Xin Yi also noticed something off about herself. She directly released the thin quilt wrapped around her body and looked down at the mess between her legs, wanting to find a clean piece of silk cloth to wipe it away.
Unfortunately, she only spotted an embroidered handkerchief on the table. It was the one she had used to wipe her hands after eating the pastries earlier, and she had forgotten to put it away afterward. It was the latest style from the most famous embroidery shop in Prosperous Capital, with snow-green gauze embroidered with treasure-phase floral patterns. It had cost her several taels of silver.
She could no longer care whether this would waste such fine material or squander money.
She could only hurry forward a couple of steps to grab it, then bend at the waist and haphazardly wipe her calf.
She did not feel that doing that sort of thing with Xie Shuo was wrong.
But she still had a basic sense of shame. There was no way she could let Xiao Cheng Ce catch her in such a scene and still chat and laugh calmly.
Outside, it quieted for a moment. Perhaps Xiao Cheng Ce had been stunned by her sudden slamming of the door.
But this silence did not last long. Soon, that low voice came through the door panels. “What is wrong with you? We were not done talking, so why close the door?”
Xin Yi frowned as she clutched the soaked embroidered handkerchief. She irritably discovered that such a small piece of cloth was indeed impossible to wipe clean.
In a fit of pique, she tossed it into the copper basin nearby and spoke words of tactful refusal. “This wife’s body is truly unwell today. I wish to rest first. General, please leave.”
Xiao Cheng Ce did not leave. He continued knocking on the door from outside.
She did not know why he was so persistent today. Normally, he did not show such affection for her. “Open the door first. I want to see you. I also have some words I want to say to you.”
Xin Yi: “……”
But she had no words she wanted to say to him.
As she hesitated over how to respond, a slender, even hand suddenly appeared in her line of sight.
The youth squatted on the ground. The lust in his narrow, phoenix eyes had not faded, and his thin lips were still vermilion red. He held her ankle hidden beneath her skirt and then picked up the clothes beside him to carefully wipe for her.
He lowered his beautiful phoenix eyes, a faint smile playing at his lips.
He even pretended to be obedient as he glanced at her, as if to say that since he was the one who made the mess, it was only right for him to clean it up.
Xin Yi’s breathing hitched.
Because she saw that what Xie Shuo held in his hand was the smoky-purple long robe he had taken off earlier. It still had the vermilion-red sash adorned with silver ornaments, and the intricate, gorgeous Miao Frontier patterns rubbed against her tender skin, stimulating her into a slight shiver.
He… he was mad. How could he use this to wipe her?
Was he going to wear it again later? Or was he doing this on purpose, wanting her to think of today whenever she saw this robe in the future?
“Bai Xinyi?”
Perhaps because she had not answered for a long time, Xiao Cheng Ce found it strange. Thus, two “thud thud” knocks sounded by her ear again.
His tone carried worry and hesitation. “What exactly is wrong with you? Could it be that you are already too unwell to speak?”
Xin Yi suddenly stiffened. Her right leg was still held captive by the youth.
If Xiao Cheng Ce came in now and saw this scene, it would truly be over. What difference did it have from catching them in bed?
She hurriedly coughed twice, putting on an extremely weak appearance. “It is nothing serious. It is just that my wind-chill has not fully recovered yet. I fear infecting the general.”
Fortunately, her voice was indeed hoarse, which lent her words more credibility.
Who would have thought that right after she spoke, the youth half-kneeling at her skirt’s edge suddenly curled his lips in a mocking smile. He deliberately made the silver ornaments on the vermilion sash jingle.
Not only that, he even rubbed the silver bell against the muddy traces on her body. After rubbing, he hooked it away with his fingertip and smeared it onto the dan kou on her toes.
Xin Yi: “……”
She was already standing right by the door to begin with. Even slight noises could clearly transmit outside, let alone the incessant jingling from that Miao Frontier robe… If looks could kill, she would have already chopped Xie Shuo into pieces.
Before Xiao Cheng Ce could grow suspicious, Xin Yi came up with a plan in her desperation. She gritted her teeth and knocked over the copper basin set up behind the door. With a loud “clang,” it smashed to the ground, making the earlier silver bell sounds seem less abrupt.
Then her coughing started coming in fits and starts. “If the general has something to say, then make it brief. This wife is truly exhausted and can hardly hold on.”
Xiao Cheng Ce could not help but grow worried. He frowned and said, “How did you become so weak? Let me come in and see you.”
“……”
Xin Yi nearly suffocated. She had no choice but to play the vicious supporting female role to its fullest, adopting an attitude of complete unwillingness to continue the act with him.
