Cui Jingci held her face in his hands and examined it—clean now—before tossing the cloth aside. Huai Zhi, perhaps because he had hurt her, had reddened eyes again.
Cui Jingci stared at her and asked, "Huai Zhi, do you know how improper you were today?"
Having been jostled by him like that, Huai Zhi was now thoroughly sober. She felt a little wronged and asked, "What did I do today?"
Had she done anything bad?
Seeing that her senses had returned, Cui Jingci lowered his gaze and let out a sigh, a stark contrast to the dark-faced man from moments before. He said, "You're already married, do you know that? How could you laugh and chat so freely with another man? Huai Zhi, is there something I've done wrong? You can tell me directly."
Huai Zhi was bewildered. That wasn't it at all. She said, "We only exchanged a few words, and besides, Young Master Liang's sister was there too."
Cui Jingci said coldly, "That's still not acceptable. Do you not know the propriety that men and women should not touch?"
Huai Zhi lowered her head and said somewhat stubbornly, "I don't know. I never studied, no one ever taught me these principles."
She knew nothing about the rules of great households. They had so many things that weren't allowed. Huai Zhi felt it was unreasonable—just as not everyone was born knowing how to play the Flying Flower Poetry Game, she had never learned their many rules and principles. She hadn't known that speaking with a man was forbidden.
Cui Jingci said, "Then Huai Zhi, let me tell you—this is not allowed."
So don't go flashing that face of yours that looks so easy to fool at other people, alright?
Huai Zhi felt that Cui Jingci was acting strange tonight, but after thinking about it, she decided it was her own fault for being stupid. Who told her she couldn't play the Flying Flower Poetry Game, couldn't recite poetry, and got drunk after just three cups of wine, which led to everything that followed?
Huai Zhi let out a muffled "Mm" and said, "It's my fault."
Cui Jingci had been very good to her. He was the one who made sure she had enough to eat, and he let her study. So whatever principles he spoke of must be right, without error.
Huai Zhi said, "I'm sorry, Xuanshuang. I won't do this again next time."
Hearing the dullness in her voice, Cui Jingci looked at the top of her head and asked, "Do you feel wronged?"
Huai Zhi immediately shook her head. She said, "No, I just think I'm stupid."
Hearing her say this, Cui Jingci softened his temper, smiled, and patted her head. "Learn slowly."
He had been somewhat fierce just moments ago, and now he was this gentle again. Huai Zhi couldn't keep up with the shift, her mind still feeling dazed, her tongue clumsy and at a loss for words.
She didn't know what to say, but Cui Jingci did. He took her hand, brought it to his lips, and brushed it lightly against them. He said, "Huai Zhi, I was just too worried about you. You're too easily deceived."
All trace of sternness had vanished from his expression. Hearing this, Huai Zhi's heart melted into a complete mess.
She said, "I know."
She knew everything he did was for her own good.
Cui Jingci lifted his eyelids and looked at her. In his eyes, the whites took up an unusual amount of space, making him seem cold-hearted. He said, "No, you don't know."
Huai Zhi tried to pull her hand back, but Cui Jingci held it fast. He traced his way along her hand, gently brushing up her arm, his thin lips grazing against her skin. She felt an indescribable tingling numbness.
Cui Jingci kissed her, and eventually his lips traveled down to her chest. She tried to push his head away, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't budge him. All she could do was plead softly, "Don't eat me there."
Perhaps dissatisfied with her refusal, he deliberately grazed her with his teeth.
Huai Zhi sucked in a sharp breath and lowered her bottom line. "Then don't bite me," she said.
Her pleading sounded amusing to Cui Jingci's ears. Huai Zhi yielded step by step—from not eating her to not biting her—truly pitiful and adorable.
In the end, her bath turned into a complete mess. Huai Zhi couldn't tell where things had started going wrong. Water from the bath splashed onto the floor, leaving everything in disarray. She didn't understand why Cui Jingci was so fierce today, but her wine-addled mind wasn't clear enough to sort out such fine details. Whether from the alcohol or the water, even the slightest stir sent tremors through her.
