Chapter 254: Technically romantic?
[Dammit! I went with nosebleed!]
[No…reaction…]
[…blushing.]
=That would be me so…house wins.=
=I don’t like losing, there’s a difference.=
=You would know that better than I.=
[Ooooooooh!]
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The fact Zhen Liu fainted over receiving two distinctive letters from two lovely ladies wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility for Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue to consider…it just had the lowest chance of happening to them.
“Zhen Liu? Are you okay?,” Zhen Yue asked.
“Is he alive?,” Zhen Hai followed up
“Yeah just…overwhelmed,” Zhen Liu muttered.
While Zhen Liu’s reaction was a bit…over the top, it was a bit justified due to both Zhen Liu and Thomas Lee having about as much dating experience of exactly one long term partner…combined.
Thomas Lee, exactly one incarnation ago, had been on exactly three dates in the course of his short lifetime…in real life. Any other dating experience he had came from games, visual novels and crying over adorable couple writing in shows and movies.
In the case of Zhen Liu, Jin Fang was the one to the initiate the relationship, what with the former being a melancholy sad sack/childhood friend/technically young master. For the sake of appearances and tradition, Jin Fang and Zhen Liu agreed it was him who initiated the relationship.
Wasn’t that weird of a twist, there were like a dozen or so couples in the frontier whose circumstances could be summed up as: rich boy/girl runs away with the maid/butler and live happily ever after…mostly.
Jin Fang’s and Zhen Liu’s relationship was essentially that, just skipping the running away bit.
There were also cases where polyamorous groups ran away together, but that was more of an exception than a norm.
Once Zhen Liu had recentered his state of mind, he sat back up with the letters in hand.
“So…were those courtship letters?”
“Zhen Hai! Tact!,” Zhen Yue chided.
“Oh come on, it was kind of obvious given the smell of perfume coming off them. You do that too with Santiago, I smelled the perfume.”
“Still though…that kind of thing is private,” Zhen Yue huffed.
Zhen Liu for his part ignored their bantering, opting to instead to just give them a quick rundown on what the letters’ contents were about.
Looks of approval, followed by confusion and then understanding rapidly flicked through their faces as they processed Zhen Liu’s words about the situation.
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=To be fair, that was technically a different lifetime.=
‘Silence from the peanut gallery!’
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“See I would be more estatic about Alicia and Bellona coming to pay a visit, but…”
“They’re coming over at the same time? Each implying possible engagement arrangements?,” Zhen Hai reiterated looking both shocked and maybe a little proud at Zhen Liu, “I mean I know I was considered a bit of playboy, but how the hell did you pull this off?”
“I don’t know, and that’s why I fainted,” Zhen Liu answered honestly. He remembered getting along pretty well with Bellona, hell she kissed him, and Alicia since they got involved in two very different death defying situations, but he doesn’t recall popping the question to either of them.
Rings were expensive and he didn’t want to force them to commit to anything, they could arguably do better than his transmigrated ass.
“Wait…,” Zhen Yue interjected,”I think I know why this is happening…”
“You do?,” Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu asked at the same time. The latter was tempted to shout “jinx” at this moment, but felt that now was not the time or place to introduce that concept to this world. He had more important shit to deal with right now.
“I heard father talk about it with mother and grandfather a few days back, apparently Uncle Zhen Yan and Prince Carlos had some kind of argument in regards to engagements…which I now remember overhearing was yours,” Zhen Yue explained.
Zhen Liu looked confused at the thought of his father arguing about this.
“Wait, why would my father-oh wait…right. Patriarch Goldshire,” Zhen Liu realized.
In the same vein Carlos and Uncle Zhen Hou made a promise to unite their bloodlines via their descendants, Zhen Yan and Alexander Goldshire made a similar promise.
“Apparently they got into an argument on who would become the first wife and determined that the best way to settle this was to have you decide…by having them both show up at the same time,” Zhen Yue explained.
“Okay…but why?,” Zhen Liu asked confused.
With a shrug, Zhen Yue explained.
“They argued that if one arrived before the other, they would have an unfair advantage in winning your heart.”
“…”
For the second time today, Zhen Liu fell to the ground in emotional exhaustion.
Evidently, he didn’t notice that he flung the letters into the air…only for Jin Fang to catch them.
“Huh…looks like I’ll have to leave something more permanent than a hickey next time,” she said nonchalantly.
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[You think Alicia and Bellona know about this little set-up?]
[Oh totally sorella. I’ve…read up on these types of dramas. Although, it’s normally two guys over one girl…]
=Bonds of friendship and romance are very different things Pathos. Besides, I’m pretty sure unlike Zhen Hou, Zhen Yan and Alexander shared actual bonds of friendship as opposed to “sharing body warmth” in a thin yet surprisingly roomy tent in a snow fallen forest with the only witnesses being the beasts and gods.=
<...>
[…]
[…]
[…that…was weirdly specific, amigo.]
=…I plead nothing.=
[The logical one’s been reading the “trashy romance” novels. The one with shirtless men.]
=Your first coherent statement and it’s calling me out?=
[Nice one, Razor!]
[No regrets.]
