The Prisoner of Beauty - Chapter 74

Chapter 74

The evening wind coaxed a strand of stray hair from beside her ear, brushing it against her half-cheek that resembled white jade. The corners of her lips were curved, permeating a streak of mischievous energy.

Watching this, Wei Shao's heart suddenly grew itchy, as if it had been gently scratched by something. Enduring it by force, his expression became all the more solemn: "You know very well who I am speaking of."

"Quite a number of people truly visited the home today. I truly do not know whom Husband indicates. The Leling Physician, the Second Eldest Sister, the Third Grand-Aunt, those dispatched by the Wife of the Duke of Zhen to inquire after the illness—oh, correct, there was also a madam who came from the State of Zhongshan..."

Xiao Qiao widened her eyes: "Could it be that the one you ask about is precisely the Madam of the State of Zhongshan?"

Wei Shao slightly narrowed his eyes, staring at her for a moment.

"Did you perhaps hear of something in the past?" he said.

"What does Husband feel I have heard of?"

Her cheek felt a bit itchy from being brushed by the hair strands. Xiao Qiao raised her hand to tuck the hair strands behind her ear, appearing a bit careless and unconcerned.

Wei Shao paused.

"What could there possibly be?"

He asked a question in return. Perhaps he was provoked into being a bit displeased by this speech and attitude of hers. Letting out a snort, he turned around and walked straight toward the study.

Xiao Qiao watched his back silhouette disappear at the end of the corridor. Turning around, she closed the door and returned behind that desk table of hers that was piled full of bamboo slips. According to what Nanny Zhong had pointed out during the day, she continued to slowly check the accounts.

At the sharp hour of Hai, Wei Shao returned from the study. Initially paying no heed to Xiao Qiao, he removed his clothes by himself and then lay down.

The accounts upon that roll of bamboo slips in Xiao Qiao's hands did not have much remaining. Born out of obsessive-compulsive habits, she wished to finish checking them before sleeping. Before even a brief moment passed, she heard Wei Shao’s voice travel out from within the curtain hangings: "It is not early. Grandmother only commanded you to manage the matters; she did not command you to still light the lamp at midnight to rush and check the accounts!"

Xiao Qiao secretly rolled her eyes. To avoid affecting his rest, after rising, she went to wash her hands, and returning, she extinguished the lamp and went onto the bed.

Initially, the two of them did not speak, each also sleeping on their own. Wei Shao tossed and turned for a good number of turns. Xiao Qiao merely closed her eyes, making no sound.

Suddenly, she heard him say, "I am going to step out the door in a couple of days."

Xiao Qiao was startled, opening her eyes.

"Where does Husband wish to go?"

"During the previous battle of Shiyi, Chen Xiang slipped away, fleeing to Hedong to borrow troops and buy grain from his old acquaintance Cao Jin, vainly hoping to launch a counterattack on Bingzhou. Right now he is within the vicinity of Shangdang. Although he is insufficient to become a menace, he must be eliminated. I shall go personally."

Xiao Qiao's heart jumped and her flesh crept, and she sat up from her pillow all at once.

She remembered that in her past life, Da Qiao had said that at the time Madame Xu passed away due to illness, Wei Shao himself was not present in Yuyang, having gone out to fight a war.

She had initially still felt fortunate that this current life was not so, because during these past days, Wei Shao had been at home all along.

This originally also made Xiao Qiao feel slightly more at ease.

Yet she had not thought that he would suddenly say he was leaving, and furthermore, leaving within these two days.

Yet another state of affairs that tallied with the past life had been added! Could it be that matters truly wished to develop step by step toward that predetermined fruit of the past life?

Amid the dim darkness, Wei Shao indistinctly saw her suddenly sit up, and he subsequently descended the couch to light the lamp.

"Can Husband please not go?" Xiao Qiao slowly raised her eyes to gaze at him, inquiring.

She sat by his side holding the quilt, her expression blank and her two eyes staring blankly, as if she were actually frightened by those words of his.

Wei Shao had never seen her reveal such an expression before himself, and furthermore ask such a childish question. For who knew what reason, far from being annoyed, a kind of tender affection of pity and love instead slowly welled up within his heart. That strand of stifled air within his chest that had consistently knotted up from first thing in the morning until this moment also appeared to have eased somewhat.

Wei Shao said, "I fear..."

"Husband, do not go!"

Xiao Qiao pounced over, pouncing him onto the pillow all at once.

"Do you not still possess Great General Li, Wei Liang, and the others under your banner? Let them go in your stead!"

Caught off guard, Wei Shao was pounced down onto the pillow face up by her.

Almost her entire body pounced upon his chest, two jade arms scaling his shoulders. Those two pink, plump flesh mounds before her chest also pressed onto him. Her beautiful pair of eyes widened like the round eyes of a cat, her gaze looking at him while carrying a frantic color.

Wei Shao's two hands remained straight, lying completely motionless as he allowed her to press onto himself. Hesitating for a moment, he said, "Today the matters have already been discussed and settled..."

