Chapter 58 "My husband, Xue Mingyao's husband, must..."
To avoid aggravating Xue Mingyao's ailing leg, Xie Zhuo carried her, walking steadily and slowly, step by step.
The road leading to Tingzhu Pavilion is exceptionally long, as if it will never end.
Xue Mingyao didn't look ahead, only staring at his handsome profile. The taste of victory was so sweet that it choked her throat, and a sense of bewilderment lingered in her heart.
She raised her lips and kissed him on the cheek.
Xie Zhuo paused for a moment, then started walking again.
“This is a reward,” she said. “My husband, Xue Mingyao, has to listen to me.”
Xie Zhuo smiled self-deprecatingly. He had been utterly defeated and routed.
The defeated opponent can only remain silent.
The Listening Bamboo Pavilion was quiet and secluded in the morning. The bamboo stalks in front of the window stood straight and still in the wind. No sound of bamboo could be heard inside the room, except for Xie Zhuo's slightly heavy breathing after exerting himself.
He placed Xue Mingyao on the soft mat in front of him. A servant brought tea, and she drank half a cup before kindly offering the remaining half to Xie Zhuo.
Xie Zhuo looked up, "As your husband, do I have to drink the water you left over?"
Xue Mingyao smiled, tilted her head back and drank the water in her teacup, then grabbed Xie Zhuo's collar and pressed her lips to his without saying a word.
Her lips, kissed so many times, still tasted sweet. Even tasteless water became mellow after passing through her lips and tongue into his mouth. Xie Zhuo was still angry, so he held her and greedily savored the saliva in her mouth, extending the kiss to its deepest point.
When they parted, Xue Mingyao was panting, still clutching his collar, saying, "I'm not shortchanging you by giving you all this to drink."
Xie Zhuo scoffed lightly, casually picked up a scroll of painting treatises and flipped through it, no longer speaking to her.
Xue Mingyao unfolded the drawing paper, hesitated for a long time before finally turning to look at Xie Zhuo. Her gaze was intense, as if it could burn a hole in the scroll in his hand.
Finally, Xie Zhuo turned his gaze towards him. "What trouble are you planning now?"
"I still want to ask you—" Xue Mingyao softened her voice, "Can't I really take a look at Chen Liangqing's painting?"
"No." Xie Zhuo's voice was calm, no longer holding back. "His painting has already been burned to ashes by me."
Xue Mingyao was taken aback, then murmured, "You're ruthless."
He was no match for her ruthlessness. Xie Zhuo lowered his head and returned to his book.
Xue Mingyao glanced at him and asked, "Do you still paint?"
"Very few."
"Why?"
"I'm swamped with mundane affairs," Xie Zhuo said calmly.
Xue Mingyao laughed mockingly, "You seem to have a lot of free time."
She said she wouldn't go to Weili and she wouldn't go, but as soon as she pretended to have a foot injury, she started fawning over her. She stopped using her paintbrush and instead held up a book of art treatises, pretending to be knowledgeable. Did she think she couldn't tell? She wouldn't even turn a page for ages.
Perhaps because they were in an art gallery, Xie Zhuo's posture seemed less rude. He held a book in his hands, and his turquoise robe hung neatly to his feet, complementing the green bamboo shadows and exuding a refined elegance.
“Since I’m just idling around anyway,” a thought suddenly popped into Xue Mingyao’s head, and she blurted out, “Why don’t you paint a picture for me? You burned Chen Liangqing’s painting, so you have to make me a replacement.”
Xie Zhuo suddenly looked up.
As soon as she sent the message, Xue Mingyao regretted it. Asking Xie Zhuo to paint a picture for her felt strangely inappropriate.
Xie Zhuo hesitated, then finally decided to humiliate himself—he was already defeated, what face did he have left? He asked, "What happened to the painting I drew for you before?"
"I burned it," Xue Mingyao said frankly.
