Chapter 30 The Rain Is Coming, So Please Don't Go
A sneer came from the wind: "That sword strike back then only ruined your voice. Since you're still alive and so concerned about her, why did it take you five years to show up?"
Shen Yun turned around and looked at him, her gaze falling on the dark brown bruise that was barely concealed by his collar. She spoke with feigned concern, "Lord Song, you should take better care of yourself first."
Her tone became slightly amused, and she patted his shoulder, "It must hurt a lot, right? You've barely survived to this day, so you should cherish this life."
Song Ying stood frozen in place like a stone statue, her face grim. After a long while, she slowly turned around to watch Shen Yun's retreating figure.
His hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched into a fist.
"Don't worry, Chief Engineer, he won't be arrogant for long." Fang Yue walked up from the bottom of the mountain path, stood beside Song Ying with great interest, put his arm around Song Ying's back, and patted him on the other shoulder.
Song Ying was, in the end, just a carpenter. He was nearly killed by Shen Yun's sword back then, and now his body would collapse if the wind blew him down.
Fang Yue's embrace and pat were almost too much for him to bear, and the mountain wind was strong, so he immediately started coughing.
"Oh dear, Lord Song, hurry, it's getting late. Come back to the manor with me. His Highness the Third Prince instructed me to take good care of you." Fang Yue quickly patted his back to soothe him and took Song Ying back to the city.
These frail Confucian scholars are truly useless; they'd fall over in the slightest breeze.
Fang Yue looked down on him somewhat.
-
Shen Yun's actions tonight were somewhat crazy, going deeper and deeper each time.
Lin Shutang screamed at him to stop, and Shen Yun simply covered her mouth.
Lin Shutang's eyes welled up with tears, threatening to fall, and she made soft, sobbing sounds as her lips were covered, making her look weak and pitiful.
Shen Yun couldn't bear to see her like this, but it felt like a beast was about to burst forth from his chest, and he couldn't help but unleash his uncontrollable rage.
There was something elusive about him, and he desperately needed something to prove it.
This proves she's still alive, and that everything happening right now is real.
I want to bully her, I want to make her cry. I wish I could be entangled with her until death.
Shen Jun lowered his head to kiss her eyes. He didn't want her to look at him like that; it would soften his heart.
If you soften your heart, she will take advantage of you.
...
Lin Shutang was completely unconscious, and when Shen Jun held her in his arms, her eyelids were incredibly heavy.
She had originally wanted to inquire about Shen Yun's seal, but now she was too exhausted to stay awake and fell asleep.
When Lin Shutang woke up the next day, Shen Yun had already left, and he was filled with regret.
Every day she was delayed in finding the seal, the chances of something going wrong increased.
Having witnessed what happened last night, Lin Shutang was prepared for tonight. After Shen Jun got into bed, he spoke first.
"Is something bothering you? Are those officials difficult to deal with?" Lin Shutang thought of the topics she had prepared during the day and picked one out.
Just as Shen Yun was about to lift her blanket, he heard Lin Shutang's words and saw her with her hands outside, tightly clutching the blanket, blinking her almond-shaped eyes at him.
Shen Yun chuckled, then lowered his hand that was about to lift the blanket from hers. He could clearly see that Lin Shutang's fingers, which were gripping the blanket, curled up even tighter.
Shen Yun wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.
Lin Shutang breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's rare that you care about these things." Shen Yun rested her chin on Lin Shutang's head, smelled the lovely scent of crabapple blossoms, and guessed that she must have gone to the crabapple grove again today.
"You are the heir apparent and a general personally appointed by the Emperor. How could anyone possibly give you face?" Lin Shutang couldn't help but be curious. She shifted in his arms, adjusting to a more comfortable position.
She continued, "If you can't stand it, just cut them in half with one stroke!"
Shen Yun was quite pleased with her praise when she suddenly paused, startled by the next sentence.
That sounds a bit sarcastic, doesn't it?
Lin Shutang was indeed being sarcastic, saying, "Anyway, you've done this kind of thing quite a lot."
"Who said anything to you?" Shen Yun frowned, her voice turning deep.
"It's nothing." Lin Shutang turned over in his arms. "It just reminds me of how the people who used to serve me always ended up like this when they made mistakes."
"Shouldn't you be punished for making a mistake?" Shen Yun grabbed her shoulders and turned her back, looking down at her with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Are you going to bring up old grievances with me again?"
Lin Shutang looked away, not wanting to talk to him.
Sometimes, she really had a hard time understanding Shen Yun.
Shen Yun hugged her even tighter, burying his head in the crook of her neck, his voice muffled, "I'm happy just to see you."
Shen Yun couldn't understand why he had become someone who killed for pleasure in Lin Shutang's eyes.
In fact, he felt that he was quite easy to coax. What was so great about other people's lives? He only wanted Lin Shutang. Shen Yun did not think he was greedy.
"So please don't leave?" he suddenly said.
Lin Shutang assumed he was just spouting nonsense again, since she never really understood what Shen Yun was saying anyway.
Or perhaps she understood, but it was intentional, meant to make her aware of the situation.
Just like now, Lin Shutang was about to go to sleep when she suddenly heard these words. She was startled, as if Shen Yun knew something and was using such ambiguous words to warn her.
Lin Shutang froze for a long while. Shen Yun didn't continue speaking. She tentatively asked, "What do you mean by that? Where can I go?"
Shen Yun buried his face in her neck, and as he did so, he became restless. His lips began to kiss her neck intentionally or unintentionally, and one hand encircled her waist. His cool fingertips caressed her outstretched wrist, slowly coiling around it like a venomous snake, until they intertwined tightly.
