Shen Xiabai crouched down and wrapped an arm around her waist. After hearing the whole story, he could not suppress the smile at the corners of his lips.
He lowered his head and kissed her forehead. “You’re such a shameless little menace, yet you still have your scruples? Why didn’t you just say you wanted to come back?”
Cui Yunchu had never cared whether something was awkward or appropriate. If she had something to say, she simply said it.
Cui Yunchu leaned against his chest. “But she’s your mother. I had to show her some respect.”
Her coaxing melted Shen Xiabai’s heart. He cupped her face and kissed her passionately, reluctant to part from her.
“So I’m that important to A Chu? More important than gold and jewels?”
He knew better than anyone how much Cui Yunchu loved money.
“That’s not what I said.” Cui Yunchu shoved him away. “You still have to get my things back.”
“…”
Shen Xiabai tapped her on the head with a crooked finger. Cui Yunchu wrapped her arms around his waist and rubbed against him. “Think of something. Those were all the valuable things I had.”
“All right, all right. I’ll think of something. I’ll go ask for them back later.” He held back a laugh and kissed her again. “A Chu, I really like you.”
“Old Madam said she’d give me an ornament to match that screen. Don’t forget to get that back for me too.”
“…” Shen Xiabai’s expression darkened. “Can we not talk about money for once when we’re being romantic?”
When he said he liked her, shouldn’t she have hugged his waist and said she liked him too?
Cui Yunchu glared at him. “How can you forget your roots? If you hadn’t been so generous in the beginning, tempting me with gold and jewels, how would I ever have fallen in love with you?”
Now that he had won her over, he was acting as though those precious metals were vulgar.
“…”
Shen Xiabai was rendered speechless.
As he had said, Shen Xiabai’s courtyard was indeed very large. Cui Yunchu had visited his study once before, and as soon as she entered the courtyard this time, she headed straight there.
She went directly to the second hidden drawer between the desk and the bookcase, pulled it open, and took out the brocade box inside.
The luminous pearls were still there.
She narrowed her eyes and counted them carefully. Then she began grabbing handfuls and stuffing them into her sleeves.
Shen Xiabai closed his eyes tightly. Standing helplessly in the room, he watched her back. “After we eat, take the box with you too.”
The moment Cui Yunchu heard that, she immediately poured everything back out, then tucked both the pearls and the box into her sleeve.
She turned around and stared at Shen Xiabai, her clear eyes narrowed. “Why do I feel as though there are fewer pearls? Did you give them to another woman?”
“…”
“A Chu, you can’t make reckless accusations or slander people without proof.”
“They are missing.” Cui Yunchu looked absolutely certain. “I secretly counted them the last time I came. Three are gone.”
“I didn’t give them to anyone.” Shen Xiabai walked over and put an arm around her. “With a fierce and stingy wife like you, how would I dare give them to someone else? I’m already afraid I can’t afford to support just you.”
“It’s getting late. Hurry and go eat. Don’t let yourself go hungry.”
Cui Yunchu shoved his arm away, her eyes turning red. “Stop trying to distract me with that nonsense. Shen Xiabai, we’re not done until you explain yourself today. Tell me—who did you give them to? Was it that wretched princess?”
What a colossal injustice!
A Chu was treating him like Prince An.
“No. Even if you beat me to death, I didn’t give them to anyone.”
Cui Yunchu stared at him, her eyes seeming ready to spill tears.
Shen Xiabai’s heart ached. “Did you count them wrong?”
“I did not.”
“…”
Shen Xiabai looked at her helplessly. Cui Yunchu stared back for a while, sniffed, and asked, “You really didn’t give them away?”
“I didn’t.” Shen Xiabai’s answer was firm and decisive.
“Oh, good.” Cui Yunchu instantly dropped her pitiful expression. “I was only testing you.”
With that, she walked toward the main hall as though nothing had happened, leaving Shen Xiabai standing where he was, shaken to the core.
That had been close. He had almost confessed.
The kitchen had prepared several more dishes than usual that day. The steward said it was on Old Madam’s orders, since she did not know what Cui Yunchu liked to eat.
There were only two or three servants attending Shen Xiabai in his courtyard, and not a single maid. While the two of them ate, Yu Feng and the others stood guard outside.
“Xing’er, I didn’t know what you liked, so I bought you some candied treats.”
Xing’er gave Yu Feng a strange look. “What I like is none of your business.”
Yu Feng: “…”
Why was it so different from what was happening inside?
Inside, Shen Xiabai thoughtfully served Cui Yunchu food and carefully picked the bones from her fish.
Cui Yunchu’s mother had never raised her with such care. She had practically raised herself, living however she could and getting by as long as she stayed alive.
Cui Yunchu gazed at Shen Xiabai’s face, narrowing her eyes in contentment.
She almost did not want to return to the Cui residence. If only she could marry him and bring her grandmother along too.
