She suddenly reached out and ruffled the youth’s glossy black hair, her tone hiding gentleness. “With the new year here, our A Jie has grown a year older!”
Shen Ru Jie paused slightly, then looked up at her. “Mm, now I can be Xin Yi’s husband.”
The sour Xin Yi: “…”
Why did this guy love hearing her call him husband so much? It was just a form of address. Was not enough from all those times on the bed?
But since he wanted to hear it, calling it a few more times would not cost her anything. Especially today, New Year’s Eve. She should try to fulfill his wishes.
Thus, she smiled and leaned in to kiss the corner of his lips, calling out earnestly, “Husband.”
Seeing the youth stare at her in a daze, she laughed again and took the initiative to grasp his hand.
Mimicking the coquettish tone of ordinary Little Ladys, she shook it lightly. “I’ll stay with you from now on, alright? Husband.”
The candle flame suddenly crackled. Fireworks and firecrackers exploded in the courtyard, along with A Ying and the others’ surprised laughter as they scattered.
At the same time, the prompt sounded by her ear. “Ding dong~ Congratulations, host! Task complete! Shen Ru Jie’s Favorability has reached 100!!”
Her dark eyes widened slightly, her crow-black lashes trembling. She gazed at the youth’s handsome face and parted her lips, about to speak. “You…”
“Detected Shen Ru Jie’s Favorability at 100+!”
“Detected Shen Ru Jie’s Favorability at 100+++!!”
“Detected Shen Ru Jie’s Favorability at 100++++++++++++…”
After nightfall in Prosperous Capital, myriad lights twinkled. Snow began to fall unnoticed from the sky. After dinner, Xin Yi had no desire to sleep.
She wanted to go out, and with Shen Ru Jie accompanying her.
But she felt truly lazy, her legs still sore. She had no intention of walking, so she familiarly extended her arm toward the youth. “A Jie, carry me.”
Shen Ru Jie curved his lips and scooped her up princess-style. He reveled in her coquetry and kissed her cheek.
The pearl flower by her temple was charming. Her delicate little face was half-buried in the fox fur.
She nestled against him bonelessly, her spring onion-like fingers clutching the collar of his black robe tightly.
Then Xin Yi experienced what it meant to skim eaves and walk walls. She was held at the waist as they flitted between the towers of the Capital City like flying knights from wuxia dramas. But after a short while, she realized she was prone to motion sickness from lightfoot skill.
Thus, she gave up on being a moonlit fairy and told Shen Ru Jie to stop quickly so she could catch her breath.
The two sat atop a high rooftop, overlooking the entire Capital City.
The night wind was cold, but Xin Yi felt no fear at all. Shen Ru Jie held her securely, ensuring she would not fall.
“Cold?” The youth pursed his thin lips. His handsome face was pale, his dark pupils fixed on her.
He truly seemed to treat her like some little girl who needed looking after. After a moment, he reached out and adjusted the collar of her fox-fur cloak for her.
She smiled and blinked. “Not cold.”
Then she rested her head on his shoulder and snuggled completely into his arms in an intimate and dependent manner. Her forehead rubbed against his jaw, making him chuckle despite himself.
Only then did Xin Yi look up and ask, her brows and eyes gentle. “A Jie, were you happy this New Year’s Eve?”
The youth nodded.
She tilted her head back and kissed his lips.
The wind howling past the tower balconies tore at their lingering kiss. For a moment, Xin Yi seemed to hear her own muffled true feelings. “Then I hope you can be even happier tonight.”
At the Yanhe Tower, pink curtains wafted with fragrance.
Xiao Cong Jing was in a good mood because of recent events at court. The Crown Prince should be done for this time; the decree for his abolition had already been drafted, and there was no saving him now.
Then he noticed that Shen Ru Jie seemed to be in an even better mood than him.
Even when he spouted his usual nonsense about warm, fragrant, and soft-as-jade beauties, Shen Ru Jie didn’t retort with his typical cold sarcasm. That face of his, like a ravishing rakshasa demon, had hidden away its sinister malice and turned into melting spring snow.
Xiao Cong Jing found it strange. Which Little Lady had tamed him into this? Upon closer inspection, he spotted something even more off—two bloody scratches on Shen Ru Jie’s neck, half-hidden by his collar. They were thin and long, one fresh and one scabbed over.
Having frequented the Pleasure Quarters, he knew at a glance that they were from a Little Lady struggling and clawing in resistance. She must have been pushed to her limit to scratch that hard.
Xiao Cong Jing grew even more curious. In the past, even a pipa-playing beauty pouring him tea would make him recoil in disgust.
Now he was letting loose. Tsk tsk, that Little Lady was no simple one.
“Shen Er, do you have a girl you fancy?”
As he spoke, Xiao Cong Jing seemed to think of something and shook his head, his expression somewhat disapproving. “Which family’s girl is it? Still unmarried and already tangled up with you like this? Don’t tell me you plan to marry her with a child on the way?”
Shen Ru Jie frowned at him and corrected in a slightly cold tone, “Your Highness has it wrong. It was I who insisted on tangling with her.”
Then he hooked his lips, lowered his gaze, and drained the tea from his porcelain cup. “Once she agrees, we’ll marry. Anyway, I only want to marry her.”
“Who is it?”
“Xin Yi. Wu Xin Yi.”
Xiao Cong Jing had only found the name vaguely familiar at first. Then, after racking his brains, his eyes suddenly widened.
He drew in a sharp, cold breath and said in disbelief, “Shen Er, have you lost your mind! Miss Wu, the one Shen Gui cast off?”
The youth’s reaction was already an admission.
Xiao Cong Jing felt like he might choke on his own breath, nearly struck dead by this shocking notion. “Do you even know she was once your sister-in-law? Even if she’s done with Shen Gui now, you still shouldn’t have anything to do with her!”
