"Creak."
The sound of a wooden door being pushed open drifted in, followed by the light of a lantern at the entrance.
Xue Wanyao wound a silk handkerchief around her fingers. Her mind flashed back to the spring drawings her concubine mother had shown her yesterday. She had originally thought that since the eldest son of the Marquis of Wuding was gravely ill, such things would certainly be unnecessary…
She never expected her husband would turn out to be Gu Zhuo.
Thinking of those spring drawings, Xue Wanyao's face grew redder and redder.
Gu Zhuo stepped forward and lit the candles in the room, instantly flooding the bedroom with light.
The wooden door was closed from the outside, followed by the sound of a lock clicking into place.
Gu Zhuo strode forward to open the door, only to find it had indeed been locked.
The voice of the Prince’s Estate Administrator came from the doorway: "Young Prince, Her Highness the Princess has commanded that you must spend the night with your concubine. You are not to step a single foot out of this room."
Frowning deeply, Gu Zhuo strode into the inner chamber. As soon as he entered, he saw the woman sitting on his bed. She wore lotus-pink clothing, her face like a hibiscus emerging from clear water, now tinged with a rosy flush.
Gu Zhuo snapped coldly, "Saving you today was truly in vain. I never expected you to be such an ungrateful wretch!"
Hearing Gu Zhuo's angry words, Xue Wanyao lifted her eyes to see the Young Prince’s face as dark as thunder. The flush on her face instantly drained away.
A wretch…
So what if she was a wretch?
Being a wretch was better than being unable to survive.
Xue Wanyao was not willing to lose her life at seventeen for the sake of a hollow reputation. Nor was she willing to live a life of bitter hardship in a nunnery forever. Besides, women in nunneries were often victims of bullying by anyone and everyone.
Xue Wanyao rose and bowed. "Your concubine, Wanyao, greets her husband. Husband, the beautiful night is short; let me serve you as you retire for the evening."
Seeing Xue Wanyao approaching to undo his robes, Gu Zhuo hurriedly backed away two steps. "Who is your husband? I certainly am not!"
Xue Wanyao said in a low voice, "I am of humble appearance and merely a concubine; I am not worthy of calling the Prince 'husband.' I ask for the Prince's forgiveness."
Xue Wanyao stepped forward again, intending to untie his belt. Gu Zhuo retreated another two steps, looking at her as if she were a plague.
"Don't touch me!"
Met with Gu Zhuo's look of loathing, Xue Wanyao felt quite dejected. After all, she was just a seventeen-year-old girl who had just been married off. To be rejected several times in a single day—when it should have been her wedding day, she had already been reduced to a concubine, and now she was being treated with such disgust…
Xue Wanyao’s hand froze in mid-air, and tears began to well in her eyes.
Gu Zhuo said, "Making you a concubine of this estate was my mother’s idea and your own; it was not mine. Even though you have the title of my concubine, I will absolutely never touch a hair on your head in the future!"
Xue Wanyao slowly lowered her hand and bit her lower lip, a tear trickling from the corner of her eye.
Gu Zhuo frowned. "What are you crying for? I did a good deed by jumping into the water to save your life, only to be repaid with ingratitude. I haven't even cried yet, so why are you crying? Hold it back!"
Xue Wanyao could only use her handkerchief to gently wipe her tears. She didn't dare provoke Gu Zhuo's displeasure; after all, this was the only place she had left to settle down and survive.
Gu Zhuo grabbed a quilt from the bed and threw it at Xue Wanyao. "Sleep on the small couch."
Looking at the silk quilt Gu Zhuo had thrown her way, Xue Wanyao stumbled back a couple of steps. She took the quilt to the small couch and lay down.
The couch was very hard and cramped to sleep on, but after an exhausting day, being able to lie down was already a blessing.
Having fallen into the water earlier that day, she felt an intense headache and dizziness. Not only was her head splitting, but she was also ravenously hungry. After all, she hadn't eaten anything the entire day.
