Su Rong, feeling utterly relaxed after half an hour of the petal bath, stepped out of the tub, dressed, and returned to her room to find Zhou Gu already in bed.
She sniffed herself, hmm, fragrant, then approached the bed and sniffed Zhou Gu lying on it. Hmm, equally fragrant.
Zhou Gu’s breath hitched, he pushed her away, "What are you doing?"
Su Rong giggled, "Just checking if you smell as nice as I do."
Zhou Gu coughed lightly, his face flushing, "We used the same water, the same petals, the same soapberry. Just smell yourself, that’s enough."
"True." Su Rong got off him, climbed onto the bed, yawned, "I’m so sleepy."
"Go to sleep, there’s a banquet tonight to reward the armies, it won’t start too early, you can sleep for a few hours." Zhou Gu reached out to adjust the covers around her.
Su Rong hummed in response, "What have you been doing lately? Why do you keep wrapping me in the blanket? I’ve already buttoned up the collar of my clothes as you asked, you can stop pulling the blanket now, it’s making it hard for me to breathe."
Zhou Gu suspended his movement at her words, pulled down the corner of her previously tucked in cover, and closed his eyes, "Alright, my fault, now go to sleep!"
Su Rong hummed in response and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.
Listening to her even respiration, Zhou Gu sighed silently, wondering when their days would end.
After his own petal bath, Cui Yanjin sniffed himself. Hmm, fragrant, an improvement over the grim smell of blood, making it irresistible for him to sniff himself again and again.
As he returned, he asked his guard, "Where are my cousin and his wife? Haven’t they finished their bath yet?"
The guard shook his head, "The princess and the fourth young master have finished their bath and are resting."
Cui Yanjin exclaimed, "I need to talk to them."
The guard asked in a low voice, "Is it urgent? The princess and the fourth young master are tired, if it’s not urgent, why don’t you wait until they wake up?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
Cui Yanjin shook his head, "It’s not urgent. Didn’t we just take down the Dingnan City of Dawei? My cousin wants to send a letter to our great-uncle in Daliang and Qinghe, I came to ask if my cousin would like to include a letter for our great-uncle."
Cui Yanjin simply needed to inquire and then go back to tell his cousin, but he also decided to enjoy a rejuvenating half-hour petal bath which caused him to miss the opportunity to ask his cousin his question.
The guard thought for a moment, agreeing that the matter wasn’t urgent, and asked, "Then, shall I inform the fourth young master once he wakes up?"
Cui Yanjin nodded and made towards the door.
As he was about to step through the door, it opened from the inside, Zhou Gu stepped out, "Wait, I’ll write the letter now, take it to Xingzhi later."
Cui Yanjin was surprised, "Cousin, you haven’t fallen asleep yet?"
"Couldn’t sleep." Zhou Gu moved to the desk and directed Cui Yanjin, "Help me grind the ink."
Cui Yanjin readily agreed and returned to help Zhou Gu grind the ink, watching him wet the brush he said, "Cousin, did you smell it? Don’t I smell nice too?"
Zhou Gu turned to look at him.
Cui Yanjin laughed, "I used the petals you and sister-in-law picked for the bath. I just had a petal bath too." As he finished speaking, he moved closer to Zhou Gu, "Smell me, don’t I smell the same as you?"
Zhou Gu pushes him away with an expression of disgust, "Leave me alone, there’s nothing nice about your smell."
Cui Yanjin pouted, "I get it. My scent is nothing special. All the pleasant scents are with you. No, they’re with my sister-in-law."
Zhou Gu: "..."
If he hadn’t been his cousin, Zhou Gu would have thrown him out, despite him not carrying the surname Cui.
Zhou Gu quickly wrote a letter, let the ink dry, put it in an envelope, sealed it with wax, and handed it to Cui Yanjin, "Get out of here!"
Cui Yanjin glared at Zhou Gu as he accepted the letter, "Cousin, you really are disagreeable. With such a terrible temper and attitude, I don’t know what my sister-in-law sees in you."
Finishing his sentence, he ran out the door with the letter.
Zhou Gu laughed in exasperation, his gaze glancing over the half-basket of fresh petals remaining. He instructed the guard, "Take the remainder and give it to that little brat. If he loves petal baths so much, let him have them every day."
The guard acknowledged the order, picked up the basket, and followed after Cui Yanjin.
Cui Yanjin, apprehended by the guard, accepted the half-basket of petals in surprise, "All for me?"
The guard nodded and repeated Zhou Gu’s words, tactfully replacing "little brat" with "young master."
Cui Yanjin scratched his head, "Although the petal bath smells nice, I don’t particularly want to soak in the tub for half an hour every day."
Having accomplished his task, the guard naturally paid no mind to how Cui Yanjin used the petals, turned and left.
Cui Yanjin stood there for a while, holding half a basket of petals, then returned to Cui Xingzhi.
Although Cui Xingzhi was injured, his arms were fine, so he was still able to write. Seeing Cui Yanjin’s return, he asked, "Why were you gone for so long?"
Cui Yanjin placed the half-basket of petals on the table and laughed, "Well, when I went there, my cousin was having a petal bath. I saw there were a lot of petals left, so I decided to take a bath too, that’s why I came back late." He pointed at the basket he had brought back, "Here you go, cousin, these are for you, my other cousin said it’s your reward for fighting hard, to get rid of the bad energy."
Cui Xingzhi: "..."
Do we need to soak in a petal bath after a battle? Does it really get rid of bad energy? What kind of a ritual is that?
"My cousin probably forgot that you’re injured and can’t soak. Then...should we give these petals to someone else?" asked Cui Yanjin.
Cui Xingzhi nodded, "Sure, you handle it!"
Cui Yanjin took out Zhou Gu’s letter, handed it to Cui Xingzhi, and quietly grumbled, "Cousin, have you noticed? My other cousin has a really bad temper, and his attitude isn’t much better either. I really don’t know how sister-in-law puts up with him."
"Bad temper? Bad attitude? Not really." Cui Xingzhi didn’t think Zhou Gu had these flaws. The Zhou Gu he knew was exceedingly bright, good-natured, and he always spoke to Su Rong with a hint of smile.
"How can you say not?" Cui Yanjin’s memories of Zhou Gu’s grumpy countenance from that day were still fresh.
Cui Xingzhi laughed at his cousin’s expression and poked him in the forehead, "What did you do to upset him? If you don’t provoke him, he’s naturally pleasant."
Cui Yanjin, feeling wronged, riposted, "It’s not like that! I didn’t provoke him today, I was just talking to him, and he didn’t even speak to me properly, he just told me to get out!"
Cui Xingzhi: "..."
Apparently, some cousins just naturally don’t get along, constantly bickering with each other. Like his cousin and his cousin’s brother, they seemed to always disdain each other.
Cui Xingzhi put his own letter together with Zhou Gu’s, and asked Cui Yanjin, "Where is your letter?"
Only then did Cui Yanjin remember that he needed to write one too. His eyes shifted, "Cousin, did you mention me in your letter to our great-uncle?"
"I did."
Cui Yanjin heaved a sigh of relief, "Well, that’s good. I don’t have to write one then."
Cui Xingzhi sighed, "The fact that I mentioned you in the letter, how can it be the same as you writing the letter yourself?"
"It’s the same, my parents don’t really care anyway." Cui Yanjin waved it off, picked up the half-basket of petals, "I’ll go give these to big brother Ning Ze, he’s definitely going to enjoy a petal bath to get rid of the bad energy. I’m off."
Having said this, he darted off.
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