Her tone clearly grew impatient. “Do you have something to say or not? Normally, you never care about me. You spend every day with that favorite concubine of yours at the tip of your heart, casting me to the farthest clouds! Now that I have caught a wind-chill and need rest, you pester me endlessly. Are you not hoping that I fall even more ill?”
Xiao Cheng Ce felt more at ease upon being scolded like this.
Not only did he not get angry, he stood outside the door and poured out his heartfelt words. Though the beginning was a bit difficult, it flowed smoothly afterward. “Actually… I dreamed of you last night. I dreamed of that night when we married. Instead of leaving on imperial orders, I sat by the wedding bed and lifted the red veil from your head.”
In truth, it was more than that. He also dreamed that they had their first child, followed quickly by a second.
They were all soft and cute, tugging at his robe hem and calling him daddy.
The dream had been so wonderful and fulfilling, and waking from it brought equal disappointment.
Then Xiao Cheng Ce realized that he actually yearned deeply for that scene in the dream. He yearned to indulge in bed with that woman and continue their lineage.
He had not originally planned to say these words, especially not to that petty, jealous daughter of a minor official who could not hold her own in public.
But unexpectedly, saying it out loud was so easy.
It was just like how he had not planned to come tonight, yet he still walked uncontrollably to this courtyard.
Xiao Cheng Ce let out a heavy sigh, as if finally resigned to his fate. “In a while, I plan to promote you and Chu Chu to equal wives.”
“If you truly dislike seeing her that much, then I will find an even more secluded courtyard for you. In the future, unless it is family reunion festivals, you two need not visit each other.”
“……”
Xin Yi had not yet spoken when she felt a sharp pain in her calf.
She immediately hissed in cool air and looked down, only to discover that Xie Shuo had bitten her fair calf. Realizing something, her expression changed instantly. He did not even mind the dirt!
Thus, she lost all patience to deal with the man outside. She snorted coldly. “Equal wife? Do not even think about it. General, please leave.”
“Only when you are willing to divorce Chu Chu and be with this wife for life, just the two of us, might I consider it.”
Azure Parting Street, Treasure Pavilion.
A carriage with a black canopy and dangling tassels stopped outside. The little maidservant in thin garments waited outside as well.
Xiang Lan occasionally peered inside while muttering, “Why has Miss been in there so long this time? Almost two quarters of an hour have passed, and she still has not come out?”
But not long after her complaint, that graceful, curvaceous figure appeared in her sight.
She immediately went up to greet her, her face full of confusion. “Why did Miss take so long this time? Did the shopkeeper try to welch on the payment and refuse to give Miss the money?”
Xin Yi shook her head and smiled ruefully. “No, he even wanted to give me more silver taels, but I refused, so we went back and forth for a bit.”
She did not lie.
The shopkeeper had indeed wanted to raise the price by five hundred taels and wished she would accept. There was a buyer in Capital City interested in this painter of hers who wanted to see her true face, but she had refused.
Xin Yi stood on the long steps of Treasure Pavilion. With several banknotes tucked in her sleeve, she narrowed her eyes at the bustling stalls and pedestrians on Azure Parting Street.
After a moment, she reached out and patted Xiang Lan’s shoulder, asking casually, “What do you think of buying a house around here?”
Xiang Lan wanted to speak but hesitated upon hearing this. She looked at her with eyes that said it was a pipe dream, but in the end nodded. “This servant thinks it is excellent, but it is too expensive here…”
She had just wanted to tell her miss that they definitely could not afford it when she turned and saw that her miss had already climbed onto the carriage. In a very good mood, she waved at her. “Come up. I will take you to the teahouse to buy some pastries.”
At the same time, General’s Mansion.
Xiao Cheng Ce had just left Goose Water Courtyard when he ran into Xie Shuo.
The youth was still dressed in Miao Frontier style. His black hair and the silver ornaments at his waist jingled crisply, as if bewitching the heart.
He halted his steps. His gaze fell on the blood mark at the youth’s jaw, and he could not help frowning: Had he been scratched by a wild cat again?
However, Xiao Cheng Ce had been restless lately, so he had no mood to ask which wild cat had scratched the youth.
It had nothing to do with him anyway. Asking would be pointless.
Thus, upon seeing Xie Shuo now, he only wanted to inquire about what concerned him.
He walked over and stood before the youth. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke. “A Shuo, you live next door to Bai Xinyi. Lately, have you seen… any servants in the mansion getting close to her?”
It was not that he was overly suspicious.
It was just that he had noticed Bai Xinyi seemed even more perfunctory toward him lately. She was too lazy even for her usual nitpicking and jealousy. Even when he took the initiative to show goodwill, she acted as if she had not seen it.
Xiao Cheng Ce’s heart felt overgrown with weeds. He could not find peace until he pulled them out.
He actually thought it unlikely, for that woman had always been vain. Aside from the status of general’s wife, who could give her a better life? If she left him, she would only live miserably.
