She wanted to kick him in the stomach, but somehow couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“Hmm… How about I tear the skin off my face and stick it onto yours?” Even if she curled herself into a ball, she still couldn’t match his shamelessness.
Shen Xiabai clearly no longer knew what shame was. His hand did not move away; instead, he gave her a neither-light-nor-heavy pinch. “Are you admitting it or not?”
It didn’t hurt, but it made her want to die.
Cui Yunchu stubbornly lifted her chin. “You… you… you try smacking my butt again.”
“Smack.”
He actually did it.
“What are you going to do about it?” Shen Xiabai arched a brow. There wasn’t the slightest trace of his usual aloof, high-minded demeanor. He was plainly an utterly shameless, womanizing playboy.
Footsteps approached. The defiance instantly vanished from Cui Yunchu’s face, and she immediately pressed her palms together. “I admit it, I admit it! Please, I’m begging you.”
Only then did Shen Xiabai release her, satisfied.
The footsteps drew closer. Sitting on the stone table, Cui Yunchu could only watch helplessly as Prince An walked past along the nearby path, holding Cui Yunfeng’s hand and looking straight ahead.
“Elder Sister,” Cui Yunfeng began, just as she was about to come over, but Prince An pulled her back and conveniently covered her eyes.
“Good girl, don’t look. It’s an eyesore.”
Cui Yunfeng was led away.
From beginning to end, Shen Xiabai never once looked back.
Cui Yunchu was furious. “You’ve completely ruined my reputation.”
Shen Xiabai didn’t care in the slightest. He wound one of the strands of hair falling over her chest around his fingertip. “They used to do this all the time, didn’t they? This is called treating others as they have treated you.”
That sounded quite reasonable!!!!
Shen Xiabai showed no sign of stopping. Instead, he pressed his advantage even further. “Since Yunchu has admitted it, when are we getting married?”
“Married?”
It was as if countless question marks were spinning wildly around Cui Yunchu’s head.
“Of course.” Shen Xiabai cupped her face, smiling like a shameless rogue. “Our affair is already known by everyone. Surely I can’t keep wasting my time with you indefinitely while remaining without a name or status.”
He made it sound as though she were some heartless, faithless man.
Cui Yunchu suddenly fell silent.
“Isn’t it fine to go on like this? At worst, I just won’t charge you any more money. You can kiss me whenever you like…”
Marriage meant making things official. It meant obtaining the Cui family’s approval—and, more importantly, the emperor’s. The emperor would probably never agree.
Cui Yunchu kicked her legs aimlessly, her eyes lowered. “What’s so good about getting married? Isn’t sneaking around more exciting?”
They always said a wife was not as appealing as a concubine, a concubine not as appealing as a secret lover, and a secret lover not as appealing as someone you couldn’t have. The hardest to resist was the one who remained out of reach.
Shen Xiabai’s expression darkened. “Why not? Are you afraid I’ll get in the way of your visits to Bai Ye at the Nanfeng House?”
Shen Xiabai began rubbing the bump on her forehead again. “A man like him only cares about money. Yunchu, there’s no one in this world who treats you better than I do.”
Cui Yunchu’s eyes suddenly began to sting. She turned her face away and narrowed her eyes at the surrounding scenery.
“Yunchu, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Cui Yunchu wiped at the corner of her eye. When she turned back to Shen Xiabai, a smile was already on her face. “The wind got in my eyes.”
“I’ll blow it out for you.”
Shen Xiabai actually bent down, held her eyelids open, and seriously blew into her eyes. Cui Yunchu stared at him with wide eyes. Perhaps because they were already sore, tears began to spill out.
“There. Better now.” Shen Xiabai wiped away her tears with his fingertip.
“Shen Xiabai,” Cui Yunchu suddenly said.
“Hmm?”
Cui Yunchu looked at him. “Let’s just keep our relationship this way. Whenever we want to see each other, we can do so freely.”
Shen Xiabai’s smile froze, and a trace of icy chill gathered in his eyes. “You want me to remain your secret lover forever—your illicit lover, hidden away where no one can see?”
Cui Yunchu said nothing. Her red lips were pressed into a tight line.
“Yunchu, considering that I found the old bastard such a perfectly suitable marriage, shouldn’t you give me a reward?”
Cui Yunchu smiled faintly. Then she suddenly hooked her arms around his neck, pulled him down, and took the initiative to kiss him.