"Husband, I beg of you!" Xiao Qiao interrupted his words, her two small hands continuously shaking his shoulders. "I truly do not wish for you to go out to fight a war again right now! I beg of you! Remain!"

Wei Shao only felt his flesh float and his bones melt. Knowing clearly that it already could not be changed, he unexpectedly could not flatly refuse. Being shaken by her shoulders for a few more turns, he heard a voice within his throat say, "...Allow me to go and discuss it further tomorrow..."

Xiao Qiao finally let out a sigh of relief slightly. Only now did she perceive herself pressing onto him, releasing his shoulders and scrambling down from his body.

Wei Shao raised his arm to scoop and embrace her with a single swoop, flipping his body to conversely press her beneath his body: "You are just so loath to see me leave?"

His thumb pinched her chin, his tone carrying a bit of frivolous and proud teasing.

Xiao Qiao, seeing that face of his right above her own face, encountered his pitch-black pair of eyes that were within arm's reach, bit her lip, and let out an "en" sound.

"Since it is so, why did you face me with a cold face first thing in the morning?" Wei Shao pressed her for an answer.

Xiao Qiao endured the goosebumps all over her body that were about to emerge, avoiding his gaze. Her two eyes stared at his Adam's apple as she said textually and indistinctly, "Who told you to treat me like that last night..."

Wei Shao felt that she was acting coquettishly and resentfully toward him, and his entire body felt comfortable and refreshed. Cuping her face with his hands, he said in a low voice, "It was I who was too tired, and my strength was entirely expended upon your body, so that I did not know when it was that you left..."

Wei Shao was merely in his early twenties, his energy vigorous. Having shared a bed and pillow with Xiao Qiao for such a long duration, it was like tasting the marrow and knowing the flavor. Toward the wonderful places of her body, he was gradually unable to stop his desires, wishing he could return every day to sleep together with her. It was a pity that regarding the matters of the bed, she always appeared not very warm toward him, never taking the initiative. It was rare tonight that she unexpectedly pounced him down onto the pillow like this, and further entreated him not to depart, which was simply like falling into a dreamscape. Having spoken a few phrases of words, his sight fell onto her red, moist pair of lips, and bending his head down, he subsequently kissed and held them.

Xiao Qiao made a few muffled sounds, striving with might to break free: "We agreed, you must remain, you cannot deceive me..."

While undoing her clothes, Wei Shao kissed her chest and neck: "...En... I know..."

...

Later on last night, one was cock-a-hoop and intentionally seeking to please, while the other possessed another thought and had a request of him. The two of them embraced in a lump and rubbed against each other for a long duration; it was instead a rare display of a young man's affection and a young woman's intent. The calls of "Manman," "Manman" were uttered for who-knew-how-many times, boundlessly attached and tender.

After Wei Shao slept with a heart full of satisfaction, Xiao Qiao, who had coped with him for two consecutive nights, was also truly exhausted. Curling up by his side, she closed her eyes and subsequently entered the dark, sweet land of dreams.

First thing the next morning, Wei Shao went out. Xiao Qiao as usual attended to the illness within the northern rooms. Returning after midday, she also had no heart to do other things, merely looking with wide, eager eyes to wait for Wei Shao to return. Waiting until the sky turned dark, she consistently did not see his person. Within her heart, she slowly subsequently felt apprehensive.

Xiao Qiao waited until the middle of the hour of Hai, and only then did she hear footsteps travel from the courtyard outside, followed by the servant women calling "Lord." Immediately running out to welcome him, she saw Wei Shao stride up the steps, and the two of them encountered each other at the doorway.

The moment she saw his expression, her heart gave a thud.

"Husband, how do they say?"

Although within her heart she had already concluded that she was deceived by him last night, she still harbored a final bit of luck. Xiao Qiao gazed at him and asked.

Entering the room, Wei Shao initially did not answer her words immediately. Only after commanding the servant women to all go out did he say with a solemn expression, "It is not that I am unwilling to remain to accompany you. Rather, it is that I truly cannot extricate my body. The geography of Shangdang is important; going east for two hundred miles is precisely Huguan, throttling the Taihang Mountains, and it absolutely cannot suffer a loss. What is more, the border defenses these past few days are also making major adjustments, and I must also retain sufficient guarding generals to protect Youzhou."

Compared to when he was upon the bed last night, his tone was simply not too solemn.

Xiao Qiao bit her lip, standing before him as she gazed at him without speaking words.

Wei Shao encountered her two paths of eyes that implicitly contained deep resentment, letting out a dry cough as if slightly uncomfortable, and immediately afterward raised his foot to walk toward the bathhouse, saying with his mouth, "Today the matters were truly many, and I am also fatigued. Let us settle down early."

Xiao Qiao stared at his back silhouette, even suspecting that the moment he stepped out the room door first thing this morning, he had ceased to place upon his heart the matter he had promised her upon the bed last night. Within her heart, it was both stifling and mortifying.