At this moment, Xue Wanyao only wanted to fall asleep quickly. Perhaps if she slept, she wouldn't feel the hunger. Perhaps everything that happened today was just a nightmare, and when she woke up, she would still be the second young miss of the Xue family…
"You, woman surnamed Xue, I'm warning you—you are not allowed to sneak into my bed while I'm asleep!"
"If you dare try to share my bed and ruin my purity, I won't let you off!"
"Xue!"
Gu Zhuo shouted for quite a while without hearing a response. He walked over to the couch and saw the woman's peaceful sleeping face, her moth-like brows slightly furrowed as if something was troubling her.
Gu Zhuo looked down at Xue Wanyao and said, "Xue, you aren't allowed to touch me while I'm sleeping!"
Having said his piece, Gu Zhuo returned to the bed. Fearing that Xue Wanyao might try to share his pillow while he was sound asleep, he tucked the bed curtains firmly under the mattress before he dared to drift off.
In the dark night sky, as it was early in the second month, there was only a sliver of a crescent moon amidst a sea of stars.
As the stars shifted, a sudden roll of thunder erupted, the crack echoing throughout the entire capital.
Xue Wanyao was startled awake by the thunder. She realized her hunger was gone, and her head no longer ached.
The sky outside was beginning to brighten. Xue Wanyao opened her eyes and frowned slightly as she looked at the unfamiliar bed curtains in front of her.
She had clearly slept on the couch last night; why was she in the bed?
Could it be that the Young Prince, Gu Zhuo, had gone back on his word and carried her to the bed in the middle of the night?
It seemed Gu Zhuo was a gentleman on the surface but a lecher in reality…
On the other side, Gu Zhuo, awakened by the thunder, felt a splitting headache and a stomachache from hunger. He wanted to call for his servant, but when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the small couch.
Did that woman surnamed Xue really touch him while he was asleep?
Gu Zhuo felt a surge of grief and indignation. Was his seventeen-year-old virginity ruined just like that? Why did good deeds never go unrewarded?
Gu Zhuo slowly raised his hand, only to realize something was wrong. He sat up from the couch and looked down at the lotus-pink robe he was wearing… Why was he wearing a lotus-pink robe?
Gu Zhuo raised his arm and looked at the slender, fair limb before him. These delicate, white hands, tipped with nail polish and devoid of calluses, were clearly not his own.
And yet, he could control these hands.
Gu Zhuo reached down to check and failed to find his expected "little Gu Zhuo"…
"Ah!"
Xue Wanyao was still wondering why she was in the bed when she heard a woman’s scream. She pulled back the bed curtains and looked toward the couch.
She saw "Xue Wanyao" sitting on the couch, her face full of terror and panic. "Xue Wanyao" was looking downward, both hands placed over her chest…
Xue Wanyao’s eyes widened. "Am I haunted, or have I not woken up yet?"
As Xue Wanyao spoke, she jumped in shock. Her voice…
How could her voice be a man's? And it sounded exactly like Gu Zhuo's voice.
"Could it be… I've become Gu Zhuo?"
"You, you, you…"
Gu Zhuo, on the couch, heard the male voice and looked toward the bed. When he saw that the person sitting there was his own physical self, Gu Zhuo’s face was filled with utter shock.
"You're Gu Zhuo? Then who am I?"
Gu Zhuo heard a woman's voice coming from himself. He scrambled over to the bronze mirror on the dressing table. The reflection in the mirror was clearly that of a beautiful woman.
Gu Zhuo gave the woman's face a hard pinch. A sharp pain followed, making him wince.
Xue Wanyao said in a low voice, "Um, could you not pinch so hard? My skin bruises very easily."
After speaking, Xue Wanyao also walked over to the mirror. Seeing the handsome, sharp-featured face of the young man in the reflection, it was exactly as she suspected. She had truly become Gu Zhuo…