Zhao mama had all but fallen to despair, but Han Yunxi loved each and every one of Long Feiye’s gifts, big or small, public or secret. He was such a cold and conservative man, but he’d gone personally into the stores to buy her all this. What a show of sincerity! For all the pains he’d gone to, she had to try this on.
Han Yunxi put on the top in her inner room and saw that it was insanely well-fitted. This was made to her precise proportions! It had to be said that although this thing was called a dudou, it didn’t look like one on her body at all. Nor did it seem like underclothes. The wine-red color contrasted against her white skin to look even more charming, n.o.ble, and even mysterious, just like a cup of red wine that brought delight as well as intoxication.[1] It’s no wonder Long Feiye had personally picked this out. Han Yunxi truly adored this top and really wanted to wear so he could see her in it.
Zhao mama entered the room and looked feebly at Han Yunxi before she remarked, “If it was any smaller, it’d be too tight. Any wider, and it’d be too loose. His Highness measured very precisely.”
Han Yunxi was startled by those words, but Zhao mama’s listless face suddenly lit up as she smiled as fresh as a flower. “Princess, His Highness must have measured you very thoroughly, hehe. This...this is too form-fitting! When did His Highness do it, does princess know?”
Zhao mama gave Han Yunxi a long, knowing look before covering her mouth to laugh. Even her face had turned red with the revelations. For a top to be form-fitting, it was very important to get the chest measurements right! Even a shrewd old court lady like Zhao mama was blus.h.i.+ng, to say nothing of the person concerned, Han Yunxi. She was just thinking how conservative Long Feiye was, and how much sincerity he’d shown in buying her these gifts. She even wanted to wear it for him to see.
Han Yunxi wished she could dig a hole and bury herself instead.
Long Feiye, so this is the grand gift you give to me! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
You’re even dirtier than Zhao mama!
“Princess, why don’t you put on that purple dress just then? You can wear this set for the bonfire banquet tonight, His Highness will definitely be happy.” Zhao mama had recovered her smiling ways.
Before the imperial prince reached adulthood, he would be sent someone in his rooms to teach him about the ways of adulthood. Although His Highness was different from other princes, he had been taught about women when he was very. Despite his elegance and restraint, he was someone who had grown up in a royal palace. Why wouldn’t he understand such things?
Zhao mama looked at the princess decked from head to toe in her presents and knew she didn’t have to worry about His Highness anymore. Han Yunxi only pretended not to hear her words. She was about to chase her off when footsteps sounded from outside. The two of them gave a start before Zhao mama went to take a look. She was about to speak when the person stopped her. Then she wanted to smile, but she didn’t dare, so she simply bowed and silently left the premises.
As the outside grew silent, Han Yunxi asked, “Zhao mama? Who came?”
The sound of footsteps started up at her voice again, as if to make her listen on purpose. Step by step, they approached her. Han Yunxi hadn’t put on her outer robes yet before the person entered her inner chamber. This was none other than her gifter, Long Feiye. He had just finished bathing and was dressed in formal robes that consisted on white brocade robes, a jade belt around his waist, and his hair tied up high. The exhaustion of last night’s journey had been washed away, leaving a refres.h.i.+ng G.o.d in its waist. He seemed less cold and lofty today and more like a clear and n.o.ble gentleman.
He came in just when Han Yunxi was in the middle of putting on her outer robes. She was startled and stopped mid-motion, but he simply went to lean against a wall with his arms crossed and smiled. He examined her in amus.e.m.e.nt as the inner and outer robes were both gifts fom him. It wasn’t clear which part he was looking at specifically.
Han Yunxi quickly recovered and put on the outer robes. She pretended not to notice a thing and came forward to bow. “Your Highness is propitious, many thanks for your grace.”
“How are you going to thank me?” Long Feiye asked as he arched a brow.
Han Yunxi immediately straightened up to look askance at him. “Why did you give me so many? I can’t finish wearing all of these.”
