Jiang Ningsui's back stiffened, and without turning her head, she said, "I was being petty."
With that, she fled back to the southern room.
Zhao Zhixue sat at the pearwood table reviewing the day's lessons. Jiang Ningsui extinguished the other kerosene lamp and set it on the table. Seeing her husband studying with undivided attention, she didn't want to disturb him. Only when Pei Duo had fetched hot water and returned to his room did she take a wooden basin to the kitchen to draw hot water for washing up.
By the time Jiang Ningsui finished her chores, Zhao Zhixue had just closed his book.
Seeing her husband rubbing his sore, tired neck, Jiang Ningsui rose and walked behind him. Her slender fingers gently rested on Zhao Zhixue's shoulders, kneading away his fatigue. Her technique was excellent, pressing precisely on the aching spots.
"Still my wife who cares for me best."
Zhao Zhixue smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying the leisurely moment of Jiang Ningsui's massage.
He asked, "How are Father and Mother at home? Are they both in good health?"
Jiang Ningsui's voice carried a hint of sulkiness: "Both elders are perfectly healthy!"
Zhao Zhixue finally noticed the displeasure in Jiang Ningsui's tone. He turned around and took both her delicate hands in his: "You sound rather unhappy. Have you run into something troubling?"
Jiang Ningsui looked at him with reproachful eyes: "Brother Pei shares this small courtyard with you—why didn't you tell me beforehand? And you even brought me…" As she spoke, her beautiful, refined face flushed with shame and embarrassment: "Brought me to do that sort of thing in Brother Pei's room. Where does that leave me? And what does that make Brother Pei?"
Zhao Zhixue thought it was nothing serious: "So you're angry with me over this little matter?"
Jiang Ningsui's face tightened: "How can you think this is a small matter?!"
Zhao Zhixue squeezed her hand: "Alright, alright, it's my fault. Just now Brother Pei called me to his room and gave me a good scolding too. I've already explained to him and apologized."
He stood up, led Jiang Ningsui to the bedside, and took her hand to feel the bedding.
Her hand met a patch of dampness—and a large one at that.
Jiang Ningsui looked up in surprise. Zhao Zhixue explained: "I accidentally spilled water on the mattress at noon. When you arrived, it was still wet. I was afraid you'd catch a chill, so I went to Brother Pei's room. It was thoughtless of me not to tell you beforehand that Brother Pei also lives here."
Jiang Ningsui lowered her lashes as the events of the afternoon resurfaced before her eyes.
She withdrew her hand and said, "I'd rather catch a chill than do that sort of thing in someone else's room."
Zhao Zhixue smiled: "I promise you, this will never happen again."
Since he had already said this much, Jiang Ningsui couldn't very well keep making a fuss. She asked Zhao Zhixue, "Why does Brother Pei live here?"
Zhao Zhixue: "The town's academy doesn't have lodging facilities. I happened to see this small courtyard available for rent, so I discussed it with Brother Pei, and we split the rent to lease this courtyard together."
The bedding was still somewhat damp, so sleeping on it at night would naturally be uncomfortable.
After washing up, Zhao Zhixue had Jiang Ningsui lie on the inner side while he lay on the still-damp spot. Jiang Ningsui refused, afraid her husband would catch a chill and fall ill, delaying his studies. If her in-laws found out that her husband had gotten sick right after she arrived, they'd surely point at her nose and scold her.
Zhao Zhixue had no choice. He got up, took two of his outer robes from the wardrobe, and spread them over the damp area: "Alright, stop arguing with me."
The lamp in the room was extinguished. Jiang Ningsui lay on the inner side of the bed, eyes open, gazing at the window bathed in moonlight.
Having just changed places, she couldn't fall asleep for a while.
She felt the hand resting on her lower abdomen grow warm. Pei Duo turned onto his side, his fingers tracing a winding path up from Jiang Ningsui's wrist.
Jiang Ningsui's spine stiffened. She immediately withdrew her hand and pressed herself closer to the inner edge of the bed. "Husband, you need to be at the academy by Maoshimo tomorrow. You should sleep early. Before I came, Mother specifically asked me to tell you to study diligently and not think about other matters."
