“Has Shen Zilan still not come back all this time?”
Xing’er was kneading her legs. She nodded. “Yes. I sent someone to the government office to ask around. Apparently, the Young Master goes to work as usual during the day, but as soon as night falls, he starts drinking himself senseless. No matter how much his attendants try to stop him, they can’t.”
Cui Yunchu’s brows drew together slightly.
Had he really taken such a hard blow?
But if that was the case, why didn’t he come back and ask Xiabai for help? If he liked the girl, he could simply marry her.
“Has Mother not asked about it either?”
Xing’er shook her head. “I haven’t heard of any movement from the old madam.”
Cui Yunchu felt that something was off. If Shen Zilan were truly favored, he wouldn’t be receiving this kind of treatment.
In less than ten days, Chen Miaohe would be getting married.
Xiabai had also been rather busy lately. By the time he returned to the residence, it was already dusk. As usual, Cui Yunchu went out to greet him, rushing happily into his arms.
No matter how tired Xiabai was, seeing her always swept his exhaustion away. He opened his arms and caught her. “It’s only just gotten dark, and you’re already missing me?”
Cui Yunchu pouted. “Of course. I spent the entire day having Xing’er knead my waist. What about you? How are you holding up?”
There were quite a few servants standing in the courtyard. At Cui Yunchu’s unabashed words, they all tactfully lowered their heads. Xiabai’s face reddened faintly as he gave her waist a light pat.
“You’re the lady of the household now, at least act like it.”
What would the servants think if they saw her behaving like this?
Cui Yunchu snorted. “That’s still better than you bottling up your lust.”
“…”
The two of them walked inside hand in hand. Xiabai leaned close to Cui Yunchu’s ear and asked in a low voice, “Were you like this with Prince An and the Crown Prince before?”
The smile in Cui Yunchu’s eyes froze. She frowned at Xiabai.
“Are you done yet?”
Ever since their marriage, the Crown Prince and Prince An had practically been stuck on his lips. He simply couldn’t let it go and seemed determined to ask her about them eight hundred times a day.
“I’m just asking.” Xiabai slipped an arm around her waist. “Come on, tell me. Were you?”
Cui Yunchu answered without the slightest hesitation. “I never cuddled up to them, so why would I say those flirtatious things?”
“…”
Xiabai clapped a hand over her mouth, only for Cui Yunchu to slap it away.
Xing’er had prepared the hot water. After Xiabai bathed and changed, he immediately went back to clinging to Cui Yunchu.
“Don’t you have official business to attend to?”
“Let me hold you for a while.”
“Come on.” Cui Yunchu rose to her feet. “We’ll go hold each other on the bed.”
“…”
Xiabai’s expression stiffened.
It seemed that ever since they were married, they had hardly exchanged a proper conversation. Everything they said was either indecent or shocking enough to ruin their reputations if anyone overheard them.
He wondered whether other newlywed couples behaved the same way.
At last, the two of them managed to eat their meal in peace, after which Cui Yunchu followed Xiabai to the study.
“Do you know what’s been going on with Shen Zilan lately?”
“He’s your nephew.”
“I know that,” Cui Yunchu said.
Xiabai sat behind his desk and looked up at Cui Yunchu, who was watching him intently. “Are you perhaps a little too concerned about him?”
Those two words—“stimulate him”—were enough to haunt him for the rest of his life.
If the books had not been part of Cui Yunchu’s dowry, Xiabai would have burned them all long ago.
Cui Yunchu walked over and sat on his lap, winding both arms around his neck. The displeasure in his eyes immediately transformed into starlight, and the corners of his lips curved up in delight.
“He’s a member of the Shen family. As the Mistress of the Shen household, of course I have to take care of him.”
Xiabai said, “If he truly likes Miss Chen, he should come and ask me for help. Since he hasn’t, that means the girl isn’t all that important to him. Forcing her to marry him would only demean her.”
“What I mean is…” Cui Yunchu rested her chin in her hand. “I’m worried that he’ll drink himself to death if he’s left alone.”
Xiabai cast her a sidelong glance. “What devious scheme are you plotting now?”
