Chapter 75: The Stars Rise Because I Really Care About You
Cui Yiluo froze halfway, worried he'd notice something was wrong. She suppressed her turbulent emotions, hummed softly, and said in a teasing voice, "I put a lot of dried flowers in there. Husband, would you like to guess what they are?"
She always loved to joke around, so Jiang Yunjin didn't suspect anything. He held her in his arms while sniffing the delicate fragrance in the room, distinguishing them: "Wintersweet, peony, camellia..."
His voice was low but clear, like the gurgling of a stream flowing through her ears. Every time he spoke, Cui Yiluo's heart grew colder.
Because what he said was exactly right.
After he listed several flower names, with a hint of smile still in his voice, he asked her, "How is it?"
Cui Yiluo was held in his arms, the lower half of her face hidden beneath his shoulder. She paused for a moment and said, "You guessed right."
His sense of smell was truly sharp; he could even distinguish the subtle scent of a mixture of several dried flowers so accurately and carefully.
So when he took the wine with the magic charm from her that day, even if he really didn't smell the scent of the magic charm, didn't he smell that there was something mixed in the wine?
But he drank so quickly, he probably didn't know. If he knew... he wasn't that kind of person. Cui Yiluo forced herself to calm down and not think about it anymore.
The night was as lingering as usual, the brocade curtains drawn and closed, vague and ambiguous sounds echoing through the room. The couch in the bedroom and the small table by the window were both stained with traces of mess.
When the night watchman's bell rang at midnight, he was still clinging to her, but suddenly he slowed down his movements.
Cui Yiluo's beautiful eyes were filled with mist, and she looked at him confusedly.
He lowered his head and looked at her intently. In this small world in the tent, he seemed to only see her. His lips were gently sucked.
"A Luo, happy birthday."
In the closed tent, his low voice reached her ears, causing a tingling sensation throughout her body. Cui Yiluo couldn't help but tremble.
"How do you know?"
She hadn't told him her birthday. Back when she was at the Cui household, she'd only held birthday parties out of social interaction. In reality, aside from Lilan, no one else in the Cui household had ever sincerely congratulated her.
At this time last year, most people in Ningzhou who celebrated her birthday were celebrating her upcoming marriage to the capital. Although she was marrying a sixty-year-old man, in their eyes, Cheng Feng was a high-ranking official in the capital, holding the rank of Sixth-Rank Supervisor of the Imperial College. Everyone assumed Cui Yiluo would enjoy a good life from now on, and the Cui family would prosper, soon paving the way for a relocation to the capital.
This year, she discovered that her birth wasn't something her father or mother had anticipated. Perhaps out of rebellion, she hadn't wanted to celebrate her birthday. Lan Hui had asked her about it two weeks ago, and she had politely declined. Unexpectedly, Jiang Yunjin knew about it. In fact, if he hadn't mentioned it, she wouldn't have remembered it.
Jiang Yunjin said vaguely: "I heard it from my second aunt."
He had known it for a long time, but Lan Hui did remind him, so he didn't lie.
Cui Yiluo didn't think much about it. Lan Hui was always worried that Jiang Yunjin would treat her badly, so it was reasonable for her to give him a reminder.
She remembered that she had never paid attention to Jiang Yunjin's birthday at all, and she couldn't help feeling guilty. Looking at his fiery and strong eyes in the dim tent, she wanted to avoid him even more.
But he was always extremely sensitive to her emotional changes. As soon as she looked away guiltily, he bumped into her with some displeasure. She didn't bite her lips and let out a sound.
Cui Yiluo naturally knew why he was unhappy. Seeing his eyes becoming increasingly dark and unhappy, Cui Yiluo hurriedly hooked her arm around his neck and whispered to him in a halting voice, "I didn't know... at that time? Every year from now on... I will definitely remember this. Husband, um... don't be angry?"
After she finished speaking, she saw the man's eyes soften a little, but she didn't expect that her gentle coaxing did not make him relax his movements, but made him even more uncontrollable.
After the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, Jiang Yunjin carried her to the bathroom, but in the bathroom, she watched him carefully clean her with his eyes downcast, his face tilted to the side with a straight nose and a face as gentle as jade.
Cui Yiluo recalled how he had congratulated her on her birthday in the tent, and her heart began to beat fast again. She couldn't help but tease him, but it didn't take long for her to regret it.
The bathroom was in a mess, with water splashing everywhere, leaving blurry stains on the embroidered curtains, and even a few candles were extinguished by the water.
After I took another shower and came out of the bathroom, it was already late at night. The bedding and cushions on the couch had been changed and the room was so tidy that it seemed as if nothing had happened.
Cui Yiluo realized belatedly that when they were first married, Madam Jiang was always quick to know what was going on in their courtyard, but since then, she's been unaware of many things. The last time Jiang Yunjin missed dinner because they did that, she asked him if he wouldn't be scolded, and he replied that his grandmother wouldn't know.
He had replaced those people a long time ago? It turns out he had been breaking the rules so early on.
Moreover, last evening, he was waiting for her directly in the room. She wanted to rest, but she could not resist his deliberate teasing. He seemed to have never been so proactive before, and that time he was inexplicably and abruptly possessive, wishing to pound her into her bones and blood. It was a bit like the madness in Qingchi Lane, which made her unable to bear it at all.
What happened before that day... Cui Yiluo was stunned for a moment, then suddenly curled the corners of her lips.
With a creak, the door opened and closed. Jiang Yunjin came out of the bathroom after changing into clean pajamas. He saw Cui Yiluo sitting on the couch, half leaning on the table, supporting her chin with her hand, looking at him with a half-smile.
