The Beauty Within the Gates
Chapter 85
Who was she envying…
An official title? The young lady’s gaze paused, and that trace of discomfort in her heart vanished completely in an instant. She leaned forward and looked uncertainly at the man on the bed. “Husband, did you just say an official title for a wife?”
“Mm.”
The anticipation in the young lady’s eyes was evident, mixed with a hint of nervousness. “Can I… can I really?”
Seeing that his little wife had finally returned to her usual liveliness, his heart swelled even more, and his tongue slipped all the worse. “Why couldn’t you? You are my wife, Xie Shao’s wife. Even if you wanted the stars in the sky, I would go pluck them down for you.”
A man’s mouth was a deceitful ghost, everyone knew this great truth. Yet why were there still so many people willing to sink into it? Because they always struck right at the other person’s heart.
She was not greedy. What she should not want, she would not ask for.
The young lady leaned against her husband, as if the title were already within her grasp, and asked excitedly, “A titled lady, does that mean I can embroider phoenixes on my robes?”
Her husband nodded. “You could. As long as you don’t outshine the Empress and Noble Consorts in their presence.”
“That much, I still know.”
And it was not only this. Enduring the pain in his shoulder, her husband continued teasing his little wife to make her happy. “You would also receive a salary every month. That Eldest Madam of yours would have to curtsy when she sees you. And you’d be eligible to attend imperial banquets.”
The young lady’s brows lifted. “How much salary?”
Her husband did not give her a specific number. “That depends on what rank your husband’s official post is. The higher the official post, the higher your salary will be.”
He was already an official of the second rank. Even if he did not rise any further, it would be enough for her to carry herself with great prestige.
Such treatment was something she would not even have dared dream of.
Originally, she had thought that becoming the Madam Commander was already the peak of her life. Who knew that the peak of life had no summit at all? There was only what she could not imagine, nothing her husband could not earn back.
Wen Shuse lay beside the bed in a daze for a while, then sighed. “I’m only seventeen this year. Even counting fully, I’m only eighteen. Yet my days have already become like this. Won’t it prick people’s eyes?”
There was not even the first stroke of the eight characters yet, but she had already spoken of it as if it were set in stone. Even if he had to risk his life, he had to earn it back for her somehow. “So, what if it pricks their eyes? With me here, my wife deserves the very best in this world.”
Her husband’s mouth had been unsealed overnight, pouring out witty words one after another until she could hardly keep up.
Wen Shuse did not doubt her husband’s ability at all and said, moved, “Husband should properly recover from your injury. Until your wound heals, I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay in the room and keep you company.”
So, what was bad about his little wife being greedy for power and status? At crucial moments, at least she knew where to direct her efforts.
Now that he had coaxed her well, his whole person settled. He patted the spot beside him. “Thank you for your trouble, Wife. It’s getting late. Wash up and rest early.”
It was indeed late. Wen Shuse nodded and rose. Then, remembering something, she turned back and crouched beside him again. This time, she asked him sincerely, “Has Husband washed already? Why don’t I help you wipe your body?”
Since his wound had just split open, bathing would be a little difficult. Wiping his body down, without requiring him to move, should be possible.
This was already the second time the young lady had invited him. He could hear that it was different from last time; she was not deliberately trying to provoke him. If he simply nodded, she would surely follow through.
Xie Shao’s heart blazed with fire, and the wound on his shoulder seemed as if it had begun showing signs of splitting again.
As long as the green hills remained, there would be no lack of firewood. He certainly couldn’t go into battle with his little wife drenched in blood.
Not that he minded the bleeding. But what if he didn’t perform well and disappointed her? Enduring the towering waves in his mind, he refused with difficulty. “I already washed at dusk. I’ll trouble my wife next time.”
Wen Shuse gave a soft “All right,” then hurried to the washroom. After tidying herself up and coming back out, her husband seemed utterly exhausted. His eyes were already closed, and he lay there without moving.
After putting out the lamp, Wen Shuse climbed lightly and quietly to the inner side of the bed. After the turmoil of the day, with her mood rising and falling so greatly, both her body and mind were tired. The moment she lay down, sleepiness immediately swept over her.
Just as she was about to close her eyes, a hand beside her suddenly reached out and gripped the wrist she had placed on top of the quilt.
Wen Shuse froze. Before she could come back to herself, her hand had already been pulled beneath the bedding by her husband. A moment later, her palm landed on a stretch of smooth skin.
The instant she touched it, she felt a scorching heat. The drowsiness that had been about to hang from her eyelids vanished at once, and her round eyes widened.
