Chapter 88 Climbing into Bed: He was like a lustful lecher.
Le Jin was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood what Meng Shutai meant.
Yuan Fangsui was originally a lucky charm thrown to Shenji Mountain by the royal family, destined never to return. If everyone hadn't thought Meng Shutai was near death, they wouldn't have resorted to desperate measures like seeking medical help and praying to gods and Buddhas. If the Meng family had sent word that they wanted Yuan Fangsui to stay in the palace, why wouldn't her birth mother be happy to oblige?
Le Jin's heart was tossed and turned by her emotions like a small boat... Why did Meng Shutai send Yuan Fang away?
She desperately didn't want to face the answer, but she already knew it in her heart.
Le Jin suppressed her surprise and smiled brightly, "That's wonderful! Xuan Shengzi must be very happy." She looked up at Meng Shutai, curtsied, and said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Xuan Shengzi invited a Longevity Emperor to Luojing this time and instructed me to go and offer incense every day. Now that your illness has eased, why don't I escort you out?"
Meng Shutai looked down, taking in her forced composure, a slight smile playing on his lips, and raised his forearm toward her.
"Thank you for your trouble, Miss Qing Si."
Le Jin smiled and held his forearms with both hands, but stood far away from him, as if Meng Shutai was covered by a thick glass dome.
However, as the two walked along the long corridor in the courtyard, the distance between them grew closer and closer until Meng Shutai's long hair brushed against Le Jin's shoulder. He seemed to want to lean on her, almost causing Le Jin to bump into a pillar on the side of the corridor. Yet, the instigator acted as if nothing had happened, casually and gently asking her how her days on Mount Chenji were going.
Le Jin almost ground her teeth to powder, but she was so angry that she didn't want him to hold her like this. She forced herself to be respectful and answered him truthfully.
Seeing her like this, Meng Shutai became even more unrestrained, clinging to Le Jin like boneless silk, his body enveloped in a sandalwood mist. Le Jin, through the cool, smooth fabric, held his forearm, as if cradling a cloud of lingering fragrance. The unspoken understanding between them was faintly visible between them, their bodies swaying gently like fish.
Beneath the archway of Zhenyuan Garden, Qisheng leaned against the flowering tree beside the pink wall, intently staring at the withering pink blossoms on the branches.
Everyone says that all flowers wither in autumn, and Zhenyuan is no exception, but what's strange today is that her husband has suddenly recovered! This morning he even got up very early to choose clothes and accessories, and spent more than an hour in front of the mirror.
Seven years have passed, and the young master has finally stopped his madness and confusion, regaining his former brilliance that captivated the world, his joy at playing chess overflowing. But then I thought, is this what people call a "last gasp of life"? After all, since the beginning of this year, the young master has been so ill that he couldn't even get out of bed, his meals were no longer available, and he wouldn't take any medicine.
Qi Sheng's heart was in his throat as he gazed longingly at the Qili Courtyard. His beloved had gone there alone, without allowing anyone to follow. Although he was in good spirits today, what if he collapsed again...? He paced back and forth outside the wall, waiting for an unknown amount of time, until finally, amidst a sea of crimson maple leaves, he spotted that elegant and refined figure.
"My lord!"
Qi Sheng quickly opened his umbrella and ran over to shield Meng Shutai from the rain.
As soon as he approached, Qisheng's eyes suddenly lit up. Meng Shutai went over there for a while, and after seeing someone and using something, he became radiant and his eyes were clear. Apart from still being thin, he did not look like someone who had been bedridden for a long time.
Remembering what her young master had instructed, Qi Sheng felt a slight sense of relief. Perhaps, given her master's condition today, that matter could at least make some progress.
"My lord, the young master just sent word again about choosing a burial site. What do you think of the young mistress...?"
Over the years, Meng Cizhang has never given up the idea of giving his sister-in-law a proper burial. However, if anyone touches the woman's corpse, Meng Shutai will either cough up blood or, in severe cases, kill them with his sword. Years ago, Master Meng and Madam Meng tried to persuade him earnestly, but to no avail. In later years, the two returned to their ancestral home to pray for their ancestors' protection, weeping constantly, and have not returned to Luoyang since.
