Chapter 63 063 Jade Dew Meets Golden Wind
After her bath, Luo Fu sat by the south window of the bathroom, letting Ping An help her with her hair in the warm sunshine.
The shadows of the master and servant fell on the floor to one side, and in the light, you could see tiny specks of dust dancing merrily.
Watching Ping An skillfully untangle her hair, and thinking of Xiao Yu waiting in the east room, Luo Fu suddenly felt as if she had returned to her wedding night four years ago, when she had just married into the family. While Xiao Yu was drinking with the guests, Luo Fu had also taken a bath and untangled her hair, feeling relaxed and refreshed, and was waiting for a man who was almost a complete stranger, smelling of floral fragrance.
Ping An also remembered that scene, tilted his head to look, and chuckled softly, "Why is Madam's face even redder than the night you married Third Master?"
Luo Fu didn't answer, but in her heart she thought, of course it's different. Back then she couldn't imagine how Xiao Yu would treat her. Now, with a little thought, several postures could pop up from the depths of her memory, all of which she had personally experienced, not just theoretical.
The hair was no longer dripping wet after being twisted. Ping An picked up a comb and slowly smoothed out each strand of his wife's hair. After doing this, Ping An went to get the plain white ruyi (a type of traditional Chinese dress) and lotus leaf green qixiongruqun (another type of traditional Chinese dress) hanging on the clothes rack. He helped his wife change into them, teasing her as he did so: "In the past, after bathing, Madam would just change into her undergarments and go to bed. Why bother with this today? If you said it was for Third Master, why is it so plain? It's not as bright as what you wore when you went to see the princess."
Luo Fu gently pinched her cheek: "You talk too much."
Ping An grinned mischievously, and after tying the ribbons on her skirt, he chuckled and pushed the lady out.
As Luo Fu passed through the main room, she saw Cai Die and her four maids waiting outside. When they saw her come out, they went to the bathroom to help Ping An with a look of delight that stirred up all sorts of thoughts.
Luo Fu: "..."
She lifted the curtain and entered the east side room. As soon as she looked up, she saw Xiao Yu coming out of the inner room with a book in his hand. Luo Fu paused, and Xiao Yu also stopped in his tracks, but his gaze clearly swept over Luo Fu.
A flush rose to her cheeks, and as Luo Fu lowered the curtain, she glared at him.
Xiao Yu could hear the maids tidying up in the bathroom, so he simply tossed the book in his hand onto the couch in the side room. Only after the lady walked past him without looking at him and entered the inner room, and sat on the daybed by the south window, which was furthest from the canopy bed, did Xiao Yu follow her and sit down beside her. He explained in a low voice, "For the past two years, I have been thinking of you constantly while I was in Loujiang. Today, I have finally returned to the capital, and I cannot take my eyes off you."
Luo Fu tilted to the other side: "Then just look at my face, why are you looking around like that? You don't look like a good person."
Xiao Yu: "...Madam stands tall and graceful like a lotus emerging from the water, beautiful in every way. I was truly unable to restrain myself from falling in love with her."
Rosé couldn't argue with him!
Just as she was about to walk away, Xiao Yu suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms. Luo Fu's face pressed against his shoulder. His shoulder was broad, strong, and warm. It was real, no longer the one she had only imagined in her daytime but could not touch, nor the one she had only dreamed of at night but could not recall when she woke up.
Tears streamed down her face as Luo Fu tightly embraced her foolish husband, who was always causing trouble but whose crimes clearly didn't warrant being banished three thousand miles away.
Noticing the dampness on his shoulder, Xiao Yu hugged his wife even tighter, so tightly that Luo Fu felt a little pain, but she didn't want to remind him at all.
Xiao Yu closed his eyes and stroked his wife's still damp hair with his face: "These past two years have been hard on you, Madam."
