Gu Nian brought over a bowl of hot chicken soup and fed it to the beauty. “What’s your name?”
She couldn’t go on calling him the courtesan or the beauty forever, could she?
“Jiang Xing.”
That was the alias he used while traveling the jianghu and investigating cases.
“What a lovely name.”
The young girl’s eyes curved into crescents. “Once you’ve finished your medicine, we’ll wash your hair.”
Watching her graceful figure bustle back and forth, Xiao Yan gave a cold laugh.
Even if she smiled like a flower, Xiao Yan thought her heart was black.
All this attentiveness was nothing more than a ploy to get his seed.
Dream on!
Still, his hair did need washing.
It was filthy and unbearably itchy. He could hardly stand it.
Gu Nian came in carrying a wooden basin, a cloth, and soapberries. She turned and went back out, then returned with a large kettle of hot water.
Smiling at Xiao Yan, she said, “I can only wash your hair while holding your head in my lap. Don’t mind, okay?”
Xiao Yan could only endure it. In his hoarse voice, he said, “I’m sorry to trouble you.”
Gu Nian carefully lowered his head onto her lap.
Xiao Yan’s gaze fell on the hands emerging from the sleeves she had rolled high up her arms.
Aside from a few calluses on her fingers, the skin of her arms was as white and lustrous as jade. A burn scar the size of a mung bean on her wrist stood out especially clearly.
Xiao Yan swiftly averted his gaze, only to meet the girl’s smiling eyes. He simply closed his own.
He did not want to look at her falsely sweet smile.
Gu Nian pressed her lips together in a smile. He looked even better when he was shy.
She ladled up some water and slowly poured it over his head. Then she rubbed a soapberry between her hands until it produced a lather and worked it bit by bit into his hair.
Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes. “The soapberries your household uses are different from those used by ordinary families.”
They carried an unusual fragrance. Common people would not understand such an elegant scent.
Gu Nian looked very proud. “My mother made them for me. She added several kinds of flowers.”
Her mother was a very particular woman.
Although her mother dressed plainly and wore no makeup, she loved cleanliness and especially liked making incense. Her clothes and skirts had to be perfumed, as did the bedding—even the soapberries had flower petals mixed into them.
The girl’s soft fingers moved through his hair. Once the lather had thoroughly soaked it, she used warm water to rinse it carefully from the roots down.
Gu Nian deliberately ran the pads of her fingers inch by inch over his scalp.
Thankfully, there were no injuries on his head.
The people who had hurt him had been vicious. They had left his head and face untouched only so that he could remain conscious of the pain and the humiliation of being covered in filth and poison.
Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes, feeling the softness of the girl’s fingertips and the precise pressure she applied. It eased his tense nerves, and his agitated heart gradually settled.
It took two buckets of water, but she finally got him clean. Gu Nian wrung the water from his hair with a cloth, then spread her fingers and gently combed it smooth bit by bit.
Suddenly, Xiao Yan’s eyes flew open.
“There’s someone!”
The two words poured into Gu Nian’s ears.
She froze and turned toward the window.
It was pitch-black outside, and she could not hear anything.
She was just about to ask when she saw the deep look in Xiao Yan’s eyes. Her heart jolted, and she asked silently with her lips: There really is someone?
Xiao Yan’s senses were sharp. He knew that an expert had arrived.
His lips moved. “Leave. Quickly.”
Now that they had found him, they certainly would not spare either him or anyone who knew about him.
Gu Nian understood.
Could the people who had hurt him have followed him here?
Crash.
The sound of something being kicked over came from outside.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Gu Nian placed Xiao Yan’s head back on the pillow.
She loosened the front of her clothes, letting the lapels fall open and reveal her snow-white jade-like neck and a flash of green undergarment.
Then she picked up the washbasin and walked toward the door like that.
Xiao Yan frowned. What was this woman trying to do?
Was she looking for death?
The two people outside were both experts. Going out so recklessly was far too dangerous. If she was killed, he could hardly be blamed.
Xiao Yan stared fixedly at her back, rapidly considering what to do.
Gu Nian opened the door and splashed the water from the basin outside.
A gust of cold wind blew over her, making her shiver.
Summoning all her courage, she pinched her voice into a coquettish tone and called, “Husband, don’t rush! I’ll be right there after I pour out the water!”
With that, she turned around, shut the door, bolted it, and slipped off her outer garment beside the window.
Candlelight fell across the latticework, outlining the girl’s graceful, delicate figure.
Then she blew out the candle, hurried to the bed, lifted the quilt herself, and crawled inside.
Good heavens, she was freezing to death.
Xiao Yan frowned.
The assassins were right outside, and she still wanted to take advantage of him?
