had no way out. I couldn’t accept your charity unless it was given with complete sincerity; otherwise, I wanted nothing to do with it! A woman without status who gives birth to a child of unknown parentage—that child’s fate would be worse than that of a stray dog. In Khitan, I thought I could rely on your love for the rest of my life, but you made me feel that this reliance was slipping away. A woman who loses favor can’t protect herself, let alone her child. There was no place for me in Khitan anymore. And in the Song dynasty, my own home, being unmarried and pregnant was already disgraceful enough, let alone having a child with half-Khitan blood. How could I face anyone? I had nothing left. I wasn’t trying to get revenge on you; I just thought that if you no longer cared about me, my death would bring you more peace and wouldn’t shake you in any way. I couldn’t go home, and Khitan was no longer an option. What else could I do but die? Especially when I knew that the child in my womb wouldn’t be allowed to live—I couldn’t bear the thought of my child facing a fate like Dong Yin’s."
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