The next day, Xie Zhi rose early and went to the market.
The business of buying storybooks did not go smoothly. Taohua Town was too small; the only bookshop was at the very eastern edge of town, more than ten li away from here.
Xie Zhi did not feel at ease leaving Yuan Yingti alone at home for so long, so he entrusted the task of buying storybooks to Qing Shao.
Qing Shao happened to be bored out of his mind and happily took on the job, asking him, "Brother, what kind of storybooks should I buy?"
"Any kind will do."
So Qing Shao took the silver Xie Zhi gave him and went off to run the errand.
That trip of his took a full day, and he did not return until evening.
The sun set in the west, and the sky was spread with crimson clouds.
Xie Zhi was in the room kneading dough.
Tonight he was going to make hand-rolled noodles. The dough was being pressed and kneaded in his hands, just taking shape, when there was a knock at the door.
He went to open the door with hands covered in flour, and outside was Qing Shao's sweat-drenched face.
"Brother, I'm back." He was carrying two heavy bundles of books, panting as he said, "I'm exhausted to death, the road was just too far."
Xie Zhi tilted his chin, signaling him to come inside, and Qing Shao lugged the books in with much huffing and puffing.
He set the two stacks of books on the ground and asked Xie Zhi, as if seeking credit, "Brother, are these enough for you to read?"
He assumed these books were for Xie Zhi to read.
Xie Zhi did not explain to him, only nodded, then focused on kneading the dough again.
Dinner time was approaching, and he was busy—he needed to cook the noodles for the young lady early.
Qing Shao grinned and sidled up behind him, saying, "The bookshop owner said these are all the hottest storybooks right now. A few of them are almost sold out."
Xie Zhi gave a casual "mm."
Qing Shao then added, "Brother, there are all kinds of good books in here."
When he said this, he was grinning and winking, trying to make Xie Zhi catch his hint, but Xie Zhi did not even raise an eyelid. Instead, he found him noisy: "Put the books down and leave quickly. Keep the leftover silver for yourself."
"…Alright." As a competent underling, when his big brother told him to leave, he had to leave quickly. As for the books inside—well, sooner or later his big brother would flip through them anyway.
Qing Shao, delighted, pocketed the considerable amount of leftover silver and swiftly left the small courtyard.
The moment the courtyard gate closed, Yuan Yingti's door opened.
As soon as she heard Qing Shao had come to deliver books, she had been waiting at the bedroom door, and once he left, she could not wait to come out.
The two bundles of books were on the ground. She bent down, her fingers brushing over them, and her face lit up with delight.
"So many books! A-Nu, will you read to me tonight?"
From the moment he agreed to buy her books, Xie Zhi knew he would be taking on this task.
He smiled, his hands not pausing in rolling out the dough, and said, "Alright."
…
Night fell.
Yuan Yingti ate the fragrant hand-rolled noodles, then took a comfortable bath, and with a sweet fragrance about her, knelt sitting on the bed.
Xie Zhi had carried all the books to her bedside, and Yuan Yingti caressed them fondly, unable to put them down.
Xie Zhi sat to one side, watching the smile spread across her face, his mood also very pleasant. He glanced at those brightly colored book covers and said, "What book does the young lady want to hear? Pick one yourself."
Yuan Yingti nodded happily, her finger trailing across the books one by one, and selected one with an especially nice feel, handing it to him: "This one."
Xie Zhi took it, and just as he opened it and glanced at it, the smile on his face diminished by a fraction.
This was a popular storybook circulating in the market, telling the tale of… a young lady from a noble family and a young lord from a marquis household secretly pledging themselves to each other.
Xie Zhi's gaze darkened slightly.
He tossed the book into the wastepaper basket beside him and said with an easy expression, "Young Miss, this one is too vulgar. Let's switch to another."
Yuan Yingti was taken aback for a moment, then nodded with a murmured "oh oh" and reached out to feel for another book.
She sat up straight with an expectant look, waiting for him to begin.
