Chapter 11
I really owe you something.
Hao Jingshi went out to call Xuan Lan to prepare the horses. While he was at it, Lu Qin also put on her outer garment and began to instruct Zhi Lan.
Zhilan still didn't understand why her mistress was talking nonsense and wanted to send her away. She thought it was because her mistress thought she was stupid and didn't serve her well, so she knelt down and begged for mercy.
Lu Qin knew that Zhi Lan was stubborn, so she had a sudden inspiration and lied to her, saying that she had secretly learned fortune telling and could predict good and bad fortune. Sure enough, she fooled Zhi Lan.
“I know you are loyal to me, and that’s why I can’t implicate you and your family,” Lu Qin said. “Don’t worry about me. With my husband here, Aunt Zhao won’t dare to do anything to me.”
Upon hearing this, Zhilan was moved to tears and knelt down on the ground with a thud.
"Miss, your kindness is immeasurable, and I will never forget it. After I leave, please take good care of yourself."
She kowtowed deeply: "Zhilan bids farewell to Miss."
Xuan Lan chose the fastest steed to escort Zhi Lan out of the city. The horse ran for a while and then disappeared from sight. Seeing this, Lu Qin's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.
After all that work, her energy suddenly dissipated, and the weakness and exhaustion from staying up all night returned.
Seeing that she looked terrible and was standing to the side with a blank expression, Hao Jingshi took her back to her dormitory and went to pay his respects to his parents by himself.
Lu Qin slept soundly in her dormitory until evening. When she opened her eyes, it was already dark, the setting sun was golden, and there was no one else in the dormitory except her.
After a while, someone knocked on the door. Lu Qin was delighted, but found that it was an unfamiliar maid who came in. The maid said that she was sent by the young master to bring her food, and left after putting down the food.
The surroundings fell silent again. Lu Qin lay sprawled on the bed, her face upturned to the sky, a sense of loneliness creeping into her heart.
A wicked aunt, a gambling brother, a loyal servant forced to leave, an assassin who could appear at any moment, and her utter loneliness...
Heavens above, why did you do this to her?
We need to hurry up and cultivate another trusted confidant, otherwise how will we get by in the future!
As Lu Qin was worrying about not having a suitable candidate, the aroma of food wafted through the large dormitory. Her nose twitched, her mouth watered, and her stomach rumbled in protest.
Never mind, there are so many maids in the Hao family, they can't all be Aunt Zhao's spies.
Since things have come to this, let's eat first.
...
At night, the moon was bright and the stars were few.
Lu Qin tossed and turned in bed. Although there were maids and servants on night watch outside, she still felt uneasy.
What if an assassin breaks into her room while she's asleep...
What if there are other spies of Aunt Zhao in the Hao household, who could use the excuse of keeping watch at night to come in and strangle her...
hiss.
After racking her brains for a long time to find a way out of the predicament, Lu Qin realized that there was only one solution—
She put on her shoes and coat and sneakily went to the next room to peek inside.
To avoid arousing suspicion, Hao Jingshi would usually wash up in the main room, and after extinguishing the candles, he would climb out the window to sleep in the side room. The next morning, he would climb back into the hall, pretending that he had gotten up but didn't want to wake his wife, and wait for her to come over.
The servants of the Hao family were unaware of this, so they were quite surprised to see her run out and looked inside, asking, "Young Madam, what are you looking at here?"
Seeing that she was about to be exposed, Lu Qin quickly made up a story: "Oh, it's nothing. I had a little disagreement with my husband, so he climbed out the window. I just came to see if he's here."
The servants didn't stop her after hearing this. Lu Qin quietly pried open the door a crack and peered inside.
Hao Jingshi was indeed still awake, propping his head up with one hand while reading. His hair, which had been tied up, was now loose, making him appear less arrogant and more composed.
Xuan Lan was also there. He squatted down and carefully applied medicine to Hao Jingshi's knee. Although they were far apart, Lu Qin was still frightened by the reddened flesh on Hao Jingshi's knee.
Seeing Xuan Lan dip her finger in the white powder and apply it to the small, cracked flesh without any gentleness... as if she had activated a pain-sharing feature, Lu Qin couldn't help but hiss.
The sound pierced the quiet night, attracting the attention of the two men, who both turned to look at her.
"Young Madam?" Xuan Lan paused for a moment.
"What are you standing there silently for, spying on me?" Hao Jingshi glanced at her.
When Lu Qin realized she had been discovered, she opened the door and walked in with a chuckle: "So my husband is really here. Um, let me apply the medicine for you."
Upon hearing this, Xuan Lan immediately handed her the medicine bottle, wisely made her escape, and even closed the door behind her.
Hao Jingshi, without even looking up, said, "What do you mean by 'real' or 'fake'?"
Lu Qin didn't answer, but walked over and sat down next to him.
Looking closely at his bruised and battered knees, all I could feel was pain, pain, pain, pain.
She dipped some of the powder in her mouth, bent down, and carefully applied it. "Does it hurt?"
Compared to Xuan Lan's rough and forceful way of applying medicine, Lu Qin's technique was much gentler, and you could hardly feel anything.
Hao Jingshi paused, and a sense of loneliness suddenly arose in his heart after she asked him that question.
After each punishment of kneeling, he didn't need anyone to help him; he would prepare the medicine himself and apply it, and no one ever asked him if it hurt.
"What pain? It's just a minor injury. It's healed after a day." He lowered his head to read, seemingly trying to hide his embarrassment. "What do you want from me?"
"Come and apply the medicine to your husband." Lu Qin carefully wrapped the gauze around his neck. "I think Xuan Lan was too rough. I'll apply the medicine for you from now on."
