Chapter 58 He was sincere, truly fond of her...
With a clang, Feng Mian threw the dagger she was holding onto the table, lifted her skirt, and ran to the window in a few steps. She carefully opened the window frame and saw the person clinging to the outside smiling brightly at her.
The pale moonlight shone on him, its shimmering light outlining his graceful lines, and the well-balanced interplay of light and shadow made his handsome features even more vivid.
Feng Mian opened her lips, took a moment to find her voice, and asked in a low voice, "Why are you here?"
Climbing out the window at midnight, it's like a restless young man quietly heading to a secret rendezvous.
"Can I go in?" Baili Xunzhou asked instead of answering, her ears turning slightly red as she thought about what she was about to say. "This window is so high."
His gaze lingered for a moment before finally settling on Feng Mian. She wore an outer robe, her soft black hair cascading over her shoulders. The candlelight and moonlight in the room shone brightly, momentarily dazzling the eye.
The Swift Feather Camp soldiers, who were guarding downstairs and pretending not to have noticed their young master, fluttered their ears, somewhat unable to believe what they had heard. They dared to scale the city wall, which was a foot high, but they were shouting at the window of a small two-story building.
He silently shrank into the corner, covered his ears, and dared not listen to what Baili Xunzhou had to say, for fear of ruining the image of his young master in his heart.
On the second floor, without Baili Xunzhou saying anything more, Feng Mian quickly stepped aside and watched as Baili Xunzhou jumped in with one hand on the window frame. His movements were swift and graceful, and his slender waist flashed past her eyes.
He brought with him the scent of night breeze and green grass, filling the cramped corner of the window to the brim.
Feng Mian first leaned back, realizing that she couldn't create much distance at all, and then belatedly moved to the side, walked to the table, poured a glass of water for Baili Xunzhou, and handed it to him.
"You're here, so why did you climb through the window?"
It's not like there's no main entrance.
"I'll only be here for a short while, I don't want to make a big fuss." Baili Xunzhou took the teacup and drank it all in one gulp. He then carefully took out a long, thin oil paper package from behind him, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Feng Mian. "This is for you."
As if to prevent the oil paper package from falling apart, it was tightly bound with hemp rope. When Feng Mian untied the rope, he felt a plump, spherical object and a thin wooden stick, and vaguely guessed what it was.
As the layers of oil paper were unwrapped, revealing the bright red candied hawthorns inside, Feng Mian still found it hard to believe.
"You came over and climbed through my window in the middle of the night just to bring me candied hawthorns?"
Perhaps due to the long journey, the sugar coating had melted somewhat, and the sugar syrup stuck to the oil paper package, leaving sweat-like marks.
"If it gets any warmer, we won't be able to eat them anymore," Baili Xunzhou said hurriedly. Feng Mian looked down at the candied hawthorns, unable to see her expression clearly, unsure whether she liked them or not. He was unusually nervous and stammered, "Didn't you want to eat some last time?"
Last time, it was on the way back to the Prince's Mansion after meeting Liu Jixue outside the city. Feng Mian saw the candied hawthorn vendor outside and murmured something to change the subject.
She stared at him for a while longer. He noticed this and was about to call for the carriage to stop when she changed the subject and left it at that.
Afterwards, he secretly sent Shanyi to inquire with Liuying and learned that Fengmian had only eaten candied hawthorn when she was very young. Later, she rarely left the palace, and Emperor Jiayu raised her with great care, never allowing her to eat food from outside, so she almost never ate it again.
Bai Lixun thought that he often missed the taste of the local snacks he ate when he was young, so she must want to try them again.
However, when the news of the opening of the border market reached the ears of the Alna tribe, they became extremely restless, and Baili Xunzhou had to devote more energy to dealing with the Alna tribe's harassment.
This morning, he threw the head of an Alna general into their tent, deterring them from making any rash moves for a while. When he led his troops back to Yunzhong County, he saw street vendors selling candied hawthorns and suddenly remembered that there were no candied hawthorns for sale in Heishigou.
