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Bai Yu’s eyes widened. The golden eyes that were fixed at her reflected laughter. “What do you think?”

“Your Majesty means-”

“How about this?” Before she could answer, Ouyang Hongxian interrupted. The confused Bai Yu could only listen. “Do you have someone in your heart?”

Is he going to do it like this?

“I...”

“Hm?”

“Your Majesty...” Bai Yu took a deep breath, then she continued in a soft but resolute tone. “I was born from the love that my father has for my mother. I was raised with the love that father and mother have for me...” Bai Yu said as her eyes confidently gazed straight at the son of heaven. “...I am a woman who spends her whole life waiting for love. That is why I wish to live the rest of my life with the person I love.”

The answer might be off-topic, but it was too embarrassing for her to say the name of the man she loved. She chose to say her true thought even though it was hard for women of this era to marry the man she loved unless she was supported by her parents or the Emperor.

.....

“You did not answer zhen’s question, but you choose to answer that you want to be with someone you love...” The golden eyes fixed at her with the same gaze that he had when he was teasing his own brother. “You have broadened zhen’s view.”

Bai Yu only smiled and said nothing else. She was not sure whether the Emperor was teasing her or was he truly serious about her marriage.

“If zhen marries you to a man you do not love, what will you do?”

“Naturally, I will accept the royal decree...” Her lips curved in a smile, her eyes cast down. “...Even though I’m unwilling.”

Silence fell. Bai Yu had expected to hear ‘insolent’, but there was only silence. She felt that she needed to stand her ground, even when she did not know if the Emperor was serious or not, and so she tried to make both her words and actions as sympathetic as possible.

However, silence did not remain for long before a gentle voice was heard saying something that further confused her. “Can you hear that?”

Bai Yu did not answer. She was still puzzled by his strange question. Shortly, two tall figures stepped out from the cover of the screen divider behind the study table that the Emperor was sitting at.

Ouyang Feilong and Ouyang Mingxian came to stand next to them, their faces showed no particular emotion.

Bai Yu immediately understood that the whole conversation was heard by these two men and that the question from the Emperor was directed toward them, not her. She was embarrassed, but she kept it under her calm appearance. Her eyes were fixed on the floor, not daring to look at any of the newcomers. Her face turned hot at the thought of him hearing her answer.

It would not be long before Ouyang Feilong started calling her a ‘love-crazed woman’.

“Da Chu’s second prince has sent a message to zhen, asking for you to marry him in exchange for the peace between the two nations.”

“Yes?” Without further explanation, Ouyang Hongxian said to her bluntly as if everything was a childish matter. A woman’s marriage was not decided by herself, the same as politics that did not involve women, but the Emperor easily told her this without caring about the long-standing tradition.

Ouyang Hongxian and Ouyang Feilong were truly alike!

In the series that she had starred in, Bai Yu did not know the details about the war since she did not have many parts in it. She only knew that there was a war, and it resulted in Da Chu’s defeat, crushed by Da Yang’s army led by Ouyang Mingxian and Ouyang Feilong. Furthermore, Bai Hua was an army medic during the war, as opposed to a sheltered young lady like Bai Yu who could do nothing but pray for victory and wait for Ouyang Mingxian to ask the Emperor for a marriage between him and her.

However, from the current situation, Chu Zhaoran was using the trick he had set up and the fact that she had intruded in his palace as an excuse to start the war. This negotiation of marriage in exchange for peace did not exist in the series. Somehow, she had become the cause for war without realizing it.

“His Majesty has summoned Miss Bai to ask you for your willingness.” It was Ouyang Mingxian who spoke up. His face was still pale, his tone was cool, and his words were still as distant to her as ever.

“Do I have the right to choose?”

“Obviously, no.” Ouyang Feilong extinguished her light of hope.

“Zhen called you to see what these two will choose.” The Emperor meant Ouyang Feilong and Ouyang Mingxian. Her diplomatic marriage...was up to these two’s decision?

“Which is it? Will you let her marry him?”

“Your Majesty...” Bai Yu curtsied, intending to leave. “I am a woman. I should not listen...”

“It’s fine. This involves you, so you should be here as well.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” She lowered her head to hide a smile. She already knew that she would be allowed to stay. She only asked to receive confirmation from the Emperor that she was more important than a witness who had to listen to two princes decide her fate.

“Father...” Ouyang Mingxian was the one to speak first. Bai Yu observed his side profile and concluded that he was slightly thinner, but was still wickedly handsome. His tone was much less cold than usual when speaking to the Emperor. “I feel that the marriage proposal is only an excuse to test the water and see whether Da Yang would relent or not. Considering Chu Zhaoran’s personality, even if Miss Bai marries him, he will eventually start a war.”

“Mm.” The Emperor nodded. He did not voice an agreement or objection.

Ouyang Feilong added with a serious tone. “We had indeed trespassed into his palace, but the assassination was set up by Chu Zhaoran, as I have reported to Your Majesty. This shows that Da Chu has the intention to start the war from the beginning. I agree with Ming-er. They are testing us with the marriage proposal.”

“A war with Da Chu will require both men and provision. If it is bound to happen, then why don’t we, marry her off to buy time to make preparation?”

“...” The two men could not find a word to argue.

“If your marriage is not for love, but for your motherland, will you accept it?” This time, he turned his question to her.

Bai Yu’s heart raced.

She never expected things to progress to this point. Many times that reality deviated from the story, Bai Yu could handle them all. But marriage...this was the fate she had come to change. She wanted to change her fate from loving Ouyang Mingxian to not interfering in anyone’s love, to not marrying into Qin Wang palace. She had yet to have a plan to marry anyone, and now she was faced with diplomatic marriage, something that she had never even imagined.

Bai Yu had seen this kind of choice only in dramas. She would never dream that after transmigrating here, she would change the course of fate until things ended up this way.

Love or motherland?

This should not be something that a villainess had to decide!

She squeezed her own hand with all her strength to prove that she was not dreaming. Sharp pain from her own nails digging into her palm was the evidence of this being reality. She really had to choose between love and her motherland!

She took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. Bai Yu searched for her voice and slowly uttered her answer. “Your Majesty, ...”

“...” Silence had taken over the royal study. Three pairs of eyes were fixed on her.

She closed her eyes momentarily before speaking up.

“I...”

“I will lead the army.”

Thud!

Her soft voice was cut off by the firm voice of the man next to her. His tall figure kneeled down so suddenly and forcefully that it caused a noise. The man continued in a resolute tone. “I was born to be Your Majesty’s soldier. There is not ‘unprepared’ when war is at our doorstep!”

Two pairs of golden eyes stared into each other.

“Brother...”

When in front of others, ‘Your Majesty’ was the only word that Ouyang Hongxian’s brother would call him. But now, he called him ‘brother’ despite having two outsiders with them. The older brother, who was rarely called so, tore his gaze from his brother to the sole woman in the room, lost in thoughts.

Bai Yu did not notice his gaze, because she herself was staring at Ouyang Feilong who was kneeling and asking for war.

“Brother, assign me to lead the army.”

The man that led hundreds of thousands of soldiers threw away his pride. He bowed down and touched his forehead on the floor, in front of the only person who was superior to him.

The commander-general of Da Yang’s grand army. The man who was always cold and indifferent to everything around him, right now, he was bowing his head, asking for the war that he hated all his life. War had taken his family, taken his lover, and taken Ouyang Feilong himself from his brother. He despised it, even while he continued endless killing.

But right now, he begged for it, only for his own selfish reason.

Today, Ouyang Feilong was utterly selfish!