Chapter 10
As early summer approached, the days grew longer. At this hour, there was still a splendid sunset.
Yuli was wearing a goose-yellow osmanthus-patterned brocade dress today. Seeing Xie Yao appear, she waved to him from afar.
She stood by the gate, waiting for Xie Yao to approach. Perhaps it was the beautiful sunset, or perhaps the dress suited her, but she looked very happy today, her smile revealing a few pearly teeth, radiant and bright.
Xie Yao walked over. She tried to casually link her arm with his, but her breath still hitched.
Xie Yao looked down at her, noticing her slightly flushed cheeks. She looked ahead and called him “Husband.”
Much more natural than before.
It was the first time she had taken his arm on her own initiative. They were closer than when they held hands. She had taken a step closer, and it looked like she had prepared herself mentally for a long time.
Xie Yao’s initial reaction was calm. After a few steps, he raised his left hand and pinched Yuli’s hand on his right arm. Yuli thought he didn’t like it and wanted her to let go. In her daze, his palm moved forward and held her wrist.
Again, the force was not light, and the temperature was high. Yuli breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought he didn’t like her linking arms with him.
Thinking back, she had been overthinking. How could he not like her linking arms with him?
“Business has been very busy these past few days,” Xie Yao said.
It had been three days since he had last come. They had been apart for a while. Xie Yao knew what she was doing every day, but Yuli did not. Although Yuli didn’t ask, perhaps she also thought of him.
Yuli: “I know. It’s alright.”
Xie Yao’s hand tightened, and he glanced at her from the side.
Yuli felt the force on her hand increase, and his gaze was slightly cool.
Alright. Yuli sighed. “You didn’t come yesterday. I thought you were angry with me.”
Xie Yao gave a faint smile.
Walking into Mingyue Residence under the afterglow of the sunset, Yuli let go of him. After they were seated, the maids brought dinner.
Yuli still thought he hadn’t eaten and had the maids meticulously arrange the dishes. There were eight dishes in total. Only one was the hot and sour flavor that Xie Yao liked, a sour soup with beef slices. The rest were her own favorites or common dishes like braised pork, tofu soup, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables.
Xie Yao’s appetite seemed average. He ate slowly and sparingly, not touching the sour soup beef at all.
Yuli noticed. Xie Yao gave her a look. “Pay me no mind.”
But Yuli didn’t look away. He rarely smiled; there must not have been many things that made him happy, at least in the past.
He had said it was best to forget his preferences, but she already knew them. This was the one area where she could make him a little happier, and she couldn’t just ignore it.
She hadn’t wanted to offend him by serving him food, but she couldn’t resist.
She picked up the serving chopsticks and placed a piece of braised pork in his bowl.
It looked like an ordinary caramel color, perhaps sweet and cloying. But whatever dish Yuli served him, he would eat.
After serving the food, Yuli watched him.
Xie Yao immediately picked up the chopsticks he had put down, put the meat in his mouth, and his eyebrows twitched. He looked at Yuli.
Yuli looked away, pretending to be engrossed in her meal.
With something in her mouth, her pink cheeks puffed out slightly. Xie Yao kept looking at her, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“I made it with the kitchen doors closed. No one knows.”
She winked, indicating that this was their secret, telling him not to say anything and not to worry.
Her smile was full of indulgence and a doting flavor.
Xie Yao hummed in acknowledgment and concentrated on chewing the piece of hot and sour braised pork. Long after he had swallowed, his Adam’s apple was still bobbing frequently.
Yuli didn’t serve him any more. She knew he had eaten before coming today. It was enough for him to know that when he came here, he could eat the flavors he liked without any burden.
After Yuli finished eating, the maids quickly cleared the table. Xiyun and Jingyu led the others and withdrew.
Only the two of them were left in the courtyard.
The sky had darkened, but it was not yet completely black. The lanterns in the courtyard were lit.
With no one around and it being quiet, Yuli turned to Xie Yao. “Husband, if there’s anything you want to eat, tell me in private. I’ll secretly make it for you. As long as I’m the only one who knows your preferences, it will be fine.”
Xie Yao: “I want to eat custard buns.”
Yuli was taken aback. “Should I go and make them now?”
Xie Yao: “Mm.”
Yuli was a woman of action. She told him to wait here and turned to go to the kitchen.
She walked too fast, but slowed down to a normal pace after leaving Mingyue Residence.
She had made so many strange foods that the people in the kitchen naturally didn’t find it odd. She had made custard buns before. It had been the main product she sold at her breakfast stall in Xihe County and was very popular. She had made a lot and shared them with everyone.
They were a huge hit. She had complained to Uncle Hu that such a delicious pastry couldn’t make any money.
