“Who won?! Was it my brother?!” the black-haired princess asked, her eyes sparkling.
“Your Highness, don’t be so impatient,” Xilin said with a smile.
Everyone was paying close attention to who had taken first place.
“His Highness Glenn and Lord Shuen are tied.”
When the results were announced, Wuli wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
Her gaze shifted, and she noticed Shuen looking at her. Wuli immediately gave him a sincere smile.
“Brother, congratulations.”
The moment those words left her mouth, she had the distinct feeling of being targeted.
The black-haired princess and Glenn both turned to look at her, as though waiting to see how she would react.
Wuli instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
What was this?
This was a death trap of a love triangle, wasn’t it?!
Both male leads had taken first place. According to the rules, the winners were supposed to invite someone to take a ride around the grounds. As for who they intended to invite, the answer was obvious.
The white-haired young man glanced at his rival. With one foot on the stirrup, he swung himself back onto his horse in a single smooth motion, then looked down at Wuli from above.
“Coming?”
Wuli could feel the gazes fixed on her growing even more scorching.
Just outside her line of sight, the princess gave Glenn a shove.
Stepping forward, Glenn fixed Wuli with a cold stare.
“With him or with me?”
Wuli: “…”
Uh…
Well…
She honestly didn’t want to go with either of them.
Could she just not go at all?
The young girl immediately grew uncomfortable.
After giving herself a thorough mental pep talk, she looked at both of them with an apologetic expression.
“Brother, you’re very popular. There must be plenty of people who’d love to ride with you. I’d rather give the opportunity to someone else.”
Hearing that, Glenn smiled.
Before the smile could fully form, he heard Wuli’s next sentence.
“The same goes for Your Highness. I won’t take up that spot either.”
Glenn’s expression froze.
No one had ever rejected him.
He was a prince, the most noble person in the Empire aside from the Emperor himself.
Yet the girl before him had rejected him twice.
Once, the marriage proposal.
And now, this ride.
The feeling left Glenn deeply displeased.
Wuli, however, couldn’t care less.
If she agreed to either one of them, the unhappy person would become her.
The white-haired girl took half a step back. Her mind raced frantically, searching for an excuse to escape the situation.
The next second, a dizzying sensation swept over her as an arm wrapped around her waist.
Before she could react, she found herself seated on Glenn’s horse.
Wuli: “…”
With a swift movement, Glenn mounted the horse behind her.
‘Wait. This is mandatory?!’
Her shoulders were pressed tightly against the black-haired young man’s chest. Glenn’s arms encircled her as he reached past her to take hold of the reins.
The horse began moving at an unhurried pace.
Sitting rigidly atop the horse, Wuli felt half her body stiffen.
And she could still feel Shuen’s scorching gaze fixed upon her.
The scenery in the forest was beautiful, and the air was fresh.
That was precisely why it had become a cherished tradition for the winner to take the girl he admired on a ride through the woods.
But at this moment, Wuli’s scalp was tingling with anxiety.
What kind of situation was this supposed to be?!
The black-haired young man leisurely guided the reins. He could feel how cautious and tense the white-haired girl in his arms had become.
As the wind blew, strands of Wuli’s hair brushed against his neck, leaving an itch that seemed to reach straight into his heart.
Lowering his head slightly, Glenn caught the faint fragrance lingering in her hair. With a flick of the reins, he guided the horse in a different direction.
When Wuli realized they were getting farther and farther away from the pavilion and the crowd, her nervousness only grew.
Everyone knew that crowded places were the safest.
The fewer people there were, the easier it was for danger to appear.
Even with Glenn beside her, she couldn’t shake that feeling.
“Wuli.”
The person behind her spoke in a low voice.
Wuli turned her head.
“What is it?”
Her eyes immediately met Glenn’s dark crimson gaze.
The black-haired young man’s eyes were as deep and unfathomable as ever. Those crimson pupils made anyone who looked into them feel uneasy.
Wuli lowered her eyes uncomfortably.
At that moment, Glenn suddenly leaned closer, intending to kiss her.
A shrill alarm instantly went off somewhere in Wuli’s mind.
Just as their faces were about to touch, the white-haired girl’s eyes widened.
Acting entirely on instinct, she shot out a hand and slapped it over his mouth.
Glenn: “…”
Wuli: “!!”
The two of them were extremely close.
Wuli could even hear Glenn’s breathing.
