His roar was mixed with madness and cruelty.
Gu Qingzhi seemed unaware, and covered the incense burner in her hand and put it aside. She rolled up her sleeves with one hand and brought over the tray that had been prepared long ago. On the sandalwood tray with a gold rim, there was a pot of wine and two wine glasses. She turned over the wine glasses and picked up the pot to pour the wine.
"What are you going to do?" Xiao Changqing strode forward and pressed her wine jug, his calm tone hiding a hint of panic.
"Your Highness, don't worry." Gu Qingzhi gently pushed his hand away, filled two cups, raised one cup to Xiao Changqing, and stared at him with a smile, "Your Highness knows better than me whether the wine is poisonous. This cup of wine is for Your Highness. Thank you very much, Your Highness."
Ever since the Gu family was imprisoned, he had tried every possible means to guard her tightly and not give her any chance to commit suicide. There were secret guards all over the room and eyes everywhere, and anything delivered to her would be checked again and again.
Xiao Changqing looked at her quietly, his eyes so deep that they seemed to pierce through her soul, but he did not move.
"What? Your Highness, do you think I can do anything?" Gu Qingzhi smiled softly, raised his head and drank the wine, "This is the Qingzhi wine I brewed myself."
Xiao Changqing moved his body, trying to stop him, but the cup was already empty. His eyes swept across the other glass of wine, and he picked it up without any hesitation and drank it all in one gulp: "Even if you die, you can't get rid of me."
With a short smile, Gu Qingzhi folded her hands on her legs, and sat upright, looking at Xiao Changqing: "Your Highness is a beautiful lady. When I was still in my boudoir, I could hear the sweet voices praising Your Highness at every banquet. I still remember the first time I heard Your Highness's name. It was five years ago. At the young age of fifteen, Your Highness wrote an essay to the great scholars of the Imperial Academy, which amazed the world."
"I've astonished the world." Xiao Changqing scoffed, looking at her dimly, "But I can't astonish you alone."
There was an almost invisible wrinkle between his eyebrows, and Gu Qingzhi smiled calmly: "Your Highness is too persistent, or maybe it is more difficult to give up what you can't get..."
After a pause, a trace of trance flashed across her indifferent eyes: "When I was nine years old, my mother held my hand in front of her sickbed and told me that I could do anything in my life, but I couldn't fall in love with a man. The moment my mother closed her eyes, my heart went with her. A heartless woman is naturally ruthless."
Taking a deep breath, Gu Qingzhi kept a demure smile on her face, "Mother said that the only way for women in this world to live happily and freely is to be ruthless."
"Your Highness, look at how much respect my father treated my mother. After she passed away, he would rather have no legitimate son than remarry, but my mother still died of depression."
Gu Qingzhi smiled and shook her head slightly, "That's because she was greedy. As the head of the Gu family, how could my father belong to her physically and mentally? My mother loved and respected my father deeply, but she didn't get the same undivided love from him. She didn't want to become a jealous and ugly woman, so she could only suppress all her unhappiness and pain in her heart, and ended up depressed. It was all because of her emotions."
"Qingqing..." Xiao Changqing seemed to understand what she meant.
He thought about how they were just newlyweds, and he wanted to give her the best of everything in the world. He only saw her in his eyes and heart, but she was always cold and reserved, and was decisive and rational about everything, which made him feel that in her heart, his gifts and even he himself were worthless.