Chapter 14: "A pure heart embraces the pine's bones, accompanying you year after year in solitude."
As the group entered the main hall, Yun Sheng was still bothered by Xiao Xu's lingering words, and the heat on her face could not be dispelled.
She stole a glance at Xiao Xu, who was exchanging greetings with his uncles, aunts, and other relatives in the hall.
Despite being surrounded by elders, he, a young man, stood among them, yet his demeanor was composed and at ease, showing no sign of awkwardness.
Yes, at his age, he holds an important position in the court and is often summoned by the emperor to discuss matters and participate in court politics. He must have seen many grand occasions. It is really unnecessary to worry that he will show weakness in front of his uncles.
On the contrary, the fourth and fifth uncles on the side had shifty eyes and looked extremely guilty.
Yun Sheng suddenly remembered that when she first started looking for a husband, her fourth and fifth uncles were the most enthusiastic. They would run to her house every day, praising the Zhao Prince's Mansion and the third young master to the skies.
It was during this time that she gained a deeper understanding of Xiao Ling and grew more and more eager to marry him.
However, things are unpredictable. Now, when she returned to her parents' home, the person standing beside her was the eldest brother of the Third Young Master, the Prince Zhao's heir.
These two uncles must be kicking themselves now, fearing that their brother and sister-in-law will hold them accountable for their false matchmaking, and also fearing that Xiao Xu will hold them accountable for praising other men in front of his wife.
In fact, Uncle Four and Uncle Five did not exaggerate at the time.
The Zhao Prince's family is of noble birth and profound heritage, which is beyond reproach. The third young master, Xiao Ling, is also a well-known outstanding talent in the capital.
Not only was he exceptionally talented in literature, having gained fame for his poetry at a young age, but he was also remarkable in martial arts, horsemanship, and archery. He was unparalleled in polo and football, and was a figure sought after by young men from various families at every grand event. Although he was somewhat arrogant due to his illustrious background and early success, he was also cheerful, generous, and methodical in his dealings with others.
Such a handsome and talented young man, whose family background is also a perfect match, is naturally the ideal match that the Yun family has carefully chosen for their beloved daughter.
However, he ran away from the wedding.
Yun Sheng looked away, no longer wanting to see or think about it.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Xu Peilan called out to Yun Sheng and the other sisters to leave with her, leaving the men in the main hall to continue their conversation.
Yun Sheng subconsciously looked at Xiao Xu.
She thought he was having a serious conversation with his elders, but the moment she looked at him, their eyes met.
Xiao Xu smiled and nodded to her.
Before Yun Sheng could respond, a warm touch suddenly came from beside her, her arm was taken, and a soft voice came from her ear: "It's alright, Sheng Sheng, don't be sad. It's only a short separation. We'll see each other again at noon."
Yun Sheng was taken aback and quickly turned around.
"Second sister, I'm not reluctant to part with you, don't talk nonsense."
The beautiful woman, over thirty, smiled and her gaze lingered ambiguously on Yun Sheng's flushed face.
Knowing she was being teased, Yun Sheng quickly took her hand and strode forward, saying, "Let's go, Second Sister, let's go out first."
Although Xu Peilan had a lot to say to her daughter, there were many guests at home today, and she also had to take good care of her sisters-in-law.
Yun Sheng was surrounded by several older sisters of the same generation and went to the courtyard where she lived before she got married.
Upon entering the courtyard, one sees Cuizhu leading a group of maids, busily preparing tea and snacks for the young ladies.
Yun Jingrou pulled Yun Sheng to sit down in front of the couch: "Sheng Sheng, how have things been at Prince Zhao's residence these past few days? Let me see, you've lost weight."
Yun Sheng was both amused and exasperated: "Second sister, why are you saying the same thing as my mother? I'm not thin at all."
"Third Uncle and Third Aunt are too reckless. With such a major event happening, they made a hasty decision without thinking. If that Prince Zhao's heir is a person of bad character, wouldn't they be pushing Yun Sheng into a fire pit!"
The one speaking was Yun Youhan, the second daughter of the second uncle's family.
Yun Sheng hurriedly waved her hand: "No, Fourth Sister, I agreed to this myself."
Yun Jingrou raised her hand and poked Yun Youhan's forehead.
"Don't speak recklessly and say whatever comes to mind. Sheng Sheng's marriage is already arranged. How dare you speak ill of His Highness the Crown Prince?"
Yun Sheng whispered after Yun Jingrou, "Your Highness isn't that kind of person."