Qi Sheng thought that if the location of the young mistress's tomb could be decided, it would be a great joy.
"Oh, I almost forgot..." Under the umbrella, Meng Shutai reached out to catch the cold raindrops sliding down the surface and suddenly murmured this.
He casually tossed the raindrops from his palm away, where they vanished instantly in the streaks of white rain. His voice was unusually cold, as if it held a block of ice:
"Just throw it out anywhere."
"Wait, send the body back to the Yue family in Shuzhou, so that Yue Zhao won't cause trouble every year."
Qi Sheng's mouth gaped open, and he was momentarily speechless.
Over the years, so much has happened in the Meng and Le families, and throughout Luojing, all because of the young mistress. Yet, on this rainy autumn day, these two simple, heartless sentences brought it all to an end, the past gone with the wind…
The sound of chess pieces glanced sideways at her lover. The damp rain clung to him, but it couldn't soak his fine clothes; instead, it added a touch of brilliance to his beautiful phoenix eyes.
Meng Shutai hummed a short poem.
He hadn't hummed a tune in a long time. Qi Sheng remembered the last time he heard this tune was when the young mistress burned down Huayan Temple and the young master was riding back to the temple in a carriage.
The day was sunny and bright, and the young man was in an unusually good mood.
——
The rain stopped for half a day in the afternoon, and the autumn sun peeked out. But unexpectedly, the wind picked up again at night, and the rain continued to fall in a lingering, damp chill. The entire city of Luojing was soaked in the cold, and the chill seeped into every crevice, penetrating straight to the bone.
The ice bed where the body was stored had vanished without a trace, but the room had remained icy cold for years, and it couldn't be thawed in a short time.
Meng Shutai curled up on the chaise longue, the old wound in his abdomen felt like a venomous tongue biting his flesh, the pain causing the veins on his forehead to bulge, and beads of sweat to slide down his forehead, his undergarment already cool and damp.
The dagger he stabbed himself with seven years ago was never actually pulled out. It would appear like a ghost whenever it was rainy and cold, continuing to be stuck in his abdomen, bloody and menacing, reminding him that he had been abandoned by Le Jin.
A fierce pain surged through his abdomen, nearly causing Meng Shutai to faint. All he could hear was his heavy, suppressed gasps echoing in the quiet room.
For more than two thousand days and nights, whenever he was in pain, he would lie on the ice bed, clinging to that corpse.
The cold of the ice bed would intensify his pain, but where else could he go beside the corpse? Even if it was just an empty shell, he would be willing to drink poison to quench his thirst.
But now that Le Jin is back, he should lock her up, imprison her by his side, put chains on her ankles, feed her drugs to make her delirious or paralyzed, and make sure she eats, drinks, sleeps, and wakes up entirely under his control, so that she can never escape him again for all eternity...
Qing Si… Thinking of this name that she had so brazenly used to block her throat, Meng Shutai gripped his abdomen with both hands, as if the venomous snake was about to burst out of his stomach and pounce on him to bite Le Jin to death, then bite him to death, and the two of them would die together.
He hates her!
How could you be so cruel to him! You abandoned him in this world all alone for seven whole years, and now he comes back with a name given to him by another man, wears another man's clothes, sleeps in another man's bed, and shamelessly spouts nonsense about not knowing him!
God knows how furious he was when he saw her gentle and respectful smiling face!
He used to fawn over her, begging for a hug, a kiss, even just a light touch, a fleeting glimpse, and he would have groveled before her as if it were a divine blessing. But she was so heartless, offering not a shred of tenderness. Even their only time sharing a bed was orchestrated by him through poison.
She's so mean, so unfair! She always bullies him; she deserves to go to hell...
Trembling, Meng Shutai got off the bed in the dark and staggered out the door, heading straight for Qiliyuan.
As the cold wind and rain lashed him, the pain in his abdomen suddenly intensified. He had to lean against the wall to rest after each step, and only when the intense pain subsided would he take another step.
They won't turn back until they hit a brick wall.
The servant keeping watch under the eaves heard a noise, rubbed his eyes and woke up, and was almost scared to death by what he saw.