Her hands braced against the edge of the bath, trembling uncontrollably. Cui Jingci slapped her—not hard, but with an inexplicable hint of reproach. "Why are you trembling so much?"
It was just a change of position, yet she was biting him so fiercely.
Huai Zhi, having been spanked, felt a little wronged. "I… I don't know either."
She was already grown—if he wanted to have his way with her, fine—but why spank her bottom?
She didn't remember what Cui Jingci said afterward, only that his palm gently rubbed the spot he had just slapped, coaxing and soothing her. After a few strokes of comfort, Huai Zhi cast the matter to the back of her mind.
She didn't know how much time passed before he lifted her out of the bath.
When she was finally laid on the bed, she fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.
The next day, Huai Zhi woke up very late. Cui Jingci was already gone. Her head ached terribly, and she struggled to piece together the events of the previous night. She recalled most of it in fragments—she remembered Cui Jingci, remembered how fierce he had been, and resolved that she would never touch alcohol again.
Teacher Fu didn't come that day. Presumably Cui Jingci had told her not to—after drinking, Huai Zhi wouldn't have been able to focus on lessons anyway.
When Teacher Fu returned the following day, Huai Zhi suddenly asked her a question.
"Teacher, what does 'men and women should not touch in passing' mean? Does it mean men and women shouldn't speak more than a few words to each other?"
Teacher Fu hadn't expected Huai Zhi to ask such a thing, but she answered seriously nonetheless. "The Book of Rites says: 'Men and women should not sit together, should not share racks for clothes, should not share towels and combs, and should not pass things directly hand to hand.' It merely means avoiding unnecessary contact—it doesn't say they cannot speak at all."
So there were that many rules…
She thought of that scholar. No wonder he had always maintained such proper, formal manners with her.
But Teacher Fu had also said there was no rule against speaking. Wasn't he being a bit too overbearing?
Huai Zhi didn't dwell on whether her husband was tyrannical, though—Teacher Fu had already begun the lesson, and she hurriedly gathered her thoughts to keep up.
Halfway through the lesson that day, in the afternoon, Mianmian suddenly ran in from outside, saying someone was looking for her.
Huai Zhi asked who it was.
Mianmian said it was her mother.
Her mother?!
Huai Zhi's vision went dark. What was she doing here?
She could more or less guess why she had come. She knew that when her mother came looking for her on her own initiative, it was always about money. But did she still lack money? She knew exactly how much Cui Jingci's bride price had been—it was already enough that they no longer needed to cling to her. Why, then, would she simply not let her go?
A layer of sweat inexplicably crept up Huai Zhi's spine. It came suddenly, clinging stubbornly to her skin, sending waves of chills through her.
She lowered her head and asked Mianmian, "Can't we just send her away?"
Mianmian hadn't expected Huai Zhi to say that. After a moment of stunned silence, she said, "We can't send her away… She insists on seeing you, and if we don't let her, she'll just stay there making a scene and shouting."
Huai Zhi abruptly rose and headed outside, leaving Teacher Fu and Mianmian behind. The two of them were too stunned to react, watching helplessly as her figure receded into the distance.
Mianmian told Teacher Fu that he should head home for today.
Huai Zhi went outside and, sure enough, saw her mother Meng Yan there, making a racket, shouting her name and saying she had no conscience.
Huai Zhi stepped forward and dragged her to a secluded corner away from everyone. She could no longer hold it in and screamed at her, "Why do you have to come here and make a scene again?!"
She was like a cornered little beast, baring all her fangs and claws in a desperate attempt to drive away this relentless, haunting specter.
Meng Yan looked at Huai Zhi in disbelief, as if she had committed some heinous crime. "You… how can you speak to your mother like that? You were never like this before!"
