The accuracy of her words genuinely surprised Chen Ting. “How can you be so sure?”
It was true that he had old injuries. Last night, the two of them had been nearly naked before each other; it was possible she had glimpsed something and guessed as much. But how did she know about the emotional stagnation in his heart? He had never shown it in front of anyone.
Then he saw the petite figure before him extend her fair, delicate hand and gently touch the space between his brows.
“My lord has worries etched between his brows. I can tell.”
Chen Ting fell silent and touched his own brow, wondering if years of frowning had caused wrinkles there… But he had always been careful. Wrinkles would make him look old and ugly—how had she still noticed?
The cold, dark iron hand guard accidentally brushed against her hand, the sharp edge nearly piercing her tender skin. His gaze flickered; he abruptly withdrew his hand and said stiffly, “Normally… don’t touch me casually.”
“I’m sorry,” Shen Wangshu apologized softly. She had thought they were getting more familiar and had become a little carried away, forgetting that this man lived by a multitude of rules.
Seeing that her face no longer carried the warmth and joy it had moments earlier, Chen Ting felt some regret and explained, “On the battlefield, one must always be on guard, and the hand guards are sharp. It’s easy to hurt you.”
So it’s best not to get too close to me.
The words lingered on the tip of his tongue for a moment, but in the end, he still couldn’t bring himself to say them.
“I actually really hope someone would take the initiative to come close to me.”
Shen Wangshu heard his voice. Those words sounded aggrieved and pitiful, utterly different from the cold resistance he showed on the surface.
She thought, How can someone be so completely at odds with himself?
“It’s late. Let’s rest,” Chen Ting said after a moment of silence.
Two quilts had been placed on the bed, creating a boundary between the two who were still not very familiar with each other. Shen Wangshu had asked Wutong to bring them.
With his back to her, Chen Ting removed his outer robe. Just as he was about to untie the sash of his inner garment, he suddenly remembered that he was no longer sleeping alone and stopped.
Turning back, he saw that Shen Wangshu had already wrapped herself tightly in a thin quilt and, of her own accord, rolled toward the wall. The distance between them was wide enough to fit another person.
He was sleeping on the outside, so he went to blow out the lamp himself and lowered the curtain, saying nothing the whole time.
Pressed against the wall, Shen Wangshu appeared calm but was actually tense. She stayed alert for quite a while, yet the person sleeping outside made no move at all.
She secretly turned over to take a look. The man lay there with his eyes closed, perfectly upright, like a mummy sleeping in a pyramid. His hands were crossed neatly over his abdomen, his sleeping posture impeccable.
She couldn’t tell if he was asleep… Shen Wangshu watched for a while, but in the end couldn’t resist her drowsiness. Covering her mouth, she yawned and drifted off to sleep.
After she fell asleep, the man beside her silently opened his eyes and quietly stared at her long lashes, dampened by tears. A flash of gold suddenly flickered in the depths of his dark eyes.
He clenched his hand guard, forcibly suppressing the aching, itchy urge on his tongue to bite and tear at something.
When Shen Wangshu was awakened by the faint rustling of someone getting up, the sky outside was still dark.
She lay there dazed for a while before suddenly remembering that she was in ancient times. Ancient wives seemed to have to rise early to help their husbands dress and see them off to work.
But she was really so sleepy…
After struggling for a moment, Shen Wangshu laboriously sat up. With half-closed eyes, she felt her way off the bed, picked up some clothes, and started putting them on him. When she spoke, her voice was thick with sleepiness. “Good morning, my lord. What time is it now?”
Chen Ting looked at the little wife in his arms, so drowsy she could barely open her eyes. He straightened the clothes she had put on crookedly, avoided her small hands that were groping around him under the pretense of helping, tied his jade belt, then extended his long arm to pick her up and gently place her back on the bed. “It’s still early. Go back to sleep. You don’t need to worry about me.”
If he let her dress him any longer, he would never make it out the door on time.
Shen Wangshu closed her eyes with relief and returned to her dreams, still murmuring hazily, “Really? That’s wonderful… My lord, be careful on the road, and come home early for dinner tonight…”
“…” Chen Ting strode out of the room and said to the maids preparing to enter, “No need to wake her. Let the madam sleep a bit longer.”
The servants responded softly.
After the man’s figure disappeared into the distance, Meixue said quietly, “I didn’t expect the general to be so considerate toward the madam.”
Wutong replied calmly, “Harmony between the masters is a good thing.”
“True, but they didn’t even call for water last night. It’s already this late—why hasn’t the madam woken up yet?” Meixue’s expression was a bit strange. “Could it be that the general dressed himself?”
Taohong explained softly, “Sister Meixue, the madam didn’t wake up early even back at her family home. She’s in poor health and says she needs more sleep to recover.”
So it was quite possible that the general had indeed taken care of himself.
Meixue and Wutong exchanged glances, at a loss for words.
At the same time, they were surprised that the naturally aloof general could indulge his newly married wife to such an extent. After marriage, a woman was expected to regard her husband as her heaven. They had never seen a husband rise early while his wife remained fast asleep on the bed.
It was truly unusual.
With no one coming in to disturb her, Shen Wangshu slept straight through until daylight.
From outside the window came the soft voices of the maids sweeping and the sounds of things being moved. Feeling refreshed after waking, she called out, “Taohong!”
The four maids filed in one after another to help her wash and dress. When Shen Wangshu asked the time, she learned it was already past the hour of Chen. “Why didn’t anyone come in to wake me?”
Taohong replied, “The general instructed us to let you sleep longer.”
Nanny Liang glanced thoughtfully at the bed—one side neatly folded, the other crumpled into a heap—and suddenly asked, “Did you and the general sleep under separate quilts last night, madam?”
Shen Wangshu nodded. “Yes. It was hot, and the general probably wouldn’t want to hold me while sleeping.”
“You slept on the outside?”
“I slept on the inside.”
Nanny Liang and the four young maids all fell silent for a moment. Blushing, Taohong reminded her, “Madam, after marriage, the wife usually sleeps on the outside, to make it easier to attend to her husband.”
This was an unspoken rule, so Nanny Liang hadn’t mentioned it explicitly. She had mainly taught her how to manage a man in the bedchamber. Unexpectedly, none of it had come into play— even their positions had been reversed.
“No wonder the general dressed himself this morning,” Meixue said, looking at Shen Wangshu with admiration. “So it was the general who attended to you last night.”
Shen Wangshu: “…I’m used to sleeping against the wall. Who told him not to remind me?”
Nanny Liang said sternly, “This is far too improper. Even if the general doesn’t say anything, he may harbor resentment toward you. Tonight, you must correct this. And don’t use two quilts—husband and wife should sleep beneath the same cover.”
“….”
Shen Wangshu replied reluctantly, “Understood.”
How infuriating—people in ancient times truly had no sense of privacy. They meddled in everything that happened in other people’s rooms, even arranging how she and Chen Ting were supposed to sleep!