Chapter 59: Getting Thicker and Thicker Ji Yunchan looked at him as if she had some feeling...
Ji Yunchan looked at Yan Heng with a sense of realization, waiting for him to speak.
"I just... don't want you to see me like this." Yan Heng said in a low voice.
The eyes that were always full of confidence and calm revealed embarrassment, sadness, and hesitation. Then they stopped abruptly and looked fixedly at Ji Yunchan's eyes, with a hint of evasion in anticipation, waiting for her answer.
Ji Yunchan was stunned for a moment by his gaze, then smiled. She gently raised her hand and stroked his face. The man who had not recovered from his injury had a yellow complexion, and a layer of stubble had grown on him because he had not been groomed for many days. He looked messy and shabby, and was not a good-looking man at all.
But the pair of soft hands were completely unaware and just pressed against him. Ji Yunchan laughed at him: "Silly Ah Heng, we are husband and wife."
Yan Heng's pale lips trembled: "But..."
But in your heart, I should be omnipotent.
How can I tell you that I am only human and yet you can still love me? How can I say these words?
Seeing his hesitation, Ji Yunchan looked at him steadily and spoke softly, "Ah Heng, you said that if you want to share life and death with me, you should hold my hand instead of standing there alone without saying anything."
"I know you're not omnipotent, but that's nothing." She consoled him encouragingly. "Speaking of which, my husband is incredibly intelligent. He's learned quickly since he was young and can accomplish anything he sets his mind to. I envy him to no end, but I can only catch up with him through hard work."
Yan Heng's pupils shrank slightly, and he couldn't tell whether it was out of panic or his true intention. He spoke in a hoarse voice: "You don't know, it's not like that."
"I just didn't want you to see it."
Ji Yunchan looked up in surprise.
She originally thought Yan Heng was different from her. He always looked so at ease, while she had to work very hard to make things look easy and to have a satisfactory posture. She knew how hard it was for her along the way.
As if wounded by the surprise in Ji Yunchan's eyes, Yan Heng's psychological defenses became fragile. He lowered his head and continued, "As you said, I may have some strengths, but no one can be a jack of all trades, and I am no exception."
Ji Yunchan felt a pang of pain at the sound. She cupped Yan Heng's cheeks with both hands. His seemingly all-powerful childhood sweetheart revealed the most vulnerable side of him that he didn't want her to know. He let her hold his face, his thick eyelashes blinking nervously.
She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips.
Yan Heng's body stiffened for a moment, and he continued as if he knew nothing: "I was just hiding from you. During those unknown nights, I also worked hard." After he said this, he looked up at Ji Yunchan.
Seeing that she had no expression and just nodded casually, Yan Heng slowly took her hand and held it in his palm bit by bit.
"For example, I'm actually not very good at handwriting. I've been practicing this for a long time." He said with difficulty, "I'm not as determined as you, Yuanyuan."
Ji Yunchan opened her lips slightly, with her eyes curved, and she looked in a good mood, waiting for Yan Heng's next words.
"It's been like this since I can remember. I despise you for acting so pretentiously in public, but I'm also shocked by how hardworking you are." Yan Heng lowered his eyes and looked at their folded hands. The girl's hands were one knuckle smaller than his, tender and soft, as if they would break at a touch, but they had a perseverance that he didn't have.
He bent his palms slightly, interlaced his fingers one by one, and rubbed them against his cheeks. He added, "At that time, I was thinking that I had to do something to be worthy of my future wife."
Under the candlelight, the usually cold and awkward person opened his heart tenderly and affectionately, saying things that he would never say even if he was beaten to death.
Ji Yunchan's heart felt soft and bitter, tears welling up at the tip of her nose. Why is this happening? She thought to herself, "I become so hypocritical the moment I'm in front of him, as if all the tears in my life have been shed in front of him."
Unable to cry anymore, Ji Yunchan forced herself to hold back her tears, lowering her eyes to hide her feelings, and pretending to say something else: "But you always teased me when we were little."
In Yan Heng's eyes, it seemed as if he lowered his head in grievance, condemning his actions as a child.
Time has passed, and things have changed. The puffy little girl from back then has grown up. Sitting before him, they reminisce about the past, but her cheeks are still puffy. Yan Heng finds them adorable and wants to pinch them. He'd wanted to do that since he was a child, but he couldn't.
His uninjured hand was still intertwined with hers, so he struggled to raise his other hand. Just as he reached it towards her cheek, he heard her whisper, "...you're scaring me with pine caterpillars."
Yan Heng's outstretched hand froze in place.
Ji Yunchan managed to hold back her tears with great difficulty. She saw his intention, moved forward, and offered her cheek for him to pinch, with no intention of settling a grudge.
While blinking her almond-shaped eyes, she asked him, "Is it too much?"
Yan Heng thought of her pointed face when they first met, now fleshed out. He pinched it with a sigh. He paused for a moment before remembering his reply. Reluctantly, he said what he had thought back then: "Pine caterpillars will transform into butterflies. I caught the prettiest ones after they emerged from their cocoons, thinking you'd enjoy raising them from a young age."
