Su Mu stayed by his bedside all night, occasionally feeling his forehead to check if his temperature was normal. It wasn’t until daybreak, after confirming that all was well, that Su Mu finally fell asleep, exhausted.

The morning light spilled in from outside the window.

Xie Yi was awakened by the knife-like, dull pain and burning sensation in his chest. He struggled to open his eyes, and a pure white bed curtain came into view. This was… Su Mu’s bed?

He tried to sit up, but the movement pulled at the wound on his chest. The pain made him bite his lip hard to keep from crying out. He fell back onto the bed powerlessly, his hand moved slightly, feeling something soft clutched in it.

He looked down to see a pair of slender, snow-white hands.

Xie Yi’s gaze slowly moved forward. Su Mu’s tired sleeping face was resting beside him, the pure white curtains piled around her like a thin mist, her fingers tightly intertwined with his.

Xie Yi smiled silently, gently brushing aside the curtain covering her sleeping face. All the pain seemed to vanish in that moment.

Seeing Su Mu sleeping soundly, Xie Yi gathered his courage and reached out to secretly stroke her sleeping brow bone. It was only for a brief moment, like a dragonfly skimming water, touching once before quickly withdrawing, afraid she might notice.

Xie Yi was like a little cat stealing cream, his heart pounding wildly with excitement. As if drunk, his whole body felt hot, even the tips of his ears turning slightly red.

“You’re awake?” Su Mu stirred and slowly woke up. Seeing Xie Yi’s face particularly red, she thought he had developed a high fever like in her previous life.

She quickly placed her palm on his forehead to check his temperature. It was so hot.

Su Mu immediately became anxious: “Why are you so hot? Are you running a fever? Wait, I’ll go call the doctor to come check on you.”

“Don’t-” Xie Yi grabbed Su Mu, embarrassed beyond words. He couldn’t very well tell her that he was… so excited because he had secretly caressed her, could he?

At this thought, Xie Yi’s face flushed even more intensely, the blush spreading all the way to his neck.

“Mu Jiejie, I’m fine, really. I feel very good now, except for the wound still hurting a bit, everything else is fine.”

“Really?” Su Mu was half-believing, half-doubting. Medical standards in ancient times were very underdeveloped, so she didn’t dare take any chances.

She lowered her voice and said softly, “I’m still a bit worried. How about this, I need to go to the clinic to get medicine for you anyway, so I’ll ask the doctor to come check on you again, okay?”

Hearing her coaxing him so gently, Xie Yi’s heart trembled sensitively. “…Okay.”

“Are you thirsty? I’ll go get you some water.” Su Mu got up to pour him some tea, but because she had been leaning on the edge of the bed all night, her stiff legs were uncontrollably sore and weak. She stumbled forward.

Just as she was about to fall on Xie Yi, in a split second, Su Mu braced her arms on either side of Xie Yi’s pillow, barely avoiding crushing him.

She tried to get up, but her legs felt numb and tingly, like they were filled with snow. She couldn’t move at all.

She was forced to maintain this ambiguous posture, with Xie Yi beneath her, not moving an inch.

Awkward, so awkward.

“Ahem, I… I didn’t crush you, did I?” Su Mu bit her lip and said in a low voice.

Xie Yi shook his head, his tea-colored eyes bright as he glanced at her for a moment before quickly averting his gaze, his cheeks flushed red.

Su Mu belatedly realized that in her current position, if he looked up, what he would see was… Although it was covered by clothes, still…

Su Mu felt her mind alternating between flashes of red and white. She forcefully got up, not caring whether her legs had sensation or not.

“Mu Jiejie-”

Su Mu gritted her teeth. Damn it, Xie Yi just had to tug at her collar at this moment, leaving her in an awkward position, straddling his body with her arms braced on either side of him. The posture was both ambiguous and uncomfortable.

“What is it?” Su Mu’s gaze wandered, looking left and right but avoiding looking at him.

