On March 11, the already stretched Oda family's front suffered another blow. The Honganji family, which was originally hostile to both the Miyoshi family and the Oda family, suddenly declared hostility to the Oda family, and Ishiyama Gobo's army began to invade Settsu. The merchants of Sakai Town also
After receiving the news, Honganji Temple is about to break the secret treaty with the merchants of Sakai Town and invade Yu Qiupei's Hanoi. However, Yu Qiupei himself is leading all the troops of the Yu Qiu family to garrison Takaya Castle.
Fuyuyasu Anzai, Nagahide Matsushita, and Yoshihiro Miyoshi were under tremendous pressure and could not evacuate. Akiupei could not confess to Oda Nobunaga that he had a secret agreement with Honganji, so before the Honganji family actually invaded, he could not
He asked Oda Nobunaga for reinforcements (because he couldn't explain how he knew that the Honganji family was going to invade his territory), so he had to find a way to defend the territory on his own to avoid being taken advantage of by the Honganji.
In desperation, Yu Qiuping had no choice but to temporarily leave Takayama Castle with Takenaka Shigeharu's staff, and transferred Naoe Tadayei from Maple Leaf Mountain Castle to Takayama Castle to take charge, while he hurried back to Maple Leaf Mountain Castle with his guards.
However, before he could start working, he was caught by Kaede Imagawa.
"Tell me, what's going on with Ryuko recently? Have you had a conflict with her?" Imagawa Feng asked Yu Qiuping straight to the point. Yu Qiuping's face tightened when he heard this, and he didn't know how to speak.
The reason why Imagawa Kaede could tell at a glance that he and Long Zi had a conflict was because the contrast in Long Zi's behavior was so great. Originally, Long Zi had always been Yu Qiuping's caring little cotton-padded jacket, always following suit step by step.
Behind Yu Qiuping, she helped him take care of everything in life. Every time Yu Qiuping asked her to help, she would get things done with a smile. However, when she came back today, although Long Zi was still following Yu Qiuping, she kept her head down.
She raised her head, her eyes were red, and she didn't say a word. Yu Qiuping was too embarrassed to ask her to do things, so he just asked the other guards to do the things that Long Zi was responsible for before.
"What's going on? Are you telling me?" Imagawa Feng saw Yu Qiuping not speaking, and asked anxiously with some doubts, "Are you sick?"
"No...actually...ah..." Yu Qiuping finished speaking, but still didn't know how to speak. He scratched his head in embarrassment. Finally, he gritted his teeth and told the truth about Longzi's confession to him.
I told Kaede Imagawa.
"Let me tell you, I have long seen that Ryuko admires you, but you still have to think of ways to marry her off. I really don't understand." Yu Qiuping was stunned by the first words Imagawa Kaede spoke.
She was shocked - she had actually seen it a long time ago. However, as Imagawa Kaede was talking, she suddenly felt something was wrong. She frowned suddenly and looked at Yu Qiuping: "Then this is a good thing, why is Ryuko so depressed?
.”
"Because of course I rejected her." Yu Qiuping nodded matter-of-factly and asked at the same time: "Feng'er has long seen that Long Zi is interested in me, why aren't you jealous?"
"What?" Imagawa Kaede froze when he heard this. After being stunned for a long time, he asked blankly: "You rejected Ryuko?"
"Otherwise, can I still agree? Do you still hope that I can agree?" Yu Qiuping was completely confused by Imagawa Feng's attitude and asked stammering.
"Wait a minute, let's sort it out!" Seeing Imagawa Feng was about to speak again, Yu Qiuping hurriedly stretched out a hand to cover her small mouth, and whispered
He said in a loud voice: "You have already seen that Long Zi is interested in me?"
"Yes." Imagawa Fengliu frowned, and very dissatisfiedly broke away Yu Qiuping's hand covering her mouth.
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Can't you see it? I thought you could." Imagawa Feng was surprised and glanced at Yu Qiuping's eyes as if confirming, "Do you want to hear the truth? You have always wanted to introduce it to Ryuko before.
Husband-in-law, I never understand what you are thinking. How nice of you to take Longzi as your concubine. On the one hand, it fulfills her wish, and on the other hand, our family can continue to live together."
"Won't Feng'er be jealous if I take Longzi as my concubine?" Yu Qiuping waved his hands in confusion, "Are you being sarcastic?"
"Why should I be jealous? It's not like you are messing around with women outside." Imagawa Feng shook his head in surprise and asked in confusion: "Ryuuko has been following us for more than ten years. We have watched him grow up since he was a child.
, we can be said to be a family. How can I be jealous if you take her as your concubine? Am I such an ignorant person? "
"What the hell? And pushing her husband out..." The surprised Yu Qiuping was halfway through his words when he suddenly realized that he was not living in a modern society of monogamy, but in an ancient society of polygamy.