Luo Fu shook her head, wiped away her tears with his robe, and rested her head against his neck, saying, "What hardship do I have? I haven't been thinking about you, nor do I need to do anything. I spend my days playing cards, listening to operas, admiring flowers, and riding horses. I've even been to the hot springs twice thanks to the princess. Unlike you, this month you're persuading people to clear land and cultivate fields, and next month you're going to persuade people to send their children to school..."
Thinking of those letters from home, Luo Fu suddenly sat up straight and took Xiao Yu's hands in hers.
The once fair and jade-like hands of the scholar were now tanned to a wheatish yellow, just like his face, and a thin scar had appeared in the middle of his right hand. As for his palms, Luo Fu didn't even need to look; just by holding them, her fingertips could feel the thick calluses covering them.
With two soft "plop" sounds, a pair of tears fell onto the back of Xiao Yu's hand.
Xiao Yu grasped his wife's hand in return and smiled, "If you don't want me to cry like this, how will you treat me if you do?"
Luo Fu shoved the person so hard they almost fell backward: "Do you like being treated like this?"
Looking at his wife's teary eyes and her adorable feigned annoyance, Xiao Yu sincerely said, "I like her, I like her no matter what."
Luo Fu couldn't hold back her anger any longer and pointed to the scar on his right hand, asking, "How did you get that?"
Xiao Yu glanced at the back of his hand and said nonchalantly, "The mountain path is difficult to walk. Once I slipped and almost fell, but I was scratched by a branch next to me."
As Luo Fu imagined the scene, tears welled up in her eyes again: "Don't you like to complain in your letters? Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Xiao Yu hugged his wife again and sighed, "Telling you my little grievances might make you smile, but if I say something like this, I'm afraid you'll feel heartbroken and cry."
In Loujiang, the dangers he encountered were not limited to falling off a cliff. When he first went to the barbarian village where Pang Xin's wife lived to persuade farmers, the village chief did not even ask him why he came, and directly led more than a dozen young men to shoot arrows at them. Qingchuan took an arrow to the shoulder to protect him, and Pang Xin, who was covering the rear, only avoided injury by relying on his excellent swordsmanship.
The area is mostly deep mountains and forests. Once, Xiao Yu even encountered a black bear. Fortunately, he always took Qingchuan or Pang Xin with him when he traveled through the mountains. The two of them worked together and managed to kill the black bear without any serious danger. As a result, they won over the hearts of the people in the three nearby mountain villages.
Later, in order to seek refuge with the people of the Dian Kingdom in his county, the newly arrived magistrate of Xining arranged for Dian soldiers to disguise themselves as bandits and invade the area three times. However, the magistrate of Xining had to swallow his anger because he was defeated by Pang Xin and his militia three times.
Xiao Yu would not tell his family any of this, so that they would not have to worry about his safety while they were suffering from the pain of missing him.
Luo Fu was unaware of these major hardships, but she remembered many minor ones that Xiao Yu had complained about. Glancing at the tear that had fallen on his shoulder, Luo Fu tried to turn the tables with his embarrassing story: "Last year on the Lantern Festival, you said you cried because you missed me while eating Chef Yang's Four Happiness Tangyuan. Did you really cry, or were you just saying that to comfort me?"
Xiao Yu looked at the lady in front of him and said somewhat awkwardly, "I really cried, although I only shed a tear or two and quickly covered it up."
How unbearable is it to miss someone?
When he was young, Xiao Yu could only appreciate the beauty of poetry when he read such poems, but he could not empathize with them. It was only after this trip to Loujiang that he understood what it meant to be lovesick to the bone and to have sleepless nights. At the most difficult time, he even thought about running away and secretly returning to the capital to see his wife.
Xiao Yu also misses his parents, brothers, and nephews, but his longing for his family is completely different from his longing for his wife.
Luo Fu was satisfied, even though Xiao Yu's two tears were worthless.
Having expressed his longing, feeling the voluptuous body of his wife in his arms and smelling the fragrance of her hair, Xiao Yu found it difficult to control his other longing for her. His breathing became heavier, and his arms around his wife were no longer just holding her still. His face, which had been pressed against her long hair, gradually moved down, and his lips brushed against her delicate, flower-petal-like skin.
