After returning to her spacious bedroom, Madam Xie sent all the maids and older servants away.
Only when she and her husband were alone did she pat her chest and exclaim, “That was close! That was far too close!”
Xie Zhiyuan still had no idea what had happened. Seeing how shaken she looked, he shook his head. “What’s happened now? You’ve been talking about finding a wife for our son for ages. Fengxi finally got married today, and I arranged the wedding exactly as you requested. What else could have gone wrong?”
Madam Xie walked past him and gave his shoulder a thump. “Yes, yes, it’s my fault! I was in such a hurry to find our son a wife. Didn’t Fengxi get into trouble recently? I thought that since the boy refuses to listen to anyone and makes me worry all day long, I might as well get him married. And what did Fengxi say? He said that unless we let him marry Princess Jin, there was absolutely no way he would agree to marry anyone. But when Matchmaker Zhao went to the Jin family to propose the marriage, she gave them Qinglin’s name instead! When Jin Mingzhu heard that she would be marrying our Qinglin, she said he was a well-educated, refined gentleman, exactly the sort of man she liked, so she agreed. It wasn’t until she arrived today that she discovered the mistake…”
As usual, she rambled without getting straight to the point. Only after listening to her lengthy explanation did Xie Zhiyuan finally understand.
He pointed toward the side courtyard and frowned. “You’re saying Jin Mingzhu thought she was marrying our Qinglin, but Fengxi ended up being the groom? The whole thing was a misunderstanding?”
Madam Xie nodded. “Exactly! I had to talk until I was practically out of breath before she agreed not to make a scene. Think about it! We’re a respectable family with a reputation to uphold. If she’d exposed the whole thing in the wedding hall just now, we’d have become the laughingstock of the entire city!”
Xie Zhiyuan turned and sat down. “Then what are we supposed to do now?”
Madam Xie came over and sat on the other side of the table. “What do you mean, what are we supposed to do? She’s agreed to stay for the time being. It’s all that Matchmaker Zhao’s fault! She probably realized she couldn’t explain away the mistake, so she ran back to her hometown. It makes me furious… That girl is two years older than our Fengxi, but two years isn’t much. I say we leave things as they are. A mistake is a mistake, but both their names are written on the marriage certificate. No matter how you look at it, they’re legally married now. They can take their time developing feelings for each other.”
Xie Zhiyuan glanced at her. “How can you simply let a mistake like this stand?”
Madam Xie spread her hands. “Then you tell me what we should do! If word gets out, I don’t care if I lose face, but what about you? People will laugh at you until you can’t show your face in public!”
If he had to come up with a solution, he certainly didn’t have one.
Madam Xie sighed. “There’s nothing else we can do now. All we can hope is that, despite this mix-up, the young couple will take a liking to each other. Who knows? Perhaps it’s fate.”
A perfectly happy occasion had somehow turned into this mess.
Xie Zhiyuan slapped the table. “This is absolutely ridiculous! Does Fengxi know?”
Madam Xie didn’t seem particularly concerned. She walked over to open the door. “He knows. Fengxi is still young. What does he understand about these things? The important one is Mingzhu. I’ll send someone over to check on them. Hopefully, everything will be peaceful. As long as she stays in the Xie family, we won’t have to worry about becoming a laughingstock.”
With that, she opened the door, beckoned to a maid in the courtyard, and instructed her to go to the side courtyard to see what was happening.
Meanwhile, in the side courtyard, Jin Mingzhu had opened her eyes the moment Xie Fengxi returned.
His clothes were lying in her arms, where he had tossed them, and he was now standing directly in front of her.
The lamplight cast shadows across the young man’s figure.
He raised his eyebrows slightly, then tilted his chin, signaling for her to move aside.
“I’m going to sleep.”
If her husband had been Xie Qinglin, Mingzhu might have felt somewhat embarrassed on their wedding night.
But the person before her was just a young boy.
She looked at him without the slightest awkwardness. “Then go wash up before coming to bed.”
As she spoke, she got out of bed with his clothes in her arms and casually hung them on the clothes rack nearby.
