Reborn After Widowhood – Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Outside Siyi Hall, next to the corridor.
Chen Xiaozong stood with his hands behind his back, leaving Zhen’er with only the view of his back, eliminating any suspicion that he wanted to seduce the maid next to the princess.
Zhen’er secretly looked at the beautiful jade figure, and felt pity in her heart.
If prince consort was as gentle and polite as the third master, then princess and prince consort would definitely be in harmony with each other, instead of having a big quarrel every three days and a small quarrel every two days.
While she was thinking wildly, there were footsteps behind her. Zhen’er turned around and saw the prince consort who was also very handsome but always had a stern face, and hurriedly lowered her head.
For a cold-faced martial man like prince consort, only the Cabinet elder and their own princess dared to look down on him in the entire Chen mansion.
Chen Jingzong walked straight past the little maid.
When the two brothers met, Chen Xiaozong called him Fourth Brother with a smile, and then walked away.
Chen Jingzong was impatient: “Do you want something with me?”
His aura was intimidating, but Chen Xiaozong was not afraid, and joked in a low voice: “Nothing serious, I just smelled the smell of your fish in the front, so I came here to remind Fourth Brother. You also know that our father is the strictest. If he finds you eating meat during mourning, I’m afraid he will punish you to kneel in the ancestral hall.”
Chen Jingzong sneered: “Where did the fish smell come from? The best dish on the table just now was the scrambled eggs with wood ear.”
Chen Xiaozong didn’t smell the meat himself and only listened to what his wife said, so he tried to deceive his younger brother first.
Seeing his brother’s denial, Chen Xiaozong smiled and asked, “You really didn’t go to the mountains to catch some fish?”
Chen Jingzong pointed towards the courtyard with his hand and said unhappily: “Without this ancestor, I might really catch a few to satisfy my craving after a while. But she is here, and I don’t want to cause trouble for myself and give her another reason to dislike me.”
Chen Xiaozong immediately showed a sympathetic smile.
In fact, when the family got together, the princess still took care of his brother’s face and did not deliberately put on an attitude. However, if the relationship between the couple was not good, there would always be various clues, so how could the truth be hidden from anyone.
“Okay, since you’re fine here, I’ll go back and take a rest. I have to continue giving lectures to the children in the afternoon, it’s a headache.”
Chen Xiaozong didn’t ask any more questions and left with a smile.
In Fucui Hall, Luo Yuyan was lying sideways on the bed, not sleeping. When she saw her husband came back, she asked excitedly: “How is it?”
Chen Xiaozong shook his head: “Fourth Brother said they didn’t eat meat. What you smell may be the smell of scrambled eggs with wood ear.”
Luo Yuyan glared: “Can I not tell the difference between the smell of scrambled eggs and fried fish? You still don’t believe me, do you? Don’t forget, that year when you won the Tanhua’s title, you ran to drink with some flower girl, and deliberately changed your clothes, but I could smell of powder on your hair!”
Chen Xiaozong suddenly got a headache: “What drinking with flower girl? It’s my classmates who insisted on having a banquet and even ordered the singer on their own initiative. The singer fluttered her sleeves and scattered the makeup powder, and I got some on my body. I changed my clothes because I was afraid that you would misunderstand and be angry in vain. But you used it as irrefutable evidence to wrongly accuse me.”
Heaven can bear witness, he only has this one wife in his life, never thought about others, let alone messing around with them.
Luo Yuyan brought up the past just to prove that she had a good nose, she did not doubt her husband.
Her father-in-law was strict with her husband and his three brothers, strictly forbidding them from leading a debauched lifestyle and indulging in loose women. At home they didn’t even have
.It was said that before the second master Chen Yanzong died of illness at the age of eighteen, someone once proposed that he marry a wife to ward off the sickness, and if it didn’t work out, he could still leave a descendant. Chen Yanzong refused on the grounds that he did not want to waste a poor woman, and father-in-law and mother-in-law never insist on it. If it changed to other family, the parents might even use some drug to force their son to have a child.
All this show that the Chen family’s family tradition was upright.
“Fourth Brother said he didn’t eat, so you believe it?”
Luo Yuyan moved inside and asked her husband to lie down and talk.
Chen Xiaozong: “If it’s just him I probably won’t believe it. But there is a princess, how can he dare to fool around in front of the princess?”
Luo Yuyan snorted: “What if the princess is also greedy? Wouldn’t the two people cooperate together.”
