Yun Si told her younger brother, “Yun Cheng did this on purpose. This was his goal all along.”
Yun Zhang was stunned. “Huh? He… he’s really disgusting!”
Yun Si sighed. Concubine Qiao, Yun Cheng, and Yun Ying—the three of them were truly a mother and her children, all fond of using such disgusting tactics.
Yun Zhang stared with wide, round eyes and asked his sister, “Then… then what should I do?”
Yun Si hesitated for a moment before saying, “If something like this happens again, you can’t just curse at him. Refute him with reason and evidence, and make sure everyone around understands what he did. Others aren’t fools—they’ll see through his malicious intentions.”
Yun Zhang frowned, clearly dissatisfied with his sister’s suggestion.
“Can’t I do the same to him? Give him a taste of his own medicine!” Yun Zhang asked.
Yun Si asked him two serious questions: “If you did something like this, wouldn’t you find it disgusting yourself?”
“And for someone as petty as Yun Cheng, do you think it’s worth breaking your own principles?”
Yun Zhang was taken aback. After a moment of silence, he shook his head. “It’s not worth it.”
Yun Si patted her brother’s head, thinking to herself that even though Yun Cheng used underhanded methods against her brother, she couldn’t teach Yun Zhang to retaliate in the same way.
Yun Zhang was still young. Children, once taught one thing, could learn two, three, or even four more on their own… She couldn’t let Yun Zhang go down the wrong path.
Yun Si said to her brother, “Go get your schoolwork. Let me see if you’ve really been studying diligently.”
Yun Zhang’s little face immediately scrunched up like a bitter melon. He dawdled as he brought over his books. “Sister, test me.”
Yun Si had been clever and studious since childhood, having read no fewer books than boys her age. Testing Yun Zhang, who was seven years younger than her, was an easy task.
After testing him for a long while, Yun Zhang was thoroughly dazed, completely forgetting about the conflict with Yun Cheng earlier that day. Only then did Yun Si stop and wave her hand, letting her brother off.
Perhaps it was because she had read too much during the day, but that night, Yun Si had a dream. Strangely, she wasn’t in the man’s bedchamber this time but in his study.
Startled, Yun Si quickly looked around the man’s study.
The study was spacious, with a long desk cluttered with many open books scattered haphazardly.
Hearing Yun Si’s footsteps, the man turned around in surprise. “How did you get here?”
Yun Si immediately felt annoyed. She had no control over the content of her dreams—how was she supposed to know how she got here? If she could control it, she would never want to come!
The man seemed to sense Yun Si’s frustration and chuckled softly. “It seems I fell asleep in the study today.”
Yun Si keenly picked up on the information in the man’s words. Did she appear in the study in her dream because he had fallen asleep there?
Previously, when she entered his dreams, she was always in his bedchamber. Did that mean he had fallen asleep there at those times?
Yun Si couldn’t help but say to the man, “Hey! Why don’t you sleep in a few more places from now on?”
“Next time, sleep in the courtyard so I can see what your family’s courtyard looks like!”
The man showed no reaction.
Clearly, he couldn’t hear these words from Yun Si either.
He couldn’t hear this, and he couldn’t hear that. Yun Si knew it was a limitation of the dream, but she was still so angry that she cursed, “You deaf man!”
For some reason, this sentence happened to reach the man’s ears.
The man froze, then turned to look at Yun Si and smiled. “Aren’t you the same? Little deaf one, little blind one.”
Yun Si was furious. The man was right—in her dreams, she was also deaf and blind, unable to see his face clearly or hear many of his words.
What had he said when she couldn’t hear him?
Had he ever cursed at her?
What had he said?
Once this thought took root, Yun Si was consumed by an unbearable itch to know!
“Hey, what have you ever cursed at me?” Yun Si asked, but the man couldn’t hear her again.
Perhaps because today’s dream took place in a study, or perhaps because they had started by cursing at each other, both Yun Si and the man were more lucid than usual, not as lost in the dream as before.
The lucid man was flipping through the books on the desk in the study.
The lucid Yun Si retreated to the farthest corner from him.
Quietly observing the study’s surroundings, she memorized its decor and peered from a distance at the book the man had opened.
The pages were spread out, revealing words the man had written.
Yun Si couldn’t help but frown. Scholars often annotated their books, but the man’s annotations were so large they obscured the original text…
His handwriting was bold and flowing, truly exceptional.
Yet the content of his annotations was utterly appalling—”Utter nonsense!”
Yun Si craned her neck, trying to see what kind of book had earned such a remark, but it was too far away to make out.
After a moment’s hesitation, she chose to give up on seeing the book’s content rather than approach the man. She stood still, carefully maintaining her distance.
The man showed no intention of coming closer either.
And so, they remained at opposite ends of the study, each minding their own business, undisturbed by the other.
A wave of immense joy washed over Yun Si!
For the first time, she had no intimate contact with the man in her dream. Could she control the dream now? Was she free in her dreams?
But gradually, Yun Si realized something was wrong.
Time passed, and the sky outside the window shifted from day to night. This dream had lasted far too long… She had never dreamed for so long before…
What about in reality? How long had she been asleep?
If she slept too long, her family would notice something was wrong!
Yun Si grew frantic, desperate to wake up. She tried everything—forcing her eyes open, pinching herself, even deliberately falling to the ground—but no matter what she did, she couldn’t wake from the dream!
As she lay sprawled on the floor, struggling to push herself up, the man strode toward her.
He bent down and effortlessly lifted Yun Si into his arms.
Yun Si struggled in his embrace!
The man tightened his grip abruptly, holding her like a vice, pressing her firmly against his chest.
His voice was icy cold: “Do you want to stay trapped in my dream forever, never to wake again?”
Yun Si was startled. His words shattered her last shred of hope. So he had realized it too—in the dream, if they didn’t engage in intimacy, the dream wouldn’t end, and they would remain trapped.
Yun Si quickly replied, “I don’t…” She bit her tongue hard. Saying she didn’t want that would imply she wanted intimacy with him.
She hastily changed her words: “I do…” But that didn’t sound right either. How could she say she wanted to stay in his dream forever?
No matter how she tried to explain, it never came out right. Yun Si’s face grew increasingly flushed, the delicate skin of her slender neck and small earlobes turning a faint pink. Her eyes darted away, unable to meet the gaze of the man before her.
The man reached out a long arm and placed Yun Si atop the lengthy writing desk.
Through the thin fabric of her clothing, her back pressed against the hard, cold surface of the desk, sending a shiver through her entire body.
Under the man’s watchful eyes, lying flat on the desk like this, she felt like a book about to be opened…
Yun Si’s face flushed so deeply it seemed about to drip blood. She reached out, clutching the man’s lapel, struggling to sit up.
But the man leaned down, as if she had just pulled him closer herself.
He pressed his hand against Yun Si’s shoulder, his slender fingers gently flicking open the buttons on her collar.
Yun Si squeezed her eyes shut, her voice trembling slightly. “This… this is the study!”
Ever since Yun Si began her studies at the age of three, her father and tutors had taught her that the study was a sacred place for reading.
Even as a young child, she knew she must not play in the study, nor eat there.
And now, she was about to do something far more outrageous than playing or eating in this very room…
A single tear slowly trickled from the corner of Yun Si’s slightly reddened eye.
The man’s rough fingertip gently wiped away her tear, and he sighed softly. “After so many times, how are you still so shy?”
“Let me take care of it.”
He reached out and pulled Yun Si into his embrace.