Thousand Verdant Mountains – Chapter 104 Part 2
Chapter 104 Part 2
No one knew when she came. She was standing in the corridor outside the half-rolled and half-closed door curtain of the private room. Qingtou was standing behind her, looking angrily at the woman in red who had just helped him.
The other women who were playing music or chatting in the room also stopped, and followed the guests in silence, looking at the young woman walking towards them in surprise. She must be married, as she dressed in a married woman attire, with a beautiful face and gorgeous clothes, which those girls had never seen before.
Xuyu did not go in, but stopped outside the door. She glanced at the girls in the room, and then looked at the wine table next to Pei Xiaoyuan.
“Princess!”
The stunned Chengping finally reacted and blurted out a cry, then bowed to her, which shocked the girls. Suddenly, someone remembered that in the princess’s wedding that had caused a sensation in Chang’an a few days ago, the prince consort seemed to be surnamed Pei.
The girls knelt down one after another and kowtowed, not daring to look up.
“Pei Er, why don’t you go back?”
Chengping changed his arrogant attitude and went up to push Pei Xiaoyuan out, trying to shove him out of the room.
“Princess, you may not know this, but tonight I purposely spoke in jest to Prince Consort, solely to urge him to return quickly!”
As he spoke, Chengping kept pushing his friend while turning to Xuyu with a placating smile, trying to please her.
Pei Xiaoyuan’s eyes were slightly lowered at this time, his expression was calm, and his feet seemed to have taken root. No matter how hard Chengping pushed him, he did not move at all.
“The two honourable. I will wait outside for Prince Consort.”
After saying this, she turned and left, walked a few steps, then stopped. Slightly turning her head back, her gaze once again falling on the person who still hadn’t caught up with her.
As their eyes met for a brief moment, she quickly averted her gaze and continued walking forward.
After a moment, the figure finally moved slowly, took a step, and followed her out.
The two walked out of this nameless little tavern deep in the winding alley, one in front and one behind.
Xuyu walked out of the alley and got into the carriage with the support of Yang Zai’en. She went away without waiting for him, and the carriage gradually disappeared in the dark street at night.
“Master, you!”
Qingtou paused in disappointment, turned around and saw that the princess’ carriage had already left. He left his master behind and hurriedly followed the princess’ carriage.
Pei Xiaoyuan mounted his horse and followed the carriage not too far away. In the early morning, he returned to Yongning Mansion.
Not many people knew that Xuyu had left the house. Only Yang Zai’en, Qingtou and a few others who were with her. At this time, everyone else in the house had fallen asleep, and there was only silence.
In Ziming Courtyard, only He shi was still waiting; the rest had been sent away to rest.
She saw the princess and prince consort return one after another, enter the bedroom one after the other then closed the door. The light in the courtyard suddenly turned dim.
Pei Xiaoyuan followed Xuyu inside silently and stopped in front of the screen in the outer room. He stood still, not moving further, and when he noticed her stop and turn to look at him, he muttered in a low voice, “I’ve been drinking—I might reek of it. I’ll sleep outside tonight!” After that, he kicked off his boots and lay down on the narrow couch where he had slept on his wedding night without taking off his clothes. He immediately closed his eyes as if ready to sleep.
Xuyu watched him for a moment. Seeing that he lay there as though already asleep, she decided to leave him alone and let him rest.
After tossing and turning for most of the night, she was finally able to lie down that night.
The autumn night was long. After a long while, the sound indicating the hour of Chou (1-3 am) could be heard faintly.
In the silence, Xuyu suddenly heard a quick sound of a door opening outside, and then the sound of someone walked out with very light footsteps.
She closed her eyes. After a long time, the footsteps never came back.
She slowly opened her eyes and sat up from the bed, her long hair cascading down her shoulders. In the darkness, she tilted her head, listening intently for a while longer. In the end, she couldn’t let it go. Gritting her teeth, she got out of bed, slipped on a pair of cloud-patterned embroidered shoes, and, step by step, crossed through the pearl curtain into the outer room.
The narrow couch was indeed empty, no one was there. The door was ajar.
She opened the door and went out, looking around outside the door but saw no one.
She walked along the corridor through the courtyard and looked for him in the Qiushuang Pavilion, the chrysanthemum garden, and the fish pond, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Xuyu couldn’t help but start to feel a little anxious.
Could it be that he was still angry and went out again?
Having known him for so long, if not for what happened tonight, she truly would have never guessed that beneath his seemingly calm and composed exterior, hid such a temper. His wounds had only just begun to heal, yet tonight he had gone out drinking, and quite heavily it seemed—enough that he needed the help of a serving girl to steady him when he stood.