But Xie Zhi lowered his lashes and said again, "This one won't do either."
"What's wrong with it?"
This one was about a wealthy young lady and a top scholar.
—Just what had Qing Shao bought?
Xie Zhi said, "It's not good."
The book landed in the wastepaper basket as well.
"…Then I'll pick another one."
Having been rejected twice in a row, even someone with Yuan Yingti's good temper was getting a little impatient. She fumbled along the entire row of books for quite a while before her fingers stopped on a rough-looking volume.
A-Nu had said all those smooth books weren't good. This rough one must have been thumbed through by many people, so it was surely a good book.
Yuan Yingti carefully pulled it out and handed it to Xie Zhi with both hands: "A-Nu, what about this one?"
Xie Zhi took it. It was a silk-bound picture album, its cover yellowed, with no title—but in the center was a painting of a woman with a seductive figure.
Xie Zhi had a bad feeling.
He gently opened it, and sure enough, he was greeted by a sea of pale flesh…
Only now did Qing Shao's earlier words, spoken with a wink and a nudge, belatedly echo in his ears.
Xie Zhi: "…"
Yuan Yingti spoke up at this moment: "Let's go with this one."
She didn't want to keep searching. Even if this one was terrible, she'd accept it.
But the man beside her remained silent for a long time.
Yuan Yingti couldn't help but urge him softly: "Good A-Nu, hurry and read it. I want to listen."
"This one isn't good either." She heard him reject her for the third time.
Yuan Yingti was tired.
"What's wrong with this one, then?"
"This is a picture album. There are no words."
"A picture album? What does it depict?"
She heard the album being slowly flipped through a few pages, the paper making a rustling sound.
"It depicts people."
"What kind of people? What are they doing?"
He let out a soft laugh—low and brief, carrying a strange undertone.
That laugh made Yuan Yingti's curiosity itch unbearably. She leaned forward slightly in her urgency: "What exactly is drawn in it, A-Nu? Hurry and tell me."
Xie Zhi closed the album and said, "I can't make sense of it either."
Yuan Yingti was instantly dumbfounded, her face blank with confusion.
Xie Zhi tucked the book into his own robes. He bent down close to her bedside and personally selected a book for her.
His fingertip moved slowly across the volumes, tapping one after another, before finally stopping on one: "Would Young Miss like to hear the Tale of Roaming Knights?"
"Yes, yes." Yuan Yingti nodded hurriedly. She truly didn't want to wait any longer, afraid he might go back on his word again.
Xie Zhi smiled and pulled that book out.
This one told the story of a pair of wandering knights who roamed the martial world doing chivalrous deeds. Xie Zhi opened the book and began reading from the first page.
Yuan Yingti lay properly on the bed, tucked under the covers, leaving only her fair, delicate face exposed.
The voice that reached her ears was very pleasant. When he read aloud, his tone differed from his everyday speech—a low timbre unique to a man flowed slowly through the room.
It actually made her ears itch.
Yuan Yingti gently rubbed her ear, pressed her lips together, and listened attentively.
The wandering knights were a married couple. They traveled the ends of the earth side by side, doing chivalrous deeds, rooting out the strong and aiding the weak.
Yuan Yingti gradually became engrossed in the story, her breathing rising and falling with its twists and turns.
Moonlight gently streamed in, slowly interweaving with the candlelight.
The heroes fought and battled, blades flashing and sword shadows dancing. Yuan Yingti listened with her eyes open, and even though it was very late, she did not feel the least bit sleepy.
Xie Zhi was very patient—as long as she did not sleep, he would keep reading. In the quiet room, only his low, pleasant voice sounded.
Who knew how long it had been—the story finally reached its end.
Xie Zhi finished reading the last page.
The pair of heroes had known and accompanied each other, weathering countless storms, and at the story's end they had a child, the family of three living happily together.
He closed the book. Yuan Yingti was wholly satisfied, savoring the last passage in her mind.
Suddenly, a question arose in her.