“What about that pair of earrings?” Long Feiye asked. He’d spent a lot of pain to personally carve his name into the back, so much that he’d ruined multiple pairs. His hands could hold a sword and ma.s.sacre lives, or manipulate them through political trickery, but it was the first time he’d ever done such meticulous work. If Han Yunxi didn’t put them on, he’d be unhappy.
Everything else aside, Han Yunxi really loved those phoenix wing earrings--so much that it touched her heart. She took them out and told Long Feiye, “Help me put them on.”
Thus, she sat in front of the dressing table and watched Long Feiye stand behind her and bend down. Naturally, Long Feiye didn’t understand how earrings worked, but he carefully tested and tried, afraid to hurt her while fearing he’d put them on wrong. Han Yunxi didn’t instruct him, but simply sat and waited for him to fiddle around. She looked at his reflection in the mirror, a quiet man with hooded eyes who was incomprably gentle as he focused on the task at hand. She never thought that Long Feiye’s personality had this side as well. When she saw his faintly furrowed brows and tender, yet pa.s.sionate eyes, she suddenly wished that this moment could last forever.
Long Feiye, how lucky must I be to transmigrate back 3,000 years to meet and marry you?
Han Yunxi couldn’t help but reached out a hand to stroke his handsome face. Long Feiye glanced at her in the mirror and saw her smiling at him. He didn’t speak, but allowed her to touch him as he continued to study the earrings. Han Yunxi’s hand caressed past his ear, nose, and lips.
Finally, he murmured in a low voice, “Be good, don’t fuss. I haven’t put them on yet.”
Now she was hampering him. She set down her hand and asked, “Long Feiye, the thing I told you about last time…”
Long Feiye’s hands visibly stiffened. Last time, she’d told him that she’d come from many years in the future. He had thought over her words in the past few days.
“Shhh, I haven’t put on your earrings yet,” he avoided answering her.
She obediently stopped talking to enjoy this quiet, beautiful moment. In the end, he secured her earrings on both sides. In the mirror, her hair was parted to one side with the earrings dangling from both ears. Paired with her high collar, she was both stately and charming as if this was her natural state. Long Feiye perched by her ear and stared at her reflection before his fingers brushed the ta.s.sels on the earrings.
“Do you like them?” he asked.
“Very much,” she replied.
“It’s good that you do,” Long Feiye was happy.
“I like the words on them even better,” Han Yunxi added.
“Then that’s even better.” Long Feiye’s heart was satisfied, and he broke out into a smile. Then he drew close tenderly and gave the phoenix wings a light kiss before moving down to nip her earlobe. Unlike before, Han Yunxi didn’t push him away or refuse him. She stared at him in the mirror and witnessed his gentleness turn wild. It was an interplay of emotions on his cold, handsome face that was absolutely bewitching! Even Gu Qishao, whose beauty could topple nations, couldn’t compare to a third of this man.
How could a man like him exist in this world?
She was already defeated just by looking at his face, much less experiencing his fascination and pa.s.sions firsthand. By now, he had already unb.u.t.toned her collar and trailed a line of kisses down to its depths, alternatively brus.h.i.+ng and biting the lovely softness beneath.
“Ye…” she couldn’t help but give a startled gasp. She thought they were intimate enough, but never guessed they grow ever closer.
“A’Ye...don’t….” Instead of staring at the mirror, she was looking down at the real man. She gently cradled his head to stop him, but her desire compelled her to resist…
Gradually, the floor grew littered with his white robes and her pinkish-purple robes. The pieces mixed as they fell to the floor, just as he and her entwined themselves in each other until it was hard to tell who was whom. Beneath the dim candlelight, the enchanting forms of the duo in the mirror mixed. Many times, she was pushed against the dressing table until her back met its icy mirror. Despite its cold, her mind was still lost in a haze…
From the dressing table, they moved to the bed, then the tatami mats. She grew weak and limp in his arms as if filled with wine, lost between drunkenness and sobriety, memory and forgetfulness. But every word he said, she remembered clearly.
