After Being Forced to Marry the Evil Star General

There was a moment of silence in the hall.

When the King of Nanjiang proposed to marry the Princess to Yan Mingting in front of the main wife, everyone was a little shocked. They looked over one after another and saw these two people eating tanghulu together, not at all appearing like people of high status.

But after Zhao Yelan responded, the tanghulu in his mouth creaked as he chewed. He obviously had no expression on his face, but others felt that he was suddenly a bit hostile. However, he sat idly and said nonchalantly: “When did the Princess fall in love with Yan Mingting?”

“I heard you all proclaim that he is the most capable fighter. Only such a man can be worthy of me.” The Princess of Nanjiang stood up and looked over with pride and confidence.

“Ah, I see. Then I will break his hands and legs, and he will be paralyzed in bed for the rest of his life. Will you still like him then?” Zhao Yelan asked.

Everyone was horrified upon hearing this, and subconsciously glanced at Yan Mingting. But they saw that the other party didn’t care at all, and was even propping up his head. He looked at Zhao Yelan leisurely and didn’t forget to explain in a low voice to Li Jinyu beside him: “You don’t know, but in our family, he is the first in status, the rabbit is second, and I am third.”

“You!” The Princess wore an ugly expression. “How can you do this? Do you dare to make decisions for him without authorization?”

“Since you want to marry him, haven’t you looked into who I am?” Zhao Yelan smiled slightly.

“You are…..” The Princess of Nanjiang thought, and then hesitated. “You are Zhao Yelan?”

“That’s right. Since you know my name, you should also know how I am, right?” Zhao Yelan restrained his expression and looked around coldly. “It happens that I, Zhao Yelan, will make a definite statement here today. If anyone wants to marry their daughters or sons into the General’s Mansion, I will certainly kill them with my own hands. I have no relatives or friends, so if you really want to shed all pretense of cordiality, you will not have good results. If you don’t believe me, you can give it a try.”

Everyone’s expressions shifted. They did not expect him to dare go crazy on such an occasion.

“Don’t worry. If they dare, I will not marry anyone, and I will beat whoever comes.” Yan Mingting poured him a cup of tea.

Tsk, tsk, the General is completely under his control, ah!

Zhao Yelan turned his head and looked firmly at the person on the golden throne. He must get a positive answer from Zhao Xuan today.

And he also knew that Zhao Xuan would definitely reject this marriage. He just wanted to use him as an excuse, so he pretended to ask his opinion.

Yan Mingting had a lot of soldiers in his hands. Zhao Xuan feared him, so he ordained a marriage in order to restrain him. How could he allow the Princess of Nanjiang to marry him?

Zhao Yelan could also just take advantage of the situation to threaten the other people present, and get a promise from Zhao Xuan by the way before the situation changed unfavorably.

The last time he heard that Fu Qian’s family was discussing whether to send him into the General’s Mansion as the second wife, he knew that there was more than one person in Beijing who would set their eyes on Yan Mingting.

The rumors about Yan Mingting’s hideous appearance had long been dispelled, and as for his fate as an evil star, they could see that Zhao Yelan had been married to him for half a year. Not only was he unscathed, but his body was getting better and better, and gradually no one mentioned the matter of this evil star anymore.

Moreover, Yan Mingting’s character was apparent to all. Coupled with his status as a high-ranking and powerful person, he was simply the most ideal choice.

As time passed, it was hard to guarantee that no one would be tempted, especially those with sons and daughters who wanted to send their people into the Yan family.

“The Princess doesn’t know, but the marriage of these two people is related to state affairs. Now General Yan and Zhao-qing are deeply in love, and on one else can intervene. So even if it is me, I cannot arrange a marriage for them casually, otherwise, wouldn’t I be condemned by history?”

Zhao Xuan spoke half sincerely and half jokingly, knowing in his heart that what he said was the truth.

Seeing Zhao Yelan’s appearance of being willing to fight to the death, it could be seen that he was not bluffing. If anyone wanted to send a person to the General’s Mansion in the future, he feared that this man was capable of any crazy thing.

The princess had lost face, and said furiously: “If you have the ability, let us compare and see who is better.”

Zhao Yelan was about to speak when Yan Mingting suddenly pressed his hand and stood up. He said: “Then let me fight the princess, ba.”

“I’m talking about him,” the princess said, pointing at Zhao Yelan.

“What is the difference between him and me? We are one. Since the princess wants to loosen her muscles and bones, I will accompany you.” Yan Mingting rubbed his wrist and walked up, telling He Cuizhang without looking back, “Go get my Imperial Sword.”

There was an uproar in the hall. No one had expected that he would use the Chisa Sword, but the opponent was the Princess of Nanjiang after all, so they couldn’t’ help but speak out to stop it.

