Chapter 72 Tonight, I urge you on. To me, you are the most special person. ...
On New Year's Eve, it snowed in Shengjing, which had not seen snow for a while. The biting smell of snow mixed with the smell of firecrackers filled the air. The stoves inside the houses were burning brightly, and a few crackling sounds could be heard, but they were quickly drowned out by laughter.
Only on New Year's Eve would all the families gather together for a meal. This was the first time Cui Yiluo had seen the Jiang family so lively since she entered the mansion. Perhaps it was because it was New Year's Eve, but even Old Madam Jiang's expression towards her was much nicer. The Third Madam and Fourth Madam, who were usually cold and contemptuous towards her, suddenly became amiable.
But then she remembered that these days, the Third Madam and the Fourth Madam had each sent gifts to Yuzhu Courtyard, far exceeding the amount of New Year's gifts, and had also occasionally sent her invitations to small banquets... It seemed that it was not just because of the need to maintain harmony during the New Year.
Moreover, a day after she returned to her residence, she heard that Wang Yuheng's "short stay" at the Jiang residence had ended and that Old Madam Jiang had sent people to escort her back to Gunzhou.
Cui Yiluo glanced at Jiang Yunjin sitting next to her.
Amidst the laughter and chatter of the crowd, he sat quietly, his posture upright, his aura as serene and aloof as snow on a high mountain, making him all the more striking even though he rarely spoke. The night was lively, and everyone raised their glasses in toasts; he too drank a few cups, but his eyes remained clear, only his thin lips were slightly moistened. His pale skin, under the candlelight, was as warm and smooth as jade, as lustrous as a precious gem.
He seemed very perceptive of her gaze; as soon as she looked at him, he turned his head and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
Cui Yiluo snapped out of her daze, realizing she had been lost in thought for a moment, and looked away, saying, "It's nothing."
A soft chuckle reached her ear, and Cui Yiluo felt a warmth in her palm, a warmth like delicate vines climbing and intertwining between her fingers. Before she could react, Jiang Yunjin had tightly gripped her hand, their fingers intertwined, just as she had done countless times before when she had seduced him.
At the table, glasses clinked and laughter filled the air; beneath the table, hidden by sleeves, fingers intertwined.
Cui Yiluo tried to break free, but she couldn't budge an inch. Jiang Yunjin's strength was immense; he even spared no effort to stroke her with his thumb, sending a warm, tingling sensation through her.
She whispered, "You're crazy!"
With so many people around tonight, and many servants waiting in the hall, he still held her hand as if no one else was there, completely disregarding the risk of being discovered at any moment.
He used to be the most law-abiding person, but now he's even more unrestrained than she was, who never followed the rules. Even at her most unrestrained before, she would never have been intimate with him in front of so many people.
Cui Yiluo was completely astonished, but could only scold him in a low voice. Just now, when she struggled, Jiang Zhaoyue immediately noticed and looked over, then smiled mischievously, it was unclear whether he had noticed or not.
Hearing her low reprimand, Jiang Yunjin's lips curled up slightly, revealing a hint of aggressive arrogance and obsession on his usually cold and ruthless face.
Cui Yilu struggled again, but was still held tightly in his large hand. Just then, her uncle Jiang Wen raised his cup to toast Jiang Yunjin.
Suddenly, everyone's eyes were drawn to Jiang Yunjin.
Even Cui Yiluo's heart couldn't help but beat a little faster at this moment.
But Jiang Yunjin remained calm and composed, even squeezing her hand as if to comfort her or to tease her.
He raised his cup in return with his free hand, calmly delivering his toast, quoting classical texts and using perfect parallelism. His toast was so powerful and elegant that it was astonishing that he was indeed the most talented and brilliant young man in Shengjing.
They could hardly imagine that the usually upright, serious, and self-disciplined gentleman was holding his wife's hand tightly under the table, their fingers intertwined intimately.
He didn't release her hand until he stood up from his seat. After holding her hand for a long time, his palms were burning hot, and Cui Yiluo's palms, which were pressed against his, were covered in a layer of fine sweat. As soon as he let go, she immediately wiped them with a handkerchief.
Jiang Yunjin was extremely fastidious about cleanliness, and Cui Yiluo could hardly believe that he seemed oblivious to the stickiness in her palms, holding her hand for so long. His personality had changed drastically, as if he were a completely different person, but Cui Yiluo subconsciously felt that this was the real him.
She and Jiang Yunjin were walking out side by side, maintaining a perfect distance between them, showing no trace of their previous intimacy. Suddenly, someone gently bumped her shoulder, and she instinctively leaned towards Jiang Yunjin. Turning her head to look back, she met Jiang Zhaoyue's teasing smile.
She said very quickly, "You and your elder brother are being a little too intimate."
After saying that, she quickly walked away, as if she had just brushed past Cui Yiluo.
Cui Yiluo heard it clearly, and Jiang Yunjin, with his exceptional hearing, could hear it even more clearly.
Therefore, on the way back to the hospital, when there were few people around, his fingers had just touched hers when they were immediately pulled away.