“This husband keeps his word. Wife may do as she pleases.” Her husband released her wrist, leaving her palm there to freely act as it wished.
Meaning she could do whatever she wanted.
She truly was not that sort of person. Like any ordinary young lady, she was also very easily shy and prone to blushing…
Her husband’s heartbeat seemed to be rising and falling gently beneath her palm. It was as if she had touched her husband’s firm, block-like muscles. That day, just looking at them, she had already felt they seemed extremely solid. Now, she wondered just how hard they could be. Her five fingers tentatively moved a little.
Her husband gave no reaction.
In the pitch-dark night, neither of them could see the other. She was only curious, that was all. Since he had let her touch, why should she be polite?
Her five fingers pressed down. They truly were very hard. Then, with no courtesy at all, she gave them another bold squeeze. They were like stone. Unable to hold back, she turned her head toward her husband and asked in surprise, “How can Husband’s stomach be this hard?”
“Normal.” Men who practiced martial arts were all like this.
But the young lady felt it was not normal. She compared hers to his. “Mine is very soft.”
The speaker had no intention, but the listener’s reaction was great.
The moment her words fell, a vivid and alluring scene outlined itself in her husband’s mind. His mouth immediately went dry as dust.
He had dodged his little wife’s request to help him bathe, but he had not managed to dodge this one sentence from his little wife: Mine is very soft.
Just how soft was it?
He had no way to measure it, but he could imagine it endlessly. After being a gentleman for so long, he suddenly wanted to be a beast for once. “Is that so? I don’t believe it.”
“It really is very soft, like cotton.” The young lady was eager to prove herself. Her other hand seemed to slip beneath the quilt to touch her own belly.
The image in his mind instantly began to move. Like a flash flood and a wild beast, everything he should and should not think of all surged into his head, speeding the flow of his blood and destroying the last bit of his conscience. Without the slightest hesitation, he took the opportunity to act.
If the big gray wolf wanted to lure out the little white rabbit, he had plenty of tricks. Her husband slowly revealed his claws and fangs. “How could that be?”
His little wife choked slightly, seeming at a loss as to how to convince him of the truth.
After hesitating for a while, she suddenly withdrew her own hand. She had evidently decided that rather than waste her breath arguing with him, it would be simpler to let him feel for himself. Like her husband just now, she lay flat, insisting on proving that her words were not false. “If Husband doesn’t believe me, you’ll know once you touch it.”
His little wife had finally bitten the hook he had set. His heart raced even faster. Drawing in a deep breath, Xie Shao slowly lifted the arm on the side closest to her. His hand moved toward her, the journey feeling as long and urgent as crossing mountains and rivers. The moment his fingers touched her waist, his breath caught in his throat.
He closed his eyes to spare himself the torment. Then his entire palm landed on her lower belly. Even through a layer of silk, he could feel the softness she had spoken of.
That faint warmth of her body, that trembling rise and fall, it was the death of him. His breath caught in his throat, yet his hand could no longer withdraw. Even if he drowned in it, he still wanted to continue. After covering it with his palm for a while, his fingers began to move. His fingertips caught at that obstructive layer of silk and shifted upward inch by inch.
His thieving heart was both panicked and bold. The movements of his fingers grew quicker. Just a little more, and he would be able to touch the cotton-soft stomach his little wife had spoken of.
But with his arm bent the wrong way across, it seemed he had already reached his limit. Burning with impatience, he rolled over and changed to the other hand, momentarily forgetting the wound on his shoulder that had just split open. Pain made him jerk, and he could not help letting out a soft hiss.
With that sound, Wen Shuse finally found her own breath again.
It turned out that touching someone and being touched were entirely different.
When she had touched him, although her heart had also raced, her thoughts had not been thrown into confusion. But now, with her husband’s hand pressed against her stomach, not only was she holding her breath, every sensation seemed concentrated beneath that one palm. It was unbearable, and it left her tense, and her body caught fire along with it. This was no feeling of her cotton-soft belly; this was a test of how much she could endure.
Fortunately, her husband lacked the strength to continue and stopped. She drew a breath at last, down deep into her lungs, and felt, finally, that she’d come back to life.
She immediately pulled his hand away and placed all blame on her husband, while she herself remained the magnanimous one. “Husband needn’t be anxious. Once your wound heals, I’ll let you touch it again.”
Xie Shao lay back with a look of utter defeat, staring blankly with his eyes open. Regret and torment blurred his vision with stars.
Tomorrow, he should just keep the imperial physician here.
