Chapter 53

The sky was drizzling, raindrops pattering one by one on the exquisitely carved railings of the carriage. As the “pitter-patter” sound of rain came, Liu Changning slowly opened her eyes.

The drug in her body had mostly worn off, but her mind was still a bit hazy.

Liu Changning forced herself to walk out of the Dragon Gate of the examination hall, seeing Jia Ziyun from afar, who gave her a signal. Only then did she weakly stumble over in front of everyone.

Little did she know that the one who caught her wasn’t her friend, but the familiar man with the scent of pine and cypress.

He was tall, with a broad and warm embrace.

She felt even more drowsy.

If it weren’t for his trembling hands and anxious voice, she would have really planned to lie in his fragrant arms and fall into a deep sleep right then.

Liu Changning used all her strength to force her eyelids open, and saw the red-clothed man’s worried expression. She was stunned for a moment, reached out her hand to touch his jade-white cheek, and said soothingly, “Don’t worry…”

Having slept for eight consecutive days, except for waking up in the examination hall to eat a few pieces of cake, her stomach was completely empty, and the environment in the examination hall was extremely poor. Although she was asleep, she couldn’t rest easy. She was physically and mentally exhausted.

Liu Changning actually didn’t have much strength to speak at this moment.

Her head resting in the arms of the man beside her, her nose filled with the familiar scent of pine and cypress. Her ear pressed against his chest, she could hear his long, steady heartbeat.

Liu Changning laboriously curved her lips, greeting him.

The remaining drug took effect, and her hand that was covering his face fell powerlessly. Her eyelids closed, and she fell asleep again.

At the moment of closing her eyes, Liu Changning thought that when she wakes up, she should have a good talk with him about their future marriage.

Since that night of red candles and warm curtains, after a night of entanglement.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he returned to Jinling City on the third day and then set off to Jiaodong to handle the case of rampant private salt smuggling.

They hadn’t seen each other for months, and that night she ultimately couldn’t give him an explanation.

Marrying him wasn’t a whim, not just because of the familiar voice in her heart. More than that, after that night, she could clearly feel that in all her lives as a human, the only man she could tolerate was Pei Ziyuan alone. The only man who could be close to her was also him alone.

All the characteristics of that person did not conform to her aesthetic standards for men, but she instinctively tolerated his domineering and flamboyant nature again and again.

Liu Changning didn’t understand love, she couldn’t even figure out if she loved him or not.

But undoubtedly, being with him brought a subtle joy to her heart. Even if it was just a hint, not comparable to the deep love in novels. But for the emotionless Dao ancestor, this subtle heartbeat was more difficult than ascending to heaven.

So she had to marry him, provided he was willing to marry her, to preserve this liking and gradually deepen it. Until they grew old together, deeply in love.

She gave him a few months to think, to calm down from the shock of having his body taken by her that night.

Although he had another love in his heart, that person had already become dead.

That night, she could feel that he was also happy and enjoying it. If he was willing to let down his guard and accept her, she was willing to try for him, slowly learning to love, giving him a promise of one life, one world, one partner.

Pei Yuanshao looked anxious, and she said something to reassure him.

Before he could ask, her eyes closed again, and her hands fell on the carriage floor. He held her body, shaking even more violently.

Looking down, the woman in his arms was pale, with cracked lips.

Pei Yuanshao narrowed his eyes and shouted angrily at the carriage outside, “Quick, go faster!”

—

The hooves passed through the market, going straight to the back door of the Mingde Changdi Qing mansion.

It was drizzling outside the carriage. Pei Yuanshao took off his cloak and wrapped it around the woman in his arms, then jumped down from the carriage carrying her.

Hong Zhu came forward with an oil paper umbrella, but was stunned by his master’s anxious gaze.

The man with red clothes and black hair was holding a lady in his arms. She was nestled in his embrace, her face unclear, but her figure was slender and graceful.

Nestled in His Highness’s arms, his falling hair intertwined with hers, like a beautiful painting.

“Greetings… Your High…”

Hong Zhu concealed the shock in his heart and knelt to pay respects.

But the red-clothed man had already passed him, quickly moving to the entrance of the corridor.

“Call Wan physician into the mansion, quickly!”

He ordered urgently, his steps not slowing at all. With a few strides across the steps, he had already rushed towards the inner courtyard.

Hong Zhu stood up and responded “Yes” to the empty corridor.

–

Pei Yuanshao, carrying the woman in his arms, kicked open the wooden door of the inner chamber.

He placed her sideways on the bed, and all the palace servants in the room were driven out by his gloomy gaze.

The woman on the bed had her eyes tightly closed, her brows relaxed, her long curled lashes tightly shut, casting a deep shadow under her eyelids.

She was sleeping very soundly, but because of the heated floor in the room, the temperature was quite high, and she still had the bundle from the examination hall on her back.

Soon, a thin layer of sweat formed on her forehead.

Pei Yuanshao frowned, squatted beside the bed, and carefully untied the bundle on her back.

His fingertips touched the knot on her chest, trembling constantly.

He closed his eyes, turned his gaze away, carefully avoiding those two soft areas, his fingers clumsily struggling with the knot of the bundle.

A very faint blush appeared on his jade-white ears, extending down from the roots of his ears.

It took the time of burning an incense stick to finally untie the knot with trembling hands. The sweat on his forehead had now gathered the falling strands of hair into a lock.

Because the bundle’s strap was tightly pressed under her body, Pei Yuanshao took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and resigned himself to reaching around her body. One hand passed through her waist, gently lifting her up.

He leaned down, and her soft chest pressed directly against his body. Although separated by cloth, the dense softness and the sensation he accidentally touched earlier permeated his entire being.