She slipped into the role so naturally that Xie Fengxi was the one who felt uncomfortable.
He turned to wash up.
When he reached the doorway, Zao’er arrived carrying a basin of water and prepared some water for rinsing their mouths.
Jin Mingzhu came over quite naturally to wash her hands and face.
Throughout the entire process of washing up and brushing her teeth, she didn’t spare Xie Fengxi a single glance.
Xie Fengxi also began washing up.
While brushing his teeth, he caught sight of Zao’er struggling to suppress a smile from the corner of his eye.
He immediately turned toward her. “What are you laughing at?”
Zao’er’s eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. “I just think Young Master and Young Madam make such a wonderful match! Even the way you brush your teeth is exactly the same. Perhaps that’s another kind of resemblance between husband and wife! The elders always say you can tell whether two people are destined to be married just by seeing them standing together. I don’t know about anyone else, but Young Master and Young Madam are definitely a match made in heaven!”
Mingzhu immediately choked.
After quickly rinsing her mouth, she turned to look at Zao’er.
“What utter nonsense.”
With that, she turned and went into the inner room.
Xie Fengxi was still brushing his teeth.
He tilted his head to watch her retreating figure.
Only after she disappeared inside did he turn back with a smile. “How exactly are we such a good match? Go on, tell me.”
Zao’er began counting on her fingers. “Young Master, just look! You’re tall, and Young Madam is delicate and lovely. There’s such a difference in your heights, so when you stand together, you look perfectly matched! And then there’s the fact that you’re tall, while Young Madam is beautiful…”
She wasn’t particularly educated, so no matter how she tried to praise them, she kept repeating the same few things.
At least she managed to find different words to describe Young Madam.
But when it came to Young Master, the only good quality she could think of was his height.
Even so, listening to Zao’er’s earnest explanation, Xie Fengxi couldn’t help laughing.
Mingzhu heard some noise from the inner room.
She couldn’t make out what Zao’er was saying, but Xie Fengxi sounded quite amused.
At sixteen or seventeen, he was still very much a boy. It was perfectly normal for him to joke around with the maids.
She shook her head and spread out the quilts.
There were two quilts on the large bed.
She picked up one of them and turned to leave, but then felt that something wasn’t quite right.
Even if she had married the wrong person, she was still married.
Whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not, she and Xie Fengxi were now husband and wife.
Going somewhere else to sleep at this point would only seem unnecessarily dramatic.
Besides, he was only sixteen.
What could possibly happen if they shared a bed?
Having reached that conclusion, she was just about to put the quilt down when Xie Fengxi walked in.
He raised his eyes and saw her holding the quilt.
Walking straight up to her, he reached out to snatch it from her arms.
“Where are you planning to sleep? Are you deliberately trying to make me a laughingstock?”
Mingzhu turned sideways to avoid him.
After thinking for a moment, she put the quilt down anyway.
She turned and sat on the bed.
Just as she was about to remove her shoes, Xie Fengxi stepped in front of her.
He knelt on one knee and caught her ankle with one hand.
Mingzhu gave a startled cry.
But Xie Fengxi moved with practiced ease, slipping the embroidered shoe straight off her foot.
After removing one shoe, the young man took hold of her other ankle and looked up at her.
Jin Mingzhu finally lost her composure.
She raised her foot and lightly kicked his arm, no longer bothering to pretend she didn’t know him.
“Xie Fengxi, what trick are you playing now?”
Her tone was unmistakably familiar.
Clearly, he had succeeded in breaking through her pretense.
The young man was in a good mood. He simply looked at her and said, “What’s wrong? The fearless Princess Jin, who isn’t afraid of heaven or earth, suddenly gets frightened when she’s with me? What could I possibly do? I’m just taking off your shoes. In the old days, you had several maids waiting on you whenever you took your shoes off. Have you forgotten what it feels like to be served after going without it for a few days?”
Mingzhu immediately grew annoyed and kicked him again.
