64 Chapter 64
◎What a normal couple should do.◎
At night, when Wei Che went to bed, he walked into the inner room with a calm demeanor. Xu Qinghe noticed him and didn't move at first. But then, her eyes rolled and she reached out to stop him: "What are you doing?"
Wei Che raised his eyebrows and said calmly, "The moon is at its zenith, and it's past midnight. What else can I do? Of course, I'll sleep."
Xu Qinghe raised his chin towards the side room and refused to be refused: "Go out and sleep."
Unexpectedly, Wei Che walked right past her and lay down on the bed: "It's cold outside, I won't go."
Xu Qinghe: "It didn't rain today. The weather is very good, not too cold or too hot, very pleasant."
"Then I won't go either." Wei Che pulled up the quilt, looked at the girl who looked a little bewildered, and explained with a smile: "The couch is too hard, how can it be as comfortable as this big bed."
Xu Qinghe's face darkened. He climbed up from the foot of the bed, touched his quilt, and pretended to go out to sleep.
As expected, Wei Che reached out to stop her: "My Lady, why do you insist on sleeping in a separate bed from me? I've repeatedly promised that I won't touch you again, so why can't you just trust me?"
Xu Qinghe just lowered his eyes and did not answer.
Wei Che didn't dare to really condemn her. After a while, he kept silent and put his hands together in front of her.
Xu Qinghe raised his eyes and asked, "What are you doing?"
Wei Che raised his eyebrows: "Aren't you afraid? If a hairpin can't make you feel at ease, how about tying my hands?"
Xu Qinghe reached out and slapped him away: "Prince is so skilled in martial arts that even if I tied your hands and feet and even blindfolded you, it probably wouldn't work."
"Then what do you want? Can't you really let me sleep in your bed?" Wei Che was helpless.
But Xu Qinghe suddenly stretched out two white and tender long fingers, raised his chin slightly, and showed a hint of pride.
She said lightly, "If you want to go to bed, you can, but I have two conditions."
Wei Che naturally listened attentively.
Xu Qinghe said, "First, take a day off tomorrow and come with me to Xu Zhuangyuan's residence to draw a portrait of Xu Ji."
Wei Che's people have been looking for Xu Ji these days, and they also used a portrait obtained from the government. Xu Qinghe asked for it and looked at it. There was only a rough outline of a young man, but the details were unclear.
If we look for Xu Ji by following the portrait, we can find no less than a hundred of them in the entire capital. By then, even Xu Zhuangyuan's mansion might not be able to accommodate them all.
"Second, have someone find someone for me."
When she mentioned the second condition, her voice became much lower, and she clearly lacked confidence.
Wei Che was also unsure, leaning slouched against the headboard, a bit resentful. "I only have two men left. One goes to look for Xu Ji, and the other looks for someone for you." He sighed and said, "Why not ask for leave from Commander Qi and go look for him myself?"
There is no groom in the whole capital who cannot sleep with his wife, and there is no other prince who is so short of staff.
But asking for leave was obviously not an option. A few days after his wedding, he was appointed by His Majesty to join the Imperial Guards. It was obvious that he wanted to be trained. How could he be allowed to take leave so easily?
"Okay, I agree to both conditions." Wei Che sighed again, then moved closer to the girl and asked with a smile, "So, I can come in and sleep in your bed from now on?"
Without waiting for Xu Qinghe to answer, Wei Che quickly added, "With you." He was afraid that she would regret it.
Xu Qinghe turned his head and nodded imperceptibly.
Wei Che then happily covered himself with the quilt, closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Now that I've already gotten into bed in the inner room, how far can the next step be? Of course not.
The next day.
Wei Che was on his day off, so naturally he could sleep in, but he never expected to be woken up by the girl next to him in a daze.
"Didn't you say you were going to Xu Zhuangyuan's house? Don't sleep anymore."
Wei Che was still half asleep and half awake, and subconsciously stretched out his long arms to hold the girl in his arms. Just as he was about to raise his hand to stroke the girl's head, he suddenly felt a needle-like pain on his arm, which immediately drove away his sleepiness.
He opened his eyes and saw the girl looking at him with a cold face, holding the red jade hairpin with the end stained with blood in her hand.
Even if the long needle with anesthetic was not taken out, the sharp end of the hairpin was enough to poke a hole in his body.
Wei Che fiddled with his barely visible wound and sighed, "You are truly ruthless, Qinghe."
He rarely calls himself that.
With that somewhat familiar voice, the accent was similar to that of an old friend in my memory.
Xu Qinghe was slightly startled, then quickly came to her senses. She grabbed Wei Che's sleeve and wiped the blood from the end of the hairpin onto Wei Che's inner garment before putting it away. "It was you who insisted on touching me."
Wei Che rubbed his face: "I just haven't woken up yet..." As he said this, he pretended to lie down again.
Xu Qinghe grabbed his sleeve and held him back: "Don't sleep, we still have to go to Xu Zhuangyuan's house today!"
Xu Zhuangyuan has not yet married, so it is not appropriate for a woman like her to come alone. Otherwise, there is no need to wait until Wei Che is on leave.
Wei Che lay on the bed and sighed again. After being kicked hard by Xu Qinghe several times, he finally accepted his fate and got up.
The two of them washed up, had breakfast, and then walked towards the main house together.
In the main house, everyone in the Wei family was present. Wei Che only said that he was going to visit a colleague. Zhao Wan agreed without asking any questions. Wei Yiqun glanced at his son, lowered his head to take a sip of hot tea, and nodded in agreement.