Chen Xiaozong recalled Princess Hua Yang’s noble demeanor and denied: “The princess is not like someone who is easily swayed by food.”
The more noble a person, the more they wanted to save face. The princess usually disliked the fourth brother a lot. In order not to give the fourth brother a reason to laugh at her, Chen Xiaozong guessed that even if the fourth brother brought delicious food to the princess this time, the princess would not eat it.
It seemed to make sense, and since she had already had lunch and was full and not so hungry, Luo Yuyan stopped caring about it and cuddled up to her husband and chatted about other things.
In Siyi Hall, because of Chen Jingzong’s merciless ridicule, Hua Yang gave him another cold shoulder and let him to go to rest in the east wing.
Chen Jingzong didn’t take it seriously.
This kind of temper was normal for her, he had long been used to it.
.
With Chao Yun by her side during the day, Hua Yang wasn’t too worried about any ugly bugs appearing around her, but not at night. Chen Jingzong had to be there so that she could sleep peacefully.
Therefore, after dinner, Chen Jingzong stayed in the side room, and Hua Yang did not chase him away.
“Princess, the water is ready.”
Hua Yang was ready to take a bath.
Chen Jingzong held his head in one hand and lay on his side on the couch near the window. He looked at her and said, “You just washed yourself in the morning, and now you’re washing again. You’re not afraid of washing off your skin.”
Hua Yang knew that this dog could not spit out ivory from his mouth, so she ignored him.
Chen Jingzong changed his posture and closed his eyes to rest.
After waiting for about two-quarters of an hour, the person came back. Chen Jingzong turned his head and saw that she had changed into a white satin middle coat embroidered with green lotus leaves. Her black hair was pulled up high with a jade hairpin, revealing a slender snow-white neck, and flushed cheeks unique after bathing.
His eyes widened, but the beauty walked past his without even glancing, and entered the bedroom in a blink of an eye.
Just as Chen Jingzong was about to follow her, he suddenly remembered that he had promised her in the morning that he would take a shower every night in the future.
Chen Jingzong went to the west room and washing quickly with her remaining water.
After washing, he remembered that he forgot to take a change of middle coat, but Chen Jingzong was too lazy to ask the maid for help. After drying, he just wrapped the outer coat he had just taken off around his body, and went to the bedroom casually.
Chao Yun just helped the princess to comb her hair, and there was no need for her to serve any more. She saluted the prince consort who came through the door, bowed her head and left.
Hua Yang left the dressing table and looked outside the Babu bed. She frowned subconsciously when she saw Chen Jingzong wearing a white outer coat.
Chen Jingzong: “I took a shower and forgot to take my middle coat.”
As he spoke, he untied his outer coat.
Hua Yang:…
When he exposed a bit of his chest, Hua Yang quickly turned around and put down the gauze curtain.
Chen Jingzong changed into his middle coat, blew out the lamp, and came to the curtain.
His eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, and he saw her lying face in the middle of the bed, with a thin quilt draped over her body, outlining her slender and graceful figure.
Chen Jingzong was very conscious, took the pillow and quilt placed on the outside of the bed, and continued to sleep on the bed floor.
Hua Yang looked at above the bed silently.
During the two years in Lingzhou in her previous life, she and Chen Jingzong had hardly exchanged a friendly word. At first, he slept on the floor, and later he just kept sleeping, as if this was what a husband and wife should look like.
Of course, the two of them also had a couple life after taking off the mourning clothes, but not very often. Moreover, due to her resistance and Chen Jingzong’s lack of tenderness, the experience wasn’t particularly enjoyable for her and was, in her view, somewhat optional.
On the contrary, last night, because she found something she thought she lost, she catered to him quite a bit, and actually…
Hua Yang shook her head, interrupting the memory that shouldn’t have popped up at this moment.
“Are you asleep?”
His voice came from the ground, neither high nor low, a little hoarse.
Hua Yang: “Is something wrong?”
If he wanted to sleep up here, she would agree as long as he keep his hands to himself.
Chen Jingzong put his hands behind his head, looked at the dark top of the bed and said, “It’s nothing. I brought back a chicken this morning. Tomorrow, do you want to eat it at noon or at night?”
Hua Yang originally didn’t care about this, but for some reason, when Chen Jingzong mentioned this, her mouth filled with excitement.
“At night. It won’t be easy for people to find out.”
“Well, the fish in the mountains are fat, but the pheasant doesn’t have much meat. One is barely enough for the two of us to drink soup and fill the gap between our teeth.”