After being reminded by the King of Nanjiang, the princess knew what the Imperial Sword was. It could let someone take action without consultation or approval. Her face turned pale: “Are you a great general for naught, treating a weak woman like this? You are shameless!”

“Princess, you are being polite. How can a princess be considered a weak woman? A weak woman would not provoke a dignified fourth-rank official, let alone civil servants who are powerless.”

In a few sentences, Yan Mingting pointed out the contradiction in the dispute. The civil servants also gradually realized that the princess was so unreasonable that she wanted to casually compete with them. Wasn’t this clearly bullying?

Immediately, the crowd became angry and criticized the princess.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the King of Nanjiang quickly grabbed his daughter and smiled, trying to smooth things over: “My daughter has been stubborn and mischievous since she was a child. I hope the General and the Emperor will forgive her, and I will definitely teach her a good lesson later. Since the General is unwilling to agree to this marriage, let’s let this matter go.”

“All right. Then please don’t mind General Yan’s recklessness, King of Nanjiang. He is straightforward by nature and has no malicious intentions,” Zhao Xuan said.

The two exchanged a few courteous words with one another and then put the matter to rest.

Zhao Xuan announced the start of the banquet, and the maids filed out to serve delicacies.

Yan Mingting returned to his seat. Zhao Yelan handed over the last skewer of tanghulu, and he smiled as he leaned over to take a bite.

Musicians and dancers performed in the hall, and chatter and laughter gradually became louder as everyone mingled.

It was already xushi[1] when the banquet ended. Yan Mingting had already explained the follow-up matters to He Cuizhang and others, so he followed Zhao Yelan back to the mansion first.

When passing Huichun Tower, and seeing that the inside and outside was heavily guarded by soldiers, Zhao Yelan asked in a low voice: “The envoys and vassal kings are staying here?”

“En, Huichen Tower cannot accept outside guests these days,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan suddenly noticed Zuo Ran’s figure in maid’s clothes, carrying food and following the Nanjiang Princess upstairs.

After returning home, he asked: “Did you arrange for Zuo Ran to gather information?”

“I really can’t hide anything from you.” Yan Mingting smiled. “There is no news about Yao Muze’s master so far, so we will have to wait. It happened that the people from Nanjiang came, so I arranged for Zuo Ran to act as a maid in the restaurant to see if she can find something out.”

“She won’t reveal herself, will she?”

“Don’t worry, ba. She said that she has been serving people since childhood, and there will be no problem being a maid.”

Zhao Yelan nodded.

After taking a bath, the two of them lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. Yan Mingting was still thinking about what had happened tonight, and couldn’t help but embrace him: “Today you really……looked gorgeous.”

Zhao Yelan sneered: “You’re rather impressive, being loved by others so easily.”

“How did I offend you, she obviously just took a fancy to my identity. Even if it was He Cuizhang who was the general today, she would certainly say she wanted to marry him,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan asked: “Then did you really intend to compete with her?”

“It depended on the situation, ba. If she was sensible, she would know that enough was enough. If she really wanted to be provocative, then I wouldn’t have minded exchanging a few moves with her.”

Zhao Yelan pondered for a moment when his body suddenly felt ticklish. The other’s hand reached into his clothes, and wherever it went, it aroused a shivering tingle.

“Do you even know how to write the word restraint?” He spoke solemnly, but couldn’t stop trembling, so he reached out with a smile on his face to push him away.

“I have restrained myself for two days.”

In order to not affect today’s banquet, Zhao Yelan had not allowed him to do anything for two whole days. After making it to tonight, the words Zhao Yelan said for him in the hall would come to mind at all times. How could he not be moved?

The heavens knew how shocked and touched he was. At that time, he wished he could drag that person into a corner to bully him, and now he had endured so long that his whole body was on fire, wanting to touch that cool skin.

The throbbing in his heart turned into action, like magma breaking through the snow. Not only was the fire not put out, but it instead slowly melted the snow into a puddle of water.

The cold wind was howling outside, but Zhao Yelan didn’t feel the cold. It was as if he was being scorched by a stove, his whole body sweating and sticky. He wanted to take a bath, but just as he moved to get up, he was caught and dragged back.

“Where are you running to?” Yan Mingting showed a rare wicked smile. Only at this time would he show Zhao Yelan a completely different Yan Mingting away from the eyes of outsiders. He would say in the daytime that he didn’t want him to suffer even a little bit, but at night he would torture him in all sorts of different ways, and would not stop until he saw his eyes redden with tears. Occasionally, he would deliberately torment him. Seeing that he was about to find release, he would refuse to allow it. Zhao Yelan had to hoarsely cry, “I want it, hurry up,” as he suffered, feeling the joy of being overwhelmed.