Hao Jingshi didn't believe it and snorted: "Yesterday you said I'd be sunburnt to death, and today you're rushing over to apply medicine for me. You change your mind faster than flipping through a book."
Lu Qin put down the medicine bottle and softly wrapped her arms around his: "Yesterday is yesterday, today is today. Isn't it normal for husband and wife to bicker? No matter what, you will always be my good husband. It's only right to apply medicine. Even if my husband really broke his leg, I would still be willing to take care of you for the rest of my life."
"..." Hao Jingshi's back stiffened, and he choked.
If it were a quarrel, he would naturally not lose to Lu Qin, but she would start saying sweet words to coax him, and he couldn't keep up with her.
"Stop with the nonsense." Hao Jingshi snapped the book shut, pulled his hand away, and leaned back against the headboard. "If you have nothing else to do, you can go back now. I'm sleepy and going to bed."
As he spoke, he rolled over onto the pillow and reached for the blanket. But after searching for a long time, he couldn't find even a corner of the blanket.
Hao Jingshi guessed what was going on and slowly turned his head. Sure enough, Lu Qin had already snatched the blanket and wrapped it around herself. She was looking at him with a determined gaze, as if to say, "I will not give up until I achieve my goal today."
He knew she must have something to ask of him, otherwise she wouldn't be acting so coquettishly and refusing to leave, so he sat up again and crossed his arms.
"What is it? Speak quickly."
Lu Qin chuckled and loosened the blanket: "Husband, please promise me first before I talk about it."
"You scoundrel, how can I agree if you don't tell me?"
"So that means if I ask, my husband will agree?"
"Is that what you mean, young master?"
"Husband..." Seeing that she hadn't managed to fool him, Lu Qin had no choice but to use her ultimate move. She clasped her hands together and looked at him with bright eyes. "You're the best. It's not a big deal, so just say yes."
She moved closer and closer, her sweet fragrance filling the air. Hao Jingshi's ears turned bright red instantly. He looked away, cleared his throat, and said, "Well, since you applied the medicine for me, I'll consider it."
"That's wonderful! My husband is so good! I love you!"
After Lu Qin finished speaking, she shouted happily and ran off like a wisp of smoke.
Hao Jingshi was a little confused when he saw her cheerful figure disappearing into the distance: "Hey, where are you going? I said I'd think about it, I haven't said anything yet—"
He was only halfway through his sentence when Lu Qin came running back like a whirlwind, muttering to herself as she interrupted him, carrying a blanket with her.
"My husband has agreed, right? From now on, we won't have any distinction between Chu and Han, and we'll sleep in the same room."
"My husband, I've wanted to say this for a long time. I don't want to leave you for even a moment. I can't sleep without you."
"?"
Hao Jingshi stood there staring at her, his handsome face, which had been dazed, twitched and then suddenly turned as hot as burning firewood.
"W-what?" He waved his hand haphazardly. "You, you, when did I agree to this?"
“I told the servants you ran away to sleep out of spite, and that didn’t give me away.” Lu Qin looked at him innocently, but a slightly threatening smirk played on her lips. “Husband, are you really not going to agree? What if your parents find out…”
She didn't finish her sentence. After throwing the blanket on the bed, she ran out and back, bringing back a pillow.
Hao Jingshi watched her go in and out and said anxiously, "Do you think I'm afraid? I'm just too lazy to listen to their nagging."
Lu Qin didn't care what he said. She came back with a bamboo mat in her arms and slammed the door shut with a loud "bang".
Seeing her walk towards him, drop the bamboo mat, and bend down in his direction, Hao Jingshi immediately put on an indifferent expression, but in reality, he silently clenched the corner of the quilt.
"You insisted on sleeping with me, so I couldn't stop you. But your body isn't fully recovered yet, so how about..."
He was speaking when he saw Lu Qin open her arms wide—take a quilt from beside him and turn around to make a makeshift bed on the floor.
"Or what?" Lu Qin asked, puzzled, as she busied herself.
Seeing that she had made the bed on the floor neatly, Hao Jingshi rubbed his forehead and swallowed the words that were about to come out: "It's nothing, go to sleep."
After he finished speaking, he awkwardly lay down.
Lu Qin stared at him for a while, puzzled. Seeing that he was lying stiffly, she suddenly realized and said, "Oh, husband, don't worry about me. It's okay. You sleep in your bed, and I'll sleep on the floor. As long as you're by my side, I can have a good dream."
After saying that, she crawled into bed and gave him a sweet smile.
"It's quite warm and not too hard, so it's really fine."
"…………" Hao Jingshi turned over, "If you're not afraid of your body falling apart, then sleep on the floor."
Lu Qin hummed in agreement, then turned over so her back was to him, closed her eyes contentedly, and remained still.
A dog barked in the quiet night.
Two sounds.
After a while, the dogs barked louder and louder, as if they were fighting. Hao Jingshi was still awake and couldn't help but turn his head to look at the ground.
In a small bamboo mat, Lu Qin had her back to him, wrapped tightly in the quilt, and huddled on the ground, shivering.
Her thin, slender back rose and fell beneath the thin blanket, and her breathing was even; she appeared to be asleep.
Hao Jingshi stared at her figure in a daze for a while, and finally couldn't help but get out of bed.
He walked over and saw Lu Qin's face, which was as unguarded as a baby's, neither the coquettish and shameless one nor the sharp-tongued one who would argue with him.
He bent down, picked her up, and gently placed her on the bed. He covered her with the blanket again and then lay down on the makeshift bed she had made on the floor.
He pulled the blanket over himself, glanced at her, and gave a soft hum.
"I must have owed you something in my past life."
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