In a moment of impulsiveness, he left the group and bought candied hawthorns to see her.
"If you don't like it..."
"I like it." Feng Mian picked up the end of the candied hawthorn skewer, took a bite of half a hawthorn, and the melted sugar coating couldn't suppress the sourness of the hawthorn. She frowned because of the sourness, and her eyes welled up with tears, but she still praised it, "It's delicious, thank you."
Baili Xunzhou's brows furrowed along with hers, and a sour taste seemed to rise in his teeth. "It doesn't look appetizing... Never mind..."
He reached out to take the candied hawthorn, but Feng Mian dodged him.
She took another bite, "It tastes exactly the same as the candied hawthorn I ate when I was little, so why doesn't it taste good?"
My childhood memories of eating candied hawthorns still come from the three days my father took me out of the palace to play. It was as if he wanted to make up for the regret of not being by my side for many years. My father accompanied me to eat many folk snacks that I had never tasted before.
Back then, a single hawthorn berry coated in sugar could be half the size of her palm. She would hug it and lick off all the sugar coating, leaving her hands and face sticky. Her father would laugh at her, calling her a little kitten, and then, with a wet handkerchief, he would gently wipe her clean.
She thought candied hawthorn was the most delicious snack at the time.
Seeing her eating so diligently like a little hamster, Baili Xunzhou felt a pang of tenderness in his heart. He sat down next to Feng Mian and suggested, "Let me eat a few for you. It's not good to eat too many fruits at night."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a candied hawthorn was placed in front of him. Feng Mian couldn't wait any longer: "Okay."
Baili Xunzhou chuckled, having just taken a bite of fruit, when he suddenly heard a rustling sound approaching from outside the door. He cautiously looked towards the door.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Chu Jingqi's dejected voice drifted in through the crack, "Little cousin? You're still awake, aren't you?"
Baili Xunzhou: ...
He looked at Feng Mian in confusion, his mouth stuffed with a hawthorn fruit, his eyes conveying, "What's he doing here? What's he doing here so late?"
Feng Mian: "...It's hard to explain in a short time..."
Outside, Chu Jingqi seemed to be pressing his head against the crack in the door, his voice low and filled with disappointment: "Can I come in? Sigh, it's okay if you don't come in. I'll talk to you here. I feel so choked up. What do you think she's thinking...?"
Worried that his worries might disturb the people on the floor, Feng Mian quickly pushed Baili Xunzhou to the bedside and hid him in the gap, whispering, "Hide here for a bit, I'll let him in to say a few words!"
Baili Xunzhou, clutching the candied hawthorn that Feng Mian had shoved into his hand, belatedly realized with confusion when he heard the door open: Why am I hiding? Aren't we a legitimate married couple?
Chu Jingqi dragged his feet and followed Feng Mian into the room. He sat down at the table with a sigh and began to pour out his heart, which was full of personal feelings and was incoherent. Baili Xunzhou, who was hiding by the bed, finally understood what was going on.
He was quite surprised. Chu Jingqi hadn't given up on finding that girl named Tu Mi? Could this unreliable young marquis have actually fallen in love?
"You've fallen for her?" Feng Mian saw that Chu Jingqi's expression was one of unprecedented heartbreak.
Upon hearing this, Chu Jingqi immediately sat up straight with excitement, "Of course it's true!"
Chu Jingqi began to recount the evidence of his sincerity: "At first, Mo Song and the others said that I would forget her after a while, but during the days she was missing, not only did I not forget her, but I missed her more and more every day."
“I think of her every day when I open and close my eyes, wondering where she is, whether she is safe, whether she is hungry, cold, or hot.”
"When I saw the sweet candy she loved, I wanted to buy it and save it for her. When I saw the silk that suited her, I wanted to make it into a dress and give it to her..."
