It came as a shock to him that Song Yue had not only agreed to this marriage beforehand but she didn't even tell him about it.
It's tough for Mark to believe it as his fiancée isn't the type to scheme behind his back. He liked her because of her honest and kind nature.
Mark felt betrayed.
He didn't want to stay at the place any longer and wanted to meet her.
Not commenting on Shen Ling's earlier statement, he spoke to her father, "King Shen, please excuse me for a minute. We'll talk again on this, after a while."
In response, the king said, "Look Lu Zhen, I really respect you. So, I'm explaining all this to you. My daughter is already 26 years old. It saddens me to send her away when we just reunited but the world isn't that forgiving for the lady, especially if she is of the royal family. The higher the age of an unmarried woman, the more people think that she has some kind of defect. That is why I want to get her married soon.
I have already heard of your opinion but please do take three more days of time to ponder on it carefully and give me your decision."
"Alright." Mark didn't care about his words, at the moment. His mind is on something else.
He left the place and went to the guest's section with the help of a soldier. He wants to confront Song Yue on this matter right away.
Meanwhile, inside one of the rooms, Song Yue was sitting on the bed with a scroll in her hand. She looked like she was in deep thinking.
*knock* knock*
The knocks on the door brought her to reality and she hid the scroll back into the storage ring and spoke loudly, "Yes, please enter."
The door was opened and she saw Mark. His usual bright-looking expression was gone and he looked like he was quite frustrated.
He closed the door and then walked toward her. Song Yue got up from the bed. "What happened?" she asked.
"King Shen Niu gave me a marriage proposal for his daughter," replied Mark before immediately asking her, "After the auction, did Princess Shen express her desire to marry me and you have already given your consent?"
"Eh?" Song Yue had expected this to happen but didn't expect that Mark would be so displeased by it. She slowly nodded, "Yes."
Mark almost raised his voice, "Why?"
Turning around and slowly walking a couple of steps away, she answered while trying her best to hide her emotions, "I cannot stand in the way of your bright future. She is a princess, beautiful, intelligent, and I thought she will match you in every way."
"Well, not as beautiful as you but she's okay I guess…" Mark trailed off a little bit, commenting on her statement before he shook his head and got on the right track, "No, that's not the point. This isn't about calculations. It's about feelings. I don't feel anything for her."
Her face glowed for a bit but she tried to suppress it and argued back without looking at him, "Well, you can develop feelings after getting engaged. Lots of people ended up loving each other after the marriage."
Mark only became more frustrated as he raised his voice this time as if he was having a verbal fight with her, "No, I can never develop feelings for that woman because I…"
He was about to tell something but the realization hit him and he forced himself to swallow down the words and tried to speak something else, "because I... I… I have several goals to achieve. And I have told you once. Until I fulfill them, neither love nor marriage has any place in my heart or my thoughts."
"Sorry for not informing you." Song Yue apologized to him while becoming dispirited all of a sudden upon hearing his statement.
Mark didn't know what else to say and he just excused himself to leave the place, going to the royal guest room that he was allotted.
After entering the room, he threw himself on the king-size bed and hit his face against the pillow. "Idiot… what the hell was you going to blabber earlier? Okay, Song Yue was a beauty and your heart skipped many times because of her but that doesn't mean you should carelessly throw around the words."
Mark then sat in the lotus position and closed his eyes to calm himself, "Fuu… take a deep breath. Nothing has changed so far. But, the princess appeared to be quite confident in convincing me. I couldn't help but be curious.
But, what if I get convinced? What will happen to Song Yue?"
Mark didn't know how the situation will develop and that unknown future worried him. He doesn't want to abandon Song Yue at any cost and that feeling, which goes against his opportunistic nature, worried him.
Hence, he decided to run away from the problem, by leaving for Fujian island as soon as he acquired the land deed.
Mark slowly tried to clear his head with meditation, although not for a long time. In just two minutes, he heard the door knock.
"Hmm? Is it Song Yue?"
Wondering whether it is his fiancée who probably wanted to talk to him, Mark took a deep breath and got down from the bed, walking forward to open the door only to see the princess was standing outside with a smile on her face. "Princess Shen?"
"Can I come inside?" asked the princess.
Mark didn't need to think too deeply to understand her motives. He easily guessed that she will try to convince him.
He planned to escape but since the problem is already on his doorstep, he might as well face it, thought Mark as he nodded.
Mark dragged the chairs, facing each other before asking her to sit.
However, she didn't sit and just took out some kind of scroll, "mind if I use the sound barrier? It's better to remain this conversation private."
Mark became curious. He wondered what secret she was going to tell him. "Sure."
As he agreed, Shen Ling poured her ether energy into the scroll and activated the technique.
A visible yellow-colored barrier formed by the connection of hexagons, almost covering the entire room.
"Okay, I'm ready to listen," said Mark as he took the seat, indicating for her to go on with what she visited him for.
Shen Ling wiped off the smile on her face and took the seat, speaking in a serious tone, "Let me give you the main reason for my decision to choose you. I wish to become overthrow the patriarchal system in our society and become the first ruling queen of the Western Moon Kingdom.
And with you on my side as my husband, I'm confident that I can fulfill my dream."
"You want to overthrow your father?" Mark was taken aback. This is not expected by him for sure. But why she was doing that?
Was she perhaps angry with the fact that her father is trying to marry off to the Kun Empire's prince against her wishes? He wondered.
