The cicadas’ chorus filled the summer night, boiling like a thick soup.
Yun Jichu walked slower and slower.
Lady Shuxiu glanced up at her several times. “Consort, is something amiss?”
“Nothing…”
When she raised her head, she saw Helian Jin approaching from afar. His gaze was nailed to her, not shifting an inch.
Yun Jichu bit her lip.
Soon, Helian Jin drew near.
Lady Shuxiu and the palace servants bowed in greeting. Yun Jichu gazed at his extended palm and slowly placed her hand into it.
“Withdraw,” he commanded.
In moments, only she and Helian Jin remained.
Nearby lay the Taiye Pool, its surface shimmering under the moonlight. The newly lit palace lanterns resembled countless full moons reflected in the water.
The willow branches were no longer growing wildly as they had been last time. Now trimmed neatly, they looked strangely artificial.
Helian Jin did not hurry to lead her toward Zichen Hall.
Yun Jichu followed his footsteps to the edge of the Taiye Pool.
A gentle night breeze stirred the air, carrying the faint lotus fragrance wafting from Helian Jin’s body.
As far as she knew, emperors favored heavy scents like sandalwood or dragon musk. For a man like Helian Jin—father to two children and sovereign of the realm—to wear lotus seemed rather frivolous.
Yet he was steady and taciturn. Even with a scent upon him, it was only faint, which tempered the lotus’s playfulness somewhat.
Yun Jichu’s palm grew warm. Searching for words, she said, “You smell nice.”
“Ah Chu said the same seven years ago.”
Yun Jichu paused. Had she?
She probably had, but she truly didn’t remember.
Who could recall every word ever spoken in the past?
“It seems my tastes have never changed.”
Helian Jin nodded, lost in thought for a moment. “That’s good.”
Even unchanging tastes earned praise. Yun Jichu’s faint unease eased, and her words grew more casual.
“Yes, how wonderful. I’ve liked you since the old days, and even after all these years, I still do.”
Whether in portrait or in person.
Helian Jin looked down at her.
She was gazing out over the Taiye Pool, the light gauze of her skirt swaying gently, strands of her hair twining around their clasped hands.
She smiled faintly.
After a pause, Yun Jichu seemed to realize her words had been overly sentimental. She hurriedly changed the subject.
“Ah Huan has grown so much—”
“Ah Chu.” Helian Jin gripped her shoulders and met her eyes. “In the end, the time I’ve spent liking you is shorter than the time you’ve spent liking me.”
“This is the regret of my lifetime.”
Was he referring to those two months when she had pursued him?
Yun Jichu let out a chuckle.
If one calculated it that way, her own five years had been filled with work. She had never once opened the game, not even dreaming of Helian Jin.
Her affection had come in fits and starts, worth far less than his.
Yun Jichu gently pressed a finger to his lips. “Don’t say such things.”
Her fingertip was warm, carrying the faint osmanthus scent from Ahuan Palace. She must have enjoyed some pastries that evening; even after washing her hands, the rich aroma of milk lingered.
Helian Jin’s throat bobbed.
In that moment of hesitation, Yun Jichu’s finger brushed his lips like a dragonfly skimming water—touching lightly before withdrawing.
Only the warm breath from her sleeve caressed his face: mallow, orchid grass, and…
Unaware of his thoughts, Yun Jichu took his hand and strolled along the edge of the Taiye Pool.
In the night, the pool seemed even more vast, the warm breeze laced with a riot of colorful floral scents.
It felt as relaxing as a vacation.
She recalled the last time she had enjoyed such idle romance: at ten years old, traveling with her parents.
She released Helian Jin’s hand and leaned against the white jade railing at the lake’s edge, bracing herself with both hands.
“Do you see it? There’s a swan over there.”
She leaned forward, her upper body hovering over the water.
Helian Jin did not follow her gaze. Instead, he stepped forward, wrapped an arm around her waist, and with a slight exertion, lifted her in one smooth motion, setting her down two paces away.
Yun Jichu felt her waist tighten, her body suddenly airborne. Before she could react, she was set down again.
“What’s wrong?”
She saw that Helian Jin’s expression was grave.
“Stand here and look,” he said, his voice cold and firm.
He had reverted to that frosty demeanor from half a month ago.