Cui Yunchu smiled.
She had always been a person who held grudges. That basket had landed squarely on her head and left her with quite a bump. It had hurt so badly that she had been afraid to touch it for several days.
Those two little brats…
Xiabai handled his official documents without allowing Cui Yunchu to get off his lap. The two of them maintained that strange position for a full half hour.
At last, he finished reviewing the documents. Cui Yunchu’s entire body had gone stiff from sitting there, and she immediately tried to stand. But he seized her right leg and pulled it to the other side.
Cui Yunchu ended up straddling him, her waist pressed against the desk.
The desk became the two of them’s newest battlefield. Yu Feng and Xing’er, standing guard outside the door, had long since grown used to it. Their faces remained perfectly calm, their eyes clear and serene, as though they were preparing to shave their heads and become monks.
It was deep into the night.
“A Chu, you have nothing to do at home. How about writing me a letter every day?”
Cui Yunchu pretended not to hear him.
“A Chu, Prince An keeps using this to tease me. I want one too.” He shifted Cui Yunchu’s body slightly.
Cui Yunchu played dead.
“A Chu.”
“A Chu…”
“I put that silver hairpin of your mother’s in your jewelry box.”
Cui Yunchu’s lashes trembled.
Xiabai curled his lips into a smile and flipped over to press her down once more.
“Fine, fine, I’ll write you one. I’ll write you as many as you want.” Cui Yunchu was exhausted and half-asleep. “Get off me. I’ll write it for you.”
…
The end of the year drew closer and closer, and the residence had already begun preparing everything needed for the New Year. But before that, there was an even more important matter: the memorial day of the late father and elder brother of the Shen family was approaching.
Cui Yunchu went to Dowager Shen’s courtyard early in the morning.
“Mother.”
“What brings you here?” Dowager Shen looked slightly surprised and immediately had Cui Yunchu seated.
After all, her daughter-in-law was not the sort of person who got out of bed before the sun was high in the sky.
Cui Yunchu considered her words before saying, “Five days from now is the memorial day of Father and Eldest Brother. I’m new to the family and don’t know how these arrangements are usually handled, so I’ll have to trouble Mother.”
At that, the smile on Dowager Shen’s face faded slightly.
“Oh. Their memorial day is coming.”
Cui Yunchu glanced at the old madam.
The way she had said it made it sound as though she had forgotten—or perhaps simply didn’t care much.
She had heard that her mother-in-law and husband did not share a particularly close relationship. Could that be the reason?
Still, it was certainly inappropriate for Cui Yunchu to handle the matter herself. After all, she was a Cui. For the sake of caution, it would be better to leave everything to Dowager Shen, lest anyone feel uncomfortable.
“Since it’s their memorial day, just make the arrangements yourself. There’s no need for anything too elaborate. Have Xiabai and Zilan go pay their respects, and that will be enough.”
“…”
“Mother, wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to take care of this?” Cui Yunchu asked tactfully.
The Cui family, after all, was… the murderer of the Shen family’s father and elder brother.
“There’s nothing inappropriate about it.” Dowager Shen lowered her eyes, her expression cool and detached. “Since you married Xiabai, you are the Mistress of the Shen household. Everything in the Shen family is yours to decide. If anyone has an objection, they can come to me.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
Cui Yunchu bowed with tears of gratitude in her eyes. After exchanging a few more words with Dowager Shen, she left.
“Miss, the old madam is truly broad-minded. She treats you so well,” Xing’er said admiringly once they had left the courtyard.
Cui Yunchu glanced sideways at her without replying and quickened her pace back to her own courtyard.
Only after sitting down in a chair did she say, “Don’t you find it strange?”
“As the killer’s daughter, I can’t help feeling that it’s inappropriate for me to arrange the memorial rites for the dead. Yet the old madam had lost both her husband and her son, and still held not the slightest resentment toward me.”
To put it bluntly, entrusting the memorial rites to her wasn’t it an insult to the deceased?
Yet from the very first time they met, the old madam had treated her with warmth—and had even tried to bring her and her son together.
Just how broad-minded and generous did a person have to be to go so far?
