Chapter 32. Separated only by a curtain.

Upon hearing this, her heart tightened.

Did she really have a lipstick mark on her face? Then why didn't anyone remind her the whole way? Besides, Eun wasn't the kind of person who would deliberately embarrass her; if she really did, she would have told her.

But Yin Yuan's reaction was so real... Could it be that this man's injuries were too severe and he was hallucinating?

"...I can't understand what the official is saying."

"Of course I hope you never understand."

She took a wet towel and walked to the bedside. The man stretched out his hands to her, his hands red and still steaming.

It looks like it was burned like that.

In the past, she always thought that a scholar's hands were precious and should only be used for writing, and she couldn't bear to let Yin Yuan do any work.

But he himself didn't cherish it.

She won't cherish it anymore.

She wiped the man's hands without batting an eye, then folded the towel and waited for him to undress.

Yin Yuan remained unmoved: "I only said I wanted to wipe myself down."

This time she understood.

Yin Yuan told her to take off her clothes; he wanted to wipe her body.

Whether you want it or not is entirely up to you.

"But, murderers die, and those who injure are punished. Leng Zhen's imprisonment is unavoidable. Think it through."

"Is my lord threatening me?"

"Um."

He offered no further explanation, but simply stared intently at her body, devoid of any lust or tenderness.

Leng Cuizhu realized that while she seemed to have a choice, she actually had none.

He's threatening her with Leng Zhen now. If she doesn't agree, he might switch to threatening suicide later, or even kill her.

This wasn't the first time she'd endured such a grueling interrogation, nor was it the first time her body had been exposed to him.

They've long since lost their temper, so they wouldn't get angry out of embarrassment.

Her dress fluttered to the ground.

She was standing at the head of the bed when the man suddenly pulled her into the bed.

The candlelight flickered outside the bed.

Do you want me to peel it open and show it to you?

She rested her head on the cushion and asked calmly.

"...I never forced you to do anything."

"No, it was just wishful thinking on my part. Isn't that what you wanted to hear from me, my lord?"

Her chest heaved: "You've been scrubbing for so long, have you gotten the answer you wanted?"

“No.” He sat down and patted his thigh lightly. “Come sit on me.”

This position forced her to either look him in the eye or lower her head and bury it in his chest.

He reached out and dipped his fingertips in the water in the basin next to him, wetting his fingertips.

"..."

She lowered her head and leaned against his chest, as if trying to press the wound on his chest until it bled.

She gripped the man's shoulders tightly with both hands, her nails digging in, her fingertips turning white and bluish from the force.

She didn't leave the heated room until the hot water had cooled completely.

It was unclear what time it was, but almost all the noisy servants outside had dispersed, and the large courtyard returned to silence.

She held onto the medicine, walked to the table to pour herself some water, and caught a glimpse of a silvery figure by the window out of the corner of her eye.

"How come you..." she lowered her voice, hesitating to speak, "I have to wait a little longer."

The ethereal, naked man slowly walked up to her and gently lifted her cheeks.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

This place is separated from the warm pavilion by only a curtain. If the wind were to lift a corner of the curtain and Yin Yuan were to see what she was doing, she would be unable to defend herself and would suffer an unimaginable amount of cold and disgusting licking.

But the way the man stared at her so intently made her dizzy.

“It’s alright, Eun, it’ll be over soon…” she said, shifting her gaze. “You just wait here…”

Before he could finish speaking, a hot, wet kiss landed on his lips.

It was so light, like a feather, that it touched her heartstrings.

While she was shocked, her eyes involuntarily glanced towards the warm pavilion, and she turned her head to stare at the thin gauze curtain, where a figure was faintly visible. Her heart jumped into her throat.

What am I even doing...? This is a complete mess.

He touched noses with hers and whispered sweet nothings while stroking her shoulder.

"May I come in with you, Madam?"

"May I?"

Those clear, cold silver eyes, however, had now become a source of chaos that lured her deeper into its depths.

If you're not careful, you'll fall into his arms and be immersed in his tenderness forever.

She was in a daze for a long time, almost unable to resist the temptation to kiss him again, but luckily she came to her senses at the last moment, biting her lip and saying, "Don't do this..."

Eun smiled and narrowed his eyes, releasing his arm around her waist: "Alright, then I'll continue to wait here for you, Madam."

She touched her lips, feeling the lingering warmth on her fingertips, and murmured to herself, "At least you should turn back... You're naked like this now, sigh..."

She didn't know what to say... Yuen was usually very obedient, but now, he's turned bad too.

"Why don't you go back first? He doesn't seem sleepy yet."

"Didn't you say it would be ready soon? You were lying to me."

He picked up the jade teapot on the table and shook it: "Why don't we let him have some tea?"

She was about to refuse when she met the man's meaningful gaze. Suddenly realizing the deeper meaning in his words, she hesitated before taking the jade pot.

She had no idea what kind of nectar was in that pot.

Yin Yuan drank the water from the pot and soon felt sleepy, falling asleep quietly.

She was sleepy too.

The way back to her room was too long, so she simply slept on the tatami mat, since Eun was with her anyway.

The man in the warm room would cough occasionally. At first, she was terrified, but later she didn't care much.

Leng Cuizhu: "What was added to that kettle? Was it some kind of strange sleeping potion?"

Ewan: "You could say that."

"...It won't be poisonous, will it?" She had never seen such a potent drug before.

What if it turns out she was the one who poisoned him? She could imagine how furious Yin Yuan would be.

"I read in a book that all medicines have some degree of toxicity. I guess so."

"Is Madam very worried about him?"

She frowned and remained silent.

