Chapter 51 I suspect he has been coming home later and later these days...
Pei Huaian's reckless embrace finally healed the wound on his chest.
After gently putting the person in his arms down, he held the wound and gasped, his face turning pale with pain.
Shen Yunshu felt distressed and angry. She took him back to his room to change the dressing, not forgetting to scold him: "You are so reckless. The wound has finally healed. Can't you just stay still?"
Pei Huaian grinned and kept smiling at her: "My dear, do you know that the person who made me fall in love at first sight at the temple fair was not You Ran."
"Not Youran? Who is that girl?"
“It’s you!”
"I?"
"Were you reading a book in front of the bookstall that day?"
Shen Yunshu recalled for a moment: "It seems so."
"You're still wearing the same veil as Youran..."
"right."
"I only saw your eyes at the time, but you disappeared the moment I turned around. Then I spotted You Ran in front of the Mohelo stand and mistook her for you. I even pulled off her veil, and that's how the misunderstanding started."
Pei Huaian thought that after hearing this, she would be as happy as he was, but she did not seem very happy. Instead, she was stunned for a moment, with a faint melancholy on her face.
"So, if you hadn't seen me that day, you and Youran wouldn't have met. Perhaps I wouldn't have thought of bringing you two together, Youran wouldn't have married into the Pei family, and naturally, all these messy things wouldn't have happened later..."
Pei Huaijin didn't expect her to think in this direction. She seemed to feel guilty about Shen Youran marrying into the Pei family. "She married my eldest brother by mistake, isn't that a good thing?"
Shen Yunshu sighed softly: Pei Huaijin is naturally a very good husband, but if my third sister could marry someone more suitable for her, perhaps her life would be more comfortable and she wouldn't be implicated by me and hurt by Lu Yi again and again...
Pei Huaian originally told her this to make her happy, but he didn't expect the opposite to happen and it made her depressed instead.
In order to make her happy, when Shen Yunshu brought the medicine box and asked him to lift up half of his clothes, he took off his upper body clothes in one go.
He likes riding horses, and the muscles in his waist and abdomen are very tight. In addition, he has made some progress in morning exercises in the past few days. When his muscles are tense, a few faint lines can be seen under his jade-colored skin.
"Madam, touch here," he pulled Shen Yunshu's hand and guided it to his waist and abdomen, "Try how it feels."
Shen Yunshu had turned her eyes away when he took off his shirt. When she was about to ask him to pull up his clothes, he grabbed her hand and pressed it on his waist and abdomen.
"Don't do this..." Shen Yunshu couldn't stand his teasing. Her face turned red with shame and she wanted to pull her hand back.
He pressed harder: "Don't be shy, my lady. Touch it and see if you like it."
Shen Yunshu was forced to feel the thin piece of muscle under her palm. It was elastic, tough and firm. When she pressed it, she could clearly feel that it was full of strength.
It was a strange touch, but it seemed...it did feel good, and she didn't hate it.
"How is it, my lady?" Pei Huaian saw the resistance on her face gradually disappear, and couldn't help but ask proudly, "Are you satisfied?"
Shen Yunshu was teased by him, and even if she was satisfied in her heart, she would not say it out loud. Instead, she glared at him and said, "You are not a martial artist, what's the point of being so strong?"
"Of course it is useful, and extremely useful..." Pei Huaian didn't want to think about it, but she had shown him those erotic pictures before, and he was no longer the innocent boy who knew nothing about it. When he thought of the use of this waist, his face turned red and he whispered, "My wife will know it later."
*
On the fifth day after Shen Youran was rescued, Xiao Ci, the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, came to Pei's house and wanted to take her to the Dali Temple for questioning.
Of course, she didn't come to see her directly, but met her sister first. Her sister asked Tinglan to come to Yunzhiyuan to find her, and took her to the Dali Temple on the pretext of asking her to accompany her.
The Dali Temple asked her about the events surrounding her kidnapping, and told her that the evidence supporting the gang's hostage-taking and blackmail was complete, and that those captured would be prosecuted, including Lu Yi. The Dali Temple would also vigorously pursue the escaped gang members, striving to bring justice to her as soon as possible.
Then he asked her another question, asking her if she had seen a boy of sixteen or seventeen in the pine forest where the bandits were hiding? What did that boy look like?
This is a clever question.
When Shen Youran was imprisoned in Songlin'ao, all the bandits she saw had their faces covered with scarves, except for that young man, whose true appearance she was able to see.
"There was a boy about sixteen or seventeen years old, probably..." Pei Huaian happened to be sixteen or seventeen years old. Shen Youran wanted to say that the boy was about the same height as Pei Huaian, but he was not here today, so Shen Youran glanced around and pointed at Xiao Ci and said, "Probably about the same height as Lord Xiao, a little stronger than Lord Xiao, with a darker skin, and wearing a wolfskin half-back..."
As she described, the painter beside her immediately started painting.
