Clearly, Pei Yu was angry.
This time, if she did not dig out that jade pendant and just pretend nothing had happened, tomorrow her entire family’s heads would be neatly lined up in the grand hall.
Ten minutes later, Jiang Wu stood before Pei Yu, covered in dirt. Her well-defined knuckles were stained with mud and scraped with blood from sharp stones, and nestled in her palm, hooked by her fingertip, was a newly wiped jade pendant.
The warm, lustrous imperial jade refracted a soft glow, swaying bit by bit into the alpha’s curved eyes. One side of the pendant was engraved with her name.
The narrow path behind them was left with only the cold moonlight. Pei Yu’s gaze swept past the jade pendant and landed on the cuts on Jiang Wu’s fingers, pausing for a few seconds before drifting upward to collide with that pair of sparkling obsidian eyes.
The alpha nuzzled against her a little hesitantly. Seeing no reaction, she wrapped her arms around her waist once more, pressing the tip of her nose against the bridge of Pei Yu’s nose and planting a flattering, coaxing kiss at the corner of her lips.
“Your Majesty, I dug it out. I am sorry. I should not have thrown your things away.”
Her voice was soft, the trailing end of her sentence curling upward and then falling back down, resembling a child acting spoiled and begging for forgiveness after making a mistake.
Pei Yu lowered her eyelashes, and a few crystal-clear teardrops blurred the edge of her lashes before falling one by one, splashing open against the surface of the jade pendant.
Knowing full well she shouldn’t, she still did it anyway.
At the end of the day, it meant she didn’t care. She just wanted to pretend nothing had happened and wipe the slate clean.
Handing over her personal jade pendant on the very first night without even knowing who the other person was, Pei Yu felt she must have been out of her mind back then, and getting this result was entirely her own fault.
She turned her head away, dodging the little dog’s continued attempts to nuzzle against her.
So dirty.
She was covered in mud, and when she kissed her, the peppermint scent was mixed with a distinct earthy odor.
Jiang Wu didn’t seem to notice her rejection. Warm lips kissed away her teardrops one by one, yet only managed to make her shed even more inexplicable tears.
Having finally managed to make her stop crying, Jiang Wu quietly breathed a sigh of relief. With curved eyes, she planted one final kiss on Pei Yu’s lips before holding the jade pendant out toward the woman’s hand.
“Then I am returning this to Your Majesty. I promise I will never touch it again!”
Before her, the woman with reddened eye corners seemed to pause, her eyelashes trembling lightly. The lingering traces of her recent tears still clung to the depths of her eyes, and a fresh layer of moisture covered her light amber pupils.
For a moment, the warm touch against her fingertips left her feeling somewhat dazed.
What was the meaning of this?
She had chased after her, spent all that time covered in mud just to kiss and hug her, and in the end, all she wanted to do was return the pendant.
Pei Yu lowered her gaze, as if by doing so she could completely smother the aching, hollow sense of loss gripping her chest.
She curved her lips and pushed the person away.
“I do not want it.”
“You should go back, too.”
She didn’t want any of it. It had merely been a night of making do with a random, irrelevant alpha after falling into a trap, something she could easily brush off and forget.
As for the child, she could keep it entirely on her own.
Realizing she had messed up again, Jiang Wu lowered her eyelashes, staring blankly at the pendant in her hand.
Shouldn’t she have returned it to Pei Yu?
Why didn’t she want it? Wasn’t this something the original owner had stolen?
Surely Pei Yu hadn’t left it behind on purpose as a gift to her.
Unable to make sense of it, Jiang Wu hung her head and trailed closely behind Pei Yu. The moonlight scattered across the path the whole way, but since she was somewhat night-blind, she couldn’t see clearly whenever a shadow blocked the light.
Stumbling and practically falling with every step, she barely managed to keep pace with Pei Yu.
The woman didn’t wait for her, walking straight into the palace. Holding the jade pendant, Jiang Wu wondered if she was even allowed to enter. The stinging memory of the guards pressing their blades against her throat last night was still fresh in her mind.
She bit her lower lip, trembling slightly as she cautiously shuffled into the palace grounds.
The two guards at the entrance lowered their gaze to scan the jade pendant, then suddenly bowed in salute, giving Jiang Wu such a fright she nearly jumped out of her skin. She quickened her pace straight into the bedchamber.