Hua Yang: “Sleep, don’t think about it.” The more she thought about it, the hungrier she got.
Chen Jingzong: “I can’t help it.”
Hua Yang secretly slandered, isn’t it just a chicken, but he kept thinking about it like this?
“Then you think about it, I’m going to sleep.”
Hua Yang moved inside, adjusted her posture and prepared to sleep.
Chen Jingzong: “You didn’t think about it? I think you seem to enjoyed it.”
He could tell that she really didn’t like that very much in the past, so he didn’t dare to delay it for too long every time for fear that she would become more and more resistant. But last night, she was completely different.
Enjoy?
Hua Yang finally realized what he was “thinking about” and gritted her teeth, pretending not to hear.
But Chen Jingzong sat up, stared at her back and said: “When I was eating noodles in the morning, you listed three conditions for me. If I can do it, you will let me sleep on the bed. Just now I took a shower and rinsed my mouth, so can I come up?”
Hua Yang: “Fine, but you can’t touch me.”
That medicine could only be taken once every three months. Hua Yang didn’t want to ruin her body because of his greed.
Chen Jingzong didn’t say anything, just threw the pillow up and lay down heavily with the quilt in his arms.
A hot breath sprayed on the back of Hua Yang’s neck, which showed how close he was lying to her. Hua Yang could even feel the man’s body heat coming from him.
The bed seemed to suddenly become smaller.
The images that she didn’t want to recall became clearer and clearer in her mind, including the strong bodies of the two guards fighting in her aunt’s house.
Hua Yang quietly moved inside.
Just after she steadied herself, there was movement behind her, and Chen Jingzong chased after her again.
Opposite Hua Yang was the bed board, so she stopped moving. But Chen Jingzong was like a wolf eyeing his prey, making no secret of his appetite, and the breath he sprayed became heavier and hotter.
How can Hua Yang fall asleep like this?
“You turn around, breathing so heavily, it makes me upset.” She said pretending to be unhappy.
Chen Jingzong sprayed her twice more and really turned around. He also moved two feet away to make it easier for her to turn over.
The couple lay still, and the inside the curtain quickly became quiet.
Hua Yang still had her eyes open.
She thought of her own rebirth.
Things happened so suddenly. Would she wake up tomorrow and return to the grand princess mansion in the capital, back to a time when there was no Chen Jingzong and the Chen family were sent to the frontier?
If that was the case, she couldn’t change anything, but at least she should let Chen Jingzong understand that she didn’t dislike him as much as before.
Hua Yang slowly turned around, and opposite was Chen Jingzong’s back lying on his side. This posture made his shoulders seem wider.
Hua Yang’s mind wandered away again.
Before she got married, she slept alone. When Chen Jingzong died and she became a widow, she still slept alone.
The same person, but the feeling was completely different.
Because she lived in the palace before getting married, the palace was her home, with her father emperor, mother empress, and younger brother.
As a widow, she lived alone in the grand princess mansion. It was not good to live in the palace again, and it was also difficult to take her mother out. Even if she could, her mother would not leave the palace, otherwise it would arouse random suspicion among the courtiers and the people.
The Grand Princess Mansion was her home, but it was so deserted that it didn’t feel like a home.
If Chen Jingzong live well, even if the couple quarrel every day, it would be much livelier.
During these three long years, she still missed him to some extent.
“You are not allowed to move.”
Chen Jingzong was aware of her since the moment she turned around, and thought she was just changing her position to sleep, but suddenly he heard her say this.
Chen Jingzong remained motionless.
Hua Yang leaned forward and put her hand around his thin waist.
If he hadn’t been so annoying several times during the day, maybe she would have wanted to hug him like this long ago.
Chen Jingzong’s whole body tensed up.
Hua Yang squeezed his hard arm, touched his broad shoulder, and sensed his warm body temperature, really felt that he was a living person, lying next to her.
She felt peaceful and secure in her heart, but Chen Jingzong felt like a pot of fire had been overturned on his body.
Could it be this is her new idea of torturing him?
Thinking that she had just taken medicine in the morning, Chen Jingzong closed his eyes and continued to serve as a piece of wood.
.
Hua Yang slept soundly this time.
She remembered that she fell asleep holding Chen Jingzong, but she didn’t expect that when she woke up in the morning, it would be Chen Jingzong holding her.
Her whole body was surrounded by Chen Jingzong, with his regularly rising and falling chest behind her, and his strong arms around her waist.
