PBCW Chapter 15It was only after the wedding that Tang Wan learned how lucky it was to be a woman, especially a woman that was pampered by a man she had a good impression of.
Zhao Shi Cheng"s job counted as the kind that one only has to take the salary without working, because the work was already done beforehand, therefore, he had a lot of time to travel everywhere with her. And after she transmigrated into this story, she became a well-bred lady so she never had the chance to properly go and play throughout. Therefore, she took advantage of the opportunity her new husband gave her and happily began to have fun.
When they got out of the capital, the two went to Tang Wan"s hometown, ShaoXing 1, tasted the genuine Shaoxing wine and also toured WenZhou 2. They admired the grotesque peak and galloping waterfall at Yandang mountains, and when they finally returned to the capital, Lin"an again following the ca.n.a.l, it was already after a month had pa.s.sed.
Since they just married recently, Zhao Shi Cheng didn"t want to bring the guards and destroy the atmosphere, so this entire day today, he was the one who brought Tang Wan out and almost strolled through every scenic spot in Lin"an. In the morning, they admired the grotesque peaks and galloping waterfall, in the afternoon, they went boating and also sampled the well-known walnut cake and other specialty goods.
She was enthusiastic about all the things she had seen for the first time. At the sight of her smiling face, he was quite happy and felt that it was the right thing to do, bringing her out to travel.
On the streets of the capital, every time she took an interest to a new object, even if his heart trickled blood, he would clench his teeth and pay the bill. The two ate and bought stuff all the way and it also reached the time when the sun sets in the west. He led her along, intending to go to a restaurant and have a meal. For a moment, he wished to be faster and walked into a dark alley. Who knew that three hooligans would actually block their way.
"Heehee, if you"re sensible, then hand over all the valuables you have on you." Among the hooligans, a tall, skinny man who held a stick shouted loudly. They had observed the couple for a long time.
It couldn"t be helped. Zhao Shi Cheng usually does work in a low-key manner. Among the people who aren"t in the imperial court, there"s barely anyone who knew that he was the son of the Great General; on the surface, he was merely a gentle and frail-looking young master, on top of that, Tang Wan, who was next to him, was beautiful and elegant like a flower. This kind of temperament was hard to cultivate if they"re not from a rich and wealthy family, so the pair appeared to simply be a pair of rich and easy target.
Zhao Shi Cheng shielded Tang Wan and took a step back, saying with awe-inspiring righteousness, "We"re at the feet of the Son of Heaven. Do you even respect the laws, given your brazen robbery?"
When she heard him speak out sternly from a sense of justice, she was on the verge of laughing. This Zhao Shi Cheng was really old-fashioned. These lines were already out of fashion eight hundred years ago. Who would be scared off?
"Humph! Don"t go talking to me about law. If you"re going to talk again, I"ll slaughter you right away. Let"s see who the law will find then!" The other fatty didn"t even give a little face and sneered. "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and hand over all the money you have!"
A wise man understands and submits to circ.u.mstances. Zhao Shi Cheng pulled out an embroidered purse from his pockets and threw it towards them. "Can we go now?"
"Wait, who said you could leave?" Among the three thugs, the one that looked the most uncouth suddenly opened his mouth, pointed at Tang Wan, he said. "You can beat it, but this young lady has to stay."
"What do you want to do?!" When Zhao Shi Cheng heard this, he could barely contain his anger. At first, he had still wanted to make a concession to avoid trouble, but they even wanted to sully Tang Wan. He was completely unable to tolerate this.
"Well, duh!" The douche cackled. "Chick, you"ve got a spanking" hot body. You should definitely come play with us three."
Zhao Shi Cheng was so angry, he trembled from head to toe. He regretted not bringing two extra guards and caused Tang Wan to be subjected to such a threat. He took another step back and turned his head, speaking Tang Wan in a low voice, "Wife, you leave first."
"If I leave, what will happen to you?" Tang Wan was always protected by him from behind, but she also knew that the situation right now was extremely dangerous. If she left, it"ll be considered good if he was simply injured, but she feared that there will be no place to redress a grievance even if he was beaten to death.
"It"s alright, you just go on ahead first. I"ll figure it out."
