Chapter 13: Home-style Tofu (Part 13)
After saying these words, Uncle Qi wisely bowed and withdrew. Such matters required no further inquiry—knowing his master's temperament, he would never pass up such entertainment delivered right to his doorstep.
After Uncle Qi exited and closed the door, Leng Yue remained still, and Jing Yi didn't move either. One above, one below, they locked eyes in silence for a moment.
"Madam... I didn't do this."
Jing Yi's arms still clung to her neck like vines, unmoving. Leng Yue couldn't tell whether the scorching heat on her neck came from the feverish warmth of Jing Yi's skin or the residual heat from her own internal organs burning with rage.
She genuinely wanted to kill him—more than ever before—but what she wanted most right now was to get up from the floor.
"Get away from me."
Jing Yi didn't move, only blinking innocently. They were so close that Leng Yue could almost feel the slight breeze from his fluttering eyelashes—a breeze that only fanned the flames.
"Madam, I'm innocent."
"Get away from me first."
Jing Yi continued gazing at her amiably, not budging an inch.
"Madam, I believe trust is the most important thing between husband and wife."
"...Roll away!"
At Leng Yue's shout, Jing Yi immediately twisted his body without hesitation...
And began rolling.
Wrapped in the quilt, the two rolled from the bedside all the way to the corner.
The more they rolled, the tighter the quilt became. When they stopped, their noses were touching and their chests pressed together, like two adjacent layers in a thousand-layer pancake—closer than ever before.
Jing Yi's nose tip was slightly sweaty, while Leng Yue's jade-like face had turned as dark as the burnt bottom of an iron wok.
"Um... wrong direction. Let me roll again."
"...!"
Before Leng Yue could speak, Jing Yi decisively twisted his body in the opposite direction, and the two once again...
Began rolling.
The quilt tightly wrapped around them gradually... rolled... loose.
Thus, the woman waiting in the front hall ultimately only saw Leng Yue alone.
The woman appeared to be in her twenties, with slender eyebrows and narrow eyes, adorned from head to toe in glittering jewels. Beneath her colorful silk robes, her slender frame supported a belly protruding like a small hill. Sitting curled up in the chair, she resembled a snake that had just swallowed a goose egg whole and was now resting.
When Leng Yue entered the room, the woman neither stood up nor showed the slightest hint of a smile. She merely raised a hand to stroke her prominent belly, scrutinizing Leng Yue unabashedly. Her gaze fell upon the sword at Leng Yue's waist before she asked in a shrill voice, holding a silk handkerchief, "Are you Madam Jing?"
"Yes."
The woman raised her thin, rat-tail-like eyebrows and glanced behind Leng Yue. "Where is Fourth Master Jing?"
Leng Yue slowly walked forward a few steps and smiled generously. "Fourth Master Jing is a proper imperial official. He can't be seen by just anyone, regardless of their... weight."
The woman clearly grew displeased, straightening her back in the chair as her voice became even shriller. "How do you know I'm not... weighty enough?"
"You're not lacking..." Leng Yue's gaze swept over the woman's increasingly prominent belly. "You're a bit... over the limit."The woman's face was caked with thick layers of powder, making it impossible to discern any change in her complexion. Only the tightly clenched silk handkerchief in her hand betrayed her inner turmoil.
In the vast capital, few dared to speak to her in such a manner.
Leng Yue smiled even more politely, pushing the fruit-laden plate toward the woman. She picked up a bright red apple from the platter and took a slender fruit knife, carefully peeling it while speaking in a gentle tone, "No matter how much weight you carry, since you've stepped into this house, you're a guest. These apples were brought by Prince An from the orchards in the suburbs... Help yourself, don't stand on ceremony."
The woman stared at Leng Yue, who was leisurely peeling the apple, and gritted her teeth as she forced out the words, "Madam Jing... Aren't you going to ask who I am?"
Leng Yue neither looked up nor paused her hands. "I've already asked. You are the wife of Xiao Yunde, née Qin, with the given name Hehuan. I should call you... cousin-in-law."
After delivering this remark casually, Leng Yue finally glanced up at the stunned woman, her smile unwavering. "Your maid is still waiting in the gatehouse, isn't she? I thought she might be bored waiting alone, so I sent a handsome servant to bring her some tea and snacks and keep her company for a chat... When I arrived, she was just talking about how many acres of land your family owns and how many oxen are in the fields."
Madam Xiao was left speechless, her mouth agape.
Leng Yue calmly finished peeling the apple. Out of habit, Madam Xiao reached out to take it, but what landed in her hand was the fruit knife.
Leng Yue took a large bite of the peeled apple, chewing contentedly as she said with enthusiasm, "We're all family, cousin-in-law, no need to be polite. If you want to eat one, just peel it yourself!"
Leng Yue noticed that, for a fleeting moment, her cousin-in-law's eyes flashed with a murderous intent, as if she wanted to hurl the fruit knife right into her face.
Of course, it was only for an instant. The next moment, Madam Xiao slapped the fruit knife onto the tea table, placed one hand on her waist and the other on her stomach, and rose from her chair. "Since Fourth Master Jing isn't here, it's just as well. I'll speak plainly..."Leng Yue continued munching on her apple, waving a hand dismissively just as Madam Xiao was mustering her full momentum." "Cousin-in-law, why so formal? We're all family. Whatever you have to say, you can say it sitting down."
Madam Xiao choked on her words, frozen in front of the chair, unsure whether to sit or stand.
By the time Leng Yue had finished the apple in a few quick bites, Madam Xiao was still gritting her teeth, clenching her hands, unable to utter a word.
