Yu Xi was right at the part in her romance novel where the diligent, studious female lead and the tutor male lead shared a moment of mutual understanding, when she was suddenly startled by Xique tapping her, and she jerked upright from the daybed, sitting straight up in fright.
“Xique, you scared me to death!”
Xique quickly gestured at her with her eyes, lowering her voice. “Miss, the young master is here.”
Yu Xi immediately turned to look and saw Lu Zhi standing outside the beaded curtain, watching her, she didn’t know how long he’d been there.
Delighted, she hurried to greet him. “Husband, you’re here. Have you had lunch yet?”
As soon as Yu Xi got up, Xique quickly stuffed her romance novel into her sleeve, after all, there had been a crackdown on romance novel writers among the common people a couple of years ago, and it was said to have been ordered by Lu Zhi himself!
Yu Xi passed through the beaded curtain, tilting her face up to look at Lu Zhi, her eyes full of smiles and joy, reaching out to hug his arm. “Husband, husband, why aren’t you saying anything?”
Lu Zhi raised his hand, and Yu Xi’s arms closed around empty air. He frowned at the red nail color on her bare feet. “Go put on your shoes and socks.”
Yu Xi looked down at her own feet and said “oh,” then slowly went to pick up the socks on the floor.
She sat down on the daybed, somewhat unwilling. “Can I not wear them?”
“No,” Lu Zhi said, his gaze sweeping the room and pausing on the pink bedsheet. “Feet are a private part of a woman’s body. Exposing them like this is improper.”
Hearing this, Yu Xi looked left and right, the room had no one but her, Xique, and Lu Zhi.
She wiggled her feet at Lu Zhi, the red nail color making her fair, delicate feet look even more so. “I don’t want to wear them, no one else is here to see anyway.”
Lu Zhi moved his gaze away from her feet. “Put them on. Don’t make me say it a second time.”
Yu Xi had no choice but to slowly start putting on her silk socks. “Fine.”
Once she was done, Lu Zhi sat down by the table. “From now on, don’t wear such garish nail color again either.”
“But it looks nice…” Yu Xi muttered quietly, but seeing Lu Zhi looking at her, quickly changed her tune. “Whatever you say, husband, I won’t wear it again.”
Lu Zhi nodded, satisfied, and seeing her looking at him expectantly, finally lowered his eyes and said, “I’ll stay in the back courtyard tonight.”
At these words, Yu Xi’s eyes lit up immediately. “Really?”
“Mm,” Lu Zhi had meant to say something more, but found he had nothing else to say to her, so he stood up instead. “I’ll go now.”
Suddenly, his sleeve was tugged by a small force. He looked down and saw it was Yu Xi pulling at his sleeve.
“Husband, wait,” Yu Xi said, turning to grab a lychee, carefully peeling it, then handing it to him. “Husband, I peeled a lychee for you.”
Lu Zhi looked at her fingers, faintly tinted with nail color, holding the pale, tender lychee flesh, dripping with sweet juice, and remembered how Yu Xi had just been fed lychees by her maid when he arrived.
Lu Zhi looked away. “Eat it yourself.”
Rather than putting effort into pleasing him, she’d be better off learning how to be a virtuous, dignified lady of the household.
Lu Zhi came quickly and left quickly. Yu Xi watched his retreating figure, feeling she didn’t quite understand him, lychees were expensive right now, so why wouldn’t he eat it?
Xique stepped forward and couldn’t help saying, “Miss, the young master is just the kind of person who can’t be warmed up. Since he won’t accept your kindness, you shouldn’t keep crowding close to him either. Let’s pack up and go back to your mother’s house… mmph mmph.”
Yu Xi stuffed the lychee into Xique’s mouth, then found a comfortable position on the daybed and lay back down, Lu Zhi was so handsome, she wasn’t going back to her mother’s house at all!
Thinking of Lu Zhi’s tall build, broad chest, long legs, and that handsome face, Yu Xi reached for her romance novel again, just thinking that such a handsome husband belonged to her made her so excited!
Chewing on the lychee, Xique handed the novel from her sleeve back to Yu Xi. Seeing that nothing could get through to her, she could only console herself, at least Lu Zhi was a cabinet minister, and would be Chief Minister someday. No matter what, their young lady would end up a titled lady of rank. Not a bad deal, not a bad deal at all.
Since Lu Zhi was coming tonight, even before nightfall, Yu Xi had the servants burn incense in the courtyard, and washed herself until she smelled sweet all over, making sure she’d stay fragrant even if she spent the whole night in Lu Zhi’s arms.
Xique quietly laid a plain white brocade handkerchief on the bed. “Miss, use this later, so you don’t have to change the sheets again…”
Before she could finish, Yu Xi tossed the handkerchief aside in disgust. “That’s so ugly.”
Xique said, “…Then if you’re uncomfortable, remember to tell the young master. This servant just has a feeling the young master doesn’t seem like the type to cherish and pamper a woman.”
Yu Xi said, “I know, I know.”
As she talked, Yu Xi placed her own pink pillow on the inner side of the bed, and put the dark blue pillow prepared for Lu Zhi on the outer side. Then, thinking about it, she pushed the two pillows together, as if she could already see herself lying shoulder to shoulder with Lu Zhi.
Yu Xi clapped her hands. “There.”
Now she just had to wait for Lu Zhi to come!
The sky was growing dark, a dim ink-blue layer trimming the horizon, a few stars shining bright.
By the time Lu Zhi finished the urgent documents that had just arrived, the sky was already fully dark.
He bathed, then headed to the back courtyard.
The lights in the room were lit, the candle flame occasionally flickering with the movement of a figure.
The night breeze carried a sweet fragrance, faintly like the scent of lychee.
