Chapter 1 Chapter 1 It's time to have a baby.
It was the beginning of winter and a heavy rain had just passed.
The rolled-up curtains under the eaves were wrapped in thick moisture, with a layer of white frost on the edges of the bamboo strips. The accumulated rain in front of the steps had just been swept away, and through the half-open window, a corner of a soft couch covered with brocade could be vaguely seen.
In front of the bed was a pair of jade-colored satin cloud-shaped brocade shoes, the toes of which were decorated with camellias made of rice beads. The pearls were bright and the flowers were like snow.
The light in the warm room was thick as insoluble ink, the sound of the night watchman came through the gauze curtain, and water droplets could be heard dripping from the eaves.
Sheng Puzhu closed her eyes, half of her face sunk into the soft pillow made of gold-threaded cotton. The hot and humid air was filled with the sweet fragrance of goose pear blossoms, carrying the rich aroma of morning dew.
At this moment, the bed sank slightly, and a hot breath pressed against her back, first from the back of her white neck, slowly moving down to her slender waist.
The fingertips are slightly cool with thin calluses.
Her breathing suddenly stopped. She seemed to be awake, but also like she was in a dream. She raised her head suddenly and met a pair of cold and dangerous eyes like a dormant beast.
I wanted to struggle, but my body seemed to be imprisoned by invisible shackles, and my soul was invaded by an irresistible feeling of oppression.
Sheng Puzhu woke up when his ankle was gripped again.
It was early winter, and her neck was covered with a thin layer of sweat that was clearly visible. Her black hair was tied diagonally at the side of her bun with a hairpin inlaid with jade. Her temples were soaked. She was wearing a crabapple red gold brocade quilt, which had piled up at the end of the couch at some point, wrapping around her pair of calves as white as frost.
Not far away, on the rosewood Eight Immortals Table, there was a cup of unfinished Huoshan Huangya tea. The water in the purple clay stove boiled over and over again. The white mist from the spout mixed with the damp and cold air after the rain, and the two merged into a cloud-like gauze curtain, giving people the illusion of being surrounded by immortal air.
"My lady, it's time to wake up." Li Shuang held a bunch of wintersweets in one hand and used the other to untie the brocade quilt wrapped around her legs.
"Sleep a little longer." Sheng Puzhu muttered and turned over. He thought that it might be because he had fallen asleep in the wrong posture just now that he dreamed of that night again.
So she made up her mind to go back to sleep, and immediately picked up a book and covered her beautiful little face with it. Her lips, which were pouting in dissatisfaction, were as red as cinnabar, and her cheeks were rosy. Her frown and smile were so eye-catching and stunning.
"My lady, please get up quickly. If you keep sleeping in, you will be worried at night." Li Shuang said as she turned around and swiftly put the wintersweet into the white porcelain vase on the flower table.
Sheng Puzhu sighed, closed his eyes, and asked lazily, "What time is it now?"
"It's just past midnight."
Li Shuang lifted the lid of the kettle and added more water. She then went outside to soak a handkerchief and muttered, "My lady usually reads storybooks at night and sleeps in during the day, but now it's getting colder and colder after the rain. How will my lady get used to it when my husband returns to the court in a while?"
“……?” Sheng Puzhu suddenly lost all sleepiness and even opened his eyes wide.
"How many days are left before he comes back?" She hugged the brocade quilt and sat up suddenly. She reached out to take the cold handkerchief handed to her by Li Shuang and pressed it against her eyes to wake herself up.
Li Shuang's voice paused, and she instantly lost her temper. "Based on the time my husband set out from Yumen Pass, I'm afraid there are only six or seven days left."
Upon hearing this, Sheng Puzhu immediately lay back down, muttering to himself as if to hypnotize himself: "There are still six or seven days left, it's not a big deal."
"How can it not be serious? I beg you to pay attention to it. Nanny has been so anxious these days that she has blisters on the corners of her mouth. Sister Naidong even dreams at night about how to hide the miscellaneous books that you usually read and the drawings in the study." Li Shuang's voice suddenly became shrill, and she was so anxious that she was pacing around the couch.
"Well, you're making me dizzy." Sheng Puzhu frowned, raised his hand and pulled the handkerchief to cover his face.
The semi-transparent and semi-wet silk was heated by the heat from the warm insulation as she breathed, like a layer of soft mist, and the hazy feeling made her face look bright and vibrant with great vitality.
Aristocratic families attach great importance to etiquette and rules, and they pay more attention to the matching of their children's social status in marriage.
Sheng Puzhu is the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Mingde. Her grandfather Sheng Boya is the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, and her uncle Sheng Yanzhang is the Chief Academician of the Imperial College. She was also a girl who was brought up strictly by the old lady of the Sheng family.
As a model of a noble lady from an aristocratic family, she naturally chose her marriage very carefully. Finally, in the second year after she came of age, that is, in the seventh year of Joan of Arc, she married Xie Zhiyan, the eldest son of the century-old Xie family.
The marriage between the Xie and Sheng families was considered by everyone to be a perfect match, a match made in heaven.