Jiang Yunjin showed no displeasure, forcefully taking her hand and weaving his fingers between hers, asking calmly, "Are you angry?"
"Jiang Yunjin, you really have no sense of propriety at all."
His expression remained calm, without the slightest discomfort. "Didn't you used to think I was old-fashioned?"
She even privately complained that he was boring in bed.
Cui Yiluo couldn't break free, and her hand was held in his palm without much force. Hearing this, she chuckled and said, "My husband has changed too much from before."
Obsessive, ruthless, and reckless, with no transition in between, it came like a raging flood, forcing her to endure it.
Her hand was suddenly pinched, and Cui Yiluo cried out in pain. In the blink of an eye, she met his dark eyes.
His voice was calm in the night, and his handsome face was half-lit and half-shadowed. "Did you used to think that Yuan Ling's personality was more interesting?"
Cui Yilu frowned. "Why did you bring him up?"
Last time in Qingchi Lane, she said that she had nothing to do with Yuan Ling. From the beginning at Baoyue Pavilion, he knew the ruthlessness behind her gentle facade. If she hadn't wanted to investigate what happened back then and had no one else to turn to, she would never have wanted to have any contact with him.
But Jiang Yunjin inexplicably started to have a grudge against Yuan Ling.
"You seem to have had some interaction with him in the past."
Cui Yiluo was taken aback. "How did you know?"
He ignored her at the time, so how could he have noticed that she had any interaction with Yuan Ling?
Jiang Yunjin recounted unhurriedly: "At the Lotus Banquet, you fell into the water, and Yuan Ling draped an outer robe over you. During the summer hunt, you returned the robe to him in the Crabapple Forest. Later, at the small banquet at the Duke of Zheng's mansion, you also had a conversation with him."
At the lotus banquet, she asked him if he was acquainted with Yuan Ling, and praised Yuan Ling for his decisiveness, resourcefulness, and illustrious reputation.
During the summer hunt, she and Yuan Ling were talking in the crabapple forest when Xiao Zheng sent his guards to kill her. Yuan Ling blocked them for her and asked her to wash his robe, which had been soiled again. His tone was familiar, and she actually agreed.
At a small banquet at the Duke of Zheng's mansion, she returned his robe to him again. He chatted happily with her and even brushed away the crape myrtle blossoms that had fallen into her hair.
She was stopped by Chu Ke's men, but Yuan Ling beat them to the punch. She was forced to lean against the wall as the drug took effect, while Yuan Ling stood by her side.
He dared not think about that hypothetical scenario. If he had arrived a moment later that day, would she have given up on him and chosen Yuan Ling instead?
Cui Yiluo only noticed his increasingly dark expression and had no idea what he was thinking. His detailed account surprised her.
As they spoke, the two entered the bedroom. Cui Yiluo watched him turn his back and close the bedroom door tightly, and her strange feeling became more and more obvious. She asked him, "How do you remember so clearly?"
Jiang Yunjin turned around, the candlelight illuminating his profile, making his handsome features even more striking, though his eyes were as dark as an abyss. He didn't answer, but simply pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
His mind was in turmoil, and filled with displeasure and possessiveness, he forcefully imbued her with his scent. Tonight's New Year's Eve banquet featured plum wine brewed in the manor. Both of them drank some, and as their lips met, the wine was not unpleasant or pungent, but rather carried a sweet plum fragrance that almost made Cui Yiluo drown.
She whimpered, her body suddenly light as he lifted her onto the couch. When she came to her senses, she was already sitting on his lap, held tightly in his arms, her breath suffocated. Before everything spiraled out of control, Cui Yiluo struggled to press down on his fingers that were resting on the sash of her dress.
"Wait, I also have a question to ask you."
"What?"
He eventually stepped back, their lips still stained with a lustful fluid, which blurred together in the flickering candlelight.
Cui Yiluo, however, straightened her expression and asked seriously, "Jiang Yunjin, are you hiding something from me?"
The desire that had settled on his cool, aloof face gradually faded, and a complex emotion flickered in his dark eyes. He remained noncommittal: "Why do you ask that?"
"Is there?"
Jiang Yunjin's eyes darkened: "No."
Cui Yiluo scoffed, her voice turning cold: "Liar."
Suddenly, the dim candlelight in the room flickered for a moment, and Jiang Yunjin's expression darkened completely, revealing a hint of sinister intent.
He recalled the scene in the study a few days ago.
But no matter what, he would not let her go.
But the next moment, Cui Yiluo took out his official documents from a small drawer on the table. She could come and go freely in his study, and the guards, who had never dared to stop her before, were now even more sensible and dared not stop her.
Cui Yiluo saw his expression change suddenly, his eyes filled with complex emotions, and he stared at her intently.
She was still sitting on his lap, and his arms were still around her slender waist, but the atmosphere between them suddenly became solemn and heavy.
The distant sound of firecrackers echoed outside the window, breaking the festive atmosphere of New Year's Eve.
Cui Yiluo was about to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of firecrackers. She then calmly held the document and waited for the firecrackers to burn out. However, these few short breaths seemed to be infinitely long. Jiang Yunxin's expression grew more and more somber, as if a storm was about to break out at any moment.
