Xie Tinglan only realized what he was doing when he reached the doorway.
Why was he chasing after her?
Wasn’t he the one who found that woman most annoying?
Xie Tinglan turned to go back inside but noticed something hanging on the door—a pair of rabbit fur gloves with a box of ointment tucked inside. On it was written: For your frostbite.
Chuncao saw Xie Tinglan standing dazed by the door and came over to ask, “Brother Xie, what’s this?”
“Nothing.”
Xie Tinglan collected the items and went inside, pointing to a packet of medicine on the table. “I need to study. Go brew this medicine.”
“Yes!”
Chuncao happily went off to do so.
Xie Tinglan glanced at Chuncao’s cheerful, busy figure before returning to his book.
In his mind, there wasn’t much difference between Chuncao and Liu Zhiheng.
Both of them had the same goal, only their methods differed. Liu Zhiheng was forceful and domineering, while Chuncao leveraged favors to demand repayment.
Compared to Chuncao, he actually admired Liu Zhiheng’s crude yet ruthless and direct approach. At least she had truly achieved her goal, forcing him to marry her, hadn’t she?
More than malicious people, Xie Tinglan despised incompetence and dullness.
But… looking at the fur gloves and ointment in his hand, Xie Tinglan thought that while the old Liu Zhiheng had been malicious and vulgar, she was truly an empty-headed fool, easily seen through at a glance. Now, however, she was becoming rather interesting.
Liu Zhiheng returned home, expecting the chicken to be already prepared so she could enjoy stewed chicken with mushrooms today. Instead, she found the house empty.
Not only was the chicken gone, but Duan Wujiu was nowhere to be seen either.
“Xuelang?” Liu Zhiheng called out several times, but there was no response.
Her heart sank. Had Duan Wujiu left?
Liu Zhiheng hurried out to search, but after circling Peach Blossom Village, she found no trace of Duan Wujiu and returned home dejected.
Her hundred taels of gold were gone.
Although she knew Duan Wujiu would leave one day, she hadn’t expected it to come so soon.
Wasn’t he supposed to regain his memory in two months?
Well, it was better that he left now. At least this way, she wouldn’t develop real feelings for him, which would only make it more painful later.
The house felt empty, and she couldn’t even catch a hint of Duan Wujiu’s presence, as if he had never existed at all.
Having been in this world for several days, this was the first time Liu Zhiheng found herself alone at home. The unfamiliarity of this foreign world filled her with an unprecedented sense of loneliness.
For a moment, it felt as if she were the only person left in the world.
And so, Liu Zhiheng sat alone until the sky grew dark, finally gathering her emotions and fully accepting that Duan Wujiu had left.
She stood up to go to the kitchen to prepare a meal, but as she reached the courtyard, she heard someone knocking at the gate.
“Is Miss Heng home?”
That sounded like Xie Tinglan’s voice.
Liu Zhiheng opened the gate. Outside, heavy snow was still falling. Xie Tinglan stood under the willow tree outside the courtyard, holding a lantern, his figure tall and straight like a pine in the snow.
Looking at him, Liu Zhiheng couldn’t help but think: If it weren’t for the fact that marrying Xie Tinglan would mean being carried around by him day and night, constantly subjected to his whims and losing her freedom, given her current social standing, marrying him would actually be quite a good deal…
“What brings you here?” Liu Zhiheng asked curiously, tilting her head.
“I have something to discuss with you.”
“Go ahead.”
Xie Tinglan looked impatient and scolded, “In such heavy snow, you’re making me talk outside?”Liu Zhiheng gave an awkward smile. “It’s late at night. Isn’t it inappropriate for a man and a woman to be alone in the same room?”
Xie Tinglan sneered mockingly. “Since when do you care about that?”
Liu Zhiheng was left speechless.
Indeed, she had lost count of how many times she had slipped into Xie Tinglan’s bed. If he hadn’t resisted so fiercely, they would have long since achieved perfect harmony…
Liu Zhiheng had no choice but to invite Xie Tinglan inside. She led him to sit in the main room of her father’s quarters and relit the lamp.
Seeing Liu Zhiheng standing far away from him, Xie Tinglan said impatiently, “Why are you keeping your distance?”
Of course, she was afraid that in the dark, she might accidentally touch Xie Tinglan and let out some indecent sounds again!
Liu Zhiheng mumbled, “I’m just thinking of you… Didn’t Young Master Xie want nothing to do with me?”
Xie Tinglan couldn’t refute that. It was true that he had been avoiding Liu Zhiheng all along, but for some reason, now that she was no longer clinging to him, he felt even more displeased.
“I said, as long as you don’t get handsy, I don’t mind you being around.”
“I’m worried I might get handsy, which is why I’m keeping my distance.”
…
An awkward silence fell over the room once more.
After a long while, Xie Tinglan finally steadied his breathing, suppressing the anger in his heart, and asked, “Why is it so cold in here? Haven’t you lit the kang bed?”
“No.”
A rare look of concern appeared on Xie Tinglan’s face as he said gently, “I’ll bring you some charcoal tomorrow morning. As a stipend student, the county provides a batch of high-quality charcoal every year. I spend most of my time at the county school, so I don’t use it all.”
Liu Zhiheng finally felt a little comforted.
Xie Tinglan was surprisingly kind. Charcoal was quite valuable in the village. It seemed that as the male lead, his nature wasn’t too bad. If you didn’t provoke him, he could be quite reasonable.
Liu Zhiheng also recalled that in the book, while Xie Tinglan had treated the Liu family poorly and could be petty in minor matters, from the perspective of the common people, he had stabilized the court and allowed those who had suffered from war to recover and thrive. That could be considered a great virtue.
Thinking this, Liu Zhiheng’s tone toward Xie Tinglan softened further.
“Thank you, but there’s no need to trouble Young Master Xie. Before my father left, he chopped plenty of firewood. It’s just that since I’m the only one living here, I only light the heated kang bed in my own room. It’s not that we lack firewood.”
Seeing Liu Zhiheng refuse, Xie Tinglan didn’t press the matter, and the two fell into silence again.
Liu Zhiheng didn’t want to sit there idly with him—it was freezing cold. She quickly asked, “Is that all you came to ask me?”
Once he was done, he should leave quickly!
“No… I came to ask you… whether you left that pair of fur gloves at my doorstep.”
Liu Zhiheng nodded. “Yes. When you fainted that day, I noticed you had frostbite on your hands, so I thought of buying you a pair of gloves.”
Xie Tinglan’s parents had passed away early. Although he was meticulous, he was still a man and didn’t take the best care of himself. As a result, he had developed frostbite, which flared up every winter.
“The gloves are made from a whole piece of fox fur, so they’re very warm,” Liu Zhiheng added, afraid that Xie Tinglan might forget her kindness. “While your frostbite isn’t severe yet, keeping warm will help it heal faster!”
“They must have been expensive.”“It didn’t cost anything. I traded it for a fox I hunted today.”
Xie Tinglan was surprised. “You know how to hunt?”
Liu Zhiheng nodded. “I’m a hunter’s daughter. Isn’t it normal for me to know how to hunt?”
Xie Tinglan thought to himself that this Liu Zhiheng was truly different from the woman who only knew how to climb into his bed.