The situation was pressing. He was already unable to fend for himself, but he was still actually thinking about protecting her, comforting her… she gazed deeply at his figure from behind and suddenly felt extremely moved. Before, due to her ident.i.ty of being a fierce tiger, when encountered with danger, people would always push her to the front lines. Who would think of helping her ward off disasters?
She always thought that people would think about themselves. As it turned out, people could also be this selfless? Just because he loves her, he was willing to even sacrifice his life for her?
Tang Wan didn"t know how to say what that feeling that makes her want to tightly embrace him, but she knew, even if she lacked the strength to fight today, she was unable to abandon him to face the enemy by himself.
However, the three people on the opposing side seemed to have thought that Tang Wan will escape and without hesitating, they lifted a stick and wielded towards them.
Zhao Shi Cheng instinctively wanted to protect Tang Wan, but when his hand went behind to pull her into his arms, there was no one there. He thought that she listened to him and had already ran away, and also thought that he must endure the random stick beating that was like strong wind and swift rain next. He subconsciously closed his two eyes, but after a few breaths have pa.s.sed, the pain he had imagined it to be did not occur. He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head. One look and in a flash, he was shocked—
He only saw that Tang Wan had unexpectedly used a single hand to catch three sticks. After that, he didn"t know how she did it, but her jade legs lightly kicked and the tall and skinny man among them flew backwards, hitting the wall and slid down to the floor, at the verge of death.
Following, her free hand speedily made another punch. That fatty seemed to have been hit by a large rock and immediately spit out a mouthful of blood. He slid backward several chi3 and fell over next to the tall and skinny man.
In the end, only the uncouth man remained. Tang Wan glared at him and the corner of her lips suddenly curved. That man was so frightened that he got on his knees. Before his begs for mercy was even uttered, she kicked her leg towards him.
The strength of this kick had a good sense of control. Not only was the man was in so much pain that he rolled into a ball, but it also didn"t go as far that he would lose consciousness. And yet, it seemed that only kicking one foot was enough to relieve her anger and she kicked him nonstop, one after another.
"Who taught you to have a surge of l.u.s.t! And you dare to beat up my husband?! Go ahead! Do it!"
The douche was in so much pain that he wailed nonstop, yet he also didn"t have the strength to stand up. Tears gushed out as he cried. His appearance was extremely tragic and too horrible to look.
When Zhao Shi Cheng was nearby and saw that Tang Wan was so bold and powerful, he was dumbstruck for quite a while before recovering from the shock and promptly held her back.
"Wife, that"s enough. Stop kicking, if you kick him any further, he"ll die."
Just when Tang Wan was starting to get happy while kicking, she suddenly heard his voice. All of a sudden, she remembered that she was playing the part of his delicate and cherished wife. How could she do such a crude thing? She hastily stopped her movement. When she turned around, she had the appearance of a well-bred lady again.
"Husband, they"re so scary…" She looked at him, looking obviously pitiful. Her small hands even tugged his sleeves lightly.
"That"s why Wan er did it a little heavier."
Zhao Shi Cheng only looked at her fixedly without saying a word.
"Husband…" Tang Wan called out again coyly. Her eyes were bright and liquid, as if tears were about to slide down from her eyes.
Yet, he still didn"t speak. His expression became somewhat odd.
For a while, they glared at each other and in the end, she stomped her foot squeamish and huffed lightly. She didn"t feel like pretending to be pitiful.
"Alright, alright. I admit that I just wanted to beat them up. Who told them to dare bully us!" After she said this, she shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I already told before, my strength is a little bigger compared to normal girls. It"s you who said that you didn"t care."
In a wink"s time, she shoot down three big men. This was called strength that was a little bigger?
Zhao Shi Cheng stood blankly for a good while. Finally, he unexpectedly held his stomach and started to laugh his head off. That sort of graceful and gentle demeanor that was normally there completely vanished into thin air. He laughed to the extent that tears ran out. Even since he grew up, he never laughed in such a carefree way anymore.
It was only until he laughed to the point where he had a stomach ache that he only took a few deep breaths and gradually collected his smiling expression. He stood up straight and said towards the displeased Tang Wan. "So…so this is your true nature. No wonder I always thought that your gentle personality had a indisposed feeling to it. I was the one who was over thinking things and rationalizing your abnormality. You really worked hard, even pretending in front of everyone."