After the firecrackers finished burning, silence returned to all sides.
“You know,” Jiang Yunjin said in a deep voice.
Cui Yiluo opened the document and placed it on the table. The candlelight shone through the pink embroidered lotus lampshade, illuminating the document clearly.
It clearly states that he left the capital in February of the fifteenth year of Yongming and arrived in Ningzhou in March.
Cui Yiluo gave a soft "hmm". "You've been to Ningzhou. You saw me back then, didn't you?"
Jiang Yunjin looked directly into her eyes without flinching. Now that the truth was laid bare, he no longer concealed it. "Yes."
Although Cui Yiluo had guessed that they had met before when she saw the fortune slip in his old clothes, otherwise Jiang Yunjin would not have told Old Madam Jiang that they had a childhood friendship, she was still shocked when he actually admitted it.
"when?"
The man who held her on his lap didn't answer, his eyes fixed on her with a dark expression.
In an instant, Cui Yiluo's expression changed, her eyes filled with barely suppressed shock as she looked at him, her voice almost trembling.
"The person in the cave... was it you?"
She had never before compared the destitute, hopeless boy in the cave to the brilliant, handsome, and outstanding young man before her.
However, she didn't go out much in March of that year. After being deliberately left in the wild by Madam Yao during a spring outing, she was even more focused on getting back the shops under her birth mother's name, so she went out even less.
Wang Yuheng once mentioned that when Jiang Yunjin's mother passed away, she came to Shengjing to attend the funeral. At that time, Jiang Yunjin was sixteen years old and had already grown into a handsome and elegant young man.
Jiang Yunjin was fifteen when he arrived in Ningzhou, but he must have already shown remarkable talent by then, so it's impossible for her to forget him.
Unless, she didn't see his face clearly at all.
The forsythia in the study, so withered it would crumble at the slightest touch, yet carefully treasured by him, was a gift from her.
The forsythia tree he planted in front of the bedroom, the one she can see now, upon closer inspection of its roots and height, seems to have been planted for five or six years. It was planted after he returned from Ningzhou.
The reason she remembered the silky feel of his old sleeves was because when he was walking her down the mountain, the mud was slippery after the rain, and she stumbled. He steadied her, and her hands gripped his sleeves at that moment. She had never been exposed to fine silk fabrics before, which is why it left such a deep impression.
Inside the cave, the person who listened to her recount her father's cowardice, her stepmother's mistreatment, and her younger brother's bullying, understood her scheming and ruthlessness, knew about her past misery and wretchedness, and even offered her advice on how to take back the shop, was Jiang Yunjin.
No wonder Manager Liu knew she had managed the shop. She initially thought it was because Old Madam Jiang had investigated her, but Old Madam Jiang was unaware of it. So that's how it is.
In the dim candlelight, the man's face was still handsome, but Cui Yiluo felt that he was blurry and unfamiliar.
Her unfamiliar gaze seemed to sting him. He suddenly tightened his arms, pressing her closer to him. His straight nose lightly touched her soft cheek, and a strong sense of possession rose in his dark eyes.
“It’s me. Aro doesn’t want that person to be me, does she?”
During the summer hunt, she lied and claimed that she and he were the only ones sheltering from the rain in the cave. Although this was true, she clearly didn't know that he was also from Ningzhou at that time. In her eyes, he was a past she wanted to erase.
His low voice resonated in Cui Yiluo's ears, making her heart tremble.
Before Cui Yiluo could answer, he said again, "Aluo, I both hope you remember me and hope you forget me."
Cui Yiluo was taken aback. "Why?"
His thin lips curved slightly, but his eyes held a suppressed bitterness and self-mockery.
“Back then, you didn’t want me to know about your miserable state, and it’s the same for me now.”
Cui Yiluo remembered his pain and repression at that time, but she did not expect that the reason he deliberately hid it from her and even lied to her when she asked was because of this.
Seemingly noticing the surprise in her eyes, he spoke softly, his voice sounding somewhat unreal in the deep night, "You are the most special person to me. I also hope that you have me in your heart."
If one knew that he had such a shameful past, it would be hard not to feel disgust.
A few moments of silence filled the room. Jiang Yunjin's eyes grew increasingly somber, like a criminal awaiting final judgment, yet the guillotine hesitated to fall. In the end, the light of hope was almost completely extinguished in his eyes.
He pursed his lips, his face tense, as if he was trying hard to suppress the surging waves in his heart.
"We need to keep watch tonight, but I can do it. You can get settled first."
He changed the subject, looked away, and began to lift her off his lap.
Cui Yiluo suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and spoke in a deep voice.
"If that's the case, then you knew everything about me from the beginning, so why did you still develop feelings for me?"
Jiang Yunjin stopped abruptly, looked up at her, his dark eyes reflecting the candlelight. He stared at her for a few moments, as if only then realizing the meaning behind her words, and slowly spoke.
"So, you have feelings for me?"
Author's Note: A-Luo: I didn't say that [doge emoji]
Thank you to the babies for the nutrient solution! [heart emoji]
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