If Xie Yi had observed carefully, he would have easily noticed that her arms were now as stiff as icicles.

“Mu Jiejie, what you said yesterday… does it still count?” he asked, biting his lip shyly.

“Hm?”

“You forgot?” Xie Yi clutched at her collar, his tone anxious and insecure: “You said you would keep me, let me stay by your side forever. Did you forget?”

His tea-colored eyes seemed to darken for a moment, a desolate sadness welling up from their depths.

“No, no.” Su Mu quickly said: “I remember. You don’t want to return to the Great Desert, right? It’s okay, you can stay with me then.”

“For a lifetime?” Xie Yi’s beautiful tea-colored eyes gazed at her intently. Perhaps due to the deep-set eyes inherited from his Western ancestors, his gaze appeared excessively passionate.

Su Mu nodded: “Yes, for a lifetime.”

Xie Yi’s eyelashes trembled with excitement. From the moment she brought him home, and even in her previous life, she had never seen Xie Yi so happy. Although his body had exhausted all its strength due to yesterday’s injury, at this moment, the bright smile in his eyes radiated a burning light, more dazzling than the sun.

“I’m so happy, Mu Jiejie. I’ve never been as happy as I am now.” Xie Yi smiled like a pure child.

All because of a single promise from Su Mu.

Suddenly, a noisy sound of gongs and drums from outside broke the tranquility of the room.

“I’ll go out and see.” Su Mu got off the bed, rubbed her still somewhat numb legs, and walked out of the room.

She saw that the alley outside was unusually lively, with neighbors from Luoyan Alley also coming out to watch the excitement.

“What’s the happy occasion?” Su Mu asked.

“Today is the day for exam results. The daughter of Blacksmith Gu from the next street, Miss Gu, has passed the scholar examination. Look, her mother is so excited she’s announcing it to the whole city,” a neighbor said.

“That’s a scholar, you know. How many scholars do we have in our Juancheng? If my Xiaomei could pass the scholar exam, I’d be even more boastful than her,” Yang Shu popped up from somewhere, looking enviously at the crowd beating gongs and drums.

All trades are low, only studying is high.

Su Mu looked and indeed saw Blacksmith Gu happily accepting congratulations from everyone.

She had been so busy with Xie Yi’s affairs these days that she had forgotten about such an important event as the announcement of the prefectural exam results. She would check the list of successful candidates later.

“Su Niang-zi!”

Just as Su Mu was thinking, Blacksmith Gu suddenly called out to her excitedly.

“Are you calling me?” Su Mu was surprised. Because of her reputation as a live-in son-in-law, she had never been well-received by women. Blacksmith Gu, in particular, had always been arrogant. She never expected there would be a day when she would take the initiative to greet her.

“Of course! Who else would I be calling if not you?” Blacksmith Gu ran over excitedly and grabbed her hand.

Su Mu smiled confusedly, thinking she was in a good mood today and wanted to hear some congratulatory words: “Congratulations to Miss Gu for passing the scholar examination.”

Blacksmith Gu waved her hand: “Oh, that’s nothing. Su Niang-zi, you’re a scholar too, aren’t you? Not only that, but you’re also the top scorer!”

“…Really?” Su Mu was both surprised and delighted.

“How could it be false!” Blacksmith Gu said enthusiastically: “This year, our Juancheng only had two scholar positions, and you and my Ping’er took them both. In the future, you scholars should look out for each other. This year, take the autumn imperial examination together, and hopefully, you’ll both become Ju scholars together.”

“What? Su Mu? Su Mu passed the scholar examination?”

“Who? That live-in son-in-law, actually…”

“My goodness!”

As soon as Blacksmith Gu said this, everyone was stunned. They all looked at Su Mu in disbelief, never expecting that the live-in son-in-law they had always looked down upon had become one of only two scholars this year, and even ranked first, defeating a crowd of scholars.

Yang Shu looked at Su Mu in utter disbelief, then regretfully ran back home.