Back in the spring, she would never have imagined that things would turn out this way. She certainly never would have imagined that the man she had once avoided at all costs would become the person who loved her most.
His arrival, and the kindness he showed her, had come at exactly the right time. Cui Yunchu knew very well that she had initially fallen for him because of the way he treated her. If someone else had regarded her as their very life, perhaps everything might have turned out differently.
Perhaps it was simply because he was the only person in the world who loved her.
“What are you looking at?” Shen Xiabai raised his eyes and asked with a smile.
Cui Yunchu smiled as well. “I heard that you once accompanied the princess by the pond to admire the scenery and watch the colorful fish.”
“…”
Shen Xiabai’s hand paused as he picked out the fish bones. He suddenly felt that Cui Yunchu was even more full of barbs than the fish.
Cui Yunchu smiled sweetly. “Just how many women have you shown those few dead fish to, Lord Shen?”
Having learned from his previous experience, Shen Xiabai refused to admit anything. “No, A Chu. Don’t keep accusing me falsely.”
Cui Yunchu slapped the table, her voice dropping. “You still dare to lie? I heard the servants discussing it.”
She even clearly recited the exact month and day, and where he had been standing.
Shen Xiabai froze.
This time, she really was not testing him. More importantly, there did seem to have been such an incident.
Now he could not clear his name even if he had a hundred mouths.
“A Chu, I’ll take you back to the Cui residence first. It’s so late. Old Madam Cui must be worried about you.”
“Did you give the pearls to that wretched princess?”
“Se… Second Master.” A timid voice suddenly came from the doorway, interrupting Cui Yunchu’s attack.
She immediately put away her fierce expression and smiled sweetly.
The old woman no longer dared to behave as recklessly as she had that afternoon. She was so frightened that her heart nearly stopped. What sort of person was Second Master? Yet in front of Eldest Miss Cui, he did not even dare make a sound.
The old woman bent so low her waist nearly snapped. “Second Master, Eldest Miss Cui, Old Madam sent this servant to deliver a gift to Eldest Miss Cui.”
She waved her hand, and several people immediately carried in a chest.
“Old Madam offers this small token and hopes Eldest Miss Cui will like it.”
After saying that, she hurriedly waved everyone away and fled as though her life depended on it.
No wonder people said women were fickle. It was truly not wrong at all. Who would have thought that the woman who had been as meek as a cat before Old Madam during the day could be so terrifying in private?
Cui Yunchu watched the old woman flee and wanted to bang her head against the wall.
She had completely humiliated herself.
Shen Xiabai said, “Why don’t you… take a look at the gift Mother sent you first?”
Cui Yunchu glared at him, but she still stepped forward and opened the chest.
The contents were all very familiar—they were the things she had packed earlier that day, only with additional items added: more dresses and jewelry, more hairpins and dangling ornaments, and a greater number of banknotes, which Cui Yunchu was counting.
As luck would have it, the old servant woman came back just then and met Yunchu’s eyes as she counted the notes.
The woman hurriedly lowered her head, pretending she had seen nothing. “The Old Madam says it’s too late today, so she would like Eldest Miss Cui to stay the night. Please make yourself at home. She will send someone to inform Old Madam Cui.”
Cui Yunchu’s face burned with embarrassment. “Please thank the Old Madam for me.”
She quickly hid the banknotes behind her back.
After the woman left, Shen Xiabai tactfully closed the door and gestured for Cui Yunchu to continue counting.
Cui Yunchu shot him a glare before resuming. There were indeed quite a few more banknotes.
Her mood improved considerably, and her eyes curved into a smile.
Shen Xiabai let out a long sigh of relief. “It’s getting late. A Chu, you should go to sleep.”
The two of them held the final line of defense, lying on the same bed with a pillow between them.
Shen Xiabai’s bed was much more comfortable than the one in Chu Garden. Since she was in unfamiliar surroundings, Cui Yunchu was especially alert. She lay on her side, staring at Shen Xiabai’s profile.
His features were sharply defined, his lines smooth, and his nose high and straight.
“What did you and that wretched princess talk about that day?”
“…”
Shen Xiabai’s eyelashes trembled. He kept his eyes closed and neither moved nor answered, as though he were already asleep.
Only when Cui Yunchu kicked him hard in the leg did he react. “I’m asking you a question.”
Shen Xiabai decided that tomorrow he absolutely had to ask Imperial Physician Chen for some calming incense.
Late at night, with the wind howling outside the window lattice, someone suddenly knocked on the door twice—not heavily, but not lightly either.
“My lord, there’s news.”
Shen Xiabai threw on a robe, got out of bed, and left the room as quietly as possible, heading to the study.
Yu Feng wore a solemn expression. “The Empress Dowager left the palace incognito and went to the Ministry of Justice to visit the Second Princess. She stayed for half an hour before leaving.”
