"Nothing's wrong with the river," Peng Mingzhu answered as she stopped the tapping on her arm. "I just remembered that the river water seems clean enough to drink straight from the source despite it being so wide and long."
"It's one of the miracles of our empire," Wei Kangnuan gleefully boasted.
"It indeed is...the chances of one being formed...is quite and almost impossible," she quietly mumbled.
"By the way, what's with your clothes?" he asked as he stared at her up and down. "It's probably because of your clothes that Mo Yuanjun was willing to take you to our camp."
"What's wrong with my clothes?" she asked with a confused look.
"Do you not see that your clothes hug your curves just like a prostitute's clothes? And your hair's up like married womens'. Not only that, you don't wear any makeup despite looking like an adult woman," Wei Kangnuan pointed out harshly with a frown. "You look like a poor woman despite having no dirt on your face and hands."
It was at this moment that Peng Mingzhu finally felt that she was truly in a different world. Her way of dressing almost never changed, wearing the same black suit and pinning her hair up in a bun everyday. Having surrounded herself with people she trusted, she had almost forgotten that she was a boring person to the common society.
"This is how-" she was about to snap back, but shut her mouth.
"Also, since I'm willing to house you, you owe me a favor, do you not?" he asked.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked back with creased brows. "If it's within my limits, I can do it. If not, I'll have to reject it, even if it's a favor."
"No worries," Wei Kangnuan smiled broadly. "It's an easy request."
Hearing him say that, she eased her brows, "Alright, spit it."
"Become my woman," he requested confidently as though she would definitely accept.
"I've been living for 24 years and this is my first time to hear someone proposing to me so boldly. A stranger at that," Peng Mingzhu commented as she crossed her arms.
"Well, look at that. Don't we match each other? You give me first times and I also give you the same," he continued to confidently find his way to put them together.
"Choose another favor," she calmly told him.
"Why?" he asked with a frown. "Don't you know it took me a while to find a good favor to ask?"
"Did it? I didn't know," Peng Mingzhu retorted sarcastically. "First of all, I believe in marrying for love. Secondly, I do not wish to marry into a royalty. Thirdly, I hate harems. Fourth, I do not want to live in silence for all my life. Finally, I am not a person to stay in one place. I am someone who travels from place to place in order to experience different cultures around the world for historical purposes."
"Well, then, we are an even better fit for each then," Wei Kangnuan continued to say. "I would not propose to you if I did not love you. I can promise you that we will not be a part of the royal fight and live a life like a commoner. I will never have a harem, only marrying one wife, never to cheat on my spouse. As my wife, you can always tell me what is on your mind and I will be at your beck and call. Likewise, I also do not like to stay in one place and like to travel the world."
Hearing his long speech, she could only speak one word before biting on her tongue, "You-"
"What?" he smiled with a bright grin.
"You speak so lightly of love," she commented, staring at him with a deadpan face.
Finally showcasing the serious face that he uses to talk with Mo Yuanjun, he said, "I do not. Every single person that has known me for more than a decade can be my witness."
Sighing, Peng Mingzhu responded, "Fine, then. If that's true, then what about me made you fall in love?"
"Your brows, your eyes, your nose, your lips, your face, your body, your personality, your intelligence, your honesty, your-" he started listing before she finally stopped him.
"All right, shut up, you," she sighed. "You're making me seem like a perfect person."
"You're not perfect," Wei Kangnuan countered. "But, you are just perfect for me."
It seems that it was at this moment in which Peng Mingzhu finally learned of what is love. A question which she had for the longest time, but never interested to answer was answered. However, she could not answer for her emotions could not elaborate on such a thing like love.
"How about this? You have three months," she suggested as she stared at him.
"Three months?" he repeated with a question.
"Yes, three months to make me fall for you," she told him.
"Why three months?" Wei Kangnuan asked in curiosity.
"Because I have to leave in three months," she honestly admitted.
"Wow… I house you with luxury for three months and you cold-heartedly leave me after that?" he commented jokingly.
"I'm not such an ungrateful jerk," she told him off for his joke. "Before leaving, I'll be sure to give you a gift worth every moment you've helped me out."
"Telling me such truthful words, you don't seem worried that I'll lock and chain you up to me?" he asked as he took steps forward towards her, their original foot apart now a mere inches instead.
"There is not a single person in this world that can lock me away," she stated with confident eyes.
"Why?" he asked, even more curious about who she was and what her background was.
"If you manage to make me commit to you, I'll tell you why. Otherwise, we're nothing more than good friends," she told him.
Hearing her words, he gave a wry laugh, "Good friends? Is this what they call friendzoned?"
"You guys have such a term here?" she asked with intrigued eyes.
"Why? Curious?" he teased.
Reigning in her curious eyes, she shook her head, "No. Well, since we're done with our conversation, can I leave now?"
"No," he answered.
At his answer, she immediately frowned and glared at him. When he saw her glare, he finally chuckled loudly before saying, "You're such a good person to tease."
After that, he signaled a soldier and ordered them to set up another tent for her right beside his.
"Are you crazy?" she asked as she looked at him with wide eyes. "I'm just a stranger!"
"You're wrong," he told her. "You're not a stranger. You're my future wife."
"You-How can you make decisions so minutely!?" she exclaimed in exasperation.
"I don't make minutely decisions. I'm just a decisive person. There's a difference," he retorted with an honest expression.
Peng Mingzhu could not make a comeback at his words. Despite the two terms sounding like synonyms, there was a huge difference.
Making minutely decisions did not mean that you were decisive. Likewise, being decisive did not mean that were someone that made minutely decisions.
Instead, being decisive means you know what you wanted whether at first sight or after first thought. Making minute decisions though meant that you did not give much thought to your choices and chose at a rapid moment, not knowing whether they were right or wrong, or even whether they would contribute to your future or not.
Sighing in exhaustion at this decisive prince, she stated, "I want my tent right next Mo Yuanjun's. If not, I'll sleep in the barracks with the other men."
"You can't," Wei Kangnuan immediately rejected her request.
"Why can't I?" she asked with a frown.
"I get jealous easily," he told her. "I'll punish Mo Yuanjun to work ten times harder if I see you with him and I'll punish my men just the same way if I see you talking to them."
Hearing his outrageous jealousy, Peng Mingzhu facepalmed. When entering the portal, she did not think about who she would interact with. Had she known, she would have taken a preventive to cover her face with a realistic mask.
If not, she could have had the surgery that allowed her to face-shift.
"Don't change your face," Wei Kangnuan stated with a serious face.
At this statement, she lifted her face from her palms in surprise, "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"I didn't know," he answered with a smile. "I just guessed. Well, that and that you looked like you really wanted to hide in a hole at the moment."
"If there really is a hole, I wouldn't mind living there for life just to ignore you," she told him with non-joking eyes.
"No worries," he laughed. "I'll live in that hole with you. Though to be honest, even if you did change your face, I'd still be able to detect you with your smell."
"My smell?" she asked with a confused expression.
"You don't have the normal musky smell that women here have," Wei Kangnuan stated. "But, it's also not like flower perfume. Your smell...is unique."
As he said that, he walked closer. So close that Peng Mingzhu began to feel uncomfortable and started walking backward in order to distance herself from him. The more that she walked backward, the more he walked forward.
In the end, she was finally backed into the wall with him putting his arms up to block her from leaving.