Chapter 6 What is my classmate pretending to be?!
The room was completely silent; you could hear a pin drop.
Cui Ying vaguely remembered that the last time she had been so embarrassed was when she was fourteen years old, dressed as a boy, and beat up a customer in a brothel. She made too much noise and was caught red-handed by Xiao Qiyu, who was patrolling the streets on horseback.
That spring, the city was ablaze with flowers. A young man, clad in light armor, his thick eyebrows slightly furrowed, looked down at her as she pinned someone to the ground and beat them up.
Instead of questioning her about why she was in that place, he simply tied her up, put a sack over her head, carried her on horseback, and galloped all the way to throw her into the Censorate, letting her father, the Censor-in-Chief, personally deal with her.
Cui Ying will never forget that scene in her life.
She was pressed against the horse's back, her vision completely dark, her buttocks up and face down, as she rode through the bustling city with great enthusiasm, surrounded by the lively chatter of those who loved to watch the drama unfold.
"Whose young master is this? What has he done wrong?"
"I heard he got into a fight at a brothel. Tsk tsk, he really disgraced his father."
"Look, look! I told you men with big butts are philanderers and restless. This guy's butt is huge, and round too!"
Hearing the young women and wives pointing and gossiping about his buttocks, Cui Ying felt like she wanted to die with Xiao Qiyu.
Now, at a different time, the same bad luck, the same culprit.
If she remembered correctly, the moment she fell, her hand instinctively reached out to grab Xiao Qiyu.
But the guy slipped away without leaving a trace.
He dodged it!
That bastard, get out of the way!
In the silence, the old grandmother, Madam Wang, laughed heartily: "My son, get up quickly. Why are you in such a hurry to bow to your grandmother before you've even entered the door?"
After gently teasing Cui Ying, Madam Wang coughed twice and then turned to Xiao Qiyu, saying, "You're also crippled, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and help your wife up."
Xiao Qiyu nodded: "Grandson understands."
After saying that, he bent down, stretched out his hand to Cui Ying, and said in a lazy and unwilling manner, "Get up."
Cui Ying could see the schadenfreude in his eyes. His usually dark pupils were unusually bright, showing that he was in a very good mood.
Son of a bitch!
Cui Ying suppressed the urge to yell at him and raised her wrist to grasp his hand.
Her fingernails, coated with balsam juice, dug hard into his palm.
In an instant, Xiao Qiyu felt a throbbing pain in his temples.
Cui Ying steadied herself, her fingernails digging into his palm without loosening their grip, and whispered, "Laugh, why don't you keep laughing?"
Xiao Qiyu raised an eyebrow, not annoyed at all, but with a hint of provocative mockery in his eyes, and asked in a low voice, "How come you don't feel any pain? Did you not eat?"
Cui Yingzhen didn't eat.
In her haste, she gripped the handle even tighter, half of her fingernail almost sinking into Xiao Qiyu's calloused palm.
In the seat on the right, a woman dressed in a light blue Hangzhou silk dress tilted her head and smiled at the woman next to her, who was dressed in a peacock green robe with a front opening, saying, "Sister-in-law, look how good this young couple is. They don't even let go of each other's hands when they walk."
"Who says otherwise? Look at the two of them, they look so well-matched standing together."
At this moment, a woman sitting on the left, dressed in a sapphire blue silk robe with wide sleeves and a phoenix hairpin with a pearl in her hair, glanced at the two of them and coughed.
The two women immediately fell silent and said no more.
On the other side, Cui Ying and Xiao Qiyu were constantly bickering and sabotaging each other. They finally reached their grandmother, Madam Wang, and were about to kneel down and kowtow when Madam Wang stopped them.
"No need for these formalities, good child, come here and let your grandmother take a look."
Incense smoke curled upwards, and a Dunhuang flying apsara painting hung in the center of the main room. Beneath the painting, Wang Shi sat on a Luohan couch, cushioned with a crimson lotus-patterned cushion. She wore a lilac-brown silk robe with auspicious cloud patterns, her hair was completely white, and her complexion was sickly red. She coughed incessantly, and her drooping triangular eyes looked at Cui Ying with a smile.
Cui Ying had no choice but to let go of Xiao Qiyu's hand, step forward to approach Wang Shi, her smile sweet and gentle, addressing her as usual: "Granddaughter greets Auntie."