Shen Xiabai’s dark eyes slowly closed. One hand supported the back of her head while the other encircled her waist as he kissed her back.
From a fierce storm to a gentle drizzle, and then to lingering, unhurried kisses—
“You’re really good!”
Cui Yunchu praised him. The corners of Shen Xiabai’s lips lifted high. If he had a tail, it would surely have been sticking straight up into the sky.
With such intimacy between them, how could this not be mutual affection?
“Yunchu, we’ve already gone this far. Won’t you agree to marry me?”
Cui Yunchu’s eyelashes trembled. “Have you forgotten what you said before? You said you would never marry a daughter of the Cui family.”
“I was talking nonsense.”
Cui Yunchu raised a hand and pinched Shen Xiabai’s lips shut. “Lord Shen, Cui Yunchu is Cui Yunchu, and the Cui family is the Cui family. The affair between Cui Yunchu and you has nothing to do with the Cui family. Do you understand what I mean?”
Like a shameless rogue, Shen Xiabai took advantage of every pause in her words to steal another kiss. “But I love you, so I love everything connected to you.”
Cui Yunchu thought: Then what about her family? What was she supposed to do about that?
She didn’t want the proud, noble Lord Shen to keep lowering his head to his enemies because of her.
She was afraid that, because of her, Shen Xiabai’s arrogance and dignity would be broken—and that he would no longer be the man who had first fallen in love with her.
Shen Xiabai kept kissing her as he said, “That horse of yours is probably furious enough to explode today. Be careful when you go back. Still, with Cui Yunli’s happy occasion taking place, things should ease up a little.”
So it really was him.
Cui Yunchu blinked and nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ve prepared for everything.”
“Yunchu, if all else fails, just give him a bowl of poison and let him lie quietly in bed. It’ll save us the trouble of watching him jump around and stir up chaos.”
Under Cui Yunchu’s palm was the man’s lean, powerful waist, and every so often he pecked her on the lips. Their position reminded Cui Yunchu of the villainous male and female leads in those storybooks.
They were scheming about how to kill someone while carrying on their secret affair.
Cui Yunchu frowned. “Wouldn’t that be a little too much?”
People like that in storybooks generally never met a good end.
Shen Xiabai was just about to press her for an answer about marriage when Yu Feng’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Master, the examinations are over.”
That was fast.
Shen Xiabai frowned, sounding somewhat reluctant as he answered.
“What was the result?”
Yu Feng replied, “Young Master Cui was selected and appointed Vice Minister of War. The official appointment document has already been issued.”
Such a swift promotion—and straight to Vice Minister of War. Unless someone had pulled strings behind the scenes, how could it possibly have happened?
Shen Xiabai said nothing, but Cui Yunchu was astonished.
The position Tang Qingwan had wanted for him was nowhere near this high. He had been appointed Vice Minister of War right from the start?
She frowned and looked at Shen Xiabai.
“What is it? Not happy?” Other than when he was speaking, Shen Xiabai’s mouth had scarcely stopped moving.
Cui Yunchu shook her head slightly. “No.”
It was simply such a high position. How was he going to explain it to the emperor?
“Shen Xiabai, actually, you didn’t need to—”
“Master,” Yu Feng’s voice came again, this time with some urgency. “A message has arrived from the palace. You are to enter the palace immediately.”
Shen Xiabai calmly acknowledged him, then lowered his eyes to Cui Yunchu. “I have to go. Cheer me up.”
“How?”
“Tell me you like me.”
“…”
Cui Yunchu pursed her lips and refused to say a word.
Shen Xiabai raised a brow. Then he suddenly grabbed her around the waist and lifted her completely off the ground, bouncing her up and down in the air.
Cui Yunchu immediately began shrieking.
“Are you going to say it or not?”
Cui Yunchu stubbornly lifted her chin. “Put me down!”
Shen Xiabai raised an eyebrow and kept jostling her until Cui Yunchu grew dizzy and nauseous. “Speak up. If you don’t, I’ll hit you again.”
“I… uh… like you, uh…”
Shen Xiabai was certain she was doing it on purpose.
He hoisted her over his shoulder and gave her bottom a few firm but not-too-hard swats before finally setting her down, satisfied.
Cui Yunchu: “…”
She glared at him, her face flushed bright red. “I said it, didn’t I?”
