Inn
Looking at the prominent red "囍" character on the gate, Xichun felt a pang of pain in her heart; the happiness she had within reach had vanished like a bubble.
The carriage sped out of the city gate of Lantai County and stopped at the entrance of Yingkelou Inn in Xijin County, a hundred miles away from Lantai County, at dawn.
Ah Gui took out a hundred-tael silver note and slapped it on the counter. "Manager, we'll book the inn for three days."
The innkeeper happily put the silver notes into the money box. Xijin County was not a large county, and there were few merchants passing through. His inn could only earn about ten taels of silver a day if business was good. Fortunately, the inn was his own property, so he didn't have to pay rent and could keep running the business.
The shopkeeper glanced curiously at Xichun and Weiqiao. The girl's face was streaked with tears, and she was dressed in an exquisite wedding gown. The man holding her was imposing and naturally noble. The two of them were both intimate and distant, and he really couldn't figure out their relationship.
"How many floors are there in total?" Wei Qiao asked him.
The innkeeper smiled and said, "Sir, our shop has three floors, and our three best rooms, the 'Tian' class, are on the third floor."
"Alright, then take me to the third floor."
Wei Qiao selected the top-class room on the far left of the third floor and placed Xi Chun on the canopy bed.
Looking at the morning light outside the window, Xichun imagined Brother Miao and Aunt Feng anxiously searching for her, her heart filled with regret. Brother Miao had meticulously prepared a wedding banquet, inviting every prominent figure in Lantai County to ensure she married him in a grand and glorious manner. On the wedding day, however, she, the bride, had vanished. One could only imagine how many people would laugh at Brother Miao, the groom.
Brother Miao was absolutely right; his mistake was meeting himself. She wasn't wrong either; her mistake was meeting Wei Qiao. If she hadn't met Wei Qiao, perhaps everything would have been different.
Wei Qiao changed his clothes and saw that Xi Chun was still sitting motionless on the edge of the bed. He walked up to her, took her hand, and said gently, "Come here and have some breakfast."
Xi Chun let Wei Qiao pull her to the table, but looking at the food on the table, she had no desire to eat. She lowered her head and stroked the silver bracelet on her wrist, and large tears silently slid down her cheeks.
Wei Qiao glanced at her but didn't force her to eat. He simply drank a bowl of porridge and ate two steamed buns. Then he pulled her to the dressing table and personally wrung out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears. "Don't cry anymore, your eyes are all swollen."
He untangled Xichun's already messy hair and gently combed her black hair with a fine-toothed comb. He clumsily tied her hair into a double-heart bun and then selected a few of the hairpins that he had asked Agui to prepare in advance and inserted them into her hair bun.
After a simple makeover, Xi Chun was so beautiful that she was impossible to look away from, even without makeup. Wei Qiao leaned down and pressed his head next to Xi Chun's, looking at the two of them reflected in the bronze mirror, and smiled with satisfaction.
"Xichun, forget about him."
Miao Wendao is no longer a stranger to him; Jiang Xichun can only be his.
Xi Chun looked up at herself in the mirror. Wei Qiao's skills were lacking; the hair he had styled for her was crooked. The phoenix hairpin with a pearl in its bead dangled in her hair, irritating her eyes. Xi Chun reached out and pulled the two hairpins out of her hair, putting them back in the jewelry box. She then looked down at the koi-patterned silver bracelet on her wrist.
Looking at the gold hairpin she had removed, Wei Qiao frowned, then his gaze shifted downwards and he saw Xi Chun staring at the silver bracelet on her wrist.
Wei Qiao reached out and grabbed her hand, staring at the silver bracelet as he questioned, "Did he give you this bracelet?"
The son of a tea merchant, a ninth-rank county magistrate, gave his fiancée only an inconspicuous silver bracelet—how stingy! Wei Qiao was both jealous and angry, maliciously speculating about the bracelet's origin.
Xi Chun knew that Wei Qiao was referring to Brother Miao. She pulled her hand away from his and said coldly, "No, he was left to me by my grandfather."
Knowing it was a gift from Grandpa Xichun, Wei Qiao's brows finally relaxed. He knew Xichun was honest and wouldn't lie. As long as it wasn't from Miao Wendao, that was fine.
"Then wear it properly."
A-Gui entered the room and brought the two of them tea and two plates of snacks. Wei Qiao pulled Xi Chun to the table to drink tea. Xi Chun hadn't had a drop of water since last night and was very thirsty. She picked up the teacup and drank half a cup in one gulp.
Seeing that she had finally lowered her guard, Wei Qiao picked up a piece of chestnut cake from a plate and handed it to her. Xi Chun glanced at him, did not take it, and took another piece of eight-treasure cake from a different plate to eat.
Seeing her eating with relish, Wei Qiao smiled faintly, took the chestnut cake he had given her, and ate it himself.
In the back courtyard of the county government office in Lantai County, Aunt Feng, who had been woken up by the matchmaker, went to the Xichun room to look for her despite her headache. As the matchmaker had said, the bride was nowhere to be found!
"The gate was securely closed, how could Xichun be gone?" Aunt Feng exclaimed in surprise. The child was perfectly fine in her room last night, how could she disappear so early in the morning? Aunt Feng scanned Xichun's room and saw that the wedding dress she had embroidered herself was missing, but the phoenix coronet sent by the Miao family was still neatly placed on the dressing table. She had a bad feeling that something must have happened to the child.
"Let's go, I'm going to find Su Qing."
When Aunt Feng reached Miao Wendao's door, she realized he was still asleep. It was already Chen Shi (7-9 AM), and he was supposed to greet guests at the door for the wedding. Su Qing never slept in, and she had told him to get up early yesterday, so it was unusual for him not to be awake.