A burning sensation of shame grew uncontrollably under his long robe. Pei Yuanshao bit his teeth in embarrassment, hating himself for being too shameful. This person was clearly seriously ill.

Yet his mind was full of filth. He had promised to never have any involvement with her again, but… he couldn’t control it.

Pei Yuanshao, with trembling hands, took out the bundle strap from under her, then staggeringly placed her safely on the bed.

His fingertips curled into a ball, his body tense and covered in sweat.

He wiped the fine sweat from his brow, guiltily glanced at the woman on the bed, seeing her eyes tightly closed, breathing evenly.

Only then did he pick up the bundle like a thief, intending to place it on the eight-immortals table outside the screen.

However, unexpectedly, the bundle’s strap was loose, the shame underneath had not yet been soothed, his heart was empty, and in a moment of panic, the brushes, ink, and dried food from inside the bundle all fell to the ground.

Pei Yuanshao’s eyes flashed, guiltily looking again at the woman on the bed.

She was truly ill. Usually, with such a noise, she would definitely have been startled awake.

But now… her lips were cracked, her expression weary, clearly showing great loss of vitality.

“If you wanted to enter the court as an official, you could have just told me. Why did you have to suffer such hardship… You’re really foolish!”

His lips moved, silently reproaching. When he realized what he was thinking, a flash of frustration passed through his eyes. He glared at the cold and indifferent woman on the bed, hurriedly lowered his head, and cleaned up the fallen dried food.

He kept reminding himself not to be seduced by that person again. He was Pei Yuanshao, the Mingde Changdi Qing. He had his own pride and dignity. The woman he loved could dislike him, but she couldn’t deceive his heart and body without any explanation.

The one who loves first is cheap, but he had the last pride and dignity as a man. He loved her, loved the woman who was outwardly cold and rigid but extremely respectful to men, not the cold shadow she gave him after that intensely passionate night in the snowy Nanhua Temple.

To avoid hurting himself again, he chose to keep his distance, so both sides would be fine. As the Changdi Qing, his life didn’t need a woman’s pity, and she, as the clear and noble Liu Cangcloud, certainly couldn’t marry a man full of blemishes.

As reason returned, Pei Yuanshao clenched his fists, the pain in his fingertips helping him suppress the desire crying out throughout his body, forcibly focusing his attention on the fallen luggage.

Originally just a light glance, but when his gaze fell on the cakes scattered on the ground, Pei Yuanshao’s face suddenly turned pale.

The fallen cakes were scattered under the bed. The cakes had fallen out of the oiled paper bag, with various types – osmanthus cake, rose cake, jade bean cake…

Exquisite and small. Clearly made with care.

On each cake, a green bamboo was decorated with food materials, standing straight and unbent.

Exactly the same as the green bamboo on the handkerchief Liu Changning carried that day.

He reached out to pick up a cake from the ground, brought it to his nose and sniffed lightly. The cake maker was skilled, each cake had the fragrance of bamboo leaves, upon closer smell, the bamboo fragrance was pervasive, lingering around the nose.

Pei Yuanshao’s rounded fingertips sank into the cake. He looked up at the woman sleeping obliviously on the bed, suddenly feeling like a joke.

Throughout history, men who could prepare cakes for women to take the imperial examination were either the woman’s husband or her betrothed.

Thinking back carefully, just now at the examination hall gate, there was a man who saw Liu Changning faint and rushed forward to support her, his eyes full of concern.

If he hadn’t appeared, she would definitely have been caught by that person.

Pei Yuanshao curved his lips, revealing a self-mocking smile. It was him being presumptuous, what right did he, a mere stranger, have to bring her back to his mansion.

He stepped forward, walked to her side, bent down and looked at her intently, with a complex expression, smiling sourly: “I’m sorry for blocking you and your fiancé’s lovey-dovey moment. Next time I see you, I, Pei Ziyuan, swear to heaven that I will definitely avoid you from afar. If I violate this oath, may heaven strike me with lightning, and I shall not…”

Before he could finish speaking, the woman on the bed who had looked sick suddenly opened her eyes. She reached out to encircle his slender waist, pulling him to the side of the bed.

She frowned, the sleepiness in her eyes not yet dispersed, turned over and sat on top of him. With a heavy morning temper, she said hoarsely, “Hm? Avoid?”

The man before her had his hair messily spread on the brocade back, he gritted his teeth, struggling to get up. But Liu Changning didn’t give him a chance to sit up. She slapped his perky bottom and said coldly, “Don’t move!”

Being touched in such a shameful area, Pei Yuanshao’s peach blossom eyes suddenly widened, the rippling brilliance in his pupils intertwined with complexity and shame, a flash of frustration passing through.

He hid his hands in his sleeves, fingertips sinking into his palms. When he looked up again, the shame on his face was gone, his lips curved into a soul-stirring smile.

He reached out his hands, encircling her neck.

Lifting his body, his crimson lips paused by her ear, maliciously blowing a hot breath on the side of her neck, pretending to be frivolous: “Liu Jie Yuan, this humble one… hmm…”

He deliberately dragged out his voice, his breath seeming both panting and seductive.

The woman on top of him, her eyes gradually deepening, rubbed her forehead, leaned down, her lips approaching his bit by bit.

But she was pushed away by his inner force.

Pei Yuanshao took the opportunity to leap up, leisurely smoothing out the wrinkles in his sleeves.

With a face full of disdain, he smiled and said: “This humble one… hmm, feels that you smell terribly. Not bathing for nine days, such a dirty female consort, this palace truly cannot bring myself to taste!”