Her beautiful face smiled brightly and charmingly. Jiang Yunjin's eyes were filled with bright candlelight. He strode forward and skillfully held her in his arms, sitting her on his lap.
"What's wrong?"
Cui Yiluo occasionally traced the pine and bamboo patterns on his pajamas and asked casually, "When did you know I was going to Yaoxing Tower to meet Yuan Ling?"
Her wrist was instantly grasped, and her waist, which had been lightly gripped, was now tightly grasped. Cui Yiluo's gaze moved upwards, meeting the man's gloomy and unhappy eyes. His expression, which had been bright just now, instantly darkened, as if a storm was approaching.
"Why do you think of him again?"
He used to be someone who never showed his emotions, but now, just by mentioning Yuan Ling, he showed some annoyance.
Cui Yiluo asked back: "Why do you care about him so much?"
Before the transaction, Yuan Ling and her had very few interactions, perhaps even less than she had with Jiang Mingxun, but he remembered the few interactions between her and Yuan Ling clearly.
Jiang Yunjin remained silent.
It was because he cared about her, so he knew exactly what Yuan Ling was thinking about her. Yuan Ling had deliberately used the roster to invite Cui Yiluo to Wanglonggang, perhaps hoping to use the excuse of going south to investigate as a pretext to persuade her to come along.
Fortunately, he came back that day. Fortunately, she was perceptive about other things, but much slower when it came to love. She couldn't tell what he was thinking about her, and she had no idea what Yuan Ling was thinking either.
And of course, he couldn't tell him these.
Seeing that he lowered his eyes and didn't answer, Cui Yiluo got straight to the point: "That day at Yaoxing Tower, you knew it then, right?"
He was so angry that he even ignored the dinner rules, and what he did afterwards was even more outrageous.
She smiled, as if complaining, and said, "Jiang Yunjin, you are really stingy. Aren't you a gentleman?"
He still lowered his eyes, opened his thin lips, and said softly: "Because I really care about you."
Cui Yiluo's playful expression froze. In front of others, even before her, Jiang Yunjin had always been aloof and unapproachable, everyone believing he was preoccupied with state affairs. But now, by the candlelight, this aloof man revealed a hint of loss and helplessness.
Her heart felt like it was hit hard, and she leaned forward slightly and fit into his arms, as if they were fitted together. Almost as soon as she leaned forward, he tightened his arms tacitly and held her tighter.
But perhaps because such a fitting situation had happened too many times, Cui Yiluo did not notice it, nor did she notice the meaningful hint that flashed in the man's eyes.
"But you called me Cui before."
It's old-fashioned and unpleasant.
Jiang Yunjin's breathing stagnated, and then he said softly, "I'm sorry."
"Then don't remember what happened before," Cui Yiluo found an excuse that sounded very reasonable: "I don't like you following the rules."
His tone sounded like an order. He was silent for a few moments. Cui Yiluo hugged him and couldn't see the expression on his face. Just when she thought he was annoyed by this, his soft voice sounded in her ears.
Seriously but with a faint smile: "Okay."
Her body suddenly felt lighter, and he put one hand on her back so that she could press against his chest as before. His other arm passed through her knees and easily lifted her up horizontally.
She let out a low cry of surprise, and before she could react, he held her and sat her on the edge of the couch.
A square object had been placed on the small table next to the bed, covered by a piece of silk cloth, obscuring its shape and making it impossible to tell what it was.
Cui Yiluo frowned slightly. She remembered that before entering the bathroom, there was nothing on the small table. They even had something on the small table...
"Uncover it and see."
Jiang Yunjin's voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts. Cui Yiluo subconsciously looked at him. The moment she met his eyes, she instantly understood.
A feeling similar to homesickness arose, and Cui Yiluo tentatively pulled at the piece of silk cloth.
The silk cloth was very light, and it slid down as smoothly as running water as soon as she pulled it, revealing the true appearance of the object underneath.
The translucent glass shimmers even more brilliantly under candlelight. The shimmering glass has been meticulously crafted and carved into a hexagonal lamp, each corner adorned with glass tassels of varying lengths, staggered and arranged in a rhythmic pattern. A slight shake creates a crisp, clinking sound, while the lamp's surface is carved into the shape of a hollowed-out forsythia flower, a vivid, lifelike image that demonstrates the artist's exquisite skill and meticulous attention to detail.
This glass lamp, even without the candle inside it, was so brilliant and dazzling. Wouldn't it be even more dazzling once it was lit? Cui Yiluo had never seen such a large piece of glass before, and she didn't know where Jiang Yunjin had found it.
Cui Yiluo gently fiddled with the tassels. "What is this?"
"Your birthday gift."
Cui Yiluo's fingertips trembled slightly as she fiddled with the tassels, and her throat felt a little dry. She maintained a calm voice and asked, "Why did you give me a lamp?"
Jiang Yunjin explained slowly, "You have trouble falling asleep at night. If I come back late in the future, please put out the candle in your room and hang this by the bed. Maybe you will sleep better."
Cui Yiluo's breathing trembled.
He even noticed that she had trouble falling asleep and specially lit a lamp for her.
She stroked the hollowed-out forsythia pattern and asked softly, "Did you draw this yourself?"
"Um."
Cui Yiluo silently covered the silk cloth back, and the glittering glass lamp was instantly hidden under the silk cloth.
"dislike?"
Jiang Yunjin's voice lowered slightly, and Yingjun's face tensed slightly, with a hint of nervousness in his expression.
Cui Yiluo didn't say anything, but raised her face to kiss his thin lips.
No, she likes it very much.
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Author's words: A Luo: How come you suddenly become so [question mark]
Thanks to the little ones who irrigated the nutrient solution [heart]
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