“Young Miss…”
Jiang Xingyan hadn’t fully woken up yet when a cool, soft pair of lips pressed against her forehead.
Then they moved downward, grazing her eyes, the tip of her nose, pausing for a moment before settling firmly upon her lips.
She unconsciously curved her lips into a smile.
Last night, Yun-ge’er had clung to her, and she didn’t even know how long they’d kissed.
She’d barely managed to sleep a while before it seemed it was already time for the morning court.
She reached out and gently pushed Yun-ge’er. “Yun-ge’er, I’m awake.”
Her voice was lazy and sweet, so enticing it could melt one’s heart.
What answered her was a deeper kiss, even more possessive in nature, until she was left softly panting before he finally released her.
Yun Chunfeng tried desperately to hold back the desire threatening to burst forth from his heart. His voice was hoarse as his fingers brushed over Jiang Xingyan’s brows and eyes, utterly unable to get enough of her.
He had waited for this day for far, far too long.
“The Young Miss took pity on Yun-ge’er’s frail health and couldn’t bear to let Yun-ge’er travel back and forth, so you permitted Yun-ge’er to stay overnight in the Young Miss’s boudoir. That was already most improper.
Yun-ge’er truly couldn’t restrain his feelings and was rude to the Young Miss. That was truly inappropriate.
From now on, I will strictly observe the proper rules—until the day I welcome the Young Miss with ten miles of red wedding decorations and all due grandeur.”
Having said that, before Jiang Xingyan could scold him, he leaned in again, devouring the air from the Young Miss’s lips.
The deep affection and tenderness in it left Jiang Xingyan utterly flustered and enchanted.
But Yun Chunfeng had maintained the bottom line from beginning to end, not touching a single other place.
Even though they had, long ago, shared the most honest intimacy of skin against skin.
“This is… the last time for now.”
Jiang Xingyan lightly pounded his chest, got up with a flushed face, and took a good while to compose herself before calling Xiafeng and Qiuyan in to help her wash up and change clothes.
Yun Chunfeng was blind and couldn’t easily change clothes himself. Jiang Xingyan had originally intended to have Wang Qi help him, but seeing that pitiful look on his face as he waited for her, she decided to change him herself after all.
They finally made it to the Taiji Gate in time for the morning court.
The moment she stepped down from the carriage, she heard gasps and exclamations from the civil and military officials coming and going nearby.
“Is that the Jiang family’s young lady?”
“She’s actually such a devastating beauty—fish sink, geese fall, moon hides, flowers blush.”
“Hm? I once saw her on Vermilion Bird Avenue delivering pastries that the Empress likes to the rear palace. How did I not find her so stunningly beautiful then?”
“Perhaps it’s because she’s dressed especially grandly today?”
Liu Suwu, Fan Qing, Cui Yu, and Imperial Physician Sun gathered together, whispering among themselves.
“Is General Huo’s mother really that vicious?”
“Where else could you find such a beautiful daughter-in-law, plus a mountain of silver and family fortune?”
“Tell me about it. If I could marry someone like that, my mother would praise me eight hundred times a day, and she’d want to hand over the family assets for her to manage.”
Imperial Physician Sun stroked his beard and smiled without a word.
You lot don’t know how cunning and infuriating she can be!
Everyone was quietly discussing the major event that had happened a few days ago, each with their own feelings about it.
Unexpectedly, Huo Ci also arrived.
Everyone quickly nudged each other with their elbows and temporarily shut their mouths.
Huo Ci had spotted that figure he’d been longing for from far away, his heart already pounding like a war drum.
What it meant to feel “the closer to home, the more timid one becomes”—he had finally experienced it.
As he drew nearer, there was no one else in his eyes anymore, nor could he hear any other sound—only that graceful, elegant figure.
Today she wore a robe of ivory and crimson cloud brocade, intricately woven with gold and silver ruyi patterns, draped with a five-colored pearl cloud shoulder cape, her hair styled in the “Startling Swan” bun, with jewelry and ornaments perfectly matched.
Just a single red-gold hairpin with cloud and flower designs was enough to make no one dare look down on her.
Her whole being was like a celestial maiden from the nine heavens, drifting down to the mortal world. Even without wearing the formal robes of a titled lady, her bearing was incomparably noble—yet understated and gentle, never stealing the spotlight.