"Actually, I think that even if he really died, it wouldn't be a pity."

“You’re oversimplifying things,” she said, closing her eyes. “Even if he dies, he won’t let me go.”

"Moreover, he cannot die yet."

After so many years, Leng Cuizhu had almost forgotten.

Her indenture was still with Yin Yuan. It was Yin Yuan who had spent money to redeem her from the brothel, and if he didn't give her the indenture, she would never be able to escape her lowly status.

It's unrealistic to ask Eun to steal it... after all, she doesn't know where Yin Yuan hid the contract.

The next day, Leng Cuizhu was carrying porridge along the corridor when she encountered several maids chattering and surrounding someone.

acquaintance.

"Hey, my wife!"

Chen Xun was chatting and playing with rope with the maids when he saw Leng Cuizhu. He immediately ran over and chuckled, "My lady, it's been a long time."

"Ah, it's Lord Chen... What can I do for you?"

“It’s alright,” Chen Xun said, taking the bowl of porridge from her hand. “Wife, let me carry it for you…”

"Is this porridge for Lord Yin? It smells so good, it must have papaya and bird's nest in it!"

"Ah, haha... I guess so." She thought to herself, wasn't she just holding a bowl of plain rice porridge?

The two walked along the corridor, one in front of the other.

After a long pause, she, walking behind Chen Xun, finally answered in a muffled voice, "Mm."

Early in the morning, before she was even fully awake, she had to listen to Chen Xun's endless chatter and concern.

She just wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into... and sleep a little longer.

"It smells so good! Did you add brown sugar and barley? Did you make it yourself, my wife?"

"No, I served it myself."

"Has my wife been staying at the Yin residence these past few days?"

"Um."

"Where is your son? Where does he live now?"

"I don't know where she went..." she closed her lips.

Chen Xun turned around and smiled at her: "Don't know?"

"My lady, shouldn't you tell me that he's sitting obediently in prison? It seems you know more than I do."

Leng Cuizhu froze.

“But it’s alright,” he lowered his eyes, “the lord has already explained things to me and has pardoned Leng Zhen’s one-year prison sentence.”

"Madam Yin also wrote a confession, admitting that she had wronged Leng Zhen."

"...Really?" She was surprised that the matter was resolved so easily.

It turns out that whether or not to punish an unarmed civilian depends entirely on the will of the officials, and innocence is not that important.

I see.

"Oh, so my wife knows less than I do."

In the afternoon, Madam Yin's confession was indeed delivered to her.

She didn't know many characters, but she knew that there was a whole page of densely packed text. Madam Yin's handwriting was very distinctive, and Miss Linglan said it was cursive script.

Not only that, Yin Yuan also sent people to search for Leng Zhen both inside and outside the county.

Leng Cuizhu was naturally moved, but... she still vaguely felt that something was wrong.

Yi Yinwan was puzzled: "You're so moved that you cried? Shouldn't you be grateful for my tolerance and generosity? It was just a matter of the master talking, but I wrote a whole page."

"Moreover, before this, because of your son, I spent the whole night copying the 'Rules for Women,' and Xiao Linglan's hands were covered in blisters from copying..." She stopped midway through her sentence, suddenly gasped, touched the gold bracelet on her arm, and waved her hand, saying, "Cuizhu, just pretend you didn't hear that, just pretend what I just said was nonsense."

"Oh... okay." Leng Cuizhu nodded awkwardly.

What does it mean that "because of your son" Madam Yin knows Leng Zhen? Wait, if the two of them didn't know each other, how could Leng Zhen have stolen Madam Yin's things? But how did the two of them know each other?

My head hurts so much.

“The master is feeling better these past few days. At least he’s awake and can talk and move around. So you should spend less time with him. Just give him his medicine and feed him. It’s none of your business if he’s feeling down,” Yi Yinwan chuckled. “If you act too good to him, it will make me seem lazy and arrogant. I don’t want people to say I’m a hands-off manager, you understand?”

"Go to the housekeeper to collect your commission for the past few days. It's enough for someone as naive as you to live on for the whole spring."

Indeed, as Yi Yinwan said, the reward was very generous, at least that's what Leng Cuizhu thought.

She never expected that she could get paid for taking care of someone; she had never received such a payment before.

Before Yin Yuan woke up in the morning, she took Yi Yinwan's carriage out of the manor and bought a lot of things: sweet corn and various pastries that dodder likes to eat, a small brush for combing You En's feathers and various hair ribbons, as well as brand new clothes.

When they arrived at her doorstep, Yi Yinwan threw her off the carriage.

Having not been home for a long time, I felt a little unfamiliar when I arrived at the door.

The entrance was overgrown with weeds and looked quite desolate; it seemed that Dodder's promise to clean it properly was just a lie.

She couldn't bear to watch, so she stayed at the gate of the house and thoroughly cleared the weeds before opening the door to go inside.

Not seeing any dodder in the yard, she went to check the inner room, but still found none. So she simply put the bags of pastries and dried food she had in hand into the large vat in the kitchen.

Passing by the woodpile, she was so captivated by the erotic scene before her that she dropped the pastries she was holding and rushed over.

Why are you sleeping here?!

There was a person lying in the haystack. Upon closer inspection, it was a man. He was not only naked from the waist down, but also completely naked from head to toe.

The rough grass roots had rubbed his skin raw and red, his chest rising and falling with his breath as he lay sprawled out. The morning sunlight streamed down, covering his flesh and making it gleam, while glistening dewdrops clung to his cheeks and nose.

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The author says: He who kills shall die; he who injures shall be punished. —From *The Law-Abiding Mohist*