Uncle Hu told her that this thing was precious. Her selling price was high for ordinary people but not high enough for the wealthy, not to mention selling it cheaply as a breakfast item.
He also said that if she opened a high-end pastry shop in the capital, the business might be booming, and the profits would be very high.
Unfortunately, she no longer had the opportunity to do so.
Since Xie Yao wanted to eat them, she made them for him with care. But worried that people would notice he had requested them on the spot, she had Xiyun and Uncle Hu help, making a large batch. The excuse she used was that the Young Master appreciated their hard work and had asked her to find a way to treat them.
She was skilled at making them and quickly steamed a basketful. She took it to Mingyue Residence first, so Xie Yao could eat them fresh from the steamer.
They were most delicious at this time.
When she returned to Mingyue Residence, Xie Yao was still there, holding a book. There was a study in the east wing of Mingyue Residence, but it seemed to have no books. She didn’t know where it came from.
Yuli paid it no mind. She placed the steamer basket on the table. Xie Yao had put down his book the moment she entered. Yuli had timed it perfectly; opening it now was just right.
Steam billowed out in a white mist. Xie Yao, however, was staring at Yuli. Yuli directly picked up a round custard bun with her hand and held it in front of him.
Xie Yao turned his eyes back to it but didn’t reach out to take it. He took a bite from her hand.
Yuli was a little embarrassed. “I’ll go get a set of bowl and chopsticks.”
Xiyun and Jingyu had not followed her, so she had to get them herself.
Xie Yao gripped her wrist, not letting her go.
He ate the entire custard bun from Yuli’s hand. At the end, his lips brushed against her fingertips. Yuli quickly pulled her hand back. She would never feed him like that again.
There were still three buns left in the steamer. Xie Yao didn’t seem to want any more. Yuli covered the steamer, planning to have him find a way to take them with him.
But Xie Yao kept holding her wrist.
“You fed me like this before,” Xie Yao said.
Yuli blinked, and then she remembered. It was over two years ago, when she had taken him in.
Back then, he was almost paralyzed and couldn’t move. If she didn’t feed him, he couldn’t eat.
And at that time, his face was covered in burns, his features completely unrecognizable. Now, Yuli looked at him. His skin was delicate. Those hideous wounds had not left a single trace.
She remembered that when he left, he could only see with his eyes and couldn’t speak. Only his hands could move. She wanted to ask him how he had recovered, but she seemed even more curious about how he had gotten injured like that in the first place.
Even though it involved many complications, Yuli still asked, “How did you get so badly injured back then?”
“I was poisoned and secretly harmed by someone,” was all he said.
There was no further explanation.
No wonder he was so concerned about the safety of his food.
Yuli immediately thought of those unscrupulous food businesses in the modern world.
“How hateful,” Yuli said with a serious face, and then asked, “Has that person been brought to justice? How many years were they sentenced to?”
Xie Yao smiled. It was a strange smile, but not a cold one.
“I suppose so,” Xie Yao said. “Thanks to her, I was able to meet you.”
Yuli belatedly realized how foolish her question was. She felt a little embarrassed. She had only taken him in for three days and had done nothing at all.
The original Song Yi was probably much the same, especially since she had a beloved at the time. To think he would remember it for over two years, and even insist on forcibly marrying her, keeping her by his side against her will, refusing to let go no matter how much she loathed him, entangled to the death even after being stabbed and mutually tormented.
It must be the power of the plot. Meeting her was part of it, saving him without any real effort on her part was part of it, and him insisting that she love him because of it was also part of it.
Yuli’s mood suddenly became complicated. She couldn’t help but see Xie Yao as a character in a novel again.
Xie Yao watched the complex changes in her expression, not knowing what she was thinking. Similarly, Yuli didn’t know what he was thinking either.
Yuli yawned. She was a bit tired today. She had been busy since she learned Xie Yao was coming and hadn’t rested since.
Seeing this, Xie Yao didn’t stay long and got up to leave.
Yuli wanted to give him the custard buns, but he said, “Leave them. Sleep early.”
He left. Yuli didn’t have the energy to think much. Soon, Xiyun came and helped her bathe. Not long after she lay down on the bed, she fell fast asleep.
A gauze-like moonlight filtered through the window paper into the room. It was not pitch black inside. In the utter silence, the door was suddenly pushed open.
A man with silent footsteps walked in slowly.
It was Xie Yao, who had returned after leaving.
He walked into the room, passed through the screen, and came to Yuli’s bedchamber. The room was simply furnished. In the dim moonlight, only a branch of green locust could be seen clearly.
Besides an exquisite bed shrouded in curtains, there was not even a place to sit in the room. The floor was covered with a carpet, so walking was silent.
