Liu Zhiheng went to the chicken coop and fetched four eggs. After frying them in lard, she added water to make a soup, then used that soup to cook two bowls of noodles. In this rural village, such a meal was considered quite good.
The snow hadn’t stopped yet. Liu Zhiheng placed the two bowls of noodles into a food box and carried it into the house.
As soon as she entered, she saw Duan Wujiu standing in the room, wearing only a pair of thin, long underpants.
The material of the pants looked comfortable, but they were a bit too thin. Though they weren’t see-through, sometimes just seeing the outline was enough to make one feel embarrassed.
“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes…”
Liu Zhiheng set down the two bowls of noodles, closed the door, and whispered her complaint.
The fire in her room was burning brightly, and the house was made of wood. When it was built, they hadn’t skimped on timber, so it was quite warm—he wouldn’t freeze.
But with his upper body bare and his pants so thin, it was truly something she dared not look at.
“A Heng didn’t leave me any clothes…”
Liu Zhiheng’s face flushed red.
Duan Wujiu’s clothes were stained with blood and torn by a sword, so she had only kept a pair of long underpants. Now it seemed as if she had deliberately not given him any clothes to wear.
“I got up and looked for clothes, but this room doesn’t seem to be mine. There’s nothing belonging to a man here.” Duan Wujiu looked at Liu Zhiheng with clear eyes and asked, “This is A Heng’s room, isn’t it?”
Liu Zhiheng felt as if she had been caught red-handed and quickly tried to come up with an excuse.
“Your room is in another part of the house. It’s just that it’s cold, and to save firewood, I only heated the kang bed in this one room.”
“Then where is my room? Could A Heng help me fetch a few pieces of clothing?”
“Wait here, I’ll go get them for you.”
Liu Zhiheng went to her father’s room and found a few old clothes he had left behind. Her father was about the same height as Duan Wujiu, though he was stockier. But both were tall and large men, so Liu Yigu’s clothes fit Duan Wujiu perfectly—nothing would give him away.
After Duan Wujiu put on Liu Yigu’s clothes, the two sat down to eat the noodles.
“A Heng…”
“Hmm?”
“These aren’t my clothes, are they?”
Liu Zhiheng nearly choked on a mouthful of noodles and coughed violently, taking a while to recover.
Duan Wujiu looked at her gently, his eyes showing no trace of suspicion or blame—still as kind as ever.
“Whose clothes are these? I smell another man’s scent,” Duan Wujiu said.
He could even smell that?
“Do you have a dog’s nose?” Liu Zhiheng asked in surprise.
“Maybe. But everyone’s scent is different. I really can tell.”
Duan Wujiu’s gaze was clear, as if he wasn’t lying.
Liu Zhiheng recalled that the villain did indeed have such a trait—he could judge whether a person was good or bad, or if they were sick, just by their scent…
It was just that when Liu Zhiheng read the book, she was mainly focused on the steamy scenes, so she had forgotten about it for a moment.
“Oh, you share a room with my father. You two swap clothes sometimes,” Liu Zhiheng continued to spin her tale. “Maybe it’s my father’s scent.”
“I see…” It was unclear whether Duan Wujiu believed her, but he didn’t press the issue further. Instead, he asked, “Then where is Father? Why haven’t I seen him?””Father has gone to assist the county magistrate and won’t be back for a while. I also have a younger brother named Liu Zhisheng—you can call him Sheng. He’s studying at the academy in the county town and won’t return for another ten days or so.”
“So that means for the next ten days, it’ll just be A Heng and me at home?” Duan Wujiu’s eyes lit up as he murmured softly, “How wonderful.”
“What’s so wonderful about it?”
Liu Zhiheng suddenly felt uneasy.
With heavy snow blocking the mountain paths, she, a woman, would be living alone with a man, with no other households within a two-mile radius. It was truly dangerous.
Had she lived in the modern world for too long, dulling her sensitivity to danger?
But then again, in the book, Duan Wujiu had lived with someone like Xie Tinglan for two months and was perfectly fine, right? He probably wouldn’t suddenly kill her, would he?
Duan Wujiu seemed unaware of Liu Zhiheng’s unease. His gaze burned as he looked at her, clear and harmless, like a little puppy.
“Because I love the scent of A Heng. If it’s just the two of us at home, the house will be filled only with A Heng’s fragrance.”
Liu Zhiheng breathed a sigh of relief. So that was it—he was just using her as an air freshener…
“What kind of scent do I have?” Liu Zhiheng asked curiously.
“A Heng’s scent is like the melting snow on a spring mountain—crisp, with a hint of warmth. I love it.”
How abstract…
“And what scent do you have?” Liu Zhiheng asked again.
Duan Wujiu smiled and leaned closer to her. “A Heng can smell for herself.”
“No!” Liu Zhiheng shrank back, burying her head in her noodles. “Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell…”
Not everyone had a nose as sharp as Duan Wujiu’s.
After breakfast, once the dishes were cleared and she returned to the room, Liu Zhiheng saw Duan Wujiu had taken off his outer robe again and was lying back on the heated kang bed, resting on his side with his eyes closed.
At the sound of the door opening, he immediately opened his eyes and looked at Liu Zhiheng. His beautiful phoenix eyes, now softened, appeared gentle and obedient.
“I’ve tidied up the main room for you. Why don’t you move back there today?”
Liu Zhiheng thought for a moment. It still wasn’t safe for the two of them to share a room, so she planned to have Duan Wujiu stay in her father’s small room.
“Didn’t A Heng say we should share a room to save firewood because it’s cold?”
Once again, Liu Zhiheng had shot herself in the foot. Indeed, one lie required more lies to cover it up. She was starting to regret her earlier nonsense—why had she brought up the child groom story?
“But you’ve lost your memory… I was worried you might not be comfortable staying in the same room with me.”
“How could that be? I am A Heng’s child groom, after all.”
Liu Zhiheng choked back her words, hesitating for a moment before deciding not to tell the truth.
Her main concern was that if she didn’t find a reason to keep Duan Wujiu here, he might run away once his injuries healed.
And if he ran away, wouldn’t that hundred taels of gold vanish with him?
Oh well, why be so fussy? Duan Wujiu was even more beautiful than she was—it wasn’t like she was at a disadvantage.
After a moment’s thought, Liu Zhiheng took off her shoes and climbed onto the other side of the heated kang bed.
“I was up all night taking care of you—I’m exhausted. I’m going to sleep for a while.”
Liu Zhiheng yawned and soon fell asleep.
Only after Liu Zhiheng was asleep did Duan Wujiu silently move closer to her. He gazed at her tenderly, but his eyes were no longer as innocent and harmless as before.
With a deep, thoughtful look in his eyes, Duan Wujiu reached out and slowly traced the air beside Liu Zhiheng’s delicate oval face, as if caressing her cheek from a distance.”What a pretty little liar…”
Duan Wujiu leaned in again, gently resting his head against Liu Zhiheng’s neck. Closing his eyes, he breathed in her scent, savoring her fragrance, feeling the long-pent-up restlessness in his chest melt away.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, a look of deep satisfaction spreading across his face.
“Once you’ve deceived me, there’s no turning back.”