Chu Chu giggled softly, her warm little hand touching Xiao Jin Yu's feverish forehead. "Wang Ye, you're completely drunk... Of course I'm marrying you. The Emperor's Imperial Decree says so - I'll marry you on the eighth day of the second month! When you proposed, my father and grandparents all agreed."
Xiao Jin Yu frowned and shook his head. "Not good..."
"What's not good?"
"The eighth day of the second month isn't good..." Xiao Jin Yu pulled his hand free and cupped Chu Chu's face, placing a drunken kiss on her petal-soft lips. "Your birthday would be better... No day is better than the day you were born. You're specially left for me by heaven..."
Chu Chu smiled as she looked at him. When Wang Ye was drunk, his complexion became much rosier. His voice was slightly hoarse, yet it sounded particularly gentle, and his words made her heart flutter.
Chu Chu stroked his lean face. "Wang Ye, you don't even know when my birthday is, do you?"
"The ninth day of the first month in the second year of Xiangxing..."
"Did my grandfather tell you?"
Xiao Jin Yu smiled warmly. "You told me yourself... You told the Clerk at the Ministry of Justice that girls born in the first month are blessed, that they have Empress fate..."
Chu Chu's eyes widened instantly, her hand on Xiao Jin Yu's face freezing in place. "How do you know that?"
"This matter falls under my jurisdiction, of course I need to know..."
Chu Chu stared at him blankly. "Then... do you know why I didn't pass the exam?"
"You passed. I just didn't accept you..."
Chu Chu immediately broke free from Xiao Jin Yu's embrace, causing him to sway abruptly. Xiao Jin Yu's alcohol-muddled mind suddenly cleared, and he realized what he had just said. "That's not..."
"You liar!"
Chu Chu rushed out of the room and ran straight to the small river behind the house. The riverbank had a simple stone embankment, and Chu Chu headed directly to the innermost large rock half-submerged in the river. Sitting on the rock, she couldn't hold back her tears.
When she was first bullied as a child, she had complained to Chu He, who went to fight with the bully and got his head broken, lying in bed for several days. Since then, whenever Chu Chu was bullied or wronged, she wouldn't tell anyone, but would come to this small river to cry her heart out. After crying enough, she would no longer feel bad and could forget about it.
But for some reason, this time the more she cried, the more wronged she felt, and the worse she felt. No amount of crying seemed to help.
As she cried, someone suddenly wrapped their arms around her waist from behind, pulling her backward to lean against a lean, slightly warm chest that still carried the scent of alcohol.
Having slept in this embrace every day for the past half month, she had memorized every inch of skin and the position of every bone on this body. She knew it was him without looking back.
Chu Chu suddenly felt even more wronged. She forcefully pried open his hands around her waist, tears falling rapidly. "You didn't want me anyway!"
Those hands returned to her shoulders. "That's not what I meant..."
Without turning her head, Chu Chu shook off the hands with a twist of her shoulders, crying even harder. "Then what did you mean! I passed the exam, why wouldn't you accept me!"
Over this matter, she had been heartbroken and disappointed for a long time, thinking her skills were far inferior to others. She had almost packed her bags to return home and start learning all over again.Those hands didn't touch her again, his voice hoarse, "It's not that I don't want you... Blame me for being selfish, I just wanted to keep you in Prince An Manor, helping only me..."
"You're lying again... If that's the case, why didn't you tell me earlier!"
"You were so determined to find Six Doors, I was afraid you wouldn't agree..." His voice paused, then those hands carefully wrapped around her waist, "If you didn't agree, I'd have no other way..."
Chu Chu bit her lip, wiped her tears, and didn't push his hands away anymore, "Grandpa was right, you're just foolish..."
That thin, feverish body slowly pressed against her back, his arms holding her tightly, his alcohol-tinged breath gently brushing against her neck, "Yes, utterly foolish... Still angry?"
Being held like this, Chu Chu's voice softened, "I'm not angry..."
"Then why run away from me, and come to this kind of place... Crawling over was so exhausting..."
Chu Chu was startled, broke free from his embrace and hurriedly turned around, only to see Xiao Jin Yu kneeling on the stone, wearing only the underwear she had just changed him into earlier, the snow-white clothes stained with mud all over, "You... you crawled here?"
"Yes... It hurt and was cold..."
Chu Chu anxiously began feeling all over his body, "Are you injured? Where does it hurt?"
Xiao Jin Yu lightly held her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder, whispering drunkenly in her ear, "Everywhere hurts... How about kissing it all better..."
"Not here, we need to go back inside... Look, you even have a fever!"
"Kiss me..."
"I will, I'll kiss everywhere, I'll kiss you once we're back inside!"
Between the drunkenness and high fever, his stomach hurt as if being cut by knives, and his joints ached as if being gnawed by insects. Xiao Jin Yu's consciousness had completely blurred, leaning against Chu Chu as he spoke incoherent nonsense, mixed with muffled groans of pain. His last memory was of Chu Chu carrying him on her back, then a sudden sharp pain in his bones, his vision went dark, and he fainted.
When he woke again, it was already bright daylight. Opening his eyes brought a wave of dizziness, his head throbbed as if splitting open, his stomach burned uncomfortably, and all his joints ached with a dull pain. His mind was completely blank.
"Master... you're awake?"
Only then did Xiao Jin Yu see clearly that Chu Chu wasn't in the room. Instead, two guards stood side by side before his bed, looking at him with strange expressions.
Xiao Jin Yu tried to sit up, but as soon as he pressed his hands against the bed, a sharp pain shot through them. Lifting his hands to look, he saw both were wrapped in layers of gauze.
Last night... what had he done?
While Xiao Jin Yu was still confused, one guard bowed his head and said solemnly, "Master, last night while monitoring Prince of Wu's Estate, we observed no unusual movements, but there was something abnormal... Last night, Qin Ye, the doctor from Qin's Clinic, suddenly visited and helped Prince of Wu... engage in intercourse with a woman..."
Xiao Jin Yu was slightly startled, "What woman?"
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