Wang lovingly took her hand and held it, scolding her gently, "You're still calling her 'Auntie,' you should start calling her 'Grandmother' now."
Cui Ying's smile froze for a moment before she realized that she wasn't just visiting someone's home, but had actually married into the Xiao family.
“That fall looked pretty hard to me. Are you alright? Did you break anything?” Mrs. Wang asked worriedly.
Cui Ying shook her head, her smile bright: "Don't worry, I'm very strong."
Looking at the girl in front of her, Wang grew more and more fond of her, murmuring in remembrance, "So much time has passed in the blink of an eye. I remember the last time I saw you was after the New Year."
“You came to pay my respects on the orders of the Princess. It was snowing heavily that day. You were wearing a fox fur cloak, and your little face was red from the wind and snow. When you saw me, you smiled, and your eyes curved into crescent moons. At that time, I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be if such a lovely girl were my own daughter.”
Wang coughed a few times, and her daughter-in-law Qin stepped forward to serve tea, but she waved her hand and then smiled at Cui Ying, saying, "Amitabha, all my years of vegetarianism and chanting of Buddhist scriptures have not been in vain. Perhaps the Buddha saw my sincerity and made my dream come true. Since receiving the Empress Dowager's decree of marriage, I have been so happy that I have not closed my eyes. I burn incense and chant scriptures every day to make a vow to the Buddha and thank him for giving me such a good granddaughter-in-law."
As she spoke, Wang Shi treated Cui Ying the same way she treated him when he was a child, grabbing a handful of fruit from the side table and stuffing it into Cui Ying's hands, her tone extremely loving: "My little one, eat up, these are all your favorites. This fragrant pastry is made by having the chef use fresh milk and glutinous rice flour to fry it according to an old palace recipe, then roll it in sesame seeds and peanuts, and bake it again in the oven. Try it and see if it suits your taste."
Unable to refuse the old man's hospitality, Cui Ying took a bite of the pastry, her eyes immediately lighting up as she exclaimed sincerely, "So delicious!"
Madam Wang laughed and stroked her hair, saying, "Eat as much as you like, Grandma has plenty here."
"good!"
Xiao Qiyu stood to one side, aloof as if he were an outsider.
With a dark expression, he asked Cui Ying, "Don't you feel like you've forgotten something?"
Cui Ying knew what he was talking about, but the hatred from before hadn't subsided, so she deliberately blinked her big, watery eyes and chewed on her snack with relish, saying, "What is it?"
Ha, do they really think she's a fool?
Breaking off an engagement is no small matter; a real man should speak up first.
After years of fierce rivalry, the two finally achieved a brief moment of tacit understanding. Xiao Qiyu guessed her ulterior motives and, without further hesitation, walked straight to Madam Wang, raising his arms in a gesture of respect: "Grandmother, your grandson has something to say, I—"
Madam Wang scolded, "What do you mean, 'what do you mean, 'what do you mean, 'I'? From now on, you'd better keep your head down and behave yourself. Put away your bad temper. If I find out you've bullied our Third Sister, I'll be the first to not let you off the hook!"
Xiao Qiyu was taken aback, and subconsciously looked at Cui Ying, frowning as he said, "How could I possibly bully her?"
Recalling the fatal kick he delivered last night, Xiao Qiyu's face flushed with anger, but he couldn't utter a single word. He could only turn his face away coldly, refusing to look at Cui Ying again.
Madam Xue smiled and said, "Grandmother, please rest assured. Seventh Brother and Third Sister have been friends since childhood. Back when the Duke of Wei's mansion opened a private school, Seventh Brother was even sent there to study for two years. It's no exaggeration to say that they grew up together. How could they possibly bully each other? They're too loving to even think about it."
Madam Zhang chimed in, "Indeed! They are a perfect match, childhood sweethearts, and these two little monkeys are a perfect pair. Moreover, the Empress Dowager officiated at their wedding. It's truly a predestined fate from a past life, a marriage ordained by heaven."
A predestined fate from a past life, a marriage ordained by heaven...
If it weren't for so many people in front of her, Cui Ying would have wanted to throw up.
Putting aside the various conflicts she and Xiao Qiyu had after growing up, just recalling her two years as classmates with Xiao Qiyu during her childhood made her teeth itch with anger.
