When Wei Kangnuan no longer heard Peng Mingzhu talking again, that was the signal where he knew that she was done conversing with this "Qiang-gege."
Wei Kangnuan was never a person to keep shut his opinions and curiosity. One word to describe him would be straightforward.
In fact, there were many situations where Wei Kangnuan would diss a female or male without them knowing that he was dissing them due to his royal status. Otherwise, he would straightaway be telling a female somewhere along the way that she was too ugly with her makeup all caked on her face or a male was too arrogant when all they had were parents supporting them.
With his personality ingrained to him to be an honest person, he planned to walk into her room and confront her
'Who were you talking to?' he would ask with his arms crossed as though she had cheated on him.
However, before he could push open her door to enter her room, he was interrupted by Butler Cui.
"Your Highness?" Butler Cui called out at the suspicious looking prince who was currently kneeling on the ground with his ear against the door. "Your Highness, what are you doing on the floor?"
Standing up as though he did nothing wrong, Wei Kangnuan coughed while averting his eyes to the beautiful red and pink orchids growing out and said, "Nothing of importance. What are you doing here?"
"This servant came here to tell Miss Peng that the man that Miss Peng and Your Highness has brought in has awoken," Butler Cui informed with a bow.
Just when Wei Kangnuan was about to reply to Butler Cui, he was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
Thankfully, the ancient doors of China opened inwards and not outwards or Wei Kangnuan would have gotten slapped in the face by doors because the doors were not sliding doors and with his close proximity, he would have been hit quite hard.
"Miss Peng," Butler Cui called out with a bow.
"Ah Nai," Wei Kangnuan embarrassedly called out with a hand behind his neck.
When Butler Cui called out the name of Wei Kangnuan, Peng Mingzhu already figured that he was eavesdropping her, so she decided to ignore him and only pay attention to the middle-aged man.
"Butler Cui," Peng Mingzhu responded. "Lead me to the man."
"Yes…" Butler Cui respectfully replied with a bow before turning to lead Peng Mingzhu to the room where the servants had placed the man.
While Butler Cui was turning though, he continuously turned his head back to look at Wei Kangnuan with a hesitating stare. He was unsure if he should just leave without the prince or not.
Feeling the hesitation from Butler Cui, Peng Mingzhu turned around and looked straight into the eyes of Wei Kangnuan and said to the middle-aged man, "Let's go. If you're worried about your prince, you don't have to. I'm sure he'll have fun eavesdropping with his orchids."
"..." Butler Cui had no words to speak back. "...yes...Miss Peng…"
By the time the backs of both Peng Mingzhu and Butler Cui disappeared, Wei Kangnuan came back to after his trip back in the guilt world.
However, he then thought back on the situation, 'Wait… What did I do wrong?! She was the one talking to a man in secret without my information, so she should be the one in the wrong!'
But then, he also felt like he was also doing wrong if he asked who she was talking to, 'After all, we are not that close…'
He felt that he would be invading her privacy if he were to ask her who she was talking to, who was "Qiang-gege," and how she managed to talk to someone in his estate when not a single one of his guards managed to catch a stranger entering the estate.
'Or did they have a secret method of communication like me and Mo Yuanjun?' Wei Kangnuan suddenly thought of the idea.
Then, he shook his head to clear the thought from his head, 'Forget it. Think anymore and I will surely receive a slap from her.'
Going to Peng Mingzhu, she was currently in the room with the man while Butler Cui already left the room according to what she wanted.
"What else do you want from me?" the man asked with a tired expression on his face.
He was extremely worn out from the emotions that has been running through him and the physical treatment in the prisons. At this moment, he really wanted to just close his eyes and never open them again.
"Do you believe me?" Peng Mingzhu asked him before answering his question.
"Believe in you? In what?" the man asked back with a confused face.
He hoped that she was not going to make him even more emotional than he already is. He was afraid that he may commit suicide at this point if this goes on.
Being informed on the fact that his wife was actually just a person in disguise with no romantic emotions involved at all, how can he be happy? All his sacrifices that he had committed over the years, were they truly for nothing?