He’s lost it, he’s completely lost it!!
Xiao Cong Jing felt he had to curse some sense into this fool whom that Wu woman had bewitched. “Cut ties with her immediately. There are countless beauties in the world. If you like them, This Prince will find you several more. Anyone will do, just don’t provoke that Wu woman anymore! You two…”
Before he could finish, the black-robed youth had already risen from the table, his tone carrying a hint of obsession and chill. “Xin Yi will be my wife from now on. She doesn’t need to compare herself to any other woman.”
“If Your Highness has no other matters, I’ll take my leave.”
Xin Yi noticed that Shen Ru Jie had been heading out early and returning late lately. At first, she didn’t ask. Later, seeing it continue, she casually inquired.
He didn’t hide it from her at all. He said the Crown Prince had been abolished, and the Seventh Prince had recently taken over many tasks assigned by His Majesty, so he would be quite busy.
To work so openly for the Seventh Prince proved that neither Shen Gui nor the Crown Prince Faction were concerns anymore.
Xin Yi just “oh”ed and nodded in understanding. Then she asked the Melodramatic Transmigration System if the plotline of this Small World was nearing its end.
The Melodramatic Transmigration System: “Yes. After the Crown Prince completely falls, the Crown Prince Faction will be implicated and investigated too. So before long, real power in the Marquis Manor will fall into Shen Ru Jie’s hands.”
Which meant her task was down to just watching Shen Gui fall into ruin like a stray dog and hearing him say one sentence of regret to her.
That was too simple.
Shen Gui’s feelings toward her now were a mix of love and hate—he couldn’t get her but couldn’t let go either. So she only needed to do a little something to easily pluck at his heartstrings.
With the task almost complete, she really ought to feel happy, but for some reason, Xin Yi felt a bit empty inside.
Perhaps she’d stayed too long in this Small World and had grown accustomed to it.
That night, when Shen Ru Jie returned from outside, he saw Xin Yi waiting for him under the glow of several lamps.
The woman had been drowsy, propping her chin and yawning, her book barely turned two pages in ages. Hearing his footsteps, she looked over at once and called out with a smile, “A Jie.”
Shen Ru Jie gazed at her in the lamplight, at the soft contours of her profile, her long lashes, and her dark, moist eyes curved in a shallow smile.
He was stunned for a long while, a novel sensation rolling through his heart—as if settling for dust in this lifetime would be fine.
He reached out to touch her fine, pale face, a flash of tenderness in his eyes. “Why aren’t you asleep? You don’t need to wait up so late for me.”
Xin Yi rubbed her cheek lightly against his palm, then nipped at his fingertip with her lips, just as he liked to do. “Didn’t want to sleep. Just wanted to wait for you to come back.”
Her expression was delicately timid and lively, deliberately teasing him. “In this midwinter snow, young lord, won’t you warm this slave’s bed?”
Shen Ru Jie’s breathing suddenly grew heavy. He pulled her into his arms and nuzzled deep into her neck like a puppy, biting his teeth in some grievance. “Hasn’t your monthly flow just ended? Are you deliberately tormenting me?”
The woman couldn’t help but chuckle in his arms. Then she lifted her slender, pale-green-onion-like fingers to touch his lips. “What about this? Is this okay?”
Shen Ru Jie’s body went rigid.
By the time he reacted, she had already pulled him to drop the bed curtains all around. The beast-footed incense burner held a long-lasting pear-blossom fragrance that could burn until midnight before turning to ash.
A long while later, the curtains were drawn open again. The flush and heat on the youth’s handsome face had yet to fade. He wrung out a damp cloth from the silver basin by the vanity and wiped her hands.
There was so much, everywhere.
As Shen Ru Jie wiped, he couldn’t help recalling that Lower Yuan Festival day—her standing under the lantern glow with a smiling profile, cloaked and reaching out her fair hand to grasp that slender sandalwood brush, seriously writing her wish on the Kongming lantern.
When he’d pretended to be obedient and called her sister-in-law, how could he have imagined she’d one day hold this.
Xin Yi was exhausted and fell asleep soon after.
Because he held her too tightly even in her dreams, she ended up kicking off the quilt. As the saying goes, no zuo no die—her frail body successfully caught a wind chill.
She hadn’t taken medicine in a long time and had almost forgotten the bitterness of decoctions. So when A Ying brought the medicine bowl, she wrinkled her brow in full rejection, really, really not wanting to drink it.
She made a pile of excuses, negotiating with A Ying. “A wind chill this mild can be sweated out. Let me stew under the covers for two or three hours first. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll drink the medicine, okay?”
She burrowed in the quilt, looking pitiful as she stalled in every way.
Her antics left A Ying helpless and unwilling to forcibly yank the covers off her lady, who was already ill.
After much thought, A Ying still went to find Shen Ru Jie.
Xin Yi had caught this wind chill because of him, so seeing his figure approaching with the medicine bowl made her even more indignant, like facing a great enemy.
She pointed accusingly at the encroaching black-robed youth in protest. “You, stay away from me.”
But not only did Shen Ru Jie not listen, he even leaned down and bit her finger.
She pointed once, and he bit once.
In the end, Xin Yi warily stuck out a fist from the quilt.
This time, the youth didn’t bite. Instead, he gently kissed her knuckle, then lowered his head with a smile playing on his lips.
Xin Yi couldn’t stand him like this. Unwillingly, she poked her head out from the quilt and drank the medicine. Even long after the bowl was empty, her face stayed red.
Only after he left with the empty bowl did Xin Yi lie back on the bed, her almond eyes staring blankly at the bed curtains.
Perhaps she spaced out too long, because even the system couldn’t help asking, “What is the host thinking about?”
“Thinking about when to leave.”