Unfortunately, on the night of his wedding, Xie Zhiyan was urgently summoned by the army and had to put on armor and go to guard the border.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye. When her husband was not at home and she was not supervised by her elders, Sheng Puzhu lived like a fish in water.
Now that man is coming back, her carefree and happy days will definitely come to an end.
More importantly...
Xie Zhiyan's return also means that the relationship between husband and wife will become a daily routine.
Sheng Puzhu's mind unconsciously emerged with the night of her wedding - her slender body trembled unconsciously.
Everyone says they are a match made in heaven, but few know...
They don't fit in at all!
He is too big.
After a few years, she could still remember Xie Zhiyan's hugeness and loss of control that night, which was completely different from his gentle and cold gentleman appearance.
So much so that I often have nightmares.
Never mind. I can’t think about it! I can’t think about it! I can’t think about it!
Sheng Puzhu suddenly pulled off the handkerchief covering her face and ripped open the brocade quilt with great noise. Her overly beautiful face showed no trace of decadence at all. Instead, it was stained with a damp rouge color. In addition, she had just woken up from a nap, and there were faint sleep marks on her cheeks.
"Has the rain outside stopped completely?"
Li Shuang didn't notice anything was wrong. She pressed her dizzy eyes, stood on tiptoe, pushed open the window, and looked out for a long time: "My wife, the rain has stopped, but it's very cold. The moisture outside won't evaporate for a while at this time of year. I'm afraid it will snow tonight."
"Alright." Sheng Puzhu nodded and instructed with a smile, "Then pack up and get ready to go out. It's time to go to Linlang Pavilion to pick up Madam Du and Naidong and the others."
Li Shuang opened her mouth, unable to refute a single word. She could only sigh and warn, "Madam, you must be more careful when you go out in the future. We maids are worried about you every day."
Sheng Puzhu smiled, his expression very proud: "Of course I don't need to worry about it. When I open Linlang Pavilion all over Dayan, you will all be the top decision-makers under me."
Linlang Pavilion is located in Pingkangfang, east of Zhuque Street, relatively close to the East Market. If you stand high enough, you can overlook the imperial city.
The exquisite wooden structure pavilion is divided into three floors at first glance from the outside.
The first floor is used for buying and selling ordinary jewelry, and no matter one's wealth or gender, anyone can buy there. However, there is a jade curtain in front of the stairs to the second floor. According to the rules of Linlang Pavilion, only women are allowed to go up behind the curtain.
As for the third floor, the number of guests who can go there and be personally received by the shopkeeper depends on the amount of money they spend.
At this moment, Sheng Puzhu was sitting by the window on the third floor of Linlang Pavilion. There was an account book on the desk, and her fingers were flying up and down on a jade abacus. She was multitasking and chatting with several personal maids at the same time.
Suddenly, the rumbling sound of horse hooves came from afar, and the sound of armor rubbing against weapons colliding was like thunder, as if it was going to shatter the ice that had just formed under the eaves.
"It's the Black Armor Army of Mr. Xie."
"Thank you, Prince, for returning to the court early."
"It took the Crown Prince only two years to repel the Turkic and Uighur tribes who had occupied the Hexi Corridor for nearly forty years, regaining control of the desert and grasslands. He won ten battles in a row and drove them out of Yumen Pass."
Someone shouted in the bustling crowd on both sides of the street, and then the Jinwu Guards led the way in front, and the dark army behind them poured into Chang'an City like a surging tide.
At this moment, the inside and outside of the window were separated into two worlds.
When Sheng Puzhu leaned over to look down, Xie Zhiyan happened to be riding past Linlang Pavilion. The pitch-black warhorse stepped on the wide bluestone pavement of the alley, and the sound of its hooves was like drumbeats, stepping on people's hearts.
He was not wearing a helmet, and his black hair was tied up high with an ink crown. Behind him were three thousand elite cavalrymen in black armor, forming a winding path with no end in sight.
The man seemed to feel her gaze, and he looked up while riding his tall horse.
At a glance, the man's eyebrows were sharply angular, his eyes held the chill of early winter, his broad and powerful shoulders and waist were weighed down by the solemn and dignified black color, like a leopard ready to pounce. Only below the cuffs embroidered with the intricate twelve-chapter pattern, a section of his wrist bone, as white as frost and jade, was exposed.
Sheng Puzhu was caught off guard by the pair of bottomless eyes, and his heart was shocked, and even his breath seemed to be frozen.
In an instant, she thought of the owner of these eyes in her dream. His large hands grasped her fair and slender ankles, and suddenly—
…Ahhhh!
No! Stop!
Must stop!
I can’t think about those scenes in my dreams anymore!
Sheng Puzhu instinctively wanted to avoid that gaze, but she was always arrogant. If Queen Cang retreated, it would seem that she was guilty.
So she forced herself to meet that gaze, and even pretended to glance down nonchalantly, but her posture was awkward, and the white jade abacus in her hand, which she had just used to calculate the accounts, was not held firmly, and fell on her head.
"It's over."
Sheng Puzhu covered his eyes with his hands, thinking that he was unlucky. He couldn't understand why a man who still had six or seven days' journey to go came back so early.