He moved upwards and bit her earlobe, as if laughing, "Yes, otherwise if I catch you, I'll break your legs."
...
Half a month has passed since the last message from Shenxiu Yan arrived.
Lin Shutang persevered and finally managed to extract the whereabouts of the seal from Shen Yun.
Shen Yun seemed completely unguarded around her, leaving military documents scribbled out on the desk. His official seal was kept in a drawer of the small table beside his bed.
Lin Shutang examined the small seal in his palm. The translucent white jade was carved with intricate patterns, and the bottom had a raised totem and a very small character "筠".
Shen Xiuyan told her that as long as she buried the seal under the third tree ten miles to the left of the crabapple grove, he would send someone to retrieve it.
Fortunately, Lin Shutang went to the crabapple grove to collect petals every day, so it was not surprising that he did all this.
At night, Shen Yun held Lin Shutang in his arms, saying, "Things here are almost over, and we'll be able to go back to the Duke's mansion soon."
Lin Shutang hummed in response, his eyelids too heavy to open.
Shen Yun brushed aside the wet hair on the side of her neck with her fingertips and stared at a certain empty space in the tent. "Grandmother sent someone to say that Yan'er has grown up a lot. He is very well-behaved and not like other children who make a fuss. He is very easy to take care of."
"Mmm." Lin Shutang responded softly, nestled against his chest, though it was unclear how much she heard.
Shen Yun looked down at her. "Shouldn't you make him new clothes? And a rattle drum, a necklace, all the other children have those too."
"Chen Jun." Lin Shutang's drowsiness had been dispelled by his words. She looked up from his embrace and glared at him with displeasure, not understanding what he was up to now.
Shen Yun wasn't annoyed by the shout; he smiled at her and said, "Yes. These things aren't urgent; they can be done back at the manor. Right?"
He asked her, as if he desperately wanted some kind of promise.
Lin Shutang looked at him suspiciously, trying to make sure Shen Yun's complexion was right, but the room was too dark and Shen Yun was facing away from the light.
Lin Shutang lowered her head again and softly hummed in agreement.
I sensed that Shen Yun was acting strangely tonight.
He is not a talkative person.
The servants were all placed in another residence by Shen Yun, so Shen Yun had to do the task of boiling water himself.
He pulled the sweat-soaked Lin Shutang out of the quilt and put her into the bathtub to wipe her body.
After cleaning her up, they carried her back to the bed, which now had a new brocade quilt.
By the time Shen Yun got back into bed, Lin Shutang had already drifted off to sleep.
He was still damp and chilled, and it took him a long time to warm up before he pulled Lin Shutang into his arms again.
Lin Shutang rested her head against his chest and casually wrapped her arm around his waist.
The night was quiet, with only the sound of each other's soft breathing.
Shen Yun hadn't slept; he kept his eyes open, staring at the top of the tent.
A long, long time passed, so long that Shen Yun thought Lin Shutang had long since fallen asleep, but then came Lin Shutang's soft and gentle voice from inside the moonlit curtains.
It was like a dream.
"Actually, I know that too."
Shen Yun paused for a moment, unsure if she was talking in her sleep. Then she heard her clear voice again, "I know you don't like light colors, but you always wear a bright white robe to make yourself seem approachable. You don't like spicy food, but you try to cater to my taste. You don't like sweets, but you always keep all kinds of sweet cakes in Jingyuan Residence."
“When you were in a bad mood, you would go to Lan Garden, which was your mother’s yard. You would clean the wooden house every day, and you would pile up shelf after shelf of the monthly publications from the woodworking shop. Your weary wet nurse said that you would go to see her every day before going to work.”
Her voice was soft and gentle, not at all jarring in the quiet night. Instead, it had a gentle, dream-inducing magic, so soothing and soft that you wanted to hear it a little longer.
Shen Yun felt as if she had been electrocuted, and her breathing became heavy.
She was responding to what he had said that night.
—"Because you never thought about getting to know me."
"Actually, I know all of this, Shen Jun." Lin Shutang opened her eyes from his embrace, staring vaguely at a certain spot in front of her.
"But all I know is what you want me to know. As for what I don't know, I instinctively feel that I don't have the ability or courage to pry into it. Shen Yun, we should never have started."
"Back then, at the walls of Yizhou, I should have..."
"Should I be the one to die?"
Shen Yun interrupted her, unable to resist letting out a cold laugh. Each word seemed to be ground out from between her teeth, instantly piercing her heart, which had just softened a little from Lin Shutang's words.
He rolled over and pinned her beneath him, and Lin Shutang's words, which she was about to say, were instantly cut off.
Moonlight streamed in through the window, bathing half of Shen Yun's face in its jade-like glow. Long eyelashes covered his dark eyes, which were as deep and unfathomable as ocean waves.
"Lin Shutang, do you think that saying these things will make me soften and let you go? Don't waste your time."
Lin Shutang looked at him, wanting to tell him that she had long since given up on him, so how could she have thought he would soften his heart?
Lin Shutang felt that Shen Yun did not have a clear understanding of herself.
But there's no point in saying all this, since she's leaving soon anyway.
She pouted and pushed him away. She had thought that since they were husband and wife, and she was about to leave, she wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with him. That's what he thought.
never mind.
"I'm going to sleep." Lin Shutang turned around and stopped talking.
Shen Yun stared at her retreating figure.
I didn't sleep a wink all night.
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Author's Note: I heard the call! [Let me see] But my typing speed is incredibly slow, and I can't possibly do a super long update, but I can add an extra chapter today. I'll post it later after I finish typing. [glasses]
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