"Ping, you don't still hold on to the concepts of your previous life." Imagawa Kaede could see Yu Qiuping's thoughts at a glance, "I don't understand why such a strange monogamy exists. But now is the Warring States Period
In troubled times, for the sake of the continuation of the family, how can a family head not accept concubines?"
"So you rejected Ryuko because of me?" Imagawa Kaede was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized, "If it's because of this, you don't have to. I won't be jealous of Ryuko.
Don't delay the little girl's life because of this, marry her as soon as possible." After saying this, Imagawa Kaede hesitated for a moment, and then added angrily: "But you have to ask for permission to take a concubine.
I agree! I allow you to take Longzi as your concubine, but I don’t allow you to mess around with women!"
"It's not like that! Alas! How to put it?" Yu Qiuping was a little touched by Imagawa Kaede's generosity, but his heart was still in a mess, "You can say it's for you, you can say it's not. I mainly do it for the sake of the relationship between us.
Feelings." Yu Qiuping, who has always been eloquent, was slightly at a loss for words at this moment. After thinking for a long time, he didn't know how to better express his inner feelings: "My concept has always been that love requires loyalty! In my heart, I don't know how to express my inner feelings better.
You can only pretend to be one person, it is impossible to love many women at the same time, otherwise it is not love! And I also think you promised that you will only love you in this life, and we will be a couple for the rest of our lives. Although it has been so long in this era
Sorry, I still can’t adapt to your ideas here! Don’t think about it, if a man loves a woman deeply, how can he have sex with another woman? Similarly, if a woman loves a man deeply,
Do you think it's possible for her to serve another man to the best of her ability?"
"This..." Yu Qiuping's analogy convinced Imagawa Feng. She just quietly thought about how she served other men, and immediately shook her head in disgust, "It seems... makes sense."
"But what about Ryuko? This little girl has spent her best youth waiting for you.
All the years have passed! There is more!" When Imagawa Kaede said this, he raised his voice as if he was suddenly angry and said: "Do you know that this little girl is thin-skinned! Do you know why in Japan, the man takes the initiative when proposing marriage? You know.
Why do both parties need to hire an intermediary or matchmaker? If the marriage proposal is rejected, even the man will lose his face, let alone the girl! For a shy little girl like Ryuko, she confesses her feelings to you, you know she is
How much courage have you mustered up? You just rejected people like this, how do you let people see you in the future, and how do you face yourself?"
"This..." Yu Qiuping blamed himself when he thought of this. After he rejected Long Zi, he only saw the light in the girl's eyes gradually dimming, and finally turned into bottomless darkness. Then, she pushed away
I ran away as fast as I could, locked myself in the room and cried all night, but refused to open the door for Yu Qiuping.
He knew how much harm he had caused to Ryuko.
But.
"But I can't promise her... That would be bad for both of us and irresponsible to her." Yu Qiuping shook his head vigorously and said sadly: "I really have no feelings for Long Zi between men and women.
I have always treated her as if I were a daughter or a sister, so I dote on her so much. I never thought that something like this would happen between us, and I never thought about it. You made me suddenly accept her
As my wife, I don’t know how to face her at all. If I can’t fulfill my duties as a husband, won’t Longzi be even more sad?”
"This..." Imagawa Kaede was speechless by Yu Qiuping. After a long while, he started to defend: "That's what you said... It's just that there are so many people in the world who take wives and concubines, and how many of them can have someone like Pinghe and me?"
What about my love...but isn’t life going on as usual? Can’t you really think about it again? Otherwise, what should Ryuko do?”
"But I can't accept my partner's kindness to me with peace of mind, and I only give half of my heart, or even less." Yu Qiuping shook his head and refused very firmly, "I can't do this.
If I didn't think it through and agreed to Longzi rashly, it would be torture for both me and her. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be husband and wife with her... How can we be together? I can't let him down for the rest of my life.
It's so irresponsible to her."
"This...sigh." Imagawa Kaede sighed helplessly and rubbed her hair in frustration, "What Ping said...is correct. It's just...I'm sorry for Ryuko."
"Longzi's affairs can only be left to Feng'er. You find a way to do her job and let her get married as soon as possible. She is not young anymore." Yu Qiuping shook his head and sighed helplessly again.
"After something like this happened this time, I may not be able to ask her to be my bodyguard again in the future. I'm afraid she will feel uncomfortable. Once we find the right person and Longzi agrees, let Longzi get married. I
I'm sorry for her... I'm really... I'm very sorry for her. She has suffered so much by my side for so many years, so I can only try to help her find a good husband so that she can be happy for the rest of her life."
After Yu Qiuping said this, Imagawa Kaede didn't know what to say. The two looked at each other in silence for a long time, and sighed in unison. However, the two of them did not notice that outside the room door, they had listened to the entire conversation.
Longzi fell down weakly on the corridor, hiding his face and crying.
Chapter completed!