Moreover, although she quickly averted her sight from the location where the abacus had just fallen, she still had a vague feeling that something was not going well.
It can’t be…
There?
Is it so accurate?
What are you afraid of?
My heart is pounding.
She felt sorry for the precious abacus she had used for more than ten years, and was also afraid that the man would recognize her identity. If he wanted to settle the score later, she would be walking into a trap.
"Madam, please pack up and go back home quickly."
"My husband has returned home early." Nanny Du came up from upstairs, panting.
Sheng Puzhu spread his hands helplessly and said, "I understand."
Aunt Du looked up in surprise and nudged Naidong beside her: "Madam, why are you so easy to talk to today?"
Naidong witnessed the whole process and was afraid of scaring Madam Du, so she could only smile guiltily: "Maybe the lady is anxious to see her husband."
Nanny Du looked at Sheng Puju with relief.
The more Sheng Puzhu thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and he could only nod randomly.
When the army returned, the streets were heavily congested. Even if they hurried, it would take half an hour to get back to the Duke of Jingguo's Mansion.
Fortunately, because Xie Zhiyan returned home early, everyone in the mansion was busy as hell. Sheng Puzhu quietly blended into the crowd under the cover of the maids, and no one noticed that she was the last one to arrive.
A large group of people, headed by Madam Xie, were standing in front of the Duke's Mansion waiting. A gust of wind blew, and goose-feather-like snowflakes fluttered down. Before they could take a closer look, they were crushed by the black boots on the men's feet.
Xie Zhiyan, still wearing his black armor, dismounted from his warhorse. As he swept his eyes over the crowd, he paused subtly at a certain point, and then bowed to the two elders in the lead as if nothing had happened.
"Father, grandmother."
"My grandson lived up to my expectations and returned safely."
Sheng Puzhu stood in an inconspicuous position diagonally behind him, his eyes as light as a dragonfly skimming the water, as if he had just glanced at his lower abdomen in an unintentional blink, concealing the inquiry very well.
Judging from the way he dismounted his horse, he probably wasn't hit too hard.
Or is it because this man can endure it?
For a moment, her little mind was in a mess.
The clear idea was - it would be great if it broke, then she wouldn't have to endure it.
If Xie Zhiyan had not received military intelligence and left in a hurry on her wedding night, she would probably have been the first bride to die on her wedding night.
"It's good that you're back. Get up quickly. After you go to the ancestral hall with your father to worship the ancestors, go back to the house and change into warm clothes. You don't have to have dinner with us. It's better to go to bed early." The old lady reached out to help him, but her fingertips accidentally touched the ice on his black armor. She shivered with cold, and her eyes instantly turned red.
Her caring daughter-in-law beside her hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her with a smile: "This is a happy day. Sanlang has returned home safely. You should just be happy."
As soon as the voice fell, a woman immediately followed up: "That's exactly the point, mother, don't forget that Sanlang has already married. If you hadn't left in a hurry, if you had stayed a little longer, you would probably be a father."
Mrs. Xie clapped her hands, smiled, and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "Look, I'm getting confused. Sanlang is not at home, and I've been with Puzhu for so long that I've started treating her like an unmarried girl in the mansion, forgetting she's Sanlang's wife."
In the crowd, Sheng Puzhu was named. No matter how reluctant she was, she had to walk in front of the old lady with dignity, pretending to be very distressed about her husband. She pressed her handkerchief to her eyes and said to the elder in a virtuous and gentle manner, "It's my grandmother who favors my grandson."
"Good boy, I'm sorry for wronging you." The old lady said with pity.
Sheng Puzhu shook her head firmly and said in a particularly sincere tone, "My grandson's wife has never felt wronged. My husband is making great achievements outside and protecting the peace of the people."
"Whether it's for the sake of my family or my country, I feel fortunate to be able to marry this man."
Everyone's eyes were shocked, and Madam Xie's eyes turned red again. Even the usually serious Duke Jingguo's eyes showed a little more emotion.
Xie Zhiyan raised his eyes, and those eyes that showed no emotion, but revealed an invisible awe, pressed down on her.
I don’t know whether I believed it or not.
Sheng Puzhu didn't care whether he believed it or not, he just pretended to be completely ignorant.
The smile at the corners of her lips seemed to be carved with a ruler, not too much to make it seem too jumpy, nor too light to seem insincere.
"You are both good children. I don't need to worry about you." Old Lady Xie smiled and took their hands, clasping them together. She said with a smile, "Emperor Mingzong's wife is pregnant with her second child. You and Emperor Mingzong got married in the same year. Now that Zhiyan has returned, you should hurry up and have a child."
Sheng Puzhu smiled shyly, pretending to be bashful: "Everything is up to my husband."
Listen to him...I don't think so.
What if the child is not born and she can't bear it and dies in pain?
But she has no say in this matter.
Then she thought of the abacus she had smashed before, and prayed in her heart: Let my 'little husband' be smashed to pieces... Oh no, this wish seems to reduce my merits, because she is a kind and quiet young lady.
That's still...
God bless you - please make it smaller.
Please!
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