Chapter 53 Susu, I just wanted to make you happy...
Li Pan eventually went back to bed and slept.
The reason was simple: Lou Xueying couldn't bear to watch such a big man lying on that narrow chaise lounge with his legs bent, looking like he would roll off if he turned over a couple of times, so she let him go back to bed.
Although Li Pan said he couldn't sleep next to her, it turned out that when people are really tired, they don't have time to care about so many other things. She was lying in bed and hadn't even felt sleepy yet when she heard Li Pan snoring very softly next to her.
Li Pan doesn't usually snore, which surprised Lou Xueying. Logically speaking, the divine stone is heavy and transported slowly, and half of the journey is by water, so he should have had time to rest. How could he be so tired? Could it be because he was thinking about her and didn't get enough rest?
Thinking about this, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
Li Pan still had a row of bluish stubble on his face, which he hadn't had time to shave off. Lou Xueying stared at him for a long time, secretly thinking that if Li Pan grew a beard, he probably wouldn't look ugly, at least it would be much more normal than the big beard he had bought before that covered his face.
When they grow old and their hair and beard turn completely white, they should resemble a reclusive sage.
She's getting old... Will she be able to live a peaceful and stable life until old age? What will it be like when she gets old?
In his previous life, when he had no connection with her, did Li Pan also have a good ending? He probably did. He was so smart and capable that neither of the two emperors seemed to have any complaints about him.
I've caused him trouble in this lifetime.
Lou Xueying couldn't help but reach out and touch his stubble.
Hard, prickly, and dense.
Li Pan seemed to be suddenly awakened by her. He half-opened his eyes, glanced at her, then closed them again, and mumbled, "Shave when you're awake."
Then he pushed her hand away, stretched out his long arm, and pulled her into his embrace.
Soon his steady breathing resumed.
He had taken a bath and carried a faint fragrance, likely from secretly using a little of her perfume.
Lou Xueying couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips and close her eyes in his arms.
...
Lou Xueying was eventually awakened by the heat.
Although... although she was a little sensitive to the cold, firstly, it was still hot in the summer, and secondly... secondly, he was too hot!
She woke up sweating profusely and found that she and Li Pan were still in the same position as before, without moving at all—no wonder it was so hot!
She carefully moved out of Li Pan's arms and lay down to the side.
After a while, Li Pan also woke up.
He lay on the bed, feeling lazy and unwilling to move, but he still reached out and pulled Lou Xueying back to his side.
Lou Xueying muttered, "It's hot."
Li Pan: "Didn't you say I'm warm and you like me holding you?"
Lou Xueying: "I didn't say the second half of that sentence!"
Li Pan: "Isn't that what you meant?"
The familiar bickering was back, and Lou Xueying felt a strange joy of surviving a disaster and returning to peace. Lying in his arms, she whispered, "Too much of a good thing is bad."
Seemingly sensing her emotions, Li Pan ruffled her hair and asked, "Were you very sad when I received the imperial decree to leave that day and refused to take you with me?"
Lou Xueying paused for a moment, then said honestly, "I am a little sad, but I can't blame you."
Li Pan: "Your crying doesn't seem like you're 'somewhat' sad."
Lou Xueying: "In the past, whenever I cried, you would give in to my every whim, and I thought that would be the case that time too."
“That won’t do. Cry less in the future,” Li Pan said. “If you cry too much, I won’t be able to tell what’s real and what’s fake. If you’re really sad in the future and I’m still joking with you, that wouldn’t be appropriate.”
Lou Xueying responded in a muffled voice.
Li Pan then asked, "Do you still have those letters between you and His Majesty?"
"It was burned a long time ago." Lou Xueying looked up. "Do you want to see it?"
Li Pan said sourly, "I just want to see what kind of person can be your close friend."
“He is not.” Lou Xueying’s voice turned slightly cold. “I thought that most people who practice the zither were elegant and refined, but I didn’t expect that the reality was so different from what I imagined.”