Glenn’s gaze rested on her, icy and sharp. The hand Wuli had pressed against his lips trembled twice.
“Wuli, I’m your fiancé.”
Glenn tightened his arms around her, pulling her even closer into his embrace. His arm brushed against her slender waist, making Wuli shudder.
Fiancé??
So what if he was her fiancé??
The white-haired girl’s expression clearly froze in astonishment. She genuinely could not understand the situation.
Just a few months ago, Glenn had treated her as though she were his enemy.
So why was he suddenly paying so much attention to his childhood fiancée now?
Why was he trying to kiss her?
What, had he suddenly regretted everything and decided he wanted to salvage their relationship?
Not that there had ever been much of a relationship to salvage in the first place.
She had already returned the ruby pendant.
The boundaries she wanted to draw had already been made perfectly clear.
Wuli narrowed her eyes and turned her head away.
“If you want, we can be friends. But I won’t marry you. Absolutely not.”
Glenn paused.
“Why?”
He continued staring at her.
“Do you know how many people wouldn’t even dare dream of something like this?”
That question gave Wuli a headache.
“If other people want it, then let them want it. I don’t want it, and that’s that. Why does there have to be a reason?”
The words spilled out in one breath, loud and forceful, carrying a note of accusation.
She sincerely wanted Glenn to face reality.
To stop entangling himself with her and move on.
After listening to everything she said, the pressure around Glenn seemed to grow heavier and heavier.
The look in his eyes became so dark that it made Wuli afraid.
Then he spoke.
“Is it because of Shuen?”
Wuli: “??”
Before Wuli could even process what he had said, Glenn dropped a second bombshell.
“You like Shuen. That’s why you don’t want to be with me.”
Huh?
For a brief moment, shock flashed across Wuli’s face, and she forgot to argue back.
Seizing on that instant of astonishment, Glenn gritted his teeth and said,
“Does your brother know you have those kinds of feelings for him?”
“Does the Duke know? Does the Duchess know?”
“Do they know you think of your brother that way?”
Glenn gripped Wuli’s chin and forced her to meet his gaze.
Wuli was completely bewildered.
Why did he think she liked Shuen?
Was this another ridiculous love-triangle scenario from the otome game’s setting?
The white-haired girl first stared at him in disbelief before her brows furrowed.
“Are you insane?!”
“He’s my brother!!”
Glenn’s dark crimson eyes remained fixed on the white-haired girl before him.
“You wanted to ride with him from the beginning, didn’t you?”
Wuli was so angry she felt ready to faint.
“Fine, fine! If that’s what you want to think, then think it! But you and I are impossible, and always will be…”
The next second, her unfinished words were smothered in her throat, reduced to a muffled, distorted sound.
“Mmph…”
Glenn kissed her fiercely, his anger unmistakable.
His lips crushed against hers, his teeth catching her lower lip hard enough to hurt.
A faint metallic taste of blood spread through Wuli’s mouth.
Her mind went blank.
But her stomach churned violently.
Disgusting.
So disgusting.
“Wuli is just a little actress. What gives her the nerve to reject me? What right does she have to reject me? Without me, she never would’ve made it this far.”
“Exactly, Brother Li. An award-winning actress? A television queen? She only got where she is because of you. Wuli really doesn’t know what’s good for her.”
“Hmph.”
“By the way, I heard Wuli recently accepted a film from Director Guo. Supposedly it’s aiming for some major award. What do you think?”
“Let her act. Let her take the role. I’d like to see what she can make of it… Oh, and remind Director Guo to give Actress Wuli a harder time. Don’t let her have things too easy.”
As dizziness overtook her, Wuli could think of nothing else.
Glenn was still savoring the taste of her lips when he noticed something was wrong. He released her at once.
The next moment, Wuli shoved him with all her strength.
Their balance gave way.
By the time either of them reacted, they had both fallen from the horse.
Wuli felt no pain.
The instant they hit the ground, Glenn had shielded her with his own body.
At this moment, Wuli was bracing herself with both hands on either side of him. The black-haired young man lay on the ground beneath her, his eyes fixed on her with an unreadable depth.
Wuli didn’t even have time to get up.
Trembling, she raised a hand and covered her mouth, gasping for breath.
“Are you alright?”
An inner shadow she could never overcome.
Wuli turned her head away.
Then she threw up all the pastries she had eaten that afternoon in one rush.