Thinking this way, his gaze fell back on Xie Shuo.
Strangely, though the youth was always cold toward him, this time he slightly lowered his dark eyes and quietly sized him up.
His fingers deliberately toyed with the silver bell on his sash, producing fine clinking sounds. Only after a long while did he shake his head with a faint smile.
For some reason, Xiao Cheng Ce felt uncomfortable under his gaze.
He did not continue questioning and left after a couple of perfunctory words.
After he finished dinner and returned to his study.
He unexpectedly discovered an unsigned note on the desk, asking him to meet at the lakeside at the third quarter of the hai hour tonight. It said there would be an important secret to tell him then.
Xiao Cheng Ce pinched the note and read it over several times, but the eerie feeling in his heart lingered.
He even summoned the servants and attendants in the courtyard and questioned them carefully about whether they had seen anyone enter. After recalling, the servants all shook their heads, saying they had seen no one.
With this result, his suspicions deepened.
He could not figure out who in this General’s Mansion could slip into his study unnoticed just to deliver an unsigned note.
However, at the third quarter of the hai hour, Xiao Cheng Ce still appeared at the secluded lakeside as agreed.
No matter the other party’s purpose in being so mysterious, he had to get to the bottom of it to feel at ease.
Unfortunately, he waited a long time with no one showing up. He walked along the lakeside for a stretch, nearly reaching the end, but still saw no figure.
The person who had asked to meet him never appeared.
Just as Xiao Cheng Ce thought someone was deliberately toying with him and turned to leave with a dark expression.
Suddenly, he heard strange noises from deep within the lotus leaves.
After listening carefully, he realized the sounds came from the small boat on the lake surface.
Clearly, no one was rowing or paddling, yet ripples spread around the boat, accompanied by faint, broken sobs.
They sounded like the soft and seductive cries of a woman.
After realizing what it was, Xiao Cheng Ce’s face instantly turned icy cold.
He had not met the mysterious appointee tonight, only to stumble upon a pair of wild lovers by the lake. He did not know which servant boy and maidservant from the mansion had come here late at night for a tryst.
The ripples on the lake grew larger, causing the surrounding lotus leaves to rustle and part.
He walked closer a few steps, wanting to see clearly who was being so improper.
Perhaps because the moonlight was dim, he could not see very clearly and thus did not recognize the snake tail flailing wildly in the lake at that moment for what it was.
He only vaguely saw that it seemed to have ink-green patterns.
Abruptly, a section of soft, lotus-root-like white arm stretched from the boat and tore apart a lotus flower clinging to the boat’s side as it swayed.
She seemed unable to endure it. As she grabbed the lotus flower, the Twisted Silk Bracelet on her fair wrist knocked against the wooden boat, producing a clear, tinkling sound.
The night breeze blew slowly, but Xiao Cheng Ce’s gaze deadlocked on that Twisted Silk Bracelet.
As if to pierce through it, for the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. In the entire General’s Mansion, he had only seen one woman wear it.
Only one person.
Just… that one person.
The woman in the boat cabin hugged the youth’s lean, sinewy waist and back. Her lips were a vivid red, and her skirt hem was already in utter disarray.
Her closed eyelids trembled as well. Because of those increasingly rough movements, she finally bit his delicate neck. The fingers she extended also tore apart the lotus flowers by the boat’s edge. Clearly, she was indulging deeply.
Yet Xie Shuo had no intention of letting her go. He seemed intent on drilling into her.
Showing no mercy whatsoever, he only wanted to force her to cry and beg for forgiveness, then repeat the offense over and over.
The night breeze swept over the lakeside, making the constantly rising ripples even more vivid.
Xiao Cheng Ce listened to the woman’s moans and sobs from deep within the lotus leaves. His body stiffened, and his eyes turned bloodshot.
Finally, as her slender white fingers grabbed and tore the lotus flower once more.
When the Twisted Silk Bracelet clinked against the boat’s side again with a clear tinkling sound, he stepped forward. His brocade boots sank into the lake shore, soaking through completely.
“…Xin Yi.”
His voice was pained and hoarse, laced with towering hatred and fury, as if he wished to strangle her right then and there. “Bai Xinyi?”
The woman, who had been whimpering, suddenly stopped. She instinctively turned toward the voice, her tear-filled eyes misty.
Under the moonlight, she exuded an indescribable dazed allure. The moment their gazes met, she had frantically pulled up her skirt, yet one fragrant, quivering powdery white shoulder still peeked out.
Xiao Cheng Ce’s heart ached fiercely, his mind reeling in dizziness.
Just as he trembled and moved to drag her out of the cabin, a sharp pain struck the back of his neck. He was bitten by a poisonous insect and fainted dead away.