Leng Yue tossed the apple core aside, stood up unhurriedly, wiped her hands, and her smile faded slightly. "If you can't bring yourself to say it, cousin-in-law, I'll say it for you... You came here to warn us that your maternal family holds immense power at court, and your husband's family is of imperial lineage. If we dare reveal that you're six months pregnant just four months after your marriage, you'll make sure we're crushed to dust—is that what you meant?"
Madam Xiao panicked. "I... I never said that!"
"If that's not what you meant, then what did you mean, cousin-in-law?"
Madam Xiao's heavily powdered cheeks twitched silently.
Yes, exactly what Leng Yue had said was what she had in mind, but even if she mustered the courage of three lifetimes, she wouldn't dare to phrase it so bluntly.
If such words were to spread, it would cause far more trouble than the scandal of her premarital pregnancy."I... you, you know perfectly well in your heart!"
After throwing out these words filled with both anger and panic, Lady Xiao strode out as if fleeing, not even minding her round, heavy belly.
Watching Lady Xiao's retreating back that seemed to be fleeing in defeat, Leng Yue happily tapped her slender fingers twice on her sword hilt.
"Come out."
The hall was silent as a grave, only the lingering echo of Leng Yue's words faintly reverberating.
Leng Yue waited quietly for a moment, but no one paid her any attention.
"Come out."
Still no one responded to her.
Leng Yue's patience ran out. "If you don't come out now, you won't get any dinner tonight."
Before her words faded, Jing Yi obediently bounced out from behind the screen by the side door.
It was that kind of bounce with both legs together, stiff and straight - with each bounce came a "thump." Leng Yue watched as Jing Yi went "thump, thump, thump" all the way until he bounced right in front of her.
Jing Yi wasn't doing this on purpose.
Other than bouncing out like this, Jing Yi had no other choice.
Because before Leng Yue went out, she had wrapped him up completely in that quilt, leaving only his head exposed, and had tied him securely at the chest, waist, and behind the knees with a belt.
The bright red quilt wrapped around the person whose face was flushed pink from the heat looked indescribably...
Delicious.
Leng Yue remembered that before leaving, she had thrown him onto the bed all wrapped up like that. If she hadn't detected unusual breathing sounds from behind the screen, she really wouldn't have noticed that he had already slipped into the front hall.
Regardless of how he was wrapped up or the sweat all over his head from being smothered by the quilt, Jing Yi smiled with a face full of pride. "I guessed right, didn't I? She's Xiao Yunde's wife, just came to pound the table and glare - nothing major."
"Hmm..." Leng Yue grunted reluctantly. "Then guess again - what's really going on with the child in her belly?"
"This doesn't require guessing... It must be a romantic debt Xiao Yunde incurred as soon as he returned to the capital. Otherwise, after all these years of Prince Yu and the Qin family not seeing eye to eye, how could they suddenly and happily become in-laws?" With beads of sweat covering his face, Jing Yi smiled extremely obediently. "My lady, look, can you untie me now?"
Leng Yue neither said yes nor no, merely extended a finger and poked the bulging, tightly wrapped quilt. The wide double quilt wrapped around his single body felt strangely pleasant to poke.
"You bounced all the way here like this just now?"
Jing Yi indeed possessed exceptional qinggong, but such skills couldn't be executed easily in any position. In this sausage-like wrapped-up position, being able to bounce at all was quite an achievement.
Jing Yi nodded pitifully, a large bead of sweat sliding from his temples all the way down to his chin. The sweat bead clung to Jing Yi's jade-like smooth skin, glistening like a pearl.
Leng Yue raised the back of her hand and wiped away this sweat drop, also sensing that Jing Yi's body temperature had moderated somewhat, which slightly eased her mind.
She knew he wouldn't lie quietly wrapped in the quilt on the bed - this method of rolling out from the floor apparently worked quite well.
"Then you can just bounce back."
"..."
And so, under the watchful eyes of all the servants in the courtyard, Jing Yi followed behind Leng Yue, bouncing and hopping all the way back to the bedroom.
As soon as Jing Yi bounced across the threshold, Leng Yue turned and closed the door, her delicate brows slightly furrowed as she asked Jing Yi in a low voice, "Don't you think your cousin's wife is missing something?"Jing Yi hopped around halfway to face Leng Yue, studying her for a moment before nodding. "Lacking in virtue."
Compared to Jing Yi's crooked idea of using handsome servants to coax information from the maids, Leng Yue didn't think Lady Xiao, who was driven to desperate measures, was lacking in virtue at all.
"...I meant tangible things you can see and touch."
Jing Yi furrowed his brows and thought carefully again, answering earnestly, "Tendons."
For a moment, Leng Yue felt like picking him up, laying him flat on the ground, and kicking him out.
He'd probably roll quite far.
Seeing that Leng Yue wasn't paying him any mind, Jing Yi hopped closer to her.
"Please enlighten me, madam."
To be honest, Leng Yue hadn't figured out exactly what Lady Xiao was lacking either.
It was just that from the first moment she laid eyes on Lady Xiao upon entering, she felt that for a woman dressed meticulously—even a bit excessively—there was something missing from her appearance.
When it came to women's clothing and adornments, Leng Yue knew even less than Jing Yi.
What she understood best were the parts that remained after stripping away the layers people plastered over themselves.
Thinking of people stripped of their layers, Leng Yue suddenly remembered something she should have told him earlier but hadn't found the chance to.
"Let me enlighten you on something else first."
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