“Oh…” Yun Jichu suddenly felt the earlier intimate atmosphere shatter. She stood there awkwardly.
When she looked up again, the swan had already swum away.
And Helian Jin had not glanced that way at all.
She quietly flexed her hands within her sleeves, helpless, and continued forward.
This time, Yun Jichu did not look about or prattle on.
They had not gone far when her hand was suddenly clasped.
“Ah Chu.”
“Hm?” Her voice was still a little muffled.
Helian Jin strode forward and wrapped his arms around Yun Jichu from behind.
“Ah Chu.”
“Mmm…”
“I’m really… afraid you’ll fall.” It took him great effort to force out those final five words.
It seemed as though even voicing them was more than he could bear.
So that was the reason…
Yun Jichu had thought he found her chatter annoying.
Fall… The memory suddenly hit her—the day in Fengluan Palace when she had fainted at the window.
Had she plummeted straight down?
Just before losing consciousness, she seemed to recall toppling backward.
Had Helian Jin witnessed her tumbling from the tower?
In her own era, that kind of trauma would have required therapy sessions with a psychologist.
She shifted slightly in his embrace.
But Helian Jin held her fast with unyielding strength.
Yun Jichu let out a soft sigh and softened her voice. “Let me turn around and look at you.”
Only then did the man behind her reluctantly loosen his grip, half-doubting, half-trusting.
Yun Jichu pivoted in place without stepping away, so she remained firmly nestled in Helian Jin’s arms.
She tilted her head back.
He bent down to meet her gaze.
In his eyes, she saw the moon’s reflection dancing in a clear spring—and beneath it, the heavy pallor of encroaching dusk, like the shadow of death.
Unable to resist, she rose on tiptoe and looped her arms around Helian Jin’s neck.
It was as if she were pulling down a divine statue from its lofty temple perch.
Yun Jichu took the initiative and kissed him.
She had done this countless times years ago, back when she was wild and unrestrained, utterly free.
But now, she felt a flicker of nervousness.
Yun Jichu tried to recall those intimate details. Her tongue traced the elegant curve of Helian Jin’s lips, lingering greedily against his teeth before she finally pulled away.
Her cheeks flushed faintly pink. Why hadn’t he opened his mouth?
She buried her face in the front of his robes first, hearing the wild thrum of a heartbeat—though she couldn’t tell if it was hers or his.
Yet Helian Jin seemed utterly calm, showing no reaction at all.
Feeling a surge of indignant frustration, Yun Jichu couldn’t help lifting her head to glare at him.
The moment she did, a scorching, frenzied kiss crashed over her like a tidal wave.
It was utterly devoid of finesse, with no trace of tender mercy.
Helian Jin’s assault drove her back a step.
He immediately caught her by the waist and pressed her against him. In the chaos, Yun Jichu’s foot accidentally stomped on his.
The sharp toe of her shoe jabbed him, their robes rustled together, and their breaths mingled in disarray.
The kiss stretched on endlessly, as if he could never get enough.
Yun Jichu barely had a chance to breathe. One of his hands pinned her waist while the other gently caressed her neck, until she couldn’t hold back a soft hum.
“Helian Jin…”
That sound was like a rein yanking a rampaging beast back to reason.
Helian Jin came to a halt.
His gaze was clouded with turmoil, his palms burning hot against her skin, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Yun Jichu’s chest heaved unevenly. The sudden separation left her disoriented; she bit her lower lip, shrinking under his intense stare with a shy flush.
“I…” Yun Jichu fumbled for words to fill the silence. “My lips hurt from how you kissed them.”
“…”
It was only when Helian Jin scooped her up in one arm that Yun Jichu realized her words had come out all wrong.
A rein could only temporarily curb a beast’s frenzy—it could never cure the madness at its root.
Helian Jin pinned her against a tree, and her still-tingling lips were once more captured.
He was so tall that, held aloft as she was, she felt far too high off the ground, gripped by a sense of insecurity. Even with the broad trunk at her back, she reached out and hooked her arms tightly around Helian Jin’s neck.
Perhaps taking pity on her sore lips, Helian Jin let his kisses wander—to her cheeks, the roots of her ears, everywhere.
Then they drifted to her neck.
