Chapter 15. He feared she would slip out of his control.
"My lord..."
Leng Cuizhu was taken aback and hurriedly knelt on the ground: "My lord... this, this is..."
She hadn't expected that Eun would accidentally leave a hair on the bed.
Even more unexpectedly, Yin Yuan managed to find him like finding a needle in a haystack.
"You admit it?"
How old is he?
Her chin was lifted up.
The man sat on the edge of the bed, pinching her chin with one hand and holding the white hair with the other.
He looked more tired than usual, his eyes were covered in dark circles, and the morning light illuminated the fine hairs on his face, including the newly grown light blue stubble on his chin.
"No, no..." She stumbled at the man's feet, tugging at his sleeve, "It's because I miss you so much, my lord, that my white hairs have grown!"
She pouted and buried her face in the man's knees.
"..."
"stand up."
Leng Cuizhu looked up sadly, wiped a patch of fabric from the man's cloak that was soaked with tears, and placed her hand on the man's forearm, which he then pulled up.
Her body went limp, and she sat on the man's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck: "Ugh... my lord..." She sobbed incessantly, glancing at the man's expression every now and then.
Yin Yuan stared at her without saying a word, his deep black eyes filled with a hazy, lotus-pink shadow.
She blinked her watery eyes: "My lord... you must believe me, I have absolutely no intention of plotting against you!"
The man sighed softly and pulled her into his arms.
She obediently buried her face in the man's chest: "My lord..."
The man removed the hairpin from her head, and her long hair cascaded down her back, shimmering in the sunlight.
Leng Cuizhu tilted her head back to kiss him, but before her lips could touch his cheek, she was grabbed by the hair and pulled hard, falling backward to the ground.
Yin Yuan now held a few strands of her hair.
He picked out the longest black hair and hung it next to the white hair; the white hair was clearly longer than the black hair.
It didn't just grow a little, it grew more than half its original length.
"Is my longing for you intense?"
Now, Leng Cuizhu had no way to refute him.
"I...I don't know why there's a white hair on the bed..."
“I didn’t say it was on the bed.”
Yin Yuan frowned, his face cold: "You admit it?"
"Um...this..."
Her face was red from crying, and she stammered, "I really don't know!"
"In bed?"
"Ah...not on the bed..." She hurriedly shook her head, crawled to the man's legs, and her mind raced.
"Is it somewhere else?"
"..." She shut up completely and stopped talking, only crying and sobbing softly.
The man picked her up from the ground and made her stand in front of him. Then, he rested his chin on his hand and said, "Take it off."
“Ah,” she turned to look at the wide-open window, where the sun was shining brightly, “the window…”
"Where else is in the house?"
"Lingniang, where can I find any more?"
"……No."
Unwilling to get entangled with Yin Yuan, she lowered her head and unbuckled her belt, her clothes falling to the ground one by one until she was left only in her undergarments.
The winter sun was utterly cold; she shivered, her skin turning pale and bluish-white from the cold.
This is so agonizing.
Yin Yuan's expression remained unchanged: "Come closer."
She bit her lip and moved closer to the man.
At that moment, she could feel nothing else; she could only let the man envelop her in a sweet, cloying hatred.
She was drenched in cold sweat, yet couldn't help feeling pleasure; in her daze, she even thought the man was making fun of her.
Until he withdrew his hand, picked up the clothes on the ground, and carefully wiped the water from between his fingers, the jade thumb ring on his knuckles was soaked with water, its emerald green color shimmering with a translucent sheen.
Yin Yuan straightened his robes and left.
She lay alone in bed, her cheeks half-dry with tears.
Every day after that, Yin Yuan came to see her, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the early morning before dawn.
While she was still asleep, he lifted the covers and began to manipulate her body, his gaze sweeping over every inch of her skin. If her reaction did not meet his expectations, he would lick his cold, sticky lips further inside, checking again and again.
Leng Cuizhu was exhausted from the ordeal.
Later, she stopped resisting and stopped sobbing. She just stared coldly at him, letting him manipulate her like a corpse.
But ultimately, she couldn't accept being treated this way.
So when she was making the corpse, she deliberately said things that displeased him.
“I checked, Granny Chang came to see you a few days ago.”
"That strand of hair doesn't belong to Granny Chang."
"That's exactly what you think, my lord. I have nothing to say in rebuttal." She curled her lips and smiled faintly. "I am who I am, my lord, just as you think of me."
The man suddenly stopped what he was doing.
"...How old is he?"
"You and he are quite far apart in age, aren't you?" He looked up. "He's in love with you?"
Leng Cuizhu turned her head away: "If you want to know, sir, you might as well ask him yourself."
"And what about you?" Yin Yuan put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her tightly. "Did he coerce you?"
"no."
"Don't say things in anger."
"What exactly does my lord want?"
"What do I have to say to satisfy you, my lord?" She suppressed her anger and glared at him, but all she saw was the man staring intently at her chest, his face deathly still.
There were no marks on his chest.
I wonder what he's staring at.
She doesn't understand.
Does he massage it for you too?
"Varied……"
Before she could react, the man's retaliatory kiss landed on her.
At first, it was a gentle touch, but soon their canine teeth pierced the skin, causing excruciating pain.
She stared wide-eyed, reaching for the hair on her chest, trying to pull him away, but her hands were held captive and she couldn't move.
After a long while, a tooth mark appeared on her fair skin, covered in blood.
The teeth marks were imprinted on the old wound she had suffered from being shot by an arrow, a wound that had long since scabbed over and grown new flesh. This bite brought back all the pain she had endured in the past.