As the eldest sister, Wei Fu still smiled gently, but when her eyes fell on Wei Che, there was some inquiry in them.
She still didn't know whether Wei Che knew the truth about her drugging.
If he knew, would he stand by her, the elder sister, or by the side of the powerless and impoverished princess who couldn't give him any help?
She doesn't know.
Xu Qinghe also noticed the gaze, but pretended not to see it. After bidding farewell to everyone, he got on the carriage of the Prince of Fuguo's Mansion with Wei Che.
Xu Zhuangyuan had just been appointed by His Majesty as an exception to serve in the Inspectorate a few days ago, and was also granted a mansion in Beijing. The mansion was located in the downtown area, but it was extremely simple, just like an ordinary family's.
Only after seeing with his own eyes this rising star from a humble family did Wei Che remember that he had met this Xu Zhuangyuan before.
Xu Zhou had obviously recognized him and bowed deeply, saying, "That day, I disturbed your peace at the restaurant and had the book torn from my hands by a wicked servant. I had no choice but to use the money I had earned for my stay to buy more books, but thankfully, you helped me avoid sleeping on the streets."
The distinguished person he was talking about was none other than Wei Si and his group, who were sitting in the elegant room next to Wei Che in the restaurant that day.
Wei Che understood everything in an instant.
Xu Zhou surpassed Wei Ming to get the top spot. Wei Si was dissatisfied and went to investigate his background. Naturally, he was able to find out about the evil servant who tore up the book in the restaurant. He felt even more regretful and regretted that he did not attack the man directly. Instead, he gave him the opportunity to snatch the top spot from his brother.
After finding out that he had a younger brother who was about to go to Beijing, he began to plot against Xu Ji, so he did not go to Yichunlou for a long time, causing Miss Xunfang to miss him very much.
Concealing his thoughts, Wei Che quickly explained his purpose to Xu Zhou: "I've just started serving in the Imperial Guards when I heard about your brother's disappearance. It happens that my wife, Princess Qinghe, is very skilled in painting. I've come to visit you today and would like to do my best to help Brother Xu paint a portrait so that you can find your beloved brother sooner."
Xu Zhou was so grateful that he didn't know how to express it.
He had been living in the capital since the results were announced, and had heard about what had happened between the Prince Wei in front of him, the Princess Qinghe beside him, and the third place winner, Young Master Wei.
I thought it was the story that everyone was talking about, that Prince Wei stole Princess Qinghe's love and she was powerless to resist and had to let it go. But when I saw her today, although one of them had a smile on her face and the other had a cold expression, the two of them standing side by side had a similar aura and looked quite a good match.
So he hurriedly invited the person into the study of Xu's mansion.
Half an hour later, Xu Qinghe finally put down his brush and looked down at the young man on the paper.
The boy is in his teens, with a chubby face but big, watery, black and bright eyes, very cute.
When Xu Zhou saw the portrait, he praised it with the word "like" several times in a row, saying that he had never seen such a lifelike portrait before, and it was as if his brother was standing in front of him in person.
Holding the portrait, Xu Qinghe originally wanted to hand it over to the government to have it copied, but he was afraid that his and Wei Che's movements would be discovered, so he had to draw another one after returning home and asked Wei Che to secretly hand it over to the government, while the original one was handed over to Wei Che's subordinates.
Wei Che took the two paintings first, then reached out to her.
Xu Qinghe was confused: "What's wrong?"
Wei Che nodded his chin at him and said, "In just this morning, without even eating, you painted two paintings in a row. Doesn't your wrist hurt? Stretch it out and I'll give you a massage."
In the past, in the palace of Empress Dowager Wei, it was common for me to copy scriptures for a whole day. Today, I just painted two portraits, so how could my hands hurt?
Xu Qinghe retracted his hand and refused silently.
But she was pulled out by Wei Che again, and she pretended to pull out the hairpin on her bun.
"You said you would never keep me at a distance again." He threatened her with what happened that morning.
Xu Qinghe denied it. Besides, she just kept silent at the time and had never agreed to it in the first place: "When did I ever say such a thing? Don't slander me."
Wei Che was helpless at first, then laughed out loud: "Everyone says I'm a scoundrel, but I think you're the most unreasonable one, even worse than me."
In the end, he held her hand, and his hot knuckles rested on her wrist. Immediately, she felt a warm sensation, and the slight pain in her wrist was immediately relieved.
Xu Qinghe was just thankful that he wasn't standing in front of the window at that moment. Such a tall figure would have blocked out the scenery outside the window. Then she wouldn't be able to look out the window as she did now, pretending to be indifferent.
The two of them were not too close to each other, one was standing and the other was sitting. The touch of their skin made her face hot, so she had to concentrate on looking at the wisteria flowers in the yard.
However, she didn't know that the red behind her fair earlobe fell even more unscrupulously into Wei Che's eyes.
He couldn't help but secretly curl up the corners of his mouth, cherishing this rare quiet and peaceful time.
He always felt that this girl's tolerance for him seemed to be higher, and he could actually hold her hand openly.
Wei Che lowered his eyes to look at her delicate and radiant earlobes in the warm light of the setting sun, then looked down along the loose collar and saw a large expanse of snow-white.
His throat tightened involuntarily, and he quickly closed his eyes and silently recited a set of military tactics.
I don't know when this girl will be able to tolerate him enough to allow him to do things with her that a normal couple should do.
【Author’s words】
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