While Hua Yang was glad that she was still here, she felt that Chen Jingzong’s arms were too heavy and made her feel uncomfortable.
She tried to lift his arm.
At this moment, the arms suddenly stretched forward, and his broad palms clasped her with incomparable accuracy.
Hua Yang:…
“Sure enough, you lost weight.”
Before she exploded, Chen Jingzong retracted his hand and whispered with disdain.
Hua Yang sat up with a livid face.
Chen Jingzong raised his eyebrows: “Why, only you are allowed to molest me, but I am not allowed to reciprocate?”
Hua Yang hit him with a pillow.
Chen Jingzong jumped out of bed and rushed to the clean room.
Anger was anger, but Hua Yang still wanted to ask him to do something. After breakfast, she handed him the two letters she wrote yesterday: “Go and ask father. If father also has memorials to send to the capital, please sent my letters along with it.”
Father Emperor valued father-in-law very highly, and since father-in-law had finish taken care of the funeral, he should write a memorial to father emperor to report that he was safe.
Chen Jingzong deliberately asked: “What if he didn’t write a memorial?”
Hua Yang: “Then you send the steward to the post station.”
The ancestral home of the Chen family was too small. She and her two sisters-in-law only had four maids, and there were no boy servants available.
Chen Jingzong understood: “I am the boy servant beside you.”
Hua Yang glanced at him and took a silver leaf from the room and gave it to him: “Your reward. Can you go now?”
Chen Jingzong flipped the silver leaf, looked at her with unclear meaning, and left.
Main House.
The Cabinet Elder Chen Tingjian was entertaining his second brother Chen Tingshi.
He won the Zhongyuan title at the age of nineteen. After that, he either stayed in the capital or worked as an official. For thirty years, he relied on his second brother to take care of the family property and their mother. Now that the brothers were reunited, they naturally have a lot to talk about.
“Brother, this is our family’s account book. You were not at home before, but now that you and sister-in-law are back, I’d better leave the family’s property to you to take care of.”
Chen Tingshi pointed to the two boxes of account books that the servant had brought in, and said respectfully and honestly.
Chen Tingjian waved his hand: “What are you talking about? We have to go back sooner or later. It’s still up to you and sister-in-law to continue take care of these things.”
Chen Tingshi: “Nevertheless brother better check the accounts…”
Chen Tingjian: “You’re being too distant with me!”
He grimaced, under the prestige of a veteran official, Chen Tingshi no longer dared to persuade.
Chen Jingzong came here at this time.
Although Chen Tingshi was the uncle, he still stood up nervously when he saw this heroic and cold nephew.
Chen Tingjian glared at his son: “Why don’t you greet your second uncle properly? There’s no respect to the elder, how can you behave like this!”
Chen Jingzong’s expression was indifferent: “We’re uncle or nephew, why so distant?”
He actually used his father’s own words that he had just heard.
Chen Tingjian’s eyes twitched, this Old Four is not good at reading, but he talks back better than anyone!
Chen Jingzong didn’t say much and put the two letters on the table next to the old man: “Princess’s letter. When you have time, send it together to the capital.”
The corner of Chen Tingjian’s eyes twitched again, he motioned to his second brother to go out first. Then he asked his son: “Do you know what is written in the letter?”
Chen Jingzong: “Don’t worry, they are all praising our family.”
Chen Tingjian breathed a sigh of relief, but with a stern expression on his face, he lectured his son: “Your mother and I have a clear conscience towards the princess. The only one who wronged her is you, a pighead. Knowing that the princess dislikes you for being vulgar, but you still don’t know how to repent!”
Chen Jingzong sneered and left without listening to the words.
The Author has something to say:
Old Four: Dislike me? last night is the second time the princess took the initiative to hug me!
Old One looked at his children, and Old Three looked at his wife who was pregnant with their third child: ….
It’s nice to see that the mc wasn’t being unreasonable when she described their past marriage as difficult. The ml definitely was vulgar and stubborn while she was prideful and stubborn. Not a good combination lol
lol the author’s note at the end XD kkkk
Hmn, you know they both are actually more normal husband and wife. This does happen and its just that one person can decide to endure and another can decide to change. Its good if both are willing, but most marriages, even nowadays, if one doesn’t cater, it really wont work.
You really also cant blame them, the ML’s way of overcoming his shortcomings and always being compared to his brothers is to be more vulgar while the princess, spoiled and always on top, cant go down her pedestal. So it wont really work last lifetime.
But I really like how they are both willing to change now.