Yun Youhan snorted in dissatisfaction, but shut her mouth and angrily sat down on the other side.
Yun Jingrou said, "If we're talking about bad character, then it's Young Master Xiao the one. Everything was going well, but he ran away right before the wedding. Such an irresponsible person is better off not marrying. Otherwise, even if he hadn't run away, Sheng Sheng would still have suffered in the future if she had married him."
"This happened suddenly, and now that it's a done deal, let's not talk about those useless things."
Yun Jingrou glanced over and asked, "Sheng Sheng, how are you getting along with His Highness the Crown Prince? How does he treat you? What is the attitude of the Prince Zhao's residence?"
Yun Jingrou asked so many questions at once that Yun Sheng didn't know where to begin answering.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that although Yun Youhan was annoyed, she also looked at him with concern.
Yun Sheng thought for a moment and replied seriously, "It's fine. His Highness is upright and honest, fair and proper in handling matters, and treats me with kindness. We get along quite well."
Yun Sheng's words were so stiff that Yun Youhan laughed: "Are you talking about your own husband, or a male protagonist who only appears in storybooks? You say he's perfect in every way, but you're just being polite."
"..." Yun Sheng was speechless. In just three days, how could she know more? This was just how it appeared on the surface.
She remembered that Yun Youhan had mentioned her fourth brother-in-law to them before.
They say that my fourth brother-in-law seems mild-mannered and taciturn, but when he gets really angry, he can slam his fist on the table and scare people to death.
She also said that her fourth brother-in-law was hardworking, down-to-earth and ambitious outside, but when he came home he was a pampered person. He could not sleep without his usual buckwheat pillow. In the summer he would always sneak a drink of her chilled plum juice. When he was caught, he would righteously say, "Women should not drink cold drinks."
These trivial matters, recounted with a hint of reproach, revealed the intimacy between husband and wife, and also made Yun Sheng's earlier words seem utterly detached from reality, politely but without any real sincerity.
But after a brief thought, Yun Sheng couldn't imagine what it would be like if she and Xiao Xu became completely familiar with each other.
Does he also show emotions that contradict his appearance, like ordinary people do? Do they also have such private and intimate interactions?
Suddenly, an image flashed through her mind of Xiao Xu whispering "Ms. Female" in her ear.
Yun Sheng's eyes flickered, and she suddenly lowered her eyelashes to cover them.
This... probably doesn't count.
Yun Jingrou said, "Sheng Sheng has only been married for two or three days. How can she be compared to you who have been married for several years? As long as the beginning is good, that's fine. The Yun family is not a soft persimmon to be manipulated. We will not let the Prince Zhao's Mansion neglect you."
At this moment, Yun Zhi, who had been sitting quietly to the side, poked her head out.
She is the eldest daughter of Yun Sheng's fifth uncle, but she is the same age as Yun Sheng, two months older than him, making her Yun Sheng's youngest cousin.
"Sheng Sheng, have you two done 'that' yet?"
Upon hearing this, Yun Sheng's eyes widened instantly, the light in her eyes flickered, and her face flushed.
Yun Jingrou smiled and said, "What question is that, Azhi? Once we're married, it's naturally..."
Before she could finish speaking, she noticed Yun Sheng's expression out of the corner of her eye, and immediately stopped talking and turned to look at him.
Yun Youhan exclaimed in surprise, "No?! That young prince isn't just a person of bad character, he's an incompetent person! What does he mean by this? How could you not have him...?"
Yun Sheng quickly waved her hand to interrupt: "No, that's not it, Fourth Sister."
Seeing this, Yun Jingrou breathed a sigh of relief: "Judging from your expression, I thought you two didn't have it."
Yunzhi, having received the answer, became even more curious: "Shengsheng, how did it feel? Was it pleasurable? Was His Highness valiant?"
"Yunzhi, what are you saying?!"
Yun Sheng was so shocked that her tongue almost tied itself in knots.
Yunzhi said frankly, "I was just asking out of curiosity. You're married, but I'm not. What my cousins said was too profound. You're new to this, so I'm sure I can understand what you're saying. The sooner you learn, the sooner you'll understand."
Yunzhi's words made her two older sisters burst out laughing.
Yun Sheng was both embarrassed and annoyed, and couldn't say a word for a moment.
"So, what is the Crown Prince really like? How many times did you two have sex on your wedding night?"
Who would believe that she asked these questions in order to learn about matters between men and women in advance?
Perhaps she knows more than Yun Sheng, who has been studying for two years and is already discussing marriage.
