Chapter 133: "You Don’t Want Me?
Chapter 133: Chapter 133: "You Don’t Want Me?
Cui Lingyao had no way of knowing just how bitter he felt. Seeing him silent for so long, she couldn’t help but add, "You don’t have to be so paranoid. When we get back to the capital, I’ll definitely break off the engagement with him. I won’t go back on my word."
It was rare for her to be this patient with him.
Especially after they had reunited.
The Xie Jinbai of today was different from the man he used to be.
Three years ago, the inequality in their emotional investment would have made him vengeful over the smallest slight, filled with endless resentment.
But now, he didn’t dare ask too much of her.
This patience was enough to soothe nearly all the bitterness filling his heart.
Xie Jinbai thought himself pathetic, even as he wrapped an arm around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder, his other hand taking her wrist and guiding it down.
His long, slender fingers slid one by one between hers, lacing their hands together.
Their palms pressed tightly together.
’He’s been placated.’
Cui Lingyao was very experienced with this. She relaxed slightly.
And she’d discovered another one of his good qualities.
’He might be a powder keg of jealousy, ready to explode at the slightest touch, but he was also easily soothed.’
She almost laughed but was afraid the man before her would fly off the handle. After a moment’s thought, she tilted her head and pressed her cheek against his, praising him. "You did very well just now."
He’d watched her interacting with another man and hadn’t immediately stormed out in a thunderous rage. It truly surprised her.
She had let him witness her romantic moments with Shen Tingyu before, but her true identity hadn’t been revealed back then.
Now, they had more or less reconciled.
’And he could still hold back.’
’It was clear he really had changed a great deal.’
It had been years since anyone had ’praised’ Xie Jinbai like that.
Now, hearing such praise from the woman he loved made him feel strangely awkward.
It just felt...
...odd.
He buried his face in the crook of her neck, his voice muffled. "Are you lecturing me like one of your subordinates?"
They didn’t even lecture new recruits in the barracks like this.
It was more like...
Cui Lingyao blinked and threw her arms around his neck. "I’m telling the truth. You really did do a good job."
Xie Jinbai said, "...Then how about a reward?"
Without waiting for her to react, he tightened his arm around her waist, lifted her up, and carried her to the bed in a few strides.
Her back hit the soft bed. By the time Cui Lingyao processed what was happening, the man was already leaning over her.
A flurry of soft kisses rained down.
First on her eyelashes, then the tip of her nose, her cheeks...
...and finally, his lips lingered on hers, deepening the kiss.
It was intense.
But gentle all the same.
Everything he did in bed was a skill they had honed together, bit by bit, during the early days of their marriage.
Cui Lingyao was intimately familiar with it all.
Especially his scent, which was so achingly familiar.
Her eyelashes fluttered. She slowly raised her hands to his shoulders and neck, tilting her face up and parting her lips in invitation.
...
Xie Jinbai’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The hand at the nape of her neck moved down without hesitation.
He went to untie her sash.
Soon, her robes fell open.
Cui Lingyao didn’t try to stop him.
’He said he wouldn’t cross the line before they were married.’
’And she believed him.’
The bed curtains fell, enclosing them.
The dim candlelight, filtered first by a screen and then by layers of gauze, was reduced to almost nothing.
On the bed, their figures intertwined, the air thick with intimacy.
Suddenly, the woman, who had been letting him do as he pleased, stiffened. She quickly reached out and cupped his head.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"...I want to kiss you," Xie Jinbai refused to look up, his face buried against her lower stomach. His voice was muffled and hoarse. "Just one kiss."
Cui Lingyao was speechless. "..."
She stammered, "No, absolutely not. That’s going too far."
As she spoke, she struggled to pull him up.
Xie Jinbai relented, propping himself up on one hand beside her neck. He looked down at her, his eyes as dark and deep as ink.
"I recall you didn’t dislike it."
Cui Lingyao fell silent. "..."
Her face flushed red and her eyelashes fluttered wildly. She didn’t dare meet his gaze.
Xie Jinbai lowered his head to kiss her cheek, coaxing her. "We were husband and wife, the most intimate of people. There’s nothing you need to hide from me."
Cui Lingyao wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, "No kissing like that now. You have to wait until we’re married."
After they were married.
Always ’after we’re married.’
In his arms was the woman he had formally taken as his wife.
They had been married for three years and had enjoyed all the pleasures a husband and wife could share.
Xie Jinbai was deeply displeased.
His unfulfilled desire gave rise to a strange anxiety. "Don’t you want me?"
"...That’s not it," Cui Lingyao said earnestly. "We aren’t married yet. What we’re doing now is already crossing a major line. Can you please not make this difficult for me?"
’Make things difficult...’
How could Xie Jinbai dare to make things difficult for her?
He didn’t press the issue. Instead, he turned his head and pressed his lips to the side of her neck, savoring her warmth and vitality.
After a long moment, he said suddenly, "I just thought of something."
Cui Lingyao was taken aback. "What is it?"
Xie Jinbai took her hand, lacing their fingers together again. "Your mourning period still has ten months left. For those ten months, you’ll be living in the Shen Family’s home, seeing him every day."
’Which meant he would have to endure nights like this countless more times.’
’Yes, countless times.’
’He would have to watch her share meals with another man, play chess with him under the moonlight, sharing tender moments.’
’And he, like some secret lover, could only hide in the shadows and watch.’
’She wouldn’t let him go out and openly declare their relationship.’
"..." Cui Lingyao was speechless for a moment, then said with some resignation, "With my current status, if I don’t live with the Shen Family, where else would I go?"
"You’ll stay at the hot spring villa." This was the opening he’d been waiting for. Xie Jinbai sealed it with a decisive tone. "After we return to the capital, tell the Shen family you wish to recuperate in seclusion at the villa."
At the Fighting Beast event in the Duke Zhao Mansion, he had promised in front of everyone that he would give her the hot spring villa, regardless of whether he won or lost.
So it was her estate now.
As she was in a period of deep mourning, she was already expected to avoid all social gatherings. Her choosing to live alone at the villa to mourn her mother, rather than staying with the Shen Family, would not only be reasonable but would even be seen as admirable.
The Shen Family wouldn’t dare object.
Cui Lingyao hadn’t expected him to be scheming this and hesitated slightly.
"Don’t you want to go see Chen Minrou?"
Xie Jinbai continued to tempt her. "If you’re at the Shen Family’s home, the elders will be watching every time you go out. It’ll be very inconvenient. But if you’re at the villa, I guarantee the Shen family won’t be able to meddle in your affairs."
Of course, Cui Lingyao knew that once she was at the villa, she would be under his protection.
No one would be able to reach her there.
But that was also her concern.
’This man...’
She looked up at him, her expression suspicious. "You’re not planning on staying over every night, are you?"
"..." Xie Jinbai’s lips curved into a smile. "I promise you, before we are married, I will absolutely not cross the line."
’What a verbal trap.’
’His definition of ’crossing the line’ probably only referred to that final act.’
Cui Lingyao pouted. "So, you’ll still come over."
"I have to see you," Xie Jinbai said, not wanting to lie. "I can’t bear not seeing you. Whether you’re living at the Duke Shen Mansion or the hot spring villa, I have to be able to see you."
For him, the only difference between the two places was that the Shen Family had Shen Tingyu.
And he could not tolerate the woman he loved being coveted by another man.