"Believe in me that I believe in your sacrifices," Peng Mingzhu answered as she stared at him. "You probably feel like killing yourself, right?"
"You… Do you have the ability to read minds or are you just mindlessly guessing?" the man questioned with a pathetic chuckle.
"I don't have the ability to read minds, nor am I mindlessly guessing," Peng Mingzhu debunked his question. "However, I do have the ability to make educated guesses with the information that I am keen on."
Hearing her answer, the man finally relented with a sigh and asked, "What do you want?"
"According to what I know, the way you speak is not the same as the common people. If I had to guess, you must have a noble background, right?" Peng Mingzhu inquired while still staring at him.
"You are indeed right," the man sighed as he moved his tensed body back to lay on the wooden pole of the bed.
"Do you want to tell your real identity?" Peng Mingzhu asked him while she took a seat on the chair set next to the tea table.
"Will you tell others?" the man instead questioned.
"I want nothing more than your name. Your position, status, parents, or anything else, I have no interest in them," Peng Mingzhu said as she poured a cup of green tea for herself.
"Tian Guang," he told Peng Mingzhu.
All of a sudden, his shoulders felt lighter than before for some reason unknown to him.
"Do you feel much better now?" Peng Mingzhu queried as she took a sip of her cup of green tea.
"How did you know?" Tian Guang asked with a surprised face.
"Holding secrets for a long time will bring us down," Peng Mingzhu answered after she shifted her stare from him to the cup of green tea. "Holding secrets means to also hold onto lies. The more lies we have, the more heaviness we feel in our hearts."
"The reason why you came here...was only for my name?" Tiang Guang questioned with a raise of his brow as he tried to move to sit on the edge of the bed.
"How do you feel about being subordinate to me?" Peng Mingzhu straightforwardly asked her real question to him.
In shock, Tian Guang did not answer her.
Only after a minute or so did he finally answer her with a waver in his voice, "I am unsure about that."
"Right now, only by being subordinate would you not be arrested and tried as a national criminal," Peng Mingzhu told him, taking another sip of the green tea. "Or is it that you want to be a national criminal? For a woman that has never loved you."
"How many secrets do you think she kept privy from me?" Tian Guang suddenly asked while releasing a sigh and looking up as though there was no roof to keep him from staring at the sky.
"Enough to make you want to die," Peng Mingzhu honestly answered. "Why do you regret loving her?"
"No," Tian Guang shook his head. "Even if she never loved me, she still stayed with me, committed herself to me, so at least, I still occupied a small part of her heart."
"But another man occupied a bigger space, right?" Peng Mingzhu asked with no care in the world at all that her questions were hitting Tian Guang right in the sorest parts of his heart.
With wide eyes, Tian Guang asked with a shocked voice, "You also know?"
"A guess," Peng Mingzhu briefly answered. "However, looking at your reaction, you must have met a scene that made you learn she held someone important in her heart."
Tian Guang laughed with bitterness, "You are right once again. I had questioned her then, but she told me that it was her father. Haha… I-I should have questioned her more."
"Did you ever learn who it was?" Peng Mingzhu questioned him seriously.
"No," Tian Guang answered with another sigh. "But I am sure that he is of someone important because she did not address in a manner equal to that of someone with a common background. Why do you wish to know?"
"It will be helpful to the case," Peng Mingzhu answered honestly.
"Who are you? From what I know, even if you were there to stop the homicide from happening, the imperials should not be asking you for help," Tian Guang stated as he finally decided to give in to his curiosity and to try to not dwell too much in sadness.
"I am no one important," Peng Mingzhu answered while circling the rim of the tea cup with her index finger.
"I do not believe so," Tian Guang refuted her answer. "The two imperial princes were respectful to you. Aside from that, you asked me to be your subordinate while hinting to me that you could keep me safe if I did become subordinate to you. That only means that you are someone powerful."
"I am truly no one important," Peng Mingzhu once again reiterated.
"If you want my loyalty to you, you have to be honest to me," Tian Guang finally threatened.