She understood what her husband wanted.
But she didn't want to, and she wouldn't.
They had already done it once this morning, and besides, Young Master Pei was still in the next room—only a single wall separated the two chambers. Any sound at all would carry through. She simply couldn't bring herself to do such things with her husband as if nothing were amiss.
Pei Duo's palm met empty air, and the person beside him pressed even closer to the wall.
He let out a silent sigh and could only turn over to lie face-up.
This wife his parents had chosen for him was good in every way, except she was too rigid and dull, and she clung stubbornly to her own reasoning. Even if his mother had told him to study hard and not think about other matters, matters between husband and wife could hardly count as "other matters."
As long as he didn't say anything, and she didn't say anything, who would ever know?
On this side, the husband and wife each harbored their own thoughts, unable to fall asleep. On the other side of the wall, Pei Duo was also awake.
Even though the room had been aired out all afternoon, the bed still carried a faint trace of the woman's scent.
Pei Duo rolled up the bedding and set it on a chair, then lay fully clothed on the cold, hard wooden bedboard, hands pillowed behind his head, eyes closed in rest.
Having trained in martial arts with his father since childhood, his hearing had always been excellent. Even with the door closed and windows shut next door, the two's low voices reached his ears without missing a single word.
The young man's broad, handsome brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
It seemed he would need to find a separate courtyard and move out. Living alongside the married couple was inconvenient for everyone involved.
The next morning.
Jiang Ningsui remembered that her husband and Young Master Pei needed to leave for the academy at Maoshimo, so she rose at Maoshierke.
She prepared to wash up and head to the kitchen to make breakfast, but when she opened the door, the first thing she saw was a grass-white bed curtain and quilt hanging in the courtyard. They must have been washed not long ago, as a few drops of water still dripped from the curtain.
These were the quilt and bedding from Young Master Pei's bed—the ones she had wrapped herself in yesterday.
The scent of cedar that had enveloped her tightly yesterday, seeping into her skin through every gap, was Pei Duo's own scent.
Jiang Ningsui instinctively glanced toward the northern room. The door was shut, the window half-open, and through the gap she caught a glimpse of the young man's jade-colored sleeve resting on the edge of the table. Remembering what had happened yesterday, a flush of embarrassment and shame crept up Jiang Ningsui's face again.
She hastily averted her gaze and slipped into the kitchen, washing up before starting to prepare breakfast.
Before long, footsteps sounded from outside the kitchen.
Jiang Ningsui assumed her husband had come. She added some hot water to the wooden basin, then turned toward the kitchen doorway with a beaming smile, basin in hand. "Hus—" Seeing that the person stepping through the door was Pei Duo, the word "band" was forcibly swallowed back down, and she hastily corrected herself: "Young Master Pei."
The young man was extremely tall. Today he wore a jade-colored cross-collared robe with a jade hairpin binding his hair. As he stepped through the kitchen doorway, his shadow cast by the light fell over Jiang Ningsui in an instant.
Pei Duo gave a slight nod and called out, "Sister-in-law."
He placed a tael of silver on the table by the window. "Sister-in-law, I don't have time to go into town for supplies. Keep this tael of silver—I'll need to trouble you to help with the shopping and cooking."
The young man added one more line before leaving: "This is my food allowance for the month."
Jiang Ningsui had never seen such a large sum of silver in her entire life. The most money she had ever laid eyes on was a few dozen copper coins—she hadn't even caught a glimpse of the five taels of silver the Zhao family had paid to the Jiang family.
Moreover, for just one person, how could Mr. Pei possibly eat through a full tael of silver in a single month? That amount could sustain him for several months.
Jiang Ningsui honestly told Pei Duo that one tael of silver would be enough to cover his meals for months.
Hearing this, the young man said in a calm tone, "Sister-in-law, just handle it as you see fit."
When Zhao Zhixue got up, Jiang Ningsui told him about the matter. Zhao Zhixue reassured her, saying, "It's fine. If he offers food money again later, just don't accept it for now."
Zhao Zhixue was somewhat surprised that Pei Duo would set aside a full tael of silver for food expenses in a month.
