Princess Too Young, Prince Too Old 13: Frustrated Marquess V

Proofread by Claire.KK

“Stop saying that!” Lu Zhishan caught her hand and tried to calm himself down. “There must be something wrong. I will go to invite Doctor Qin myself.”

“My Marquess!” Marchioness Duan leaned over Lu Zhishan’s knees, eyes full of tears. “I wish no more than meeting you once before I pa.s.s away. I never thought that you could treat me so well before...”

“Don’t say these words any more. Go back to the bedroom to have a good rest. Don’t talk nonsense!”

“My Marquess, I had been married here for almost four years. You rarely come back and stay in the capital city for so long. Now you can celebrate the new year at home. But I don’t know if I could live longer enough to celebrate the new year with you...”

“Of course we can. Don’t say such words anymore. We can celebrate all the coming new years in the following days.”

Marchioness Duan didn’t see the new year’s coming in the end. On the 23rd of the lunar December, Marchioness Duan breathed her last.

As dawn came, Lu Zhishan suddenly woke up. Hearing no coughing sound from next door, he suddenly felt pain in his heart. Quickly jumping down from the bed, Lu Zhishan stumbled into next room. Marchioness Duan lied on the bed peacefully; her face was horribly pale and her chest had stopped moving. Seeing that Lu Zhishan fell down on the ground covering his face with his hands, eyes getting wet with tears.

He didn’t love the woman. He was pretty sure for that. But he couldn’t help feeling painful in his heart at that moment. In a state of prostration, he was covered with great sorrow.

He still remembered that year when the condition of southwest border was serious. He was not willing to come back to attend the wedding ceremony at all. But he had no option as he couldn’t betray his father’s order. Then he waited and waited. It was until the day before the wedding that he returned the capital city. Emperor and empress dowager were unsatisfied with his behaviour but Duan had never complained about it. Lu Zhishan remembered that he was so drunk at the night of their wedding that he forgot to lift the red veil for her. Then Duan just wore the heavy crown and the wedding dress for a whole night. The second day Duan’s head was red and swollen but she still treated him tenderly. She told him that she took some melon tea from home and asked him if he wanted to try it.

Lu Zhishan directly answered that he drank Kuding tea only, which made her got nervous in a sudden. She immediately apologized that it was all her fault as she knew nothing about his hobby and she was really not a good wife. Then she quickly told a servant to prepare Kuding tea for him.

He couldn’t be more bored with her extreme caution. Actually, he was even not interested in talking with her.

That time he couldn’t imagine that when he returned the capital city with his broken legs, his wife would treat him as well as before. All people regarded him as a disaster, but Duan still spared no efforts to manage the Marquess Mansion well. Although the expense was decreased again and again, there were still many pots of superior Kuding tea transported from Hainan Province which were placed at everyplace that Lu Zhishan usually stayed, such as the kitchen, warm room, study and sleeping chamber.

Was drinking a cup of melon tea so hard for him? Why was he so hardhearted that he was not willing to smile to her seeing her embarra.s.sed condition, even on the first day of their marriage?

He just cared nothing about her.

He could care about the little girl whom he just met for once, but he was not willing to care about his own wife.

How could a man’s heart be so cold?

…

He didn’t spend a long time with his wife. But in the early morning, he suddenly recalled so many tiny things. He couldn’t deny that he owed her too much.

She pa.s.sed away before he had the chance to apologize to her or doing something for her in return.

The spring festival was coming. The funeral ceremony was supposed to be held before it, so it was just a simple one. Duan was the first granddaughter of prime minister, and she was also Lu Zhishan’s wife. Though she had such a high position, no one went to the back yard to give condolences. They just stayed in the foreyard because their emperor held a cold att.i.tude towards his first son and Marchioness Duan suffered from tuberculosis, a kind of infectious disease. They just didn’t want to take the risk. Lu Zhishan didn’t show up on the ceremony. Instead, he just kept sitting in front of the coffin and burning paper money for her, asking Song Fu to receive those guests in the foreyard.