Ji Yunchan stood up from in front of him, frowning, then relaxing, feeling quite amused and asking, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Yan Heng was speechless, thinking of his own lawless nature as a child, who would not tolerate being humiliated. He turned away, annoyed, "I had a bad temper when I was young, and I thought you were ungrateful."
"I just don't know what's good for me. I have to see you." Ji Yunchan leaned forward with a smile and kissed Yan Heng on the lips.
Yan Heng's ears turned red, and he pinched her cheeks in a timid manner: "Ji Yunchan, why are you getting more and more shameless?"
Ji Yunchan laughed. It wasn't that she had become thick-skinned, but Ah Heng was particularly thin-skinned tonight, so she couldn't help but tease him, "A man of black company becomes black. I learned that from you."
Yan Heng scoffed, his eyelashes raised, his dark pupils drooping deeply. Ji Yunchan tilted her head back, her heartbeat gradually accelerating. Their breaths met, their lips moving closer and closer.
The door curtain was suddenly opened from the outside, accompanied by a voice: "Brother Shi'an, sister-in-law, I'm here to bring you food personally!" Zhou Jing came in from outside happily.
After he left the house, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had not made his words clear, and he felt uneasy. He would not feel at ease until he saw the two of them reconcile, so he took the opportunity of delivering food to personally persuade the two of them to reconcile.
He walked over to the two of them in two steps, carrying dinner, and greeted them warmly, "We got some rabbit meat from the hunt today, and I asked for some extra. Sister-in-law, you've been traveling all the way, so you haven't had any food, have you?"
When I looked up, I saw two of them, one with their heads tilted to the left and the other with red faces.
Why did they quarrel so much? Zhou Jing put the food on the table and sat down to persuade her earnestly: "As the saying goes, a husband and wife are bound by a hundred days of grace. It's not easy to see each other, how can we quarrel as soon as we meet..."
Before he could even sit down, he saw Yan Heng's face was unfriendly and his eyes were murderous. "Get out."
"How can I go out? Who would dare to mediate if I go out?" Zhou Jing was completely unaware and just sat down.
Yan Heng took a deep breath and summoned up his remaining patience: "Did you hear us arguing?"
Zhou Jing was suspicious and said nothing.
"If you don't believe me, go out and ask the gatekeeper."
Seeing Yan Heng say this, Zhou Jing nodded hesitantly, reluctantly believing that they hadn't quarreled. "But..." He immediately raised a new question, "You two were red in the face just now. If it wasn't a quarrel, then what was it..."
"Get out." Yan Heng interrupted him with a stronger tone, which was almost a sign of getting angry.
Zhou Jing shrank his neck, thinking that Shi An was known for his bad temper. Filled with questions, he didn't dare stay any longer and left dejectedly, not forgetting to exchange a few final greetings as he went: "Then I'll be leaving first. I won't bother you anymore. Brother Shi An, sister-in-law, take your time eating."
......
The tent fell silent again. Ji Yunchan remained in that stiff, back-to-back position, motionless, until Yan Heng pulled her sleeve from behind.
She turned around slowly, lowered her head and looked submissive, her face becoming even redder.
Yan Heng coughed lightly, "He's not married yet, don't bother with him." He raised the hand that was pulling Ji Yunchan's sleeve, took her hand, and pulled her to the table, "Come and eat first."
Ji Yunchan hummed, followed his instructions and sat down at the table. She drank some water, and the heat on her face subsided slightly.
Yan Heng was injured in the chest and left arm, but it didn't affect his chopsticks. He picked up a piece of roasted rabbit for Ji Yunchan and said in a low voice: "The army is short of food, there is nothing good. I'm sorry to have troubled you."
Ji Yunchan shook her head. Now her rationality returned. Thinking about not seeing Zhou Jing when she was at home receiving officials from the capital, she asked, "Did Master Zhou come later?"
Yan Heng nodded. "After several consecutive defeats, rumors spread within the court that it was inevitable that the court would send a new person. There was no other way, so the Crown Prince secretly recommended Zhou Jing."
Ji Yunchan nodded and asked worriedly, "What should we do next? Will the battle situation be favorable to us?" The topic was quite heavy, and she unconsciously put down her chopsticks.
"Don't worry, the most dangerous time is over." Yan Heng gestured for her to eat. Seeing Ji Yunchan pick up her chopsticks again, he continued, "It's just that our good Prince Teng gave me a great gift."
He said this with a sarcastic smile. Ji Yunchan was confused, her mind racing with all sorts of speculations. Thinking back to the scene from two days ago, she asked, "Is there something wrong with Xu Song today?"
"More than that." Yan Heng shook his head. "I originally thought so, too. That's why I suffered such a great loss."
They won a few battles at the beginning and should have been going from strength to strength, but the situation became increasingly difficult. It was very strange, as if the Shuo people knew their whereabouts.
"Fortunately, we used the same trick to lure the man out. The situation has been reversed. Now he is in the light and we are in the dark." Yan Heng told Ji Yunchan these things as if he was chatting about family matters.
Even with such a casual understatement, Ji Yunchan could imagine the countless intrigues and sly plots that must have unfolded here. Her eyelids twitched, and she suddenly thought, "I've acted so ostentatiously just to get in. If this gets to the ears of the incoming military governor, Xu Songjin, wouldn't that make him suspicious?"
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