"You don"t like me anymore?" Tang Wan"s expression suddenly turned bitter.
Zhao Shi Cheng shook his head and hugged her abruptly. "Of course not. I love you to death! A wife that"s both skilled in the pen and the sword, even if I wanted one, I wouldn"t be able to find one." This time, he wasn"t like before, pushing her away distractedly after suddenly realizing he had exceeded the rules, instead, he was extremely gentle and said. "Wife, in the future, there"s no need to pretend in front of me. It"s fine to just be yourself."
"Really?" She lifted her head up and looked at him joyfully. After that, she lightly kissed his lips in the speed that was as sudden as a flash of lightning.
He was startled and was both dazed and surprised when he touched his lips.
Tang Wan said innocently, "I saw that Xiao Chun always did it like this. You said that I don"t need to pretend, so I did what I wanted to do."
"Hahaha, you did well!" Zhao Shi Cheng"s emotions was completely influenced by her unintentional actions. He lowered his head and couldn"t refrain from kissing her.
This one kiss nearly evoked the destructive forces of nature. She never knew that the exchange of affections between men and woman was this stimulating. If kissing him lightly only aroused the ripples in the heart, then his pa.s.sionate kiss was like a strong wind blowing great waves. Even the mind would tremble due to this kind of feeling, it made her really attached and wish that they will embrace and kiss each other like this forever.
It"s needless to say that goes for Zhao Shi Cheng as well. He practically gave all the love he had in this kiss. Tang Wan was the first and also the only woman he fell in love with. Now that he received what he wished for, that kind of double the contentment in both the spirit and the body was not to be mentioned to outsiders.
After a long time, the two people slowly separated, gazing affectionately at each other. At this time, the opposite party was their entire world in their eyes, the rest doesn"t matter anymore…
"Ah!" Tang Wan suddenly called out, breaking the romantic sight in this instant.
Zhao Shi Cheng was dumbfounded for a second. In his mind, he thought that she was rather too destructive of the atmosphere. He smiled wryly, extremely helpless. "What"s wrong?"
She looked around in disappointment. "The three people ran away! I haven"t even beaten them up enough yet!"
He couldn"t help but shudder. His wife"s true nature was quite fiery. Thank goodness, the three men ran quickly or else they really will get beaten to death by her.
For the sake of making her calm down, he hurriedly coaxed her. "It"s fine, it"s fine. Let"s just forget about it since they ran away. I"ll bring you to eat food. This time, you don"t have to worry about everything else, you can eat as much as you want."
Inside the wing of the YingFeng pavilion.
The eight treasures duck, stewed scallop and turnip ball, raw roasted pork, c.r.a.ppie soup, pigeon in oyster sauce… a dozen or more main courses spread across a big table with seats for ten people. According to convention, there should be a group of people eating with relish, but right now, it only sat two people and among the two, only one was eating.
Tang Wan swallowed the last mouthful of soup 4 and also picked up a dried scallop and stuffed it into her mouth. Her cheeks were bulging as she ate.
She was not at all fast at eating, nor did her table manners look rude. She even seemed to have a strange, elegant feeling. But it was this way of eating that made this entire table of delicious food that would fill ten people up, completely end up in her stomach at the end.
From the initial three dishes that he ordered at the very beginning, went to an additional seven dishes until it became a dozen or more, she practically ate everything. As Zhao Shi Cheng watched, cold sweat dripped down and he completely didn"t have any appet.i.te.
Heavens, how much will he have to earn for it to be enough for her to eat?
"It seems like I"m full…" Tang Wan rubbed her belly. When she was at the general"s residence, because her parent-in-law and the servants were nearby, she had to restrain her appet.i.te using her utmost effort during mealtime. After the wedding, this was the meal that she was the most happiest eating.
ShaoXing is a province in Zhejiang WenZhou is another province in Zhejiang chi (a traditional unit of length, equivalent to 0.333 metre or 1.094 feet) It was supposed to be 萋汤,qi tang, but I have no idea if it isn"t a typo for ginger or not so I"m just going to translate it to soup until I find out what it is.