Aunt Feng called out loudly from outside the door, but there was no response from inside.
They called Miao Sheng over and together they forced open Miao Wendao's door, only to find Miao Wendao still fast asleep in bed.
"Suqing, wake up! Something's happened to Xichun!" Aunt Feng slapped Miao Wendao's face and shouted loudly.
Miao Sheng, having traveled with his master on business trips and seen the world, said to Aunt Feng, seeing that he couldn't wake his young master no matter what he did, "Madam, the young master has probably been drugged."
Aunt Feng quickly sent Miao Sheng to fetch a doctor, who, after examining the patient, confirmed that Miao Sheng's guess was correct.
"The dosage of this sleeping drug is quite high, and it will probably be another day or two before you wake up. Your body is fine, but I cannot counteract the effects of this drug. I can only wait for you to wake up on your own after the drug wears off."
Aunt Feng slumped helplessly beside Miao Wendao's bed, tears streaming down her face. On their wedding day, the bride was nowhere to be found, the groom was unconscious, and guests were already arriving in the front hall. She truly didn't know what to do.
Inside the inn, Wei Qiao asked Xi Chun to grind ink for him, and he spent an afternoon painting a portrait of her wearing her wedding dress that day.
Looking at the portrait on the desk, Xi Chun thought of the portrait painted by Qiu Jiu that the emperor had shown her in the Yuanhe Hall. Qiu Jiu had never met her; that painting must have been done by Wei Qiao and then repainted by Qiu Jiu. Xi Chun felt a bitter taste in her mouth, wondering what he wanted to do with this portrait of her.
Wei Qiao looked up and saw Xi Chun's furrowed brows. She rarely looked like this in front of him. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
She shook her head, left her desk, and went to the tea table to pour herself a cup of tea. Wei Qiao got up and walked behind her, put his arm around her slender waist, and gently sniffed behind her ear.
Xi Chun felt a ticklish sensation from his warm breath, and she reached out to push his face away, but he grabbed her hand and gently bit her fingertip. Uncomfortable with such intimacy, she quickly withdrew her hand.
Wei Qiao's smile froze. In just a few months, she had become so resistant to him. Before, when they were together, she was sometimes even more passionate than he was. He held her waist tighter and whispered in her ear, "Xi Chun, I advise you to stop thinking about Miao Wendao. It's only a hundred miles from here to Lantai County. If I wanted to, I could have him killed anytime."
"You...you can't do this. You promised me." Xi Chun's voice trembled. She had already abandoned Brother Miao and left with Wei Qiao, so why was Wei Qiao still holding onto her?
Feeling the stiffness in the person in his arms, Wei Qiao's expression grew even colder. He released his grip, looked down at Xi Chun's reddened earlobes, and said, "Your promises to me are all invalid, so naturally my promises to you are also invalid."
Xichun felt that his words made no sense; she had never gone back on her word. He was the one who had been deceiving her, ruining her marriage with Brother Miao, and now he was pretending to be innocent.
Xi Chun was annoyed and didn't want to talk to him. She sat at the tea table, staring blankly at the flower and bird pattern on the teacup in front of her. Wei Qiao was a little thirsty. Seeing that there was still half a cup of water in Xi Chun's teacup, he took it and drank it all in one gulp.
She frowned as she watched Wei Qiao drink from his own teacup. He was always very clean, yet now he was drinking from the teacup she had used.
"You..." She wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, she said nothing.
Wei Qiao put down his teacup, turned to look at Xi Chun who was staring at him, and gave her a seductive smile. "What, can't I drink from your cup?"
Xi Chun lowered her head, not wanting to pay attention to him, but Wei Qiao bent down, cupped her small face, and kissed her rosy lips. This time he was extremely gentle, and seeing that Xi Chun's eyes were tightly closed, he said seductively, "Xi Chun, open your eyes and look at me."
Xi Chun opened her eyes as instructed, and saw that his dark eyes were full of tenderness. Her heartstrings trembled, and she closed her eyes again.
Seeing her movements, Wei Qiao's lips curled into a slight smile. He placed a light kiss on each of her eyes, then continued kissing her sweet lips, patiently prying open her teeth. Xi Chun was enveloped by his breath, neither responding nor resisting. She had to admit a fact: she resented his actions, yet her body still irresistibly craved his intimacy.
"Sir, dinner is ready."
Ah Gui's voice rang out untimely from outside the door. Xi Chun quickly pushed Wei Qiao away, her face instantly flushing with embarrassment. Wei Qiao licked his lips contentedly and smiled as he let Ah Gui in.
Knowing she couldn't escape Wei Qiao's control for the time being, Xi Chun decided to live life to the fullest. Her appetite returned to normal at dinner, and she ate two full bowls of rice with the dishes on the table before putting down her chopsticks. Tonight's meal was specially ordered by Wei Qiao from the most famous restaurant in Xijin County, with A Gui going to buy it. Knowing she liked spicy food, eight out of ten dishes were spicy. Seeing Xi Chun enjoying her meal, he also ate an extra bowl of rice, more than usual.
After dinner, Wei Qiao wrote a letter to the Prince of Jin at his desk. Xi Chun stood by the window, gazing at the crescent moon outside.
She still remembered accepting Brother Miao's marriage proposal on the Lantern Festival, but now she had broken her promise, abandoning him on their wedding day, leaving him alone to face a hall full of guests. She dared not think too deeply about how Brother Miao and Aunt Feng searched for her and missed her; everything was her fault.
Wei Qiao asked A Gui to send the letter he had written away. He looked up and searched for Xi Chun, finding her with her back to him, gazing up at the moon. He walked over, put his arm around her shoulder, and stood beside her. A new moon hung in the dark night sky, its light shining brightly—everything was a new beginning.
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