"My love! How could you..."
Meng Shutai ignored him, passing by with a cold face, her red agate waist chain jingling, flashing with a blood-red light in the dark night with its churning wind and rain.
When the golden hairpin unlatched the door, Meng Shutai was in so much pain that he had no strength left. He slumped onto the threshold, gritted his teeth, and endured the pain for a while before supporting himself on his hands and knees, slowly crawling silently into the room.
Passing through the warm pavilion, in the bedroom, an exquisitely carved canopy bed was draped with lilac-purple curtains, completely obscuring the figure of the woman on the bed.
She must have been very careful before going to sleep, tucking all three layers of bed curtains under the mattress as if locking herself in a sealed box.
Meng Shutai leaned back on the footstool and, seeing Le Jin's obvious intentions, curled his lips into a smile.
She was on guard, so what?
He is a thousand times worse than her; he is capable of doing the most despicable and vile things.
Pulling back the tightly closed curtains was like unwrapping a gift, peeling back layer after layer, finally revealing Le Jin lying on her side.
She was a heavy sleeper, and once asleep, she would be completely unaware unless deliberately woken up. Having been married for nearly a year, Meng Shutai knew her inside and out.
He raised his knee to step forward, and the agate waist chain clinked. Le Jin's brows furrowed, and her shoulders swayed almost imperceptibly. Meng Shutai immediately held his breath and gripped the waist chain. He reached one hand to his side and deftly untied it with his fingertips. The waist chain dangled in his hand, and he gently placed it on the footstool.
He crept stealthily into the empty space beside Le Jin, like a weary bird finally returning to its nest after a long journey.
She was incredibly well-behaved when she slept, her lips slightly pouting like a defiant child. Meng Shutai propped himself up beside Le Jin's pillow, scrutinizing her eyebrows, nose, and lips again and again…
It was exactly the same as what he dreamed about.
Her pure and simple face seemed to possess infinite magic, enticing Meng Shutai to get closer to her, to sniff her closely, his teeth and throat itching, wanting to bite her flesh to fill his emptiness.
His heart pounded and relaxed with Le Jin's breathing. Meng Shutai traced her eyebrows with the tip of his nose, and a faint fragrance, like a butterfly, flew into his lungs, trapped between his ribs, fluttering and swirling.
What a shameless act! He was like a lustful lecher who climbed into her bed at night to steal her scent, brewing an addictive poison in his lungs, drinking it all by himself.
If you can quit drugs, they're no longer drugs.
Meng Shutai lay down beside her pillow with a smile, his eyes hazy and starlight scattered. His dead wife had been found; his dream of seven years had come true.
The invisible dagger inside his abdomen scraped against Meng Shutai's pelvis with a gurgling sound, like the cawing of an ominous crow within him. It hurt terribly, so much so that he knew he would not sleep tonight.
Le Jin slept peacefully. She remained oblivious to his suffering. Yet Meng Shutai's eyes were fixed on her, his gaze filled with longing.
He imitated her sleeping on her side, his two fingers quietly resting on her exposed shoulder, his scarred and ugly abdomen gently pressed against her body.
Le Jin was so soft, so soft that Meng Shutai's soul was momentarily pulled away.
She's like a magic potion. Being close to her makes the pain less.
But... what is he here for? Isn't he here to hate her and send her to hell? Meng Shutai suddenly came to his senses, but only for a moment. He touched the hair on the back of Le Jin's neck with his mouth and nose, breathing slowly in it. His eyes curved and curved, and honey flowed out.
Never mind, I can't bear to part with it.
He still wanted to love her, even more than he wanted to die with her.
He pulled out the red string that had been split in two from his sleeve, intending for them to each wear one. But the little golden bell was too loud, and he was afraid of waking her, so he only dared to hold it in his hand and cover it.
After squeezing until his hands ached, Meng Shutai gave up on the idea.
It's not the right time yet. Next time, next time he wants to see Le Jin put it on herself in front of him.
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Author's Note: Meng Shutai before climbing into bed: I hate you, ...
Meng Shutai after climbing into bed: Overwhelmed by his wife's fragrance...
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