She had no time to speculate about the beauty’s thoughts. She turned her head and stared at the window.
In a sweet, coquettish voice, she called, “Husband, don’t be so impatient. Oh, be gentler—you’re hurting me!”
Xiao Yan: “…!”
So she wanted to make the people outside think that the room contained a married couple.
Now that Gu Nian had warmed up a little, she reached out and grabbed the bedframe, shaking it while making shameful sounds to match.
When she saw the man sitting there like a piece of wood, completely refusing to cooperate, she angrily pinched his thigh hard.
“Ah!”
Xiao Yan had not been prepared for it and cried out.
“Make it rougher.”
The girl’s breath poured into his ear. “Husband, you’re so wicked. Ah—oh—mm…”
Fortunately, the little storybooks had been detailed. Otherwise, she would never have been able to put on this act.
Xiao Yan was speechless.
She was rather good at this!
In the pitch-black room, the girl shook the bed with all her strength. Her softness rubbed against his body, making him extremely uncomfortable.
Although this method was distasteful, it was the safest one they could think of.
He had no choice but to cooperate by breathing heavily and crying out twice.
…Like a drake forced to quack by a female duck.
After a moment, Xiao Yan said in a low voice, “They’re gone.”
Gu Nian’s hand was already sore from shaking the bed, but when she heard Xiao Yan’s hoarse voice, she still did not dare stop. She shook it hard twice more.
In a tiny breath of a voice, she asked, “Are they really gone?”
Xiao Yan’s tone was certain. “They’re really gone.”
“I’m exhausted.”
Only then did Gu Nian release her tired, aching hand. Her head naturally came to rest on his shoulder, and one lotus-like arm lay lazily across his chest.
Xiao Yan’s entire body went rigid.
Damn this woman. Didn’t she have any sense of propriety?
“…How did you think of that trick?”
It was a shameless trick, but it had worked.
Exhausted, the girl spoke in a faint whisper. “If they’re the people who hurt you, then they know that all four of your limbs were broken and that you were stabbed several times. How could you possibly recover so quickly and start having fun with a woman, making such a racket?”
“They sneaked in because they clearly didn’t want to alert anyone else. So I let them know we were husband and wife. Then there was no need for them to come inside.”
Xiao Yan: “…”
At least she had some brains.
“Fortunately, it snowed after we rescued you last night, wiping away your tracks. Otherwise, once they were certain you were here, they would have barged in no matter what.”
Her warm, soft breath blew directly into his ear.
He could not see her expression clearly. He could only sense the fragrance of her body drifting beneath his nose, and the same restless heat from the night before surged through him again.
Could some of the poison still be lingering?
Unable to bear it any longer, Xiao Yan said, “Take your hand away.”
Gu Nian rolled her eyes upward and stared at the exquisite profile the moonlight outlined, as though it had been carved by a master sculptor. “We already did everything we were supposed to do last night, and you’re still shy?”
His erection was pressing hard against her, yet he was still pretending to be innocent.
“It was not my wish!”
Gu Nian heard the frustration in his voice. Feeling guilty, she hurriedly withdrew her hand, shifted her body away from him, and lay straight on her back.
“I’ll sleep here tonight, so those people won’t come back.”
Xiao Yan strongly disliked having the girl lie beside him, but those people might make a return attack.
Besides, there was nothing he could do about her.
He had not been in Lin’an Prefecture for long when he had fallen into their trap. The people who tortured him had blindfolded him, so he did not know where he had been held.
When the Lone Shadow Guards found him, they engaged the enemy in a desperate fight.
Two Lone Shadow Guards protected him as he escaped. In the end, both were seriously wounded. They hid him in the grass and used themselves as bait to draw the enemy away.
The Lone Shadow Guards never appeared again. They had presumably all died in battle.
He had endured the pain and struggled to crawl through the snow.
Later, he climbed into a hay cart that had stopped for the night and hid himself in the hay before losing consciousness. At some point, he fell from the cart and was rescued by this woman.
Those people had not killed him because they wanted him to suffer every possible humiliation. They would never let him go, and they would certainly continue searching for him.
He had no way to leave on his own at present. He could only endure this for the time being.
But he had to find a way to send word out.
He did not want to remain with this woman for another moment!
With the beauty beside her, Gu Nian found it somewhat difficult to fall asleep. Her mind kept turning.
“I’ll buy your freedom.”
If she bought his freedom, he would no longer have to worry about being captured and taken back. Then he would stay behind wholeheartedly, wouldn’t he?
Xiao Yan’s brow twitched.
If he could use this opportunity to send word of his situation, his people would be able to notify the Lone Shadow Guards to come find him.