-Your family is... complicated-he said, he had investigated the dealings of the Lan family ever since he understood what his bethrotal to Lady Mei meant for his future.
-Were you going to dump Lady Mei because of the Lan family?-
He scowled, and while feeling a bit attacked by her bluntness, he could not deny that such a decision weighed on his mind for a long time, he knew now more than ever that he should have done better on that particular issue of their bethrotal.
-First of all, you should listen to me-he started while trying to pick a place to start the story without unravelling too much. There would be time to give her more details about the whole thing- Lady Mei was the daughter of the first wife of the oldest Lord Lan. Her parents had her when both were already past their 30 because your father´s generation dealt with a great war that took away many years of their youth. When Lady Mei was 3 years old, she was tested, same as all kids are, to see what her cultivation potential was and when she was found to be unable to cultivate, it became a huge scandal since her family used to be one that produced warriors and many mighty cultivators. Her father then became estranged from her mother and took 2 concubines in the meantime that gave him 2 sons and 3 daughters who are all younger than her and who can all cultivate. Her mother retained her position as first wife but she was blamed for Lady Mei´s inability to cultivate and she became bitter with her own daughter-
-Fine, will the parents and siblings come today?-
-Yes, they can not come since that would mean a great disrespect to Father Emperor and they do not hold the same positions as my side of the family, to make excuses-
-Anything else?-
-Yes, your uncle and cousin are also expected to come-he added- since he had a son from a first wife just one year younger than you, the other members of the Lan familiy started to regard him as the next generation family leader and that caused even more strife with Lady Mei´s parents who did not produce a son that could fight for that position-
What a nasty family. Mei was sure this was the very short version for the sake of speed since these people´s arrival was expected to be announced any moment.
-If your sisters are coming, you should be prepared to be teased-she opened her eyes wide at that- Just as Lady Mei and I reached marriage age, I had to go to war and thus our wedding never took place. Women in our society are ussually married at 17 years old and you are past that age. If they heard from someone that we were discussing the annulment of our bethrotal, they will try to humiliate you and ruin today using that reason-
-What a bunch of hyenas- Mei laughed out loud and Aridel did not expect that. But then again, she was a clearly strong and mature woman and found such antics quite childish-
-The Lan family was also pushing to change the bethrotal to your younger sister...
Mei stopped laughing and gazed firmly into his eyes.
-Really?-her eyes became mischievous- Well, thankfully none of that nonsense will take place, I am now married to you so let them despair about it however much they want-
Aridel sipped the last of his second serving of tea and Mei finished her buns. He had to accept, having breakfast and conversing with her was quite peaceful. It was quite a novelty for him to be able to talk to another person so directly, so openly.
-Aridel...
-Yes.
-Why did you really want to let go of Lady Mei?-she asked with a low voice. He kept his poker face. - You told me it was because being unable to cultivate made her an easy target if she remained with you, but since you know just how bad things were for her in her family, that cant be the only reason-
She really knew how to pick on a wound and not let go of things. And his choice was to tell her the naked and ugly truth or to have her pestering him about that issue in the future. He chose to tell her a half truth.
-Do you know what happens when you cultivate to a certain point before being 50 years old?- She shook her head no - Well, your aging changes and your lifespan becomes longer- She perked up visibly at that.
-I wanted to set her free so she could look for a better partner to share her life with-he explained- The way I am cultivating, I will reach that point in less than 3 years and unless I die in battle, I could easily live for another 500 years at least if not more. Lady Mei could not do that and we would have to part soon. I wished her no harm. This matter is also why some of my brothers and other powers want me out of the picture-
He did not say it, but Mei could sniff out that he did not wish to have a long and close relationship where he would have to see his wife become old and die much too early than he did. Men like him never said stuff like that out loud because feelings were not easy to talk about for them.
-Wait, if I cultivate fast enough, could I do that too?-she was visibly awed. He nodded.- And does one look young at such great ages or...
-You can look like you are young while really being old like that, yes-he explained.
-If that happens to me, could we have kids when we are, lets say 150 years old?-
-Yes. There are certain enchantments to delay fertility that can be used for such a thing-
-Waoo...-now this was a definite surprise. A good one.
-In your case, it would take a grueling training for the next 5 years to make up for all the years you have been unable to cultivate and you would reach my current level-he saw no fear or hesitation there. She would definitely do it.
-Just to finish for now, is it a rare thing to attain such cultivation and long life? Has anyone in the Lan family or yours done that-
-It is extremely rare nowadays-he said- It takes brutal training and a great potential that not anybody has. In our empire, there are about 10 million people living and from all those, less than 20 cultivators are known to have reached that stage. My own grandfather was one such person and there is one elder cultivator in the Lan family as well. All the families with one such cultivator are powerful-
A servant came up to announce the arrival of the Lan family members and Aridel stood up and helped Mei to fix her veil and stand up too. The Lan family would wait for them at the Main Hall and both of them would make their entrance while holding hands as part of the wedding ceremonies. With all that Mei got to know about that awful family, she knew it was show time...