Seeing things and thinking of someone is not her style. After Xie Qinglang left, she burned all of his paintings in the princess's mansion, including the painting of her that he painted—a painting of her with a beautiful and graceful appearance, which was also reduced to ashes by her tears.
Who would have thought that even though she left him no mementos, she would still think of him anytime, anywhere, in every blade of grass, every tree, every cloud, and every stream, and his shadow would always be there.
What she never expected was that he himself would change his appearance and come to her side, asking her to be a bizarre and incongruous souvenir.
Xie Zhuo remained silent. "My skills have been rusty for a long time, and I can hardly draw well."
"Then forget it," Xue Mingyao said readily, turning her head back to her desk and picking up her brush to sketch the landscape.
Xie Zhuo glanced at her sitting posture out of the corner of his eye. Her knees were bent and casually crossed at her sides, which was not a good posture for the recovery of bone injuries. Strangely, she did not feel any pain.
“Stretch your legs out,” he said.
Xue Mingyao gave an "oh" and slowly changed her sitting posture.
Time passed slowly, and around noon, Xie Zhuo put down his book and went out. Xue Mingyao quickly put her legs back into their original comfortable position, and after a while, she simply lay back on the mat, propped up her legs, crossed her feet, and lazily looked at the murals on all four sides.
This pose, this angle... it seems so familiar...
Xue Mingyao couldn't help but recall the passionate encounter she had here a few days ago, a truly exhilarating wedding night.
A warmth rose in her chest. She glanced at her foot, which was wrapped up in a ball, and sighed. She had acted impulsively.
Soon after, Xie Zhuo and his servants brought over a small table and set out lunch. Xue Mingyao had difficulty walking, so the two of them ate lunch there.
Xue Mingyao glanced down at the dishes and knew Xie Zhuo had played a trick. The dishes were simple porridge and side dishes, plus a stewed bone broth, with an extremely plain and elegant appearance.
"There are dietary restrictions for bone injuries. You can't eat the spicy and fried foods that you like," Xie Zhuo said.
Xue Mingyao rested her chin on her hand, "Xie Zhuo, are you really that concerned about my feet...?"
"I don't want a wife with a leg disability."
After Xie Zhuo finished speaking, he picked up his bamboo chopsticks and began to eat.
Xue Mingyao prefers strong flavors, as does Xie Zhuo. He prepared a table of light dishes for her and ate with her. Xue Mingyao had an indescribable feeling in her heart, and she found it difficult to express her temper. She picked up her chopsticks listlessly.
She didn't move all morning and ate breakfast late, so of course she didn't have much of an appetite. She picked at a few bites of vegetables, ate a little less than half a bowl of rice, and that was it.
Xie Zhuo saw this and said, "If you don't want to eat the vegetables, then drink some bone broth; it's good for your health."
"I don't want to drink it," Xue Mingyao said in a coquettish voice. "If you insist that I drink it, you can feed me."
Xie Zhuo stared at her for a long time without saying anything. He finished eating, moved to her side, picked up his bowl, and used a spoon to bring the soup to her lips.
Has she trained people to be so obedient?
Xue Mingyao felt smug and obediently opened her mouth and swallowed. The bone broth was rich and flavorful, and although she found it bland, it still tasted delicious. The stewed meat inside was tender and she drank the whole bowl with Xie Zhuo's help.
After finishing the soup, she unconsciously leaned into Xie Zhuo's arms, her eyes slightly closed, her voice as soft and delicate as a spider's web, interrogating him gently, "Xie Zhuo, why do you have to act like a bad person in front of me?"
Xie Zhuo put his arm around her waist and said calmly, "I'm bad because you're bad."
"Oh, so now you're willing to be a good person because I'm not bad anymore?" Xue Mingyao turned to look at him, her dark eyes holding a hint of languid charm.
Xie Zhuo looked down at the smile in her eyes. Xue Mingyao was not bad at all; she was more willful and cunning than before.
“No, because you are a patient now,” he said.