Li Pan: "But how did you know beforehand that His Majesty would definitely have ulterior motives towards you?"
Lou Xueying: "...Intuition."
Hearing her say that, Li Pan had no choice but to go along with her and say, "Then why don't you want to marry him? Since he likes you, he certainly won't treat you badly."
"Why should I marry him just because he likes me? Is it only because he is the emperor?" Lou Xueying said. "Even when we were corresponding happily, I never thought about marrying him."
Li Pan: "If I weren't here, who would you want to marry?" He paused, then changed his mind, "What I mean is, what type of man did you originally like?"
Lou Xueying gently shook her head: "It's not important."
Why isn't it important?
“Because of the Marquis, all these conditions can be disregarded,” Lou Xueying said. “I don’t need the Marquis to change anything for me; this is already very good.”
Li Pan: "Is this the truth, or just something to fool me?"
Lou Xueying thought for a moment: "Let's do it half true and half false."
Li Pan then laughed.
Lou Xueying: "When you fell asleep just now, you snored a little. It's fine if it happens once in a while, but if it happens every time, please change it. Also, as for your beard, it's fine if you're too busy to shave it. If you really want to grow a beard, you should wait until you're older."
Li Pan: "Did I snore? Did I disturb you?"
Lou Xueying: "No, it was just for a short while, and then it was over."
"That's alright." Li Pan leaned closer again, deliberately rubbing his stubble against her forehead. "Growing a beard makes me look more dignified. Don't you want me to look more imposing?"
"I don't want to," Lou Xueying said as she dodged. "If you want to be imposing, don't be imposing in front of me. Put on a beard and be imposing on your soldiers."
Li Pan laughed again and continued to rub his stubble against her.
Lou Xueying rolled around on the bed, trying to dodge, but soon she was covered in sweat again and gasped for breath, "I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore, let me go."
Li Pan held her down and gently bit her lip.
The atmosphere suddenly quieted down. Lou Xueying looked at Li Pan on top of her, then suddenly reached out and hugged him tightly, whispering, "Did His Majesty make things difficult for you when you entered the palace today?"
Li Pan: "No, everything is as usual."
Lou Xueying: "But if you suddenly offer up such a divine stone, won't His Majesty suspect that you did it on purpose to return to the capital?"
Li Pan: "There's nothing we can do about it. But I guess he probably didn't expect that it was because you and I had communicated before he did this. Judging by the timeline, even if you had sent me a message, it wouldn't have been this fast."
Lou Xueying: "You stayed in the capital for so many days. In order to make up for lost time, did you hardly sleep at all on the way back?"
"It's alright, it's not important." Li Pan paused for a moment, then said, "Why don't you ask me what will happen to the border now that I'm back in the capital?"
Lou Xueying was taken aback: "The border? Isn't everything alright at the border? Isn't that His Majesty's excuse for transferring you?" She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Could it be... there really is military intelligence?"
"No." Li Pan smiled.
Lou Xueying sighed, then couldn't help but ask, "Are you afraid? What if... what if His Majesty intends to target you?"
Li Pan: "How does he plan to target me?"
Lou Xueying remained silent.
Actually, she didn't know either.
There will likely be more trouble on the border at the end of the year, so Emperor Jinghui really wouldn't dare to do anything to Li Pan. But he's worried that Li Pan might take matters into his own hands and cause trouble for him, even if it doesn't cause any real harm.
"Now that I'm here, don't think about those things anymore." Li Pan rubbed her head.
Lou Xueying nodded gently.
The two lay on the bed for a while longer, until Lou Xueying felt so sticky that she couldn't stand it anymore, and then she got up and said, "No, I need to take a bath."
Li Pan let go of her, and she walked to the door, calling out to Cai Ling to bring water through the door.
Cai Ling: "Huh? Now?"
Lou Xueying: "Yes, now I'm going to take a bath."
Cai Ling: "Hehe, I understand. I'll have the water room bring some water right away."