Yuan Yingti tilted her head within the blankets. "A-Nu, may I ask you a question?"
"Please speak, Miss."
Yuan Yingti sat up from the blankets, her satin-like long hair spreading over her entire back. The candlelight flickered as she opened her mouth with a face full of thirst for knowledge.
"A-Nu…" She leaned in toward him. "How do a husband and wife have a child?"
Xie Zhi raised his eyes and looked at her.
Yuan Yingti waited obediently for his answer.
But she waited and waited, and for a long time heard no reply. Yuan Yingti's face showed displeasure, and she muttered, "A-Nu, are you also not planning to tell me?"
Also? Xie Zhi spoke: "Has Miss asked others as well?"
"Mm." Yuan Yingti nodded. "Before, when the maidservants read to me, I asked them too, but they only giggled and told me nothing."
"A-Nu, are you also not planning to tell me? Or…"
She guessed: "You don't know either?"
Xie Zhi's lips slowly curved upward, the arc exceedingly light and faint, and something flickered darkly in the depths of his eyes.
He said, "I know."
"Then how do they have one?" Yuan Yingti was dying of curiosity.
Xie Zhi looked at her large eyes—inside them was a muddled innocence, clean and clear, like a mountain stream untouched by human feet.
He stared into her translucent eyes, and suddenly a desire to destroy arose in him.
The candle flame in the room gave a gentle leap.
Half of Xie Zhi's face was hidden in shadow as he drew near her.
He said, "When a man and a woman are together, they will have a child."
Yuan Yingti blinked and pressed further: "How do they have one?"
The picture album in his bosom faintly burned hot, and Xie Zhi could not help but give a low laugh. "I want to ask Miss first—does Miss know what differences there are between men and women?"
Yuan Yingti frowned and pondered seriously for a while.
She had gone blind at age seven, and in her memory, the appearances of men and women alike had all become hazy, dark silhouettes.
She thought it over: "Their builds are different, and… their voices are different too."
Xie Zhi gazed at her faintly. "And what else?"
Yuan Yingti's brow tips knitted together.
After her eyes had failed, the men she could come into contact with were limited—it seemed there was only her father.
But her father almost never came to see her. Occasionally when she went to pay her respects, her father would have her sit far away.
After that, there was Pei Shuyu.
After she was betrothed to Pei Shuyu, he had come to see her a few times, but each time he did no more than exchange a few words with her from a distance.
Yuan Yingti racked her brains, pondering desperately, and finally—she at last remembered the person before her.
Right, she and A-Nu were very close, and A-Nu was a man too!
She slowly extended her finger, counting one by one the differences between her and him: "Men have greater strength, and bigger hands, and also… harder."
"…Harder where?"
"Here." Yuan Yingti patted her chest. She remembered when he had carried her, her knee had pressed against his chest—flat, broad, and hard enough to dig into her.
Xie Zhi's gaze followed her movement, his lips curling slightly before he looked back at her face. "That's all?"
Yuan Yingti nodded. "That's all."
Xie Zhi smiled then, the smile spreading from the corners of his mouth.
Yuan Yingti tilted her head. "Is there something else different?"
She asked with pure innocence, her clean, clear eyes blinking like pools of water.
So she understood nothing at all.
Xie Zhi smiled faintly, the mischief in his heart threatening to surface.
He wanted so badly to tell her—to whisper to her about the book in his arms, to taint those clean eyes of hers.
So he spoke slowly. "There is another difference."
"Where?" she asked.
Xie Zhi was very close to her now, his breath almost tangling with hers. He spoke, his voice like a spell: "Would Miss like to feel me?"
"F-feel you?"
"Mhm. Feel the difference between a man and a woman."
"…Feel where?" Yuan Yingti turned her head to ask him, and just then met his face.
They were so close their noses nearly touched. Xie Zhi caught the breath she exhaled—sweet, warm, fragrant.
His Adam's apple bobbed as he took her hand and drew it toward himself.
"Miss will know, once she touches."