Her family's private school originally only had a few of their own children. Even when they took in students from outside, they were all children of well-connected aristocratic families, all of whom were acquaintances and none of them were strangers.
With such a large group of six- or seven-year-old children gathered together, and being at that playful age, it was naturally quite lively every day.
Cui Ying was a leader among children from a young age, always having a large following wherever she went and getting along well with everyone. Wherever she went, laughter and joy filled the air, and everyone, regardless of gender, would vie to play with her. They were all playful and irresponsible, with no one showing any ambition.
Only Xiao Qiyu.
While she lingered in bed, he was reading.
He was reading a book while she pretended to be sick and skipped class.
While she was whispering and secretly eating snacks with her classmates during class, he was still reading.
It doesn't matter, let them watch. The entire Duke of Wei's family are scholars. Although she doesn't like bookworms, she still has some respect for them.
Even though the two of them would bicker every time they met, she would never disturb Xiao Qiyu, who was engrossed in his studies, and they kept to themselves.
One morning during reading time, she told Shen Che and Chen Shuangshuang a new joke she had just learned. The three of them were laughing heartily when Xiao Qiyu put down her book, turned her head abruptly, and looked at her coldly with her dark eyes. She said to her, "Could you please keep your voice down? If you don't imitate, others will."
Cui Ying was stunned on the spot.
After all, she was inexperienced at the time and had never seen loading cargo before.
She even reflected on herself for a few days, wondering if she had really affected others and been disliked, which she disliked.
Until she discovered that no one seemed to like playing with Xiao Qiyu.
If she's the only one who dislikes Xiao Qiyu, then that's her problem.
But if everyone hates Xiao Qiyu, then there must be something wrong with Xiao Qiyu!
She later discovered that Xiao Qiyu never smiled, always had a deadpan expression, and always rode in his own carriage to and from school, neither inviting others to accompany him nor accepting invitations from others.
What is he pretending for?!
Cui Ying even thought that Xiao Qiyu was a stone spirit. He must not even have a heart, otherwise how could he not see joy, anger, sorrow and happiness, and ignore everyone?
At thirteen, girls her age were beginning to experience romantic feelings. Chen Shuangshuang wore out her fingers to make a sword tassel and eagerly presented it to Xiao Qiyu, only to be rejected in public and have the tassel thrown on the ground.
Unlike Chen Shuangshuang's sorrowful weeping, muttering things like "The falling flowers are willing, but the flowing water is heartless," Cui Ying had only one thought in her mind at that moment—
Whoever marries Xiao Qiyu in the future will be the most unlucky person in the world.
Three years have passed.
The "unluckiest guy in the world" chewed on a sweet pastry, staring blankly into space.
"What are you thinking about, my little one?"
As the wisps of smoke in front of her eyes dissipated, Cui Ying's thoughts returned to reality. Hearing Wang's loving and gentle voice, she stiffly and slowly turned her neck.
Beside her, the stoic little boy she remembered had grown into a tall and handsome young man with thin lips, a high nose, and long, narrow, cold phoenix eyes. His dark pupils were cold and devoid of warmth, just like his eyes in his childhood.
Noticing Cui Ying's gaze, Xiao Qiyu glanced at her unhappily. His originally dark and dull eyes, filled with barely suppressed anger, showed a hint of human vitality.
Cui Ying shuddered.
No, she absolutely cannot spend her life with such a cold-blooded and ruthless man.
"Auntie!" Cui Ying bit her lip, crumpling the pastry in her hand, preparing to tell everyone about the broken engagement.
Anyway, neither she nor Xiao Qiyu did anything, so in the end, neither of them lost out.
"Cough, cough..." Madam Wang couldn't help coughing. It was as if there was an old, broken bellows inside her, making even normal breathing difficult and speaking challenging. Even so, she looked at Cui Ying with concern, suppressing her cough as she asked, "What's wrong, my dear?"
Cui Ying lowered her head, her fingers nervously twisting the soft shawl, and stammered, "I...I and Xiao Qiyu..."
Before she could finish speaking, Wang coughed again.
This cough was more severe than ever before, and his aged body resembled a withered leaf trembling in the winter wind.
After things finally calmed down, the handkerchief was removed, revealing a bright red bloodstain.
A note from the author:
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