Chapter 62 The bed curtains will come in time, but she insists on wanting them even though she knows they are impossible...
Xie Wenjun asked, "Really, it doesn't count?"
The person in his arms fell silent for a moment, as if deep in thought about the consequences of giving an answer.
After thinking it over, Chen Liangyu, still feeling unwell, said, "It doesn't count."
Her voice was weak and feeble, and it was clear from her that she was extremely frail.
During the day, Zhu Ying had taken Chen Liangyu's pulse and instructed the maids in Liangyuan to keep the medicine brewed regularly for emergencies. However, Chen Liangyu said she was fine and ordered the medicine stove to be removed. Brewing the medicine fresh would take a long time, and the strong, bitter smell of the medicine filled the courtyard, naturally reaching Liangyuan's bedroom as well. It certainly didn't smell pleasant.
Chen Liangyu was behaving strangely today. She was an eagle that dared to challenge the vast blue sky, but it seemed as if she had changed her nature overnight, turning into a wounded fledgling nestled in Xie Wenjun's arms.
The cause of it all was nothing more than an insignificant fever.
After saying "it doesn't count," Chen Liangyu seemed to finally calm down, stopping her restless dawdling and her breathing gradually becoming even.
Xie Wenjun, of course, did not miss the opportunity to do whatever he wanted to her. Thinking she was asleep, he pinched her face, pulled her cheeks, and played with her earlobes, having a great time, before finally placing his fingertips on her lips.
Her lips were as red as cinnabar, and her body was burning hot.
They had once let loose in a storm, recklessly and wildly, falling together, collapsing together, as if trying to swallow the wounds swirling in each other's hearts. In the end, they both tacitly concealed the matter, moved on, and never mentioned it again.
It was merely a shameful, illusory, and decadent dream, like a mirage.
Xie Wenjun was not willing to stop there.
In her prime, she had white teeth and youthful eyebrows.
Gazing from the jade terrace, I see people returning home; I raise my eyes to search for the stars.
Since there's plenty of time ahead, she deliberately chose to pursue what she knew was impossible.
Her heart started racing involuntarily, and an irresistible impulse quietly spread and surged within her. Xie Wenjun moved her jade-like fingers away and moved a little closer.
Chen Liangyu remained motionless while Xie Wenjun teased her for a while, only frowning slightly when a stray strand of Xie Wenjun's hair brushed against her skin. Xie Wenjun asked in a very soft voice, "Are you awake?"
After a moment, Chen Liangyu spoke, "Awake." Even with her eyes closed, she could still sense how close their lips were.
"Don't bite people." Chen Liangyu was terrified of being bitten.
Since you've said it, then I'll do it anyway.
Xie Wenjun parted her pearly teeth and suddenly moved closer, but she didn't touch those thin lips; Chen Liangyu deftly dodged her.
Chen Liangyu said, "Stop fooling around, you'll pass on your illness energy."
Xie Wenjun no longer lingered in that place. She leaned down and kissed Chen Liangyu's earlobe, biting down with her pearly teeth.
The pressure wasn't strong, but it was incredibly stimulating. Chen Liangyu seemed to have received a tremendous shock, her drowsy eyes snapping open in an instant. She pressed Xie Wenjun's shoulders, rolled over, and pinned him down.
One hand pinned Xie Wenjun's wrists over her head.
Xie Wenjun was pinned down and completely unable to move. Her weak twists and turns were no match for Chen Liangyu's brutal restraint. Only then did she realize that she shouldn't have believed her nonsense about being unable to resist.
Chen Liangyu's eyes searched anxiously for something, and her gaze fell on Xie Wenjun's red earlobe. As if to retaliate, she buried her head and bit down.
Xie Wenjun took a deep breath.
She gradually sucked harder.
When she looked up again, a bright red mark was clearly visible on her fair skin.
Looking at his masterpiece, Chen Liangyu's lips curled into a sly smile of triumph as he congratulated himself on successfully carrying out his revenge.
Afterwards, she seemed utterly exhausted, collapsing onto Xie Wenjun, her grip on Xie Wenjun's wrist loosening. Her dark hair fell like silk, gently concealing the dark red mark on Xie Wenjun's neck.
Xie Wenjun then freed her hands, her movements becoming extremely small, as if afraid of disturbing something. After waiting a while, seeing that the person lying on her didn't seem to intend to get off, she pulled the brocade quilt up, wrapping Chen Liangyu's exposed shoulders inside.
"Why did you say that day that I shouldn't dislike you for too long?"
Chen Liangyu's voice was very nasal as he said, "Because I haven't disliked you for very long."
Xie Wenjun spoke with a mix of accusation and murmur, "So you're admitting you disliked me?"
Chen Liangyu gently stroked her chest a few times, then tilted her head slightly upwards. "Your Highness, it's my fault."
After all that commotion, the two people in the bed seemed to have long forgotten that there was still a poor soul busy preparing medicine by the stove in the small kitchen. Steam rose from the earthenware pot, and Zhu Ying added two more qian of Coptis chinensis. Just smelling it, a suffocatingly bitter odor wafted over.
Zhu Ying poured the bitter soup from the jar into a bowl and said to the maid who was resting outside the door, "Make sure your general drinks every last drop. Fine, I'll watch her drink it myself. Open the door for me."
The bed curtains in the bedroom were only half-drawn.
Chen Liangyu disliked using curtains, it was a habit. In the army, even when she fell asleep, she needed to be able to see and hear everything around her so she could feel at ease. While curtains were meant to block out candlelight at night, for Chen Liangyu they served only a decorative purpose—to make the bed look less bare.
Through the half-drawn curtain, Zhu Ying saw an extremely strange scene inside, and nearly knocked over the medicine bowl.