Yin Yuan raised his head, wiped the bloodstains from the corner of his lips, and his eyes were wet and red.
"No matter what, it's all in the past."
"Don't let Granny Chang come to our house as a guest in the future. She's very old, and what if she dies here?"
Leng Cuizhu clutched her chest as she left the house.
What tormented her was not just pain, but also despair, a near-death despair.
Why does he insist on getting entangled with her?
After several days of poor sleep, coupled with the interrogation she had just experienced in bed, she was overwhelmed with suppressed heartache and collapsed to the ground after taking only a few steps.
Leng Zhen dragged a burlap sack across the front yard, carrying a wood-chopping knife in her hand.
The burlap sack was bulging, the linen stained with blood, leaving a faint red mark where it had been dragged.
He spotted the woman lying on the corridor floor, dropped the sack, and cried out, "Mother!"
Leng Cuizhu was shaken awake again.
She opened her eyes in confusion and saw herself sitting on the ground, with Leng Zhen looking flustered beside her.
"...Was I just...fainted?"
"Why did you faint here?" Leng Zhen's voice was hoarse. "Did you skip breakfast? I'll go cook you some..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yin Yuan came out of the room, bowing his head and straightening his sleeves.
Leng Zhen understood.
"You dare come here again? I'll kill you!" He grabbed the machete beside him and slashed at Yin Yuan.
Yin Yuan dodged to the side, frowning as he said, "It's none of your business."
"You made her look like this, and that's my fault!"
Seeing the two wrestling and killing each other, Leng Cuizhu was anxious. She forced herself to stand up and pleaded with them, "Stop fighting! Stop fighting!"
Someone's elbow struck her, and she staggered a few steps, fell backward out of the corridor, and landed in the small lake in the courtyard.
The lake water was bitterly cold, chilling to the bone.
She hadn't been in the water for long when Leng Zhen jumped in and rescued her.
Although it wasn't long, she was too weak and suffered from a cold, and she also had unhealed wounds on her body. After being soaked in the water, she couldn't get out of bed.
Leng Zhen put aside her work and stayed home with her, even helping her buy New Year's goods.
While out shopping for New Year's goods, Yin Yuan took the opportunity to see her.
"Come back to the Yin residence with me on New Year's Eve."
Yin Yuan tucked a strand of hair from her cheek behind her ear.
Leng Cuizhu closed her eyes.
What's this? A slap followed by a sweet treat?
Why treat her like this?
That's disgusting.
She didn't speak.
Yin Yuan didn't say anything, but lowered his head to add firewood to the brazier and rubbed the hand warmer in his hand.
Something warm was placed beside her.
Leng Cuizhu opened her eyes and found a hand warmer beside her, covered with a dark blue cloth. It was not only warm, but she could also occasionally smell a faint scent of Lingling incense.
Her fingertips traced the mandarin ducks embroidered on the cloth. Although the stitching was slightly rough, the colors were well-matched and it was inlaid with gold thread, showing that a lot of effort had been put into it.
"Was the cloth wrapping this hand warmer sewn by Madam Yin?"
"Um."
"Then, sir, who do you think this pair of mandarin ducks on the table are?"
"Is it this servant and my husband, or Lady Yin and my husband?"
Yin Yuan: "I don't know, it could be anyone."
Suddenly, he blurted out, "It's you and Yi Yinwan."
"Don't you think you've wronged anyone with what you've done? If Madam Yin knew that you've used someone else's help, using her hard work to please a mistress, how heartbroken she would be?"
"And what about me? In your heart, am I just someone you can easily dismiss with any random thing?"
"……oh."
Yin Yuan took the hand warmer back, held it in his hand, and remained silent for a while before asking, "Are you still cold?"
She closed her eyes: "I'm sleepy."
"Um."
The man turned and went out.
A while later, Leng Cuizhu heard cursing outside again, probably because Leng Zhen had returned and encountered Yin Yuan cursing.
That's good. At least they weren't having a normal conversation, and there was no ambiguity between them.
Perhaps Leng Zhen took her words to heart.
After Leng Zhen finished scolding, she came into the room and asked Leng Cuizhu what she wanted to eat. Leng Cuizhu was sitting on the bed and smelled a bloody odor.
Why does it smell like blood?
"I just passed by the kitchen and killed a chicken."
Leng Zhen answered calmly and smoothly.
"……chicken?"
Leng Cuizhu immediately sensed something was wrong.
Leng Zhen nodded: "Then let's listen to Mother, make porridge, and also boil a pot of chicken soup."
She was extremely nervous and called the crow over to ask about the whereabouts of the dodder.
“He went out early this morning to play with other people’s chickens and wasn’t in the kitchen.”
The crow paused for a moment: "How are you feeling now?"
She replied, "...It's almost healed."
She hadn't told You En about what had happened between her and Yin Yuan these past few days, and it wasn't his fault anyway.
As he said, men always have a false sense of pride.
Yin Yuan was afraid of her betrayal, afraid of her slipping out of his control; that white hair was merely the trigger.
Even without gray hair, if she spent more time with Granny Chang, Yin Yuan might even suspect that she had an affair with Granny Chang.
He just couldn't stand her getting along well with other people.
But she was still cold at night.
Not only was she cold, but she also felt as if she were immersed in water, unable to breathe and trembling uncontrollably.
"lady?"
"Um……"
She turned around and hugged the man, snuggling her whole body into his arms.
"It's so cold."
The man leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"Then you must stay closer to me, madam."
The cold sweat on her forehead was wiped away by Su Ran.
"good evening."
A note from the author:
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