Rosie's heart was beating faster than his; she closed her eyes, as if unaware of what he was about to do.
There was a small table in the middle of the daybed that was getting in the way. Xiao Yu put the small table on the ground next to him with one hand, and then carried his wife to the middle.
While his wife was bathing, Xiao Yu, who was waiting there, closed a row of windows in the inner room. However, the bright afternoon light of spring still shone through the window paper, making his wife's white upper garment shine brightly, which stung Xiao Yu's eyes. So he steadily supported his wife with his left arm and began to undress her with his right hand.
Luo Fu pressed his hand down and buried her face in his shoulder, saying, "Go to bed."
Xiao Yu said in a hoarse voice, "No rush, let me take a good look at Madam first."
He wanted to take a good look at his wife, whom he hadn't seen for two years, in the brightest spot, and he also wanted his wife to take a good look at him. The more reserved and shy his wife was, the more he should do this, because only in this way could he break down the barrier that two years had created between husband and wife as soon as possible.
.
When Luo Fu first looked at Xiao Yu properly after leaving the princess's carriage and riding her chestnut horse, she felt that he seemed taller and more imposing.
Only after her hands repeatedly and futilely pushed onto his shoulders and patted his back did Luo Fu truly realize the change in Xiao Yu.
Two years ago, Xiao Yu was like a piece of warm and smooth jade. Although the jade was hard, it shone with a soft and lustrous light and never gave people a sense of aggression or dominance.
Two years later, Xiao Yu had become a stubborn rock, losing its soft luster. It looked rough and was as hard as iron to the touch. Jade would only shatter into dust if it hit it.
She thought she could move on to the canopy bed after leaving the daybed, but Xiao Yu stopped when he passed the dressing table. She didn't want to look, but he held her chin with one hand and insisted that she look. Luo Fu was so angry that she bit his hand, but Xiao Yu not only didn't dodge, but also offered her his fingers.
Finally arriving at the bed Luo Fu had longed for, Xiao Yu, now free to carry and support her, transformed into a ferocious beast. For a few moments, an absurd thought popped into Luo Fu's mind: had her poor, top-ranking scholar husband perished in some desolate wilderness of Loujiang, and been replaced by a beast that had cultivated demonic arts, impersonating him?
This thought terrified Luo Fu, and the more afraid she became, the more panicked she grew, and the more panicked she became...
Her wild thoughts were swept away by the beast's brutality; Luo Fu could no longer see the beast's appearance, nor could she hear her own voice.
.
She seemed to have taken a short nap, or perhaps she had just fainted for a moment. When Luo Fu regained consciousness, she found herself lying in Xiao Yu's arms, the man propping himself up and staring intently at her.
Luo Fu stared blankly at Xiao Yu's shoulders, which were also tanned. When he was wearing his robes, you couldn't tell how strong and muscular his shoulders were. It took her a while to finally remember what had happened before.
Whether out of shame or anger, Luo Fu reached out to push Xiao Yu, but her hand drooped halfway up and she couldn't muster any strength.
Xiao Yu scooped up the lady's falling hand and placed it against his chest.
Luo Fu: "..."
She struggled back, and Xiao Yu smiled and let go, leaning down to kiss her flushed cheek: "You scared me to death, I thought I had accidentally hurt Madam."
Luo Fu didn't want to listen; she was almost completely bound by him and could only burrow into his arms.
Xiao Yu lay down and, ignoring his wife's displeasure, held her tightly.
For two years, he traversed mountains and valleys, enduring wind and sun to develop a robust physique. Meanwhile, his wife, who remained in Beijing, grew more and more graceful and beautiful, like a peony carefully tended, making him unable to resist her charms.
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Author's Note: [doge][doge][doge]
100 little red envelopes, see you at midnight tonight~
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