She cleared her throat and coughed.
The overlapping figures stirred within the quilt. Chen Liangyu, enduring a splitting headache, sat up halfway, took the medicine bowl from Zhu Ying's hand, and drank it all in one gulp without expression.
The medicine bowl was placed back on the tray, but Zhu Ying remained standing there, her face grave.
Xie Wenjun's gaze turned cold. "Aren't you going to step back?"
The noble princess was disheveled, as if she had just suffered a great shock, and her face was very pale.
Zhu Ying snapped out of her reverie, startled by Xie Wenjun's sudden change in tone. In the instant she looked up, she saw a striking red mark on Xie Wenjun's neck.
Subcutaneous bruising.
Caused by external force, but not a wound, the location exudes an indescribable ambiguity.
Zhu Ying then picked up the tray and said, "This subordinate takes his leave."
Emerging from Liangyuan's bedroom, Zhu Ying had no idea where she was going, and unknowingly found herself back in the small kitchen. The maidservant, who usually played the role of the straight man, was tidying up the medicine stove and dregs. Zhu Ying stared thoughtfully at the dregs the maidservant had poured onto the medicine paper.
The maid asked, "Doctor Ying, what's wrong?"
Zhu Ying was distracted, squatting on the ground fiddling with the dregs of the medicine. "Your general may have some other illness that this prescription can't cure."
The maid asked, "What illness?"
Zhu Ying said, "It's an incurable disease."
The young maidservant also had a hint of worry between her brows. She had only recently been bought back to the Marquis's mansion and her contract of service had expired. She was assigned to Liangyuan because of her nimble hands and feet. The General never treated his servants harshly. If she were to contract an incurable disease, wouldn't she be sent to another place, or perhaps even have to change masters?
"What should we do? Will the general die?"
Military families are extremely averse to the word "death." Moreover, in less than a year since the Marquis of Xuanping's family lost three members, although the master did not give any instructions, the head steward and the head housekeeper had explicitly ordered them to avoid using such words. They were not allowed to say anything unlucky, such as "death," "mourning," "death," or "perish."
Realizing she had broken a taboo, the young maidservant covered her mouth in fright. But it was too late. A head maid, glaring at her, stormed in from outside, slapped the maidservant across the face, and hissed, "You little slut, who are you trying to curse to death? Did you ignore what I taught you when you entered the manor about what you can and cannot say?!"
The little maid's eyes welled up with tears, which she tried to hold back, but she couldn't bear it any longer and burst into tears.
The head maid hissed, "Shut up, you unlucky thing!"
The little maid swallowed her sobs and whimpered softly.
Zhu Ying went up to persuade her, saying, "Don't be angry, Granny. This girl is just worried about the General's illness. Everyone has to die eventually, there's nothing to be ashamed of."
The head maid said, "Doctor Ying, you are not one of our household servants, but rather serve our General. I only regard you as a guest, and the rules and etiquette of the household cannot be taught to you. However, please do not play the good cop when we old women are disciplining the servants. They will not remember your kindness, but will instead resent us old women and continue to break the rules. I am old enough to know that everyone must die eventually. But look at the state of the Marquis's mansion. The old Marquis, the old lady, and the eldest son... the servants keep talking about life and death. If the General, the lady, and the Marquis hear this, wouldn't it be like piercing their hearts? You may have the favor of the General and the Princess, but don't take advantage of your position and try to lecture others just because you know a little bit of reason."
Zhu Ying hadn't expected to be scolded by the old woman for saying just one sentence. She thought to herself that the people of the Marquis of Xuanping's mansion were indeed not to be trifled with, and apologized repeatedly, "Old woman is right, I was just being nosy."
After the head maid left, Zhu Ying pulled out a completely cold egg from somewhere, peeled it, and placed it on the little maid's face, saying, "Don't worry, your general won't die."
The young maid raised her head with tears streaming down her face. "But didn't you say it was... an incurable disease?" She was slapped, but dared not utter the word "incurable."
Zhu Ying laughed at her naivety and said in a mysterious way, "This incurable disease is not the same as that incurable disease. In short, it won't kill you."
Not long after taking the medicine, Chen Liangyu's fever subsided, and she curled up in the crook of her arm and fell into a deep sleep, never waking up again during the night.
The night passed quickly.
Xie Wenjun couldn't sleep all night. Taking advantage of the moment when Chen Liangyu turned over, she pulled her arm, which had been used as a pillow all night, out of her body. Half of her body was numb. She smoothed the hair behind Chen Liangyu's ear, gazed at her quietly for a long time, and then lightly got out of bed to get dressed and wash up.
Shangyong City is like a cage, a cage that cannot contain eagles, which are birds of prey.
Chen Liangyu's true calling was not in Yongdu.
Now, it's time to let her go back.
Prior to this, when discussing the fire attack on Qilian Road, everyone in the court and among the people said that Chen Liangyu was truly lucky, having entered officialdom through military merit gained by a stroke of luck; however, some also argued that her success in quelling the unrest in the Southern Continent and conquering Yongdu to help the new emperor ascend the throne was not solely due to her efforts. There was widespread dissatisfaction.
After this incident, all those who chewed ink and sprayed paper shut their mouths.
The historian spared no effort in writing, and with great enthusiasm, he wielded his wolf-hair brush to write "Heaven blesses Dalin," elevating her to a divine status and praising her for having the demeanor of her maternal grandfather, the military god He Niangong.
With the news resounding throughout the world, the selection of the long-vacant commander-in-chief for the military forces in the sixteen cities of the three northern states seems to have been tacitly agreed upon by both the court and the public.
Author's note: I'll update half a chapter first, and I'll update the remaining half during the day.
Thank you for reading this far!
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