In the inner hall, only Chunba was waiting outside the bed curtains to tidy up. Seeing her enter, Chunba handed her a set of sleep robes.
“Her Majesty is washing up. Lord Jiang should go clean up as well.”
Jiang Wu nodded, clutching the jade tightly in her hand and placing it carefully on the table before her.
“This jade is extremely important. Seeing the jade is like seeing Her Majesty. Since Her Majesty gave it to Lord Jiang, it would be best for Lord Jiang to keep it on her person at all times.”
“Understood.”
The calming incense inside the hall was exceptionally thick. Numbly, Jiang Wu followed Chunba to the bathhouse in the side hall, feeling entirely lightheaded.
After scrubbing herself clean and putting on the sleep robe, she walked back into the inner bedchamber. Pei Yu had already changed and was lying sideways within the covers.
Jiang Wu cautiously climbed onto the bed, scooted over, and wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist from over the blanket, only to be met by a soft, haughty tone from beside her ear.
“Get lost.”
There was no discernible emotion in her voice, but as long as she hadn’t ordered people to drag her out and execute her, everything else was a minor issue.
Jiang Wu lifted the covers, burrowed inside herself, and once again wrapped her arms around Pei Yu’s body, pressing her palm quite naturally against her soft lower abdomen.
Her voice came out muffled. “Did Your Majesty leave the jade for me on purpose?”
“I was face-blind back then and did not recognize Your Majesty. I thought it belonged to someone else, so I buried it.”
Hearing her explanation, the woman unceremoniously slapped her hand away.
“Face-blind?”
“Jiang Wu, just how many lies are you going to make up?”
Behind her, the alpha buried her face in the crook of her neck. Pressed together so closely, Pei Yu only then noticed that her body was trembling, remaining startlingly cold even in the warmth of June.
Lowering her gaze, she turned around. By the faint light of the night lamp, the minor scrapes Jiang Wu had picked up from stumbling along the path and the bruises on her arms were faintly visible beneath her robe.
A sharp, aching wave of soreness surged into her heart, pricking her all over.
Exhaling a frustrated breath, she took the alpha’s hand and pressed it firmly back against her lower abdomen. Parting her red lips, she delivered words that were as gentle as they were cruel: “Jiang Wu, I never keep insincere people by my side.”
“Once the child is born, I will kill you.”
The arms around her waist tightened. The young woman pressed almost her entire trembling body into her embrace, and after a long silence, softly whispered, “Alright.”
Pei Yu let out a cold laugh. “Get down and sleep.”
You foolish, cheap alpha, what is alright about that?
Can’t she even explain herself?
Wasn’t she just outside proclaiming her undying devotion to everyone who would listen? How come the moment she stood before her, she turned mute?
She had left her jade pendant behind, did Jiang Wu still not understand what that meant?
How on earth did an old, calculating fox like the prime minister manage to produce someone as utterly foolish as Jiang Wu?
Clearly, the situation had taken yet another unexpected turn.
Jiang Wu shrank her body inward, her instincts telling her that right now, she should hold onto Pei Yu and refuse to let go.
Trembling all over, she burrowed herself entirely into the woman’s embrace, gently nipping at the side of Pei Yu’s neck before quickly pulling back.
To her surprise, Pei Yu didn’t push her away. Instead, after a long moment, she reached out and gently gripped her ice-cold hand.
“Do not touch my belly. It is cold.”
Pei Yu had reached her wit’s end with anger. Calming down a fraction, she found it all rather ridiculous. They had been forced together in the first place, why on earth should she care about Jiang Wu’s sincerity?
Seeing that the woman’s emotions had stabilized, Jiang Wu breathed a sigh of relief and inched her freezing body slightly farther away. A moment later, her arm was lightly slapped again.
With warm flesh pressing back against her once more, Pei Yu placed Jiang Wu’s hand, now warmed by her own body heat, back over her lower abdomen.
Fatigue naturally accompanied pregnancy, especially after walking such a long distance back and forth. She closed her eyes, her consciousness gradually drifting into a hazy sleep.
By her ear came the noisy muttering of that stupid dog.
“Your Majesty, has our child grown a little bigger?”
Her heart skipped a beat for no reason. Pei Yu snapped her eyes open, her light amber pupils split evenly between sleepiness and complex emotions.
After a long pause, she let out a soft mm and drifted into a deep sleep resting against Jiang Wu’s shoulder.