The Jiang Xingyan of today, though even more beautiful, had gained a steadiness and depth beyond the well-bred young lady she’d been in Jiangnan, all while retaining her liveliness.
She seemed more like the head of a great clan than a carefree young miss.
Huo Ci felt that he longed for A’yan to look back at him more than at any other time before.
He wanted to know if there was still a place for him in A’yan’s eyes.
He swung down from his horse and was about to approach when a figure in a dark blue Daoist robe with hidden crane patterns, draped in a pale dust-gray cloak, blocked his path.
Yun Chunfeng stood before Jiang Xingyan with little Ya in his arms, straight and tall, exuding the bearing of an immortal.
He leaned affectionately against Jiang Xingyan’s shoulder, lowering his head as if coquettishly whispering in her ear: “Someone wants to steal the Young Miss from Yun-ge’er.”
Jiang Xingyan scolded him playfully with a light punch: “I’m not an object. How could I be stolen away?”
That seemingly boneless pink fist was caught in an instant by Yun Chunfeng. Before she could struggle, their fingers were already tightly intertwined.
“The Young Miss must hold on to Yun-ge’er tightly. Yun-ge’er is blind and can’t see the road.”
Little Ya, in his arms, crossed her arms over her chest and looked speechless at her shameless daddy putting on an act.
Who knew who it was last night who had accurately carried her, fast asleep, to Aunt Qiuyan’s room?
Did that have anything to do with being blind?
“Hmph!”
Little Ya turned her head in displeasure, protesting in her sweet, childish voice.
If she weren’t afraid of tiring out her mama, little Ya would never let this uncle-turned-daddy hold her!
Huo Ci’s steps halted not far away.
His heart felt as if a box of coptis powder had been knocked over.
In an instant, all the fine, bitter powder seeped into every inch of his skin, every piece of his flesh, the bitterness twisting his heart into a tight knot.
Yun Chunfeng really was a perfect match for A’yan.
A match made in heaven.
Liu Suwu poked Fan Qing and gestured with his chin toward Huo Ci, frozen in place.
“Take a look. This is probably the worst wound General Huo has ever suffered, huh?”
Cui Yu leaned in: “Isn’t it just?
I told him long ago not to be so blindly filial, but he wouldn’t listen!”
Fan Qing said in a gruff voice: “This is what they call ‘if I’d known today, why did I do that back then,’ isn’t it?”
The group all nodded in agreement.
Imperial Physician Sun added: “He deserved it!”
“Esteemed officials, please enter the court!”
With a shrill call, everyone stopped all their murmuring, straightened their caps and robes, and bowed their heads as they hurried toward the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Xiao Ao sat on the dragon throne, all emotions hidden behind the twelve strings of jade beads, obscure and unreadable.
As the civil and military officials entered the hall in order, he spotted Yun Chunfeng and Jiang Xingyan standing to one side at a glance.
It would have been better not to look—one look and his heart felt stifled.
That day when the Huo family’s secret was exposed, before he could even speak, “Huo Ci” and that inexplicable Deputy General Jiang had fallen backward, unconscious.
They’d made his Hall of Supreme Harmony a chaotic mess, like a marketplace.
Now it was said that Deputy General Jiang had breathed his last, while Huo Ci had regained consciousness.
He’d like to see just how long they planned to keep fooling him, the Emperor.
“Jiang… madam.”
Jiang Xingyan gracefully bowed: “Long live Your Majesty. This common woman is here.”
“How come I remember you hold a title of nobility? Why are you not wearing the formal robes?”
Jiang Xingyan answered neither humbly nor arrogantly: “The so-called first-rank title was only borrowed from General Huo’s prestige.
Now that this common woman and General Huo have parted ways with no further ties, this title should be returned as well.”
Xiao Ao sneered: “A title I bestowed—do you think you can return it just because you want to?
Besides, who said you were borrowing his prestige? This title is a reward for your ability to contribute your family fortune and ease the military pay crisis. It’s what you deserve.”
“This common woman thanks Your Majesty for your grace.
Sharing Your Majesty’s burdens is the duty of every subject of Western Zhou. It is not worth mentioning.”
Xiao Ao pondered for a moment: “I hear you’re donating another ten million taels of silver to cast a monument for the heroic souls of those who fell in battle?”
Jiang Xingyan bowed her head: “I earnestly beseech Your Majesty’s gracious approval!”