Yun Sheng originally wanted to take this opportunity to subtly learn from her two cousins who had been married for many years, but because of Yun Zhi's commotion, she not only had no chance to ask, but she also couldn't find a chance to clarify the true situation between her and Xiao Xu.
The four sisters chatted and laughed in the house for a long time until it was almost noon. The Yun family was having a family banquet that day, so they went to Qingyun Hall for their meal.
Yun Sheng did not leave with her three older sisters. She said that she was returning to her parents' home today and needed to retrieve something from her room, so she asked them to leave first.
After the others left, Yun Sheng's boudoir finally quieted down.
She breathed a slight sigh of relief, and recalling the things she and Yun Zhi had said to each other, she couldn't help but chuckle softly, her cheeks slightly flushed.
Then she gathered her thoughts and walked toward the cabinet in the room.
She intended to retrieve her usual silk thread, which she would use to embroider sachets for Xiao Xu.
Because Xiao Xu mentioned it that day, she felt that she should embroider a sachet again. However, she had not thought about what pattern to embroider in the short term, so she took a small basket and took out several kinds of silk threads.
When I calm down and think about it now, I still don't have any clue.
She thought for a long time before deciding to embroider a pine tree for the sachet she made for Xiao Ling.
Thinking of this, she suddenly paused in her movements and slowly turned her head toward the desk by the window.
Three days after her wedding, the room remained unchanged from when she left. On the right side of the table was still a book she had casually flipped through on her wedding day.
After standing still for a moment, Yun Sheng walked towards the desk.
Upon closer inspection, a corner of Xuan paper was visible peeking out from under the book.
Yun Sheng stared at it for a moment, and finally, for some unknown reason, reached out and took the paper out from under the book.
Even though she already knew what was written on the rice paper, her heart still skipped a beat when she saw it again.
This is the embroidery pattern she made for Xiao Ling's sachet.
A tall pine tree is painted on the Xuan paper, with ink lines outlining its vigorous branches, and annotations on needlework densely interspersed in elegant small regular script between the veins of the leaves.
"Here, use a quick-stitching technique to cover the leaves," and "the branches and trunks should be covered with a layer of stitches to show their vigor."
Looking at these annotations, she felt as if she had returned to the days when she poured her heart and soul into making that sachet, racking her brains for ingenious designs during the day and trying different needlework techniques at night.
At that time, she always wondered how Xiao Ling would react to receiving the sachet, what he would say to her, whether he would like it, and whether he would wear it.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she couldn't help but write a line in the corner of the Xuan paper: "My pure heart is entrusted to the pine tree, year after year I accompany you in solitude."
Yun Sheng ran her fingertips over her own handwriting, and at that moment, all the myriad thoughts in her mind went blank.
Just then, a sound came from the door.
Startled, Yun Sheng turned around and saw the figure in front of the door. She cried out and hurriedly crumpled the paper and hid it behind her back.
Xiao Xu stood tall and straight in front of her boudoir door, his raised arm causing the sleeve to slip down, revealing a section of arm with veins bulging, his slender fingers bent as if to knock.
He looked at her calmly, and after a long while, he slowly said, "I didn't notice that the door was ajar. When I knocked, the door opened by itself."
"Sheng Sheng, may I come in?"
cannot.
Yun Sheng's words of refusal stuck in her throat; of course, she couldn't refuse her husband without a reason.
In fact, she didn't know what she was panicking about.
But when she thought of the atmosphere when she was drawing her eyebrows yesterday morning, she felt it was not appropriate to let Xiao Xu into the house at this time.
His gaze was fixed on her, calm and deep, seemingly devoid of emotion, yet it made her feel immense pressure and unable to properly conceal the Xuan paper behind her.
Xiao Xu remained standing in front of the door, but asked again, "Sheng Sheng, may I come in?"
Yun Sheng had no choice but to answer, "Yes."
Upon hearing the sound, the man stepped forward with steady steps. He entered the room without impolitely glancing around, but walked straight towards Yun Sheng.
Yun Sheng was subtly concealing the Xuan paper behind her.
The drawing, filled with her girlish thoughts, was no longer as clean and neat as it had been at the beginning. She pried open the book with her fingers and stuffed the crumpled Xuan paper under the book.
The instant the book fell and pressed down.
Xiao Xu had already arrived in front of her, very close, his deep, hot breath forcefully enveloping her.
He glanced down at the table, his gaze finally settling on her tense face, and asked, "What are you hiding behind your back?"
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[Poor Sheng Sheng]: Sisters, what should I do now?
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