As night deepened, the Hidden Spring Pavilion was brightly lit.
The moonlight, like a ribbon, shone through the thin window curtains onto the windowsill.
Inside the room, the red candles flickered, illuminating her gentle yet resolute face in red. She wore a red dress embroidered with twin lotus blossoms, her clothes fluttering like a peony about to bloom, both beautiful and possessing an undeniable tenacity.
The woman in red gently stroked her slightly protruding belly, and a mocking smile appeared on her lips as if she had just remembered something.
She slowly sat down in front of the dressing table, her fingers gently plucking the strings of the zither, and the melodious music echoed in the room.
The music was melodious and lingering, and her eyes gradually became deep and dreamy, as if she were lost in her own memories.
Suddenly, a gentle breeze blew by, the door opened softly, and a figure quietly walked in.
The woman in red slightly raised her head, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.
She gently put down her violin, stood up, and walked towards the figure.
"Master, you've come." The woman in red reached out to undo Li Zan's belt, leaned forward, and gently kissed him on the cheek.
"Master." The next moment, the woman in red raised her head with teary eyes, looking at Li Zan pitifully, and said aggrievedly, "I thought you had abandoned me and wouldn't come back!"
"Don't overthink it, Hongyi. I feel restless and anxious if I don't see you for even a short while, how could I possibly dislike you?! You're not allowed to say things like that again!"
Before he finished speaking, Li Zan quickly leaned down and gently kissed the soft lips of the woman in red.
The woman in red tilted her head back slightly, closed her eyes, and let Li Zan's kisses linger on her lips, tender and affectionate, like a beautiful melody that captivated and enchanted her.
She hugged Li Zan tightly around the waist, as if trying to merge him into her own body. The atmosphere between them instantly heated up, filled with an indescribable ambiguity and sweetness.
After the kiss, Li Zan gently stroked the woman in red's cheek, his eyes full of doting affection: "Red, I really want to be with you every moment."
“Master, Hongyi also wants to spend her life with you. But Master…” she sobbed, “Master, Hongyi doesn’t want any title, but could our child be fostered under Madam’s name…”
The sight of Hongyi, her face streaked with tears, made Li Zan's heart race with anxiety, like an ant on a hot pan. He said irritably, "That jealous woman Bai Wei has forbade me to take a concubine for so many years. Now that Hongyi and I are truly in love, she's trying to divorce me! To think that I, a dignified Duke, am being manipulated like a soft persimmon by this woman in the inner quarters, and now my colleagues are all laughing at me!"
Upon hearing this, the woman in red cried even harder.
“In that case, Hongyi should give up this idea! Tomorrow, I will have Steward Zhang brew me a bowl of abortifacient. Our poor child, your mother will never have the chance to see you again…”
Seeing Hongyi crying harder and harder, Li Zan felt a growing panic. He pulled Hongyi onto his lap, hastily kissing away her tears, gently stroking her back as he comforted her, "Hongyi, that jealous woman had a fight with me today and has already left home. I'll give her three days. If, if she hasn't returned after three days, I'll divorce her and welcome you into the family!"
The woman in red slowly stopped crying. She looked at Li Zan expectantly and asked suspiciously, "Master, are you just saying these things to comfort me?"
"Oh, Red Robe, you're my darling and my very soul now. Why would I bother with empty words to flatter you?!"
Li Zan hurriedly explained, even offering to swear an oath to heaven if the woman in red didn't believe him.
“Master, Red Robe believes you. Whatever you say, Red Robe will believe.”
With tears welling up in her eyes, the woman in red pushed Li Zan down onto the bed and leaned over to blow out the candlesticks on the bedside table.
Moonlight streamed through the thin gauze curtains, illuminating two intertwined figures.
From inside the gauze curtains, short, heavy breathing sounds from a man could be heard from time to time.
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