Only she also understood that if it were another matter, she might perhaps still be able to make a scene with him again. Encountering the arrangements of military marches, fighting wars, and dispatching troops and assigning generals, if she were to still clutch onto the words he promised upon the bed last night and fail to let them pass, she feared that in the next instant, he would blame her for making trouble out of nothing.

Xiao Qiao no longer spoke words. Seeing that the time was also not early, she went onto the bed and lay down first herself.

Wei Shao came out from within the bathhouse. Seeing her lying down with closed eyes, appearing as if her thoughts were heavy with burdens, he climbed up to embrace her, coaxing, "I know you are loath to see me leave, and I am also loath to part with you. It is merely that this turn I truly cannot extricate my body. Once this war is finished fighting, I will definitely return home as early as possible to accompany you."

Xiao Qiao knew within her heart that the matter was already unalterable. Suppressing the disappointment, mortification, trepidation, as well as a thread of anger within her heart, she was too lazy to look at that face of his further, flipping her body to face away with her back, pulling the quilt to shroud her head.

...

It was at the fifth watch at the hour of Mao three days later that Wei Shao dispatched his troops to leave Yuyang.

Over these years, although dispatching troops to go on a campaign like this had long since been an everyday sight, Madame Xu nonetheless disregarded that her diseased body was not yet recovered, dressing in neat and tidy clothing and insisting on personally escorting Wei Shao to the outside of the main gate.

Lady Zhu also finally revealed her face from within the eastern rooms, coming out to escort him.

Just like the previous time he campaigned against Shiyi, the grand army outside the city at this moment had already regulated the troops and awaited departure. Amid the illumination of the blazing fire torches, a crowd of subordinates and generals stood in high spirits, distributed and lined up outside the two sides of the main gate of the Wei Estate.

Wei Shao’s clothing and armor were bright and distinct. Under the reflection of the blazing fire torches at the doorway, he was heroic and magnificent like a god of war descended into the world. He turned his body around, requesting Madame Xu to halt her steps, and bid farewell to Madame Xu. His gaze fell onto the face of Xiao Qiao, who was supporting Madame Xu’s arm, lingering for a moment, before immediately striding across the threshold with great strides, turning his body to mount his warhorse.

Xiao Qiao stood side by side with Madame Xu right in the center inside the main gate, watching the back silhouette of Wei Shao and a crowd of subordinates and generals riding horses as they gradually went far away. Only after the line of horses and men completely vanished into that final clump of dark shadow before dawn did they turn their bodies around.

It was still very early, just past the fifth watch at the hour of Mao. Late autumn in the north—at this moment the sky was not yet greatly bright, but the horizon of the distant east already implicitly possessed a patch of fish-belly white before dawn floating up.

Xiao Qiao still held the arm of this old woman beside her, supporting her to slowly walk toward the inside. Nanny Zhong and the others followed behind.

Although Madame Xu’s diseased body was not yet recovered and she had furthermore risen first thing in the morning, her spirit appeared instead to be at its best moment during these days.

One of her hands was placed upon Xiao Qiao’s hand. Xiao Qiao felt a thread of warmth transmitted over from her withered and thin palm.

"You probably do not know yet," Madame Xu said to Xiao Qiao as she walked slowly upon the corridor path paved with smooth blue cobblestones as its road surface, "From the time Shao'er was seventeen years old and personally took charge of the army until now, over these many years, every turn he goes on a campaign from Yuyang, I must definitely escort him; when he returns, I must definitely welcome him. This morning is the twenty-first turn."

Xiao Qiao remained silent.

Beside the corners of Madame Xu’s lips, there carried a sliver of smile that implicitly contained pride: "He has suffered major injuries twice, minor injuries countless times, and has also once fallen into trapped straits. Fortunately, his will is hardened and enduring, and he makes decisions with authority and immediacy. Furthermore, he possesses the protection of the ancestors and forefathers, so time and again he is able to turn danger into safety."

"I am old. Waiting until one day in the future, if I am not present, whether it is victory or defeat, you must continue to escort him on his campaigns and welcome his return on my behalf, precisely like today. Are you willing?"

Xiao Qiao looked toward Madame Xu, seeing her turn her head to gaze at herself with a smile. Within her heart, a burst of hot energy slowly surged out.

With a mental state like this of Madame Xu, combined with the words of the Leling Physician on that day, Xiao Qiao could not believe by any means that if there were no external cause, she would, while perfectly fine, suddenly have her illness worsen and depart the world like her past life!

She reversed her hand to tightly grip that withered and thin hand of Madame Xu, saying syllable by syllable, "Grandmother, you will definitely live a long life of a hundred years! I do not want to escort and welcome Husband all by myself. I want to be together along with Grandmother, escorting him on his campaigns like today, and then welcoming his return once more!"

Madame Xu was startled. Borne by the faint light of dawn, she attentively watched Xiao Qiao for a moment, and broke into laughter.

"Yes. What is spoken is right! Grandmother wants to live to a hundred years, and is still waiting to hold a great-grandson!"

She said with a joyful smile.