"So you refuse to be mean to patients? You're quite principled."
The principled Xie Zhuo called someone in and removed the food table. Xue Mingyao clung to him, refusing to get up, and mumbled, "Xie Zhuo, I should take a nap."
"Shall we go back?"
"No, I'll sleep here." Xue Mingyao looked at the small couch.
Without waiting for her instructions, Xie Zhuo carried the person up and laid her flat on the couch.
Xue Mingyao tugged at his sleeve, "There's no pillow, no blanket..."
"I'll have someone bring it to you."
"don't want."
"So what do you plan to do?"
Xue Mingyao slid her hand to his thigh and gently pinched his firm muscles. "You can be my pillow and my blanket."
The afternoon sunlight gently spilled onto the small couch. The young general sat at one end of the couch, holding a book in his hands, while a beautiful young woman lay on his lap, covered by the general's brocade robe.
The general still couldn't turn a single page of the book in his hands for a long time.
His gaze fell and lingered on Xue Mingyao's sweet sleeping face for a long time.
He knew perfectly well that Xue Mingyao was toying with him, taking advantage of his foot injury to make all sorts of demands on him.
Shamefully, he was starting to get used to this manipulation, and even enjoy it.
As the sunlight gradually brightened, it cast dappled light spots on Xue Mingyao's fair forehead. Xie Zhuo swept his wide sleeves down, loosely covering her forehead.
The room was quiet and peaceful.
When Xue Mingyao woke up in the afternoon, she was unusually able to sit still at her desk and diligently copied a landscape painting. This time, she didn't hide it from Xie Zhuo. As she copied, she asked him to add ink and change the water, but she forbade him to comment or give her any guidance.
The princess's pride was on full display.
As the evening glow filled the sky, Xie Zhuo carried Xue Mingyao back to the main courtyard.
They had another argument during dinner.
Seeing that Xue Mingyao really didn't want to eat lunch, Xie Zhuo didn't make any major changes to the dinner, only adding a nourishing soup and reducing the portions of a few desserts. Even so, Xue Mingyao was still dissatisfied, saying that Xie Zhuo was making a mountain out of a molehill and deliberately preventing her from eating and drinking to her heart's content.
Xie Zhuo dismissed the suggestion indifferently, but Xue Mingyao, in a fit of stubbornness, refused to drink her medicine.
A bowl of dark, medicinal soup was placed on the table, but Xue Mingyao hesitated and made excuses, not moving it for a long time.
Xie Zhuo found it unbelievable, "Even a child knows to take medicine when injured, and you're not even as good as a child?"
Xue Mingyao was naturally full of complaints.
Having the doctor prescribe medicine and prepare it was just to cover up the lie and put on a show; she had no intention of actually drinking it. But Xie Zhuo was watching her so closely that she didn't even have a chance to secretly pour it out.
If he cares about her to this extent, why is he still being so stubborn? Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to pretend to have a broken leg to tease him!
Judging from Xie Zhuo's attitude, no amount of nonsense she could come up with would work; he probably wanted nothing more than to force-feed her the arguments.
Fortunately, this prescription is for strengthening the body and bones, and it is also beneficial to normal people, so it won't harm her.
Xue Mingyao's eyes darted around, unwilling to swallow this insult, so she said, "I'm afraid of bitterness, you drink with me."
"...How can I accompany you?"
"You take a couple of sips first, then I'll drink. Hmm, that's what it means for a couple to share joys and sorrows."
Xie Zhuo was too lazy to argue with her anymore, so he scooped up two spoonfuls and put them in his mouth. Only then did Xue Mingyao reluctantly drink the medicine.
Despite sharing the hardships, Xue Mingyao still felt wronged, looking Xie Zhuo up and down, and then up and down again.
Xie Zhuo sighed helplessly, "What are you up to now?"
"I want to take a bath," Xue Mingyao said earnestly.
“You help me—” she blinked, “husband.”
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