Before Li Jiao could recover from stifling her laughter, she was caught off guard by Song Li Sheng’s words attempting to distance himself.
“When did I…” She furrowed her brows, retracting her upturned lips as the lively expressions gradually faded from her face. Her first instinct was to refute his claims.
But then she suddenly recalled the original host’s actions and immediately sealed her lips.
Li Jiao looked up and saw Song Li Sheng’s slightly drooping brows, his gaze filled with melancholy and sorrow as he watched her.
She began to feel somewhat guilty, and the slight displeasure that had arisen from his words gradually dissipated.
She could discern the compromise and concession in Song Li Sheng’s tone.
Recalling the original host’s behavior, anyone would have misunderstood.
It wasn’t that Song Li Sheng was dissatisfied with their engagement; rather, he had perceived Li Jiao’s reluctance. His gentle and kind nature led him to take the initiative to offer her freedom.
With this realization, Li Jiao silently curled her fingers and flipped open the agreement.
However, after reading just a few lines, she promptly closed it and scratched her head in frustration.
How annoying—what should she do when her Male Consort misunderstood her on the very first day of their marriage?
“You…” Li Jiao struggled to speak, truly unskilled at comforting men.
In the past, if any man had dared to expect the Daughter of Duke to console him, he would have been met with an eye-roll and left behind.
But Song Li Sheng was her properly wedded Male Consort. By reason and emotion, she ought to offer an explanation.
“You don’t need to be like this. There might have been some misunderstandings between us… It’s not that I was unwilling to marry you. Back then, I simply didn’t want to comply with Li Yichen’s wishes.”
Li Yichen was Li’s Father’s name.
“In short, you don’t need to carry any psychological burden. Rest assured, since we are married, I will treat you well and won’t repeat the absurd behaviors from before.”
Li Jiao believed she had spoken these words quite sincerely.
Yet, Song Li Sheng only understood that the agreement had been tactfully rejected.
She did not want to sign it.
He completely disbelieved that Li Jiao had experienced a sudden pang of conscience.
But what was the purpose of maintaining this marriage?
Moreover, she had taken his hand so proactively and warmly upon seeing him today.
Recalling the scenes from last night, along with his own unusual emotions and actions…
Song Li Sheng began to suspect whether Li Jiao was acting deliberately or had merely slipped up.
A person couldn’t change so drastically in such a short time.
A dog can’t change its habit of eating feces—crude as the saying may be, the reasoning holds true.
No matter what had happened in between to cause Li Jiao’s attitude to shift so greatly,
Ultimately, she had resisted this marriage to the point of attempting to flee.
If only he could move her…
“But you… don’t like me, do you?”
No matter how turbulent his thoughts were internally, Song Li Sheng maintained his melancholic expression on the surface.
“Ah, this…”
Li Jiao couldn’t refute it. Indeed, after exchanging just these few words, at most, she was currently attracted to his looks.
“But I don’t dislike you.”
“As expected…” Song Li Sheng smiled self-deprecatingly.
Seeing his desolate expression, Li Jiao realized she had likely said the wrong thing.
“That’s not what I meant. I meant that feelings can be cultivated over time…”
“A marriage without affection cannot last.”Song Li Sheng’s pale teeth pressed repeatedly against his thin lips before he spoke with great embarrassment, ‘I don’t want to end up like my parents’ marriage—a mess filled with arguments, only dirty interests left, and ultimately… meeting a tragic end.”
This statement was half-truth and half-lie.
His mother had indeed initially been driven by love, entering a relationship with Song’s father—a married man—during her most innocent and naive years, eventually giving birth to him.
Yet Song’s father’s love came easily and cheaply.
He had only briefly loved Song Li Sheng’s mother and never once considered acknowledging this illegitimate child.
To prevent Song’s mother from causing trouble at his doorstep with their child, he still regularly deposited living expenses into her bank account each month.
But he rarely visited the mother and son.
It was only later that Song’s mother realized Song’s father’s heartlessness. Under the dual pressures of emotional setbacks and the hardships of raising a child out of wedlock, she gradually spiraled into madness.
She began spending her days calling Song’s father, arguing and demanding money. When Song Li Sheng was young, he would often return home from school to the sound of his mother’s hysterical weeping and shouting, as well as the impatient roars from Song’s father on the other end of the phone.
Until one day, his mother died suddenly at home after drinking.
He was then taken back to the ancestral home by the Song family patriarch.
Song Li Sheng truly believed that impure emotions were like a handful of loose sand—since they would scatter with just a few steps, without even needing wind, it was better to cast them away from the very beginning.
Just like his and Li Jiao’s marriage—a union of aristocratic interests, devoid of any genuine affection.
The false part of his statement was that while his parents had shared some affection, they had never been married.
Li Jiao watched Song Li Sheng’s lowered eyelids and his tightly pressed thin lips, as if he found the topic too shameful to speak of, and remained silent for a long time.
In the end, she picked up the agreement again, read it carefully from start to finish, and then, using an unfamiliar fountain pen, awkwardly signed her name.
It wasn’t that Li Jiao was so easily deceived by a few words; she simply didn’t believe Song Li Sheng had any reason to trick her into signing.
After all, no matter how she looked at it, signing this document wouldn’t put her at a disadvantage.
And it was just an agreement, not a divorce certificate.
She thought of it as comforting her little husband’s sensitive and easily wounded heart.
After all, men were often fragile and easily broken.
Someone like Song Li Sheng, who had suffered from his dysfunctional family, needed to be cared for as delicately as a precious porcelain vase.
Li Jiao let out a soft sigh, her voice barely audible.
The sins committed by the original host, the shattered heart—she had to bear it all.
No matter how she looked at it, she seemed like a fool bearing the consequences of another’s actions.
She could only take a few more glances at the face before her, which perfectly aligned with her aesthetic preferences, to feel somewhat comforted.
Song Li Sheng had no idea that in Li Jiao’s mind, he had already become “Song Daiyu.”
He took the signed agreement, thinking to himself how useful the facade of being “gentle and refined” had been—apparently, Li Jiao was swayed by it too.
But…
His fingertips paused over the two characters “Li Jiao.”
“Oh, I’ll be changing my name in a few days, so I signed my new name for now,” Li Jiao explained, noticing his hesitation.
Song Li Sheng nodded without further questions, picked up his pen, and smoothly signed his own name beside hers.
Looking at their two names side by side, he suddenly felt as though this were a marriage certificate rather than an agreement to draw a clear boundary.
Yet just yesterday, the marriage certificate had been signed with “Jiao”…