Chu Jingqi counted intently, Feng Mian listened attentively, and Baili Xunzhou, sitting beside the bed, was completely absorbed in the conversation. He felt as if he were looking in a mirror, as he missed Feng Mian every day during the days he couldn't see her.
The melted sugar coating slid down the bamboo skewer onto his hand. Baili Xunzhou silently added in his mind: when he saw that she might want to eat candied hawthorns, he immediately bought some and eagerly delivered them all the way here. Actually, he wanted to give himself a reason to come and see her.
The scattered little flames in my heart seemed to have finally burned through some barrier, and with a roar, they merged into a ball of flame that filled my heart.
He finally realized that he was also sincere and genuinely liked her.
Chu Jingqi was still rambling on, "When I saw the granary in the city, I thought that if she really burned the granary, it would be good if you could bring her back so I could see her."
"Little cousin, I've never done this before..."
His eyebrows and eyes would sometimes rise and sometimes fall, his emotional fluctuations were truly astonishing to Feng Mian. Finally, as if he had no other choice, he opened his bewildered eyes and looked to Feng Mian for help, "Little cousin, what should I do?"
Sealing Sleep: ...
Why ask her for help? Does she even know what to do?
Chu Jingqi seemed to realize he had asked the wrong question, so he changed it to a more specific one, "You're both girls, can you help me tell if she likes me?"
Thinking of how mercilessly Mi Tu had knocked him unconscious with a single palm strike during the day, Feng Mian wanted to shake his head, but when he met Chu Jingqi's broken gaze, he couldn't bear it and stopped. He decided to hint at it indirectly, "I've heard that the Canglang tribe are very loyal in matters of the heart, choosing one person and remaining faithful until death."
"Your reputation has always been rather... dissolute..." Feng Mian carefully chose his words, "As for the Holy Maiden's impression of you, it certainly won't be very good..."
"I just like to travel around and make friends. I'm not a dissolute person!" Chu Jingqi hurriedly explained. "You know my mother. She would never allow me to mess around outside."
“Not even at home! I have neither concubines nor maids in my room.”
“My mother taught me that fidelity is the best dowry a man can receive. I have always listened to my mother!”
Feng Mian blankly said "Oh," and nodded, "That's...that's good."
Baili Xunzhou, sitting by the bed, held a candied hawthorn in one hand and caught the dripping sugar water with the other, thinking to himself: I can have the best dowry too.
Since the topic of the princess had come up, Feng Mian naturally offered another reason to dissuade her, "Isn't your aunt currently looking for a wife for you? I heard that the candidates have been narrowed down from thirty to ten, all of whom are well-educated, gentle, and refined women. I'm afraid they might not like a passionate, fiery woman like the Holy Maiden."
“My mother naturally favors only the best women, but I don’t like them. I prefer girls like Tu Mi… Mi Tu. I will go back to the manor and tell my mother, and she will surely agree to my request.”
"But the Northern Barbarians and Dayong..."
Before Feng Mian could finish speaking, Chu Jingqi interrupted, "Then my royal uncle will definitely support me in representing Dayong to go to the Canglang tribe for a marriage alliance!"
Feng Mian opened his lips, but couldn't speak for a moment. Now that the Canglang tribe has come to participate in the trade, they may soon become friendly nations with Dayong. If Chu Jingqi were to volunteer for a marriage alliance, regardless of how others would react, the princesses in the palace would probably be overjoyed.
"I understand. I will write a letter to my mother, asking her to stop arranging marriages for me and to allow me to pursue Mi Tu. Tomorrow I will go to see Mi Tu again, explain my feelings to her, and see what she thinks!"
Chu Jingqi grasped Feng Mian's hand and shook it, his dejected expression from when he first entered the room vanishing. He grinned from ear to ear, "Thank you so much, little cousin, for clearing up a long-standing question for me!"
Chu Jingqi left happily, thoughtfully closing the door behind him for Feng Mian.
Feng Mian was completely confused: What help did she give?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