Helian Jin was particularly fond of that spot. It was soft and fragrant; when his tongue brushed over it, he could feel her pulse surging beneath, and when his lips grazed it, he sensed the subtle rise and fall of her skin as she swallowed.
Her delicate skin was like fragile petals, veined and translucent.
It stirred in him an urge to graze it with his teeth.
But Helian Jin merely lavished it with obsessive sucks and pecks, one after another.
His breathing spiraled out of control into deep, heaving pants.
Cassia, orchids… He remembered now, and the faint lotus scent on Yun Jichu’s skin.
Like the rich heart of a flower hidden beneath a veil of thin frost.
Yun Jichu disliked having that spot kissed.
The hot gusts of Helian Jin’s breath washed over her entirely, accompanied by damp kisses—like the morning mist of an autumn dawn seeping into her collar. She clutched at his robes, unable to suppress a string of soft whimpers.
With those broken, intermittent sounds, Helian Jin grew even fiercer. Yun Jichu felt a faint sting at her neck; it seemed he had left a mark.
The slight pain snapped her back to her senses, and only then did she realize that at some point, one of Helian Jin’s arms had slid around her back and come to rest at her front.
His palm was warm, his touch gentle. Yun Jichu didn’t even notice when the front of her clothes had been peeled halfway down.
Helian Jin finished leaving his marks. He lowered his eyelashes in satisfaction, pulling away from her neck and drifting lower.
“Don’t…”
Yun Jichu didn’t dare glance downward. Seizing the moment while he paused at her plea, she clung to him tightly, pressing herself against him with her chin resting on his shoulder.
Hiding that exposed patch of skin.
“Not here…”
Reason flooded back into Helian Jin. He hastily straightened her dress and draped his outer robe over her shoulders, stroking her back in a soothing rhythm.
“I got carried away,” he murmured. His voice was still husky, his breathing unsteady.
“Let’s go back. We can… continue then.”
“Alright.”
And so Yun Jichu nestled in his arms, letting Helian Jin carry her all the way to Zichen Hall.
Her face burned red the entire journey.
Just now, he must have seen it. And he’d even wanted to…
“Ah Chu.” Helian Jin called her name.
“Hm?”
“I’m sorry. I lost control.”
“No…” Yun Jichu mumbled into his chest. “Aiya, just stop talking about it.”
“Alright.”
Helian Jin held her steady and secure.
They were almost at Zichen Hall now, and Yun Jichu wished she could fly straight inside.
At that moment, Helian Jin spoke again. “Ah Chu.”
“Hm?”
“Later… can we keep going?”
“…” Yun Jichu balled her fist and thumped it against his back. “No more talking about it!”
Her blows didn’t hurt him in the slightest. Seeing her little legs kicking playfully in front of them, Helian Jin couldn’t hold back a chuckle.
“Alright, alright. I won’t say another word.”
The playful scuffle chased away much of the lingering awkwardness.
Now Yun Jichu felt relaxed enough for idle chatter. “Isn’t the homework you’re giving Ah Nian a bit too heavy? He didn’t even have time to spend with me today—just a quick greeting and he was off.”
“He didn’t have any homework today.”
“Eh? Then what was going on?”
“Probably something else keeping him busy.”
Yun Jichu couldn’t fathom the mind of a five-year-old, so she simply sighed. “Ah Nian keeping his distance from me is only natural.”
Helian Jin slowed his steps. “Ah Nian misses you. He just doesn’t say it out loud.”
Yun Jichu pondered for a moment and decided he was right.
Otherwise, why had she run into Ah Nian right after starting to feel better?
Then she recalled the flower petal on Ah Nian’s shoulder from earlier that day. He must have been waiting for a long time.
He knew she’d be visiting the ailing Ah Huan, so he’d stationed himself along the path she had to take.
Her heart softened at the thought. “Ah Nian takes after you.”
Years ago, Helian Jin had waited for her too—in a flurry of heavy snow. Snow had dusted his shoulders, frost clung to his lashes, yet he’d insisted he’d only just arrived.
She hadn’t realized it back then either.
They had reached the bedside now. Helian Jin shifted her in his arms, cradling her horizontally against him. “I think he takes after you more.”
“Hm?”
“Pure of heart, gentle and attentive, scholarly with a gift for learning, bright and quick-witted.”