After that, he simply drew a small portrait of a young boy. Shen Youran looked at it and shook her head, saying it didn't look like the boy. The painter then made corrections bit by bit based on what she pointed out.
"My eyebrows aren't like this, not this thick, but they're very dense..."
"His eyes aren't like that either. His pupils are very black and bright, and the shape of his eyes is a bit like peach blossom eyes... No, they look a bit like women's eyes. Hmm... that's not right either..."
The eyes are an extremely difficult part to draw. The artist tried many times but could never draw the pair she saw.
The painter was a little anxious, but he still said to her patiently: "If you really can't remember, let's draw something else first."
"The nose seems to be similar to the one you drew, but I don't know what the mouth looks like. He has a beard that covers it, so I can't see it clearly..."
So they returned to the eyes. The painter put down his brush temporarily, letting her recall them carefully, and then he continued painting.
Shen Youran didn't want to waste her brush and ink, but the eyes drawn by the painter didn't match the eyes of the boy in her memory. She couldn't draw them, and she became anxious.
While the painter was resting, Shen Yunshu came over to comfort her sister. Xiao Ci poured two cups of tea and handed them to the two sisters: "Don't worry, you were in such a harsh environment at the time, and your mood will inevitably be affected. If you can't think of it today, just stay here first, go back and have a good rest, and come back another day..."
"Didn't you capture a few bandits alive? They should know what their young master looks like."
"The painters asked them about it, but the drawings were not exactly the same, and they refused to tell the truth."
"Oh." Shen Youran suddenly thought of something, "Although I can't describe the appearance of his eyes right now, there is one characteristic about him that I am very sure of."
"What characteristics?"
"There's a birthmark on his back, near his right shoulder." Shen Youran raised his hand to measure the size of half an inch. "About this size..."
This was an unexpected gain, and Xiao Ci asked someone to take note of this feature.
"He told me that he was picked up by the two heads of the family and didn't know who his biological parents were. But he knew my name. It must be because he knew a girl with the same name when he was a child. It was because of this that he didn't hurt me..."
"He knows your name?" Xiao Ci and the others exchanged glances of surprise before asking her another question, "Do you still remember when the Minister brought you into the palace as a child?"
Huh? Why are you asking this question all of a sudden?
Although puzzled, Shen Youran still answered truthfully: "I don't remember entering the palace..."
Xiao Ci understood: "You must have been very young at that time, not old enough to remember anything. Well, I will go to pay my respects to your father some other day. He should remember it."
After asking some more questions about the young man, Xiao Ci escorted the two sisters back.
Shen Yunshu had previously vaguely sensed that the people from the Dali Temple were looking for the whereabouts of that gang of bandits for other reasons. Now it seemed that the person they were looking for was probably the mysterious young man.
The young man picked up by the bandits remembered You Ran's name, and Xiao Ci also asked whether his third sister had ever entered the palace when she was a child...
A young man, leisurely, entered the palace, too young to remember...
Shen Yunshu's eyebrows knitted slightly as she pondered the matter carefully, forming a bold hypothesis: more than a decade ago, a child of noble status in the palace went missing, most likely picked up or abducted by that gang of bandits. Now, the Dali Temple is searching for this noble person's whereabouts...
The boy was about sixteen or seventeen years old, about the same age as Pei Huaian and his third sister.
He was lost when he was too old to remember anything. He was only three or four years old at most. Who could be the benefactor?
Shen Youran didn't have time to think about those things. She leaned on her sister's shoulder, drowsy.
Pei Huaijin came back very late every day these days, and she was used to sleeping in his arms. In addition, she always had nightmares after being rescued. If he didn't come back, she couldn't sleep, which made her always lack sleep.
When asked why he couldn't come back earlier, he just said that he was busy with official duties and that he would be fine after staying for a while.
For some reason, although he had been the same as usual these past few days, Shen Youran always felt that he seemed to have something on his mind, and he would sigh occasionally. But when she asked him, he would not say anything and told her not to think too much...
But how could she not think too much about it? He must be hiding something from her, and it must be something very important.
Shen Youran was very upset about this, but couldn't figure out why.
After returning to Yunzhiyuan, she was planning to take a rest when someone from Haitangyuan came and told her that the eldest lady had sent a message, asking her to come over.
Her mother-in-law rarely saw her on weekdays. She had been to Haitang Garden twice before, and both times were unpleasant. Today she suddenly asked her to go there again, which might not be a good thing.
Although Shen Youran didn't want to go, she was her mother-in-law after all. If she didn't go, she would inevitably be accused of disrespect and unfilial piety.
Forget it, Shen Youran called Danruo and Qinghe, and walked towards Haitang Garden in a sullen manner.
Pei Huaijin was not at home, and Qing Jian was not there either. If one of them had accompanied her to meet her mother-in-law, she would not have been so anxious.
After entering the Begonia Garden and the hall and greeting everyone, Zhu asked all the maids serving in the hall to leave, including Danruo and Qinghe, and asked them to wait in the courtyard.