He knew well that impoverished families would sell their daughters for a single tael of silver. His own family had bled dry to spend five taels marrying Jiang Ningsui—his parents had complained endlessly about it in private. If not for the fact that they believed Jiang Ningsui's birth chart was auspicious for him and could help him pass the examinations with top honors, his parents wouldn't have been willing to part with that money.
The Pei family had moved to Xiping Cun seventeen years ago as outsiders.
Pei's father said he had been an escort guard, and his wife was a fallen noble lady. Their original town had been ransacked by bandits, and they had fled as refugees to settle here. Pei's father indeed possessed excellent martial skills and often took Pei Duo into the mountains to hunt. When they caught large beasts, they would share the meat with the villagers. Everyone in Xiping Cun spoke of how loving and harmonious the Pei couple were—kind-hearted and good-natured people.
Zhao Zhixue was four years older than Pei Duo. Come to think of it, his desire to study and pursue scholarly honors had actually been influenced by Pei Duo.
Zhao Zhixue often thought that if he had a mother as learned and brilliant as Pei Duo's, perhaps he too, like Pei Duo, would have placed first in the Yuanshi at such a young age.
After breakfast, Zhao Zhixue and Pei Duo left for the academy.
With nothing to do at home, Jiang Ningsui decided to sweep and clean the entire house inside and out.
She didn't enter Pei Duo's room, only cleaning the area outside his window and the courtyard.
The courtyard gate stood wide open when a laugh drifted in, followed by a woman's loud voice: "Oh my, little miss, what relation are you to this household?"
Jiang Ningsui wiped the thin sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and turned to see a woman entering the courtyard holding a child by the hand. The woman's hair was wrapped in a brown headscarf, and she wore a chestnut-colored straight-collar jacket with matching trousers. Her figure was full and plump, and when she smiled, two dimples appeared on her cheeks.
The woman introduced herself with easy familiarity. Her name was Mu Hua, and she lived in the neighboring courtyard. Her husband worked on a merchant's boat, returning home only a few times a year, while she stayed home tending to the courtyard and their child.
Jiang Ningsui had never had many friends growing up. When she lived with her natal family, she stayed home all day with endless chores to do.
After marrying into the Zhao family, the only people she could talk to at home were her husband and mother-in-law. Her father-in-law seemed to hold no favor toward her—every time he saw her, he would let out a snort from his nose. Jiang Ningsui guessed that her father-in-law was still bitter about the five taels of silver and was taking his frustration out on her.
All she could do was swallow her bitterness and say nothing, while praying daily to heaven for mercy, asking it to help her again and again so that her husband could place first in the examinations.
If not, her life in the Zhao family would be worse than death.
Mu Hua was talkative and had a lively way of speaking. After chatting with her for a while, Jiang Ningsui felt her gloomy mood lift considerably. Mu Hua asked, "Little miss, there are two Xiucai scholars living in this courtyard—which one is your husband?"
Before Jiang Ningsui could answer, Mu Hua's son suddenly pointed toward the courtyard gate and said, "The scholar gentleman is back."
Jiang Ningsui looked up and saw Pei Duo, who had left for about an hour.
Why had he returned early?
Mu Hua had seen this Xiucai gentleman a few times before. Not just on this alley, but in all of Qingping Zhen, there was no other man as handsome as this young gentleman.
Looking at Jiang Xiaoniangzi again—her face was as delicate as a peach blossom, with a refined oval face, curved brows, apricot-shaped eyes, and porcelain-white skin. When she smiled, her eyes sparkled with a moving brightness.
She had to say, she and this Xiucai gentleman made quite a matching pair.
Mu Hua smiled and said, "Young miss, let me guess—this must be your husband, right?"
Her voice was not quiet, and it happened that Pei Duo stepped through the door at that moment.
The young man lifted his thin eyelids, his gaze falling directly on Jiang Ningsui.
His eyes were as deep as a pool, and that calm, emotionless look made Jiang Ningsui's scalp tighten instantly. The embarrassing and shameful events of yesterday had not yet been forgotten, and today someone had mistaken them for a married couple.
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This chapter has red envelopes~
Pei Duo: Sister Mu has good eyesight—yes, I am her husband.
Jiang Ningsui: ??