Huai Zhi said, "What did I tell you? Didn't Cui Jingci already give you money? Didn't I tell you not to come looking for me anymore?!"
She had always been thinking of selling her off, not caring in the slightest what kind of beast she was being sold to. She didn't care whether she lived or died—she only wanted the money.
Why? Didn't she already have money now? Why couldn't she just let her go?
Meng Yan hadn't expected Huai Zhi, who was usually such a pushover, to suddenly grow a spine. Seeing that her newfound stubbornness meant she wouldn't part with a single cent, she switched tactics and played the sentimentality card. Putting on a pained expression, she said, "Mother just wanted to come see how you're doing. Why must you be like this?"
Huai Zhi would never believe a word she said again.
That day, she had said she'd found her a good family, singing the praises of that good-for-nothing scoundrel as if he were the most wonderful man under heaven, claiming it was all for her own good. But when Huai Zhi heard from others what that man was really like, her heart nearly shattered.
Yet no matter how much she cried, none of them would listen to her. They were dead set on marrying her off to someone like that.
Huai Zhi looked at Meng Yan, at the false affection she was putting on display, and felt only disgust.
She said, "So what if I'm not doing well? If Cui Jingci were to fall on hard times one day, wouldn't you just tie me up and sell me off again?"
Caught off guard by her barb, Meng Yan was momentarily at a loss for words. Embarrassment and hypocrisy warred across her face, neither quite winning.
Huai Zhi held her ground and said, "I don't want to make a scene with you. Just go. Cui Jingci doesn't want me to have much contact with you either."
Seeing that Huai Zhi would neither be swayed by soft words nor intimidated by harsh ones, Meng Yan's face twisted into something vicious in an instant.
She said, "Fine, you ungrateful girl. Truly, raising a daughter is no match for raising a son—you have no heart at all. This time, your father sent me. We just bought a house, and money's a bit tight. You're married now, and I know you have money on you. Help us out a little."
At last, her true face was revealed. Say what she would, in the end, it was always about the money.
Huai Zhi turned her head away and said coldly, "No. I don't have a single coin."
Meng Yan came up and tugged at her clothes, pointing at her hairpin. "You don't? You're all decked out in gold and silver, and you still say you don't have any? If you really don't, then just give me this hairpin."
She could tell the hairpin was worth several taels of silver.
Hearing this, Huai Zhi shoved her away and said, "Dream on."
Meng Yan sneered. "Now that you've latched onto someone important, you've got some nerve in your voice. Little Zhi, your husband doesn't know about that business between you and that scholar, does he?"
Huai Zhi glared at her, wishing she could bore a hole right through her with her eyes.
Meng Yan said, "Give me some money, and I promise he won't find out."
How could Huai Zhi let her have her way? If she gave in this time, then next time when she didn't, Meng Yan would be unwilling to let it go. Again and again, it would truly become an entanglement that could never be cleanly cut.
But if that matter were truly embellished and told in front of Cui Jingci, he would surely overthink it.
Men always overthink things, and it wasn't fair to blame only Cui Jingci. Although he was kind-natured, he didn't seem to be particularly magnanimous.
She looked at Meng Yan for a long time without speaking. Meng Yan thought she had come around and put on a false show of sincerity. "You've made something of yourself now, married well—that's the fortune you've cultivated. Your mother is truly happy for you. But I'm not trying to threaten you on purpose, it's just… just that you're still our child, you can't completely disregard us, can you?"
She didn't consider them? Huai Zhi wanted to ask her—then why couldn't she eat meat at home, only her younger brother could? Why did she have to marry a madman as a concubine, or become an old man's replacement wife, all for the sake of some silver? And why was it always her doing the work, always her getting beaten?
Mother, when I called you mother, where were you?
Huai Zhi's nails had already dug into her palm, nearly drawing blood, yet her face remained cold and indifferent as she said, "Oh, then go ahead and tell him."
She would rather expose the matter to Cui Jingci herself than give Meng Yan the chance to twist the story.