This brought to mind that scene at Cangshan, when he had drunkenly collapsed under the lakeside pavilion. That night, if she hadn’t felt uneasy and gone back to check on him, he might have ended up soaking in the lake without even realizing it.
If he really ran out again tonight because he couldn’t think straight, and fell asleep drunk in the open air somewhere…
The more Xuyu thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. She was about to leave Ziming Courtyard to ask the gatekeeper, but then lowered her head to glance at her sleeping robe, turned around and hurried inside, wanting to change her clothes first.
She quickly climbed the corridor steps, ran to the door, and was about to go in to change her clothes, but suddenly she hesitated, stopped, and slowly turned her head.
In the moonlight and the shadow of the lanterns on the eaves, she saw a dark figure standing just behind the shadow of the pillars.
It was Pei Xiaoyuan! It was just that this place was blocked by the columns and too dark, so she didn’t notice that there was a person standing here!
The figure was motionless, half leaning against the pillar, watching her coldly as she walked around looking for him.
She calmed herself down, no longer able to hold back the anger that had been slowly building up in her heart since she came back from looking for him tonight.
“What are you doing here?” She walked up to him, stopped in the corridor, and asked.
“It’s hot and I can’t sleep. It’s cool here. I want to get some breeze.”
He said lightly, and she smelled a hint of alcohol coming from him.
She studied him for a moment.
“Pei Er, I know that being a prince consort is a humiliation to you and it damages your Pei family’s reputation as a pure and honest official.
“Qingtou told me what happened during the day.
“So, you come to regret it tonight?”
She tilted her head slightly and spoke to him in a joking tone.
He paused.
A gust of night wind swept by, causing her long black hair fell down her shoulders. In the air of the courtyard, there was a strange smell of osmanthus and white chrysanthemum, a cold fragrance, with a hint of bitterness, mixed with the hot smell of alcohol that came with the increasingly heavy breathing of the person in front of her.
“In days of old, there was the “Yi Lan Melody,” The Five Classics are like the deep ocean.”
“Though the Milky Way spans great distance. This heart lingers, wandering endlessly.”
She recited aloud, staring at the face opposite her that was obviously extremely embarrassed by her sudden action, and laughed softly.
“What a great ! What a great Five Classics!”
She laughed at him.
“Is this Pei Junyan, the second son of the Pei family who has always been self-righteous and prudent? If I don’t come to pick you up tonight, will you really get drunk and hang out with the beauties there with Ashina until dawn?”
“Li Hao’er! Don’t push me too far.”
The man’s eyes flickered in the dim light, gritting through his teeth.
Xuyu was startled because he suddenly called her by her real name, the name that only her father could call her.
“What if I push you? Will you go against me?”
She replied, letting out a soft snort as if unbothered, but deep down, she already had an ominous sign in her heart.
He might be really angry.
She decided to end the conversation with him immediately.
She took a step back.
“Prince Consort, you are drunk! Go to sleep! When you wake up, we can talk about what happened tonight!
“To tell you the truth, you make me very unhappy.”
With that, she turned away, intending to head back to the bedroom, but before she could take more than a step, Pei Xiaoyuan swung his arm and effortlessly pulled her back. Xuyu’s back slammed lightly against the pillar behind her.
“Pei Xiaoyuan, what are you doing?”
Xuyu suddenly felt nervous, but forgot to struggle. She just let him pinned her to the pillar under the eaves and looked up at him with a little panic.
He, of course, knew exactly what he was doing. But he remained silent, offering no explanation, only responding with an intensity that left no room for doubt. Before she could fully register what was happening, a fiery heat brushed against her lips. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. Searingly hot.
Her mind went blank for a moment. Her nostrils were filled with the breath of this man, which seemed familiar to her a moment ago, but became completely unfamiliar the next moment.
Xuyu was so dazed that she had no thoughts of resisting him. But because of nervousness completely overwhelmed her, like a person about to drown, she hugged his strong waist with her two arms, trembled gently in his arms. Then, somehow, her feet were suspended in the air.
He held her whole body up in his arms so that he could bury his face in the crook of her neck.
The warm, fragrant and rich aroma emanating from her warm skin under her clothes instantly lingered around his breath, filling his internal organs and his entire chest.
Pei Xiaoyuan couldn’t help but shudder.
He paused for a moment, waiting for the feeling of falling into a misty dream to disappear, then picked up the person who now allowed him to do whatever he wanted, turned around and hurried inside.
The door was left half open and there was no time to close it.
Under the quiet and dim corridor pillars, silk stockings and cloud-patterned embroidered shoes were scattered messily.
It was something that slipped off one of the princess’s feet while she was stopping just now.