The wind outside was unceasing, and the rustling sound accompanied their panting breaths as they spent this cold night together.

When Zhao Yelan woke up the next day, Yan Mingting was no longer in the room. He looked at the sky outside, and it seemed that it was almost noon.

Since the substantial development with Yan Mingting, he had become a lot more self-reliant, and clothed himself so that Xiao Gao would not see the marks on his body again.

After opening the door, he was stunned by the scene outside.

It had begun to snow at some point, and there was already a layer over everything. The white, snow-capped scenery was vast and beautiful.

He walked down the steps and had just set foot on the snow when he heard Yan Mingting’s footsteps.

“You’re up? Come and eat something to pad your stomach.” Yan Mingting stretched out his hand.

Zhao Yelan took it and followed him to the front hall, where he found that He Cuizhang, Li Yucheng, Zuo Ran, Yin Pinglu, and several lieutenants had all arrived.

Upon seeing him, the group immediately greeted him with smiles.

“I have something to discuss with them, and it’s snowing outside, so I thought they could come and have lunch together,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan nodded.

“You got up late, so there is only a bowl of noodles left. You eat some first, and lunch will be ready soon.” Yan Mingting handed him the bowl of noodles on the table.

He happened to be a little hungry, so he took two bites with his chopsticks and suddenly noticed that the others were staring at him. When he raised his head, everyone turned their eyes away and glanced around.

Zhao Yelan subconsciously thought that the traces on his body were not covered, so while he lowered his head to eat the noodles, he covertly glanced at his exposed skin. But even his neck was tightly covered by the collar of his cloak, so there was nothing unusual to be seen.

“How is it? How does it taste?” Yan Mingting turned his head to ask.

The others also looked over curiously.

“En, it’s delicious.” As soon as Zhao Yelan spoke, he saw that these people were a little excited, and asked in confusion, “What are you looking at?”

“We’re looking at you,” Li Yucheng said with a playful smile. “We haven’t seen you for a few days, and you are really more and more charming.”

“Speak like a human.” Zhao Yelan’s expression turned serious, and he looked at Zuo Ran and Yin Pinglu, who were not very good at lying. “You tell me.”

Zuo Ran rubbed her hands and immediately strayed from the topic: “Pinglu, I recited a poem yesterday, do you want to hear it?”

“All right, let’s recite poetry over there.” Yin Pinglu took her to a corner.

Zhao Yelan then looked at He Cuizhang, and he immediately ran to the courtyard: “My lord, I heard that you like watching sword dances, so I’ll perform one for you.”

As soon as he kicked up some snow, Yan Mingting pulled him back: “Don’t sword dance for him.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t dance, I’ll let the General dance,” He Cuizhang said reluctantly.

The others all laughed, teasing He Cuizhang for his ignorance, and they all began quarreling and roughhousing. In the end, they had a snowball fight without knowing who started it.

Zhao Yelan took a sip of soup as they threw snowballs back and forth, walking to the front of the hall to watch. Yan Mingting stood beside him and looked at him with a smile: “Have you finished eating the noodles?”

“En.”

“Don’t you usually eat only half a bowl? Why do you have such a good appetite today?”

“Who is to blame for that?” Zhao Yelan cast a glance at him. Not to mention getting up late, today was still……

Zhao Yelan paused suddenly, realizing that he hadn’t mentioned the matter to Yan Mingting. He hesitated to speak, and when he  turned his head, he found that the other party was gazing at him the whole time.

“Fangli.”

“En?” Yan Mingting’s eyes lit up. “What is it?”

“Actually, today……” Zhao Yelan moved two steps to the side to get closer to him, hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice, “It’s my birthday. Zhao Mengting’s birthday.”

After speaking, he raised his head to look at the other party, but saw no expression of surprise or bewilderment on his face. There was only a slow, spreading smile, like a red plum blossom on a snowy night, clear and delightful.

“I know, ah,” Yan Mingting said.

“You know?” Zhao Yelan was taken aback. “How do you know?”

At this time, the group of snowball fighters suddenly turned around. All together, they threw the snowballs in their hands. They hit him and rolled down his robe to the ground.

“Zhao-daren, happy birthday! Hurrah!” Everyone shouted in unison.

“You……” Seeing them laughing non-stop, Zhao Yelan looked at the chuckling Yan Mingting and said in disbelief, “You all know?”

“Naturally. How could I not know your birthday? But I’m very happy that you finally took the initiative to mention it to me.” Yan Mingting bent down and formed a ball of snow. He handed it to him and patted his shoulder, whispering to him, “They dared to hit the birthday star. Fight back, I will help you.”

[1] Xushi is 7pm-9pm. ⮐