Zhu then spoke to her, her tone light: "Brother Jin, daughter-in-law, are you feeling well?"
"Thank you for your concern, mother-in-law. I'm fine now." Her sister had previously taken the blame for her being kidnapped, and Pei Huaijin told others that she was sick.
Chen Youran originally didn't want her sister to suffer this injustice for her, but her sister insisted on doing so, and Pei Huaijin and Pei Huaian also acquiesced. The mansion was calm in the past few days, and no bad rumors about her sister were spread, so Chen Youran accepted her sister's kindness.
Seeing that her sister and Pei Huaian had become much closer that day, and there was no estrangement between herself and Pei Huaijin, Shen Youran thought that life could continue like this, but what Zhu said next gave her a heavy blow.
"Actually, I know that the one who was kidnapped by the criminals was not An Ge's wife, but you..."
The rosy complexion on Shen Youran's face faded away completely in an instant.
"It's hard for me to accept this, not just you," said Zhu, though she disliked her. She felt a pang of reluctance when she thought about what she was about to say, potentially causing her further harm. But she still had to speak out, "I know this isn't your fault, but you were abducted for three days. We all know some things, and I don't want to be too explicit..."
Shen Youran’s face turned pale: “Mother-in-law, what do you want to say?”
"Then I'll be frank with you," Zhu said slowly, "I know you didn't plan to have a child too soon, and now that this has happened, there's bound to be a rift between you and Jin'er. I'm afraid I can't rely on you for offspring for the time being, so I want to take a concubine for Jin'er, what do you think..."
"No!" Shen Youran stood up without waiting for her to finish her words, "I don't agree!"
Zhu's expression, which originally contained a hint of guilt, suddenly turned cold: "Brother Jin's daughter-in-law, it has come to this. You need to be more sensible..."
"If mother-in-law is sensible, she shouldn't decide to let her son take a concubine just three months after his daughter-in-law got married." Shen Youran stared at her, a layer of anger in his dark eyes. "If mother-in-law insists on this, then tell your son to divorce me first, and then talk about taking a concubine."
Zhu had originally thought that, having become a fallen woman, if she had any sense of shame, she would have given up her husband. Unexpectedly, not only did she not feel ashamed of herself, but she also held on to Pei Huaijin, even threatening him with divorce...
Where does the confidence come from?
Zhu sneered in anger, "You dare to say that, it's simply because you think Jin'er won't really divorce you. Indeed, Jin'er is a responsible child, he won't take the initiative to divorce you, but there is already a rift between you. Haven't you noticed that he has been coming home later and later these days..."
Shen Youran's heart skipped a beat.
Pei Huaijin had been leaving home early and returning late these days. He said he was busy with official duties, and Shen Youran was willing to believe him. However, a cloud of doubt quietly emerged in her heart: Was he really tied up in the complicated official duties, or was he unwilling to come back early to face her because he doubted her innocence?
Shen Youran was unwilling to accept the latter, but she couldn't deceive herself. Pei Huaijin had been worried these days and was not as greedy for her as before. He didn't even kiss her much these days.
So, Pei Huaijin doesn't believe that she is still innocent?
Does he mind this?
Zhu watched her arrogant demeanor gradually weaken. Knowing that her words had touched her heart, she said nothing more and waved her hand to let her go back: "Go back and think about it carefully..."
Shen Youran left Haitangyuan in a state of despair.
It’s Minor Cold today and it’s snowing outside again.
This night, Pei Huaijin came back even later than before.
Shen Youran sat by the bed and thought for a long time, the more he thought about it, the more chilled he became.
The time when Danruo went to get contraceptive pills for her and was discovered by Zhu, from what Danruo said, Zhu had the idea of taking a concubine for Pei Huaijin at that time.
At that time, she also comforted Danruo, saying that if her mother-in-law wanted to take a concubine for Pei Huaijin, she would go back to her parents' home.
Today, Zhu was talking about her innocence again and brought up the matter of taking a concubine again, as if she had to agree even if she didn't agree. This was really bullying.
But it was an indisputable fact that Pei Huaijin had been cold towards her these past few days.
It was as if there was a thorn in Shen Youran's heart. The more he thought about these things, the deeper the thorn pierced...
The worst that can happen is a divorce.
She thought.
Anyway, she didn't want to marry Pei Huaijin from the beginning.
She didn't like Pei Huaijin anyway.
Well, actually I like it a little bit.
Therefore, she could not accept Pei Huaijin's suspicion of her, and it was impossible for her to agree to let him take a concubine.
Divorce!
Must divorce!
The partition door of the dormitory was pushed open, and Pei Huaijin walked in with a layer of frost on his brow.
Seeing her sitting on the bed with her back to the door, sorting something, Pei Huaijin raised the corner of his lips slightly and walked towards her while speaking: "You Ran, there is something I want to tell you..."
The next moment, she threw the thing in her hand onto the couch, turned around and shouted at him: "Divorce!"
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The author has something to say: For the next chapter, everyone, hold your bowls!
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