It was the only thing he said between his frantic breaths, his voice hoa.r.s.e despite his determined tone.
He said, “Yunxi, I believe that you won’t leave.”
She said she wouldn’t leave, so he believed her. Whatever she said, he believed! He didn’t want to talk about this topic anymore. As he rested his arm on the pillow and lounged on the bed, she leaned against him to rest.
“Did all of the clothes fit well?” he asked languidly.
She immediately turned to glare at him. “Wicked!”
He laughed out loud. Her reply made it obvious that she understood his meaning. That only made her more embarra.s.sed as she turned back to scratch him, but he stopped her and said seriously, “If you move again, then so will I.”
She immediately stopped, not wanting to faint away here and miss the bonfire banquet. He grew earnest and said, “I’ll arrange a servant girl to wait on you afterwards. There’s no need to go elsewhere in the barracks. If you’re missing anything, tell the servant girl to buy some from the city.”
“Mm,” she nodded before suddenly laughing. In a low voice, she asked, “That wasn’t enough, so you went to buy one personally?”
The “that” referred to the wine-red dudou. She stared at him for an answer. As expected, he grew a little bashful and avoided her gaze. It was a long while before he finally murmured a reply by her ear. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but guffaw until she nearly lost her breath.
As it turned out, this fellow had liked the custom-made underclothes she ordered for herself in the past, but he couldn’t find anything like it outside. Afraid that she wouldn’t like other options, he bought a different style for her back.
n.o.ble and respected East Qin crown prince, high and lofty Long Feiye! If the people of the world knew you did things like this, what would they think?
Han Yunxi nestled in Long Feiye’s arms as she laughed and laughed. He knitted his brows without a word before turning over to pin her beneath him.
Wasn’t it all too easy to stop her from laughing?
Han Yunxi laughed as she struggled some more. In the process, her arm pushed the pillow aside to reveal the two black books hidden beneath.
“What are these?” Long Feiye released her to pick up a book.
Scared out of her wits, Han Yunxi went to grab the book, but Long Feiye held it out of her reach. Curious, he asked, “What is it?”
“Nothing! Don’t look!” Han Yunxi grew fl.u.s.tered and sat up to pounce. Just like that, Long Feiye was caught by surprise and fell backwards. But he still held onto the black book without letting it go. Han Yunxi rode on top of him as she sought to s.n.a.t.c.h the volume, but her arms weren’t as long as Long Feiye’s. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t reach it. Still, by straddling him and moving around like this, she was simply testing his self-control.
Long Feiye quite liked her challenge. A wicked smile rose to his lips as he purposely offered her the book. As soon as Han Yunxi grabbed for it, he moved it out of reach, making her both anxious and annoyed despite her helplessness.
“Just what is it?” he asked.
“Give it here. Give it to me, and then I’ll tell you,” she lied to him.
He wouldn’t fall for it that easily. “Tell me and I’ll give it to you.”
“I’m begging you now, give it back,” she was almost on the point of tears as she mentally sent respects to Zhao mama. If Long Feiye knew what these were, she’d lose all face.
“Looks like it’s something good,” Long Feiye raised his other arm, preparing to open the book. Somehow, Han Yunxi found the strength to grab his hand and s.n.a.t.c.h at the book. Not expecting this, he unconsciously let go and set the book flying towards the part.i.tion. One half lay outside the curtain, while the other remained inside.
It was unsure what was in the other half of the book, but the picture on the half in their side was already enough to make Han Yunxi bury her head in Long Feiye’s chest and never look up.
At this moment, Baili Yuanlong’s furious voice sounded from outside the tent.
“Xu Donglin, this general is telling you now, it’s been long enough of a delay! You have to take full responsibility!"
1. Mid-way through translating this pa.s.sage I realized that we were romanticizing a tank top of all things and laughed. Ah, young love...