Xie Yao walked towards the bed. The moonlight passed through the window lattice, streaking across the tops of his shoes.
He stopped by the bedside and bent his knees, sitting on the floor. His knees were bent, and his hands rested on them. The moonlight illuminated half of his jaw.
Not even a shadow of the person on the bed could be seen. Only by listening intently could one hear the faint sound of breathing.
But tonight, Xie Yao’s breathing was much heavier than usual, and he could only hear hers intermittently.
Xie Yao closed his eyes and pictured her face, detailed down to the curve of her eyebrows, the exact shade of red of her lips, a very faint mole by her ear, and her wrist resting outside the thin quilt, the path of the pale blue veins, the location of that tiny mole.
He wanted to picture more in his mind, but suddenly, a faint milky fragrance wafted to his nose, and the image of her from two years ago appeared in his mind.
*
That night, Xie Yao was carried out of the capital by Song He on his back. They were pursued by people from both the Xie family and the Crown Prince. The shadow guards dwindled, and Song He was also injured on the way.
A few days later, Song He had no choice but to leave him in an unknown place.
He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move at all. His eyelids were stuck together, unable to open. All he could see was darkness. Only the burning pain on his face and neck, which felt as if it had seeped into his marrow, never disappeared, reminding him that he was still alive.
He could hear people passing by. They were either disgusted or afraid. Some children even threw stones at him.
He could sense the passing of day and night. After about three days, on a cold morning, someone stopped in front of him.
She sighed, as if disgusted with him. He was used to it and just wanted her to get lost.
But she spoke, asking him, “Can you walk?”
She wanted to drive him away. He wanted to kill her, but he had no strength.
A cool hand touched his hair, and a warm, milky fragrance wafted over. She gasped and pulled her hand back.
It was quiet for a moment, but he could hear her breathing was close.
She sighed again and dragged him into a room. It was warm and fragrant. Then a cup of water was brought to his lips. He was on the verge of death, no longer feeling thirst or hunger. Having been brought to this state by poison, he refused to let anything enter his mouth.
Then came something soft, warm, and sweet, with the same scent as her. He tried to open his mouth, but his lips were stuck together from the corrosive wounds and wouldn’t open at all. She chuckled. “I thought you really weren’t hungry.”
Her voice was extremely pleasant. After a while, she brought warm water and, using a soft cloth dipped in it, loosened the adhesion on his lips and wiped his face.
He heard her gasp again and knew he was a hideous sight, that he had frightened her. But she asked, “Does it hurt?”
He couldn’t speak. She thought he was mute and muttered to herself, “What a stupid question.”
She went to get busy. He could hear her selling breakfast, and also heard someone express concern about her taking in a dying vagrant. She just smiled and said, “I can’t just watch him die.”
She was very busy, but she would feed him and give him water whenever she had a spare moment.
In the evening, when she was about to close up, she let him stay in the room, saying she would be back tomorrow.
With a roof over his head, he was not as cold. Fed and watered, he came back to life.
The next day, she brought a doctor to see him, who prescribed some medicine for external injuries. She applied it with her fingers, blowing on it as she did so.
The medicine stank; she was fragrant.
While making breakfast, she talked to him, saying she had come here by accident, that her family only wanted her to get married, but she wanted to fight for control over her own life. She complained about her father’s preference for sons over daughters, complained about waking up early and working late every day, but then she would smile. “Compared to you, I’m much happier.”
Then she would immediately apologize, saying that’s not what she meant, and told him not to take it to heart.
The medicine she gave him was very effective. On the third day, he could actually half-open his eyes. He saw her kneading dough in the morning light, the steam from the steamers dancing around her like a fairy draped in colorful ribbons.
She was very busy, but she would talk to him whenever she was free. She even specially bought meat for him to eat, saying that eating meat would help him recover faster from his illness.
By then, his hands had regained some feeling and could move.
She was very happy that he was recovering. Then she discovered that his eyes followed her, and was surprised that he could see. She breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. If you can see, you can be self-reliant once you’ve recovered.”
She asked him where his home was, if any family members could come and get him. He couldn’t answer her. She even found paper and a brush for him, but he just shook his head.
She also thanked him for listening to her, and asked if he found her noisy. He shook his head, and she continued talking.
He loved the way she looked when she smiled and talked. If he were able-bodied, he would put her in a room and watch her like this every day.
His gloominess was swept away. He had to live, to ascend to the supreme position, so he could realize his wish of putting her in a room for him to watch at his leisure. He would give her the best of everything.
The day he left was his coming-of-age birthday. He gave himself a courtesy name: Mingyan.
The sun shines on a thousand mountains, bright; the clouds pause, and the world is serene.
It was a reflection of her, and also the future he wanted to give her.