“…” Yun Jichu blinked in surprise. “Is that really me?”
“It’s you, of course. And that’s not all.”
“I always thought it was more like dull and uninteresting, standoffish and quiet.”
She truly had spent a long stretch of time unable to speak, stripped of even the basic instincts for getting along with others.
Helian Jin silenced her with a shake of his head, leaning down to kiss her.
They tumbled together onto the inner side of the bed.
No lamps burned in Zichen Hall, but a gentle breeze carried streams of moonlight inside, flowing between them.
The summer swelter had eased a little. In its place surged the long-suppressed thrill of reunion after years apart—and the impulses they could no longer contain.
The floral scent from when she’d risen at noon had faded, but for some reason, Yun Jichu found herself thinking back to last night’s bath, the tub brimming with scattered petals.
Hot water cascading, fragrances swirling—if only they could—
Her thoughts wandered again. Every time she looked at Helian Jin, those deep-buried hungers and cravings bubbled to the surface.
“Ah Chu.”
Helian Jin lifted his head from the curve of her neck, his gaze smoldering.
“You’re distracted.”
“Mm…” Yun Jichu felt a restless heat building.
He nipped lightly at her earlobe, adding just a touch more pressure.
Right by her ear, he whispered, “What are you thinking about?”
Her fingers pressed weakly against the fabric over her chest. The brocade had absorbed the warmth between them, heavy and damp like after a downpour in muggy heat. “I’m thinking…”
His teeth grazed the delicate skin of her neck.
Sending shivers rippling through her.
“Thinking about what?”
She couldn’t push him away, yielding inch by inch. In a small voice, she breathed, “In the bathhouse…”
A low chuckle escaped him—light, teasing, seductive.
It melted into the deep night.
Helian Jin’s nose brushed her collarbone, tracing its graceful curve. “Alright. We’ll go there soon.”
“A little while?”
Yun Jichu’s fingers clutched at his hair as a chill tide washed over her lower abdomen.
She had clearly prepared herself mentally today, yet she was still nervous this time.
Yun Jichu broke out in a light sheen of sweat, while Helian Jin’s hands on her waist burned hot against her skin.
His upper garments were still neatly in place, save for the front of his robe loosened just enough to reveal the snowy white undulations of his chest.
It was like a snow-capped mountain, or branches dusted with autumn frost.
She reached out, intent on stripping away his troublesome clothes.
But Helian Jin seized her wrists and pinned them above her head. His voice came out hoarse as he coaxed her. “I’ll show you another day.”
Why not now?
She loved looking the most.
He had never been so evasive before.
Perhaps her heart was beating too fast, but Yun Jichu rarely got angry. Seizing the moment as he leaned down to pin her, she tilted her chin up and nipped at his Adam’s apple.
How could jade taste so delicious? She resisted the urge to bite down fully, merely grazing it lightly with her teeth.
She heard Helian Jin let out a muffled grunt, and like a soothing gesture, she flicked her tongue over it twice.
“Ah Chu…”
But right after, she didn’t dare move anymore. Helian Jin’s hands on her waist suddenly tightened, and then…
Her fingers were forcibly pried apart, interlaced with his large palms and pressed down. A single thought flashed through Yun Jichu’s mind—
How could she have wasted the points from the Returning Gift Pack like that?
Adding more to her appearance didn’t matter, but her figure was not something to allocate points into carelessly.
She couldn’t help but scratch at Helian Jin’s back, but he seemed utterly oblivious to the pain.
In the end, Yun Jichu could only clutch at his clothes, letting him lower his head to kiss her forehead in soothing reassurance even as he unleashed waves of fierce, tempestuous passion upon her.
The so-called seven-year itch… it didn’t exist at all.
There was only ravenous hunger, fierce and unrelenting.
At the end of the hai hour, Yun Jichu lay limp and boneless, sprawled haphazardly. She twitched her aching, softened fingers.
There was a layer of thin gauze at her fingertips. Lifting her eyes, she saw that the bed curtains had fallen at some point.
The soft pillow had been replaced; the one soaked through earlier was gone.
“Ah Chu…” Helian Jin held her close.
He gently wiped the corners of her eyes again.
“Mm…”
“The hot water is ready. I’ll carry you there.”
“…”
~~~