Lu Zhi pushed the door open and saw Yu Xi, who upon hearing the servant announce him, was about to go out to greet him.
Yu Xi was wearing a fitted lotus-pink nightgown, her black hair all draped behind her, kneeling halfway on the bed. The fabric was very thin, and even in the dim light, the outline beneath her plain undergarment was visible.
Yu Xi rubbed her eyes, her voice carrying a faint drowsiness. “Husband… mm, I thought you weren’t coming. I was almost asleep.”
Even as she said she was about to fall asleep, she slowly got off the bed and walked up to Lu Zhi, her nose suddenly twitching.
Lu Zhi frowned. “Smelling for what?”
“Nothing,” Yu Xi said, suddenly full of energy again. She asked, “Husband, why are you so late?”
Not smelling anything suspicious on Lu Zhi, she felt reassured.
Lu Zhi walked behind the screen to untie his sash, the jade rings clinking together with a crisp sound. “I had some official business to handle. If you’re sleepy, go ahead and sleep first.”
“Not sleepy,” Yu Xi said, poking her head around the screen, blinking. “I was waiting to sleep together with you.”
Lu Zhi’s hand paused as he untied his sash. He’d only come tonight to preserve Yu Xi’s dignity, so no one would make wild guesses behind her back, he had no intention of consummating the marriage with her.
He took off his outer robe. Yu Xi reached out on her own accord to take it from him, but Lu Zhi walked right past her and hung the robe on the wooden rack himself.
“I don’t need you to do this for me,” Lu Zhi said flatly. “You only need to do your part.”
Yu Xi nodded, half-understanding, and climbed onto the bed, hugging her pillow and waiting for him.
Seeing that she hadn’t put out the lights, Lu Zhi extinguished two of them, leaving only one, before walking to the bed.
Yu Xi was half lying on the bed, the blanket only just reaching up to her waist. She patted the spot she’d specially left for Lu Zhi, urging him. “Husband, come to bed quickly.”
The closer he got to the bed, the more obvious that sweet fragrance became. Lu Zhi glanced at the dark blue Shu brocade pillow she’d prepared for him, embroidered with pines and flowing water, quite finely made.
He lifted a corner of the brocade blanket and lay down flat, only to sense Yu Xi drawing closer to him.
The fingers of Lu Zhi’s hand at his side moved slightly, but he said nothing for the moment.
Fortunately, Yu Xi didn’t cross any lines. The two of them kept about an arm’s length of distance between them; she hugged her pillow, her small face pressed to the bed, watching him carefully and curiously, even her breathing light and slow.
After a while, Lu Zhi noticed that under the blanket, Yu Xi had shifted slightly toward him.
He opened his eyes. “I have no interest tonight.”
Yu Xi bit her finger lightly, in the middle of studying the high, straight bridge of his nose, and said softly upon hearing this, “Okay, whatever you say, husband.”
She’d been unusually, almost abnormally obedient these past few days, at least going by Lu Zhi’s shallow past impression of her, she shouldn’t have been this compliant with everything he said; she should at least have made a fuss.
He turned his head slightly and met Yu Xi’s bright, lively little face, she was clearly full of energy right now.
Because of how close they were, Lu Zhi could see her cheeks, fair and smooth, like the lychee flesh she’d handed him earlier, her cheeks like fresh snow, her lips like cinnabar, a couple of loose strands of hair falling across her face, extremely alluring.
Because she was lying on her side at the moment, the tie of her undergarment on one side hung bare against her neck, and her delicate, tender neck seemed to give off a faint sweet fragrance too.
Lu Zhi closed his eyes and looked away, it was just as well she wasn’t making a fuss; he had no time for it, and wouldn’t coax her either.
Seeing that Lu Zhi seemed to have fallen asleep, Yu Xi wrinkled her nose, the scent on him was the clean fragrance of bath beans, carrying a faint chill like winter snow, very pleasant to smell.
Yu Xi quietly moved her head a little closer to his shoulder, his shoulders were so broad, she really wanted to lean against them.
And his chest was full and firm too, looking very solidly built, even his arms were much thicker than hers, clearly hard and firm, and looked nice to touch.
Yu Xi hesitated for a long while, and seeing that even in his sleep Lu Zhi’s brow was faintly furrowed, she still didn’t dare actually lean against him. Instead, she quietly reached out her fingers and caught hold of the sleeve of his nightclothes, then closed her eyes, a sweet smile on the corner of her lips.
Her movement was very light, but Lu Zhi noticed it too. He pulled his sleeve free, placed his hand in front of himself, and only then slowly fell asleep.
Although the spring night was fairly cool, Lu Zhi couldn’t sleep well. Listening to the breathing beside him, he opened his eyes and looked at the top of the bed canopy for a while, feeling somewhat irritated.
Suddenly, Yu Xi, fast asleep, gave a soft murmur and squeezed toward him. Lu Zhi casually stuffed the pillow she’d tossed aside between the two of them, and Yu Xi hugged the pillow instead, growing quiet again.
Lu Zhi turned over, his back to her.
Outside, it seemed to be drizzling faintly. The fragrance in the room was too strong; the candle wick burned with a crackling sound.
Then suddenly, Yu Xi turned over too, rolling toward the inner side of the bed, pulling the blanket off Lu Zhi entirely.
After a brief silence, Lu Zhi sat up, looked at Yu Xi sleeping soundly for a moment, then reached out and tugged at the blanket, it didn’t budge at all.
Instead, Yu Xi, as if sensing someone tugging at the blanket, rolled further toward the inner side, wrapping herself up like a rice dumpling in the blanket, leaving only half her face exposed.
Lu Zhi sat there for a while, then lay back down, going without the blanket would do just fine.