“Get up! Why are you kneeling in front of me? I don’t need you to take off my shoes!”
Xie Fengxi paid her no mind.
He removed her other shoe and placed it beside the first.
“What’s the big deal? It’s not as though I’ve never knelt before.”
With that, he turned and called for Zao’er.
Zao’er immediately came in carrying a basin of water for washing feet.
Mingzhu raised her foot again, but Xie Fengxi had already pulled off her socks.
Zao’er set the basin on the floor.
Seeing the young couple bickering and teasing each other, she secretly smiled.
Xie Fengxi was still kneeling on one knee.
“How about I wash Princess Jin’s feet for her?”
Mingzhu immediately leaned forward and smacked his shoulder.
“Get up! Get up!”
He was practically the nightmare of her childhood.
When she was little, Imperial Physician Xie had brought Xie Fengxi to Prince Shun’s Residence.
Back then, little Xie Fengxi had bitten her toes and tossed soft, wriggling worms into her fruit basket.
He had hit her on the head with a kite.
When they played on the swings, he had pushed her so high that she couldn’t get down.
During the day, he had torn up her books.
At night, he had pretended to be a ghost.
In short, whenever he visited Prince Shun’s Residence, her screams could be heard again and again.
That was why she had always disliked him.
She had pretended not to recognize him and had refused to pay him any attention because she knew exactly what kind of person he was.
He simply loved bullying her.
She had absolutely no desire to deal with him.
Xie Fengxi stood up and wiped his hands.
Zao’er smiled beside them. “I’ll go fetch another basin for Young Master.”
With that, she hurried away.
Jin Mingzhu quickly washed her feet and dried them herself.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she began undoing the traditional knotted buttons on her clothes.
But perhaps because that annoying Xie Fengxi was watching her from nearby, her hands trembled.
She tried several times without managing to undo even one button.
Just as she was about to lower her head for a closer look, the young man sat down beside her.
Xie Fengxi lowered his head.
With a light movement of his fingers, he undid one of the buttons immediately.
Mingzhu slapped his troublesome hand away.
“Move! Stay away from me.”
The young man was already sitting close to her.
Not only did he refuse to move away, but he deliberately leaned even closer.
“What’s wrong? Are you afraid of me? What are you afraid I’ll do? Don’t tell me you’re worried I might do something to you tonight?”
The moment he finished speaking, Jin Mingzhu jabbed a finger against his forehead and pushed him away.
“What would I be afraid of? What could you possibly do? You’re still so young! What on earth is going through that head of yours? Stop thinking such nonsense!”
Their eyes met.
A mischievous grin spread across the young man’s face.
“Why don’t you guess? Guess what’s going through my head. What do you think I’m thinking about?”
See?
The moment she responded to his teasing, the brat only became more outrageous.
His beautiful, peach-blossom eyes reflected her irritated expression.
Mingzhu knew he was deliberately provoking her.
She raised her hand to cover his eyes and firmly pushed his face farther away.
“You little brat! You’re barely out of childhood! If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll beat you to death! Stay away from me!”
Although Xie Fengxi’s eyes were covered, the smile on his lips only deepened.
“Why don’t you check whether I’ve grown up yet?”
Jin Mingzhu was thoroughly infuriated.
Her fists rained down on his shoulders.
“I should never have bothered talking to you!”
How much strength could she possibly have?
Xie Fengxi simply let her fists strike him.
“Mercy, Princess! Have mercy, Princess!”
They were still laughing and bickering when Zao’er came rushing back.
The young maid wasn’t carrying a basin this time.
She ran in so quickly that she was gasping for breath.
“Young Master… Young Master! Third Young Master has returned! Third Young Master said… he said that as soon as he received the wedding announcement, he… he hurried back! He should have arrived earlier, but… but something delayed him on the road, so he’s only just reached home!”
His older brother was back.
Xie Fengxi immediately stood up.
But just as a look of delight appeared on his face, he suddenly seemed to remember something.
He turned to glance at Jin Mingzhu.
Sure enough, upon hearing the news, her expression had become dazed.