Lou Xueying: "...Wait a minute!"
She flung open the door and saw only Cai Ling's briskly running away.
...What are you chuckling about?! It's not what she thinks!
Lou Xueying took a bath in a huff, and when she came out, she saw that Li Pan had already shaved his face. His face was clean and there wasn't a single stubble.
He was standing by the window, looking at the flowers and plants in the flowerbed under the eaves, and said, "They're growing quite well."
Lou Xueying: "They do grow quite well. The flower seeds that Mother picked back can't be wrong."
Li Pan laughed and said, "I'm back. You don't have to stay cooped up in the mansion anymore. You can go out and have fun again."
Lou Xueying: "Lord Marquis, you shouldn't always be thinking about your post in the capital. With this free time, you should spend more time with me and Mother. I'll talk to Father another day and say that you're always going in and out of the capital and can't settle down. It's better not to force it."
Li Pan: "You still want to come to the Northwest with me?"
Lou Xueying: "Is it not allowed?"
Li Pan began to seriously consider the proposal: "If we are to go, we must submit a memorial in advance, and we cannot make it a forced march like this time. But I am not sure what my mother thinks, and besides, His Majesty may not agree."
Lou Xueying: "I'm just letting the Marquis know. As for what to do next, we'll have to wait and see."
Li Pan: "Let me think about it."
In the evening, after having dinner in Li's mother's yard, the two of them held hands and took a walk in the garden for a while.
As dusk settled, the night was noticeably cooler than the daytime. Lou Xueying, dressed rather lightly, shivered slightly in the wind.
Li Pan: "I only have an outer robe on me. If I take it off, I'll only be wearing my undergarments. I can't lend it to you. Why don't you go back now?"
Lou Xueying shook her head, hid behind him, and let him shield her from the wind.
Li Pan chuckled: "With your small frame, aren't you afraid of getting sick again?"
Lou Xueying hugged his waist and pressed against his back, saying, "When the Marquis was away, I always tried to eat well, go to bed early and get up early, and took good care of myself. I didn't get sick."
Li Pan pinched her arm: "But you're still too thin. How about you get up with me every morning and run around the Marquis's mansion every day?"
"Ah?" Lou Xueying was shocked and immediately released Li Pan, stepping back three feet. "Isn't that unnecessary?"
Li Pan deliberately put on a stern face: "Why not? Do you think those soldiers in the barracks only grow so strong and healthy by eating and sleeping? I won't ask too much of you, just one lap, it will help you strengthen your body, it won't make you a big, burly guy."
Lou Xueying pretended not to hear and turned back into the house.
Li Pan chuckled and shook his head, then followed.
Back in the room, Lou Xueying sat in front of the dressing table and took off the pearl hairpins in front of the mirror.
Li Pan swayed back and forth behind her, making Lou Xueying dizzy. She asked, "What are you doing?"
Li Pan leaned closer, looking at her with a mixture of unease and anticipation: "Tonight... could you...?"
Lou Xueying: "..."
Li Pan: "Well, if you don't want to, then forget it."
Lou Xueying slowly removed the beaded flower: "I have no reluctance."
Li Pan: "Really?"
Lou Xueying: "If you ask again, I won't agree."
Li Pan shut up.
Lou Xueying thought that a man who had been holding back for so long must be very impatient and rude, but Li Pan was surprisingly gentle tonight.
She tensed her feet, embraced him with barely suppressed urges, and whispered breathlessly, calling out intermittently, "Lord...Lord..."
Li Pan gently kissed her lips and asked, "What's my name?"
“Li, Li Pan…”
"Yes, I'm here." He stroked her face, looking into her shimmering eyes, in which his reflection was mirrored.
"Li Pan..." Lou Xueying called out several times in a daze, "Li Pan...why...are you so good to me?"
“I haven’t been that good to you, it’s just that your expectations are too low,” Li Pan replied softly. “Susu, I just wanted to make you a little happier.”
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