Seeing that he had not spoken for a long while, Wen Shuse guessed that he must truly be in pain and asked him thoughtfully, “Is Husband still hurting?”
A sentence squeezed out from between his teeth. “I’m fine.”
Then that was good.
She also did not dare touch her husband again. If she touched him, she would have to pay it back. “Then I’m going to sleep.”
A With that, Wen Shuse turned over. She truly was tired and sleepy. The moment her eyes closed, she slept straight until dawn.
—
The young lady slept peacefully and sweetly the entire night, while Xie Shao kept his eyes open until the latter half of the night before finally falling asleep. The next morning, there was a dark shadow beneath his eyes.
When Second Madam and Chancellor Xie came in to visit, they were startled at first glance. Second Madam opened her mouth and immediately stabbed right into someone’s heart. “What happened? Couldn’t sleep?”
Xie Shao did not have a pleasant expression.
Wen Shuse, having kept her promise today, had not gone out and had stayed indoors with her husband. She handed him the medicine bowl in her hands. Seeing his manner of refusing to pay attention to anyone, she hurriedly answered for him. “My husband’s wound split open again yesterday. He was probably in pain at night and couldn’t sleep well. Father, Mother, have you had breakfast? I’ll have Aunt Qing prepare it, and why don’t we all have our breakfast here today?”
After Chancellor Xie and Second Madam arrived in the Eastern Capital, one was busy dealing with the court while the other was busy arranging the new residence, so they truly had not yet eaten together.
After the scene their son and daughter-in-law had made last night, Chancellor Xie had no heart to go out socializing today. He declined his appointment with his colleagues and stayed at the residence. Second Madam had also finished arranging the household for the most part and didn’t go out today.
The four of them finally had time to sit down and eat together. Minister Xie and the Second Madam didn’t stand on ceremony and stayed.
Ever since Xie Shao had been appointed Commander of the Imperial Guard and received a thousand taels of gold, the household’s daily expenses had become generous once again, returning to the standard of the Xie Mansion in Fengcheng.
Counting carefully, today was also the first time she was receiving her parents-in-law. Wen Shuse did not dare to be negligent. She listed several dishes for Aunt Qing and had her go to Zuixian Tower to buy them back.
Braised stewed, soup noodles, lamb bone broth, golden rice…
Among them, golden rice was the most particular. It used only expensive ingredients: fish, shrimp, chicken, duck, lamb, and goose cooked together with seasonings.
A single serving from Zuixian Tower sold for fifty guan.
Xie Shao’s eyelids twitched several times as he listened. A single serving of golden rice was nearly equal to one month’s rent for him.
He knew his wife spent generously, but most of it happened in places he could not see. Today’s meal made him truly understand what it felt like to ache for his own money.
He would save wherever he could.
Once the food arrived, Xie Shao instructed Minzhang, “Heat up the sweet-and-sour pork Second Young Madam brought back last night and give it to me.”
Chancellor Xie and Second Madam lifted their heads at the same time. Wen Shuse froze, then thought he did not want to waste her thoughtful gesture, and advised him, “If Husband likes eating it, I’ll go buy another serving later.”
“Wouldn’t that cost more money?” It had only been one night, and it had not gone badly. He insisted that Minzhang go heat it up.
Chancellor Xie and Second Madam held their bowls, their expressions calm as neither of them spoke, yet great waves had already surged up inside them.
For words like this to come from Xie Shao’s mouth, truly, the sun must have risen from the west. In the past, this unruly son of theirs had spent money without so much as blinking. Over these past few years, who knew how much silver he had spent from them? Forget one plate of sweet-and-sour pork; the silver he had casually given away would have bought a thousand plates.
For him to be like this today was probably all thanks to one person.
Second Madam lightly lifted her gaze. Wen Shuse, too, had her head lowered and said nothing. The chopsticks in her hand picked up food for Xie Shao several times. “Husband should eat more. Only then will your wound heal quickly.”
Xie Shao did eat it all, including that reheated plate of sweet-and-sour pork. Seeing him like this made people inexplicably feel a little sour-hearted.
Even so, Second Madam still did not let him off.
One did not know the cost of firewood and rice until one managed a household. The anger she had suffered from him all those years had to be collected back somehow.
“Your grandmother will arrive in the Eastern Capital in two days at the latest. This residence of yours isn’t large enough to live in. The day before yesterday, Shuse and I went out to look around. That mansion near Xiangguo Temple is quite good. We’ve already bought it, and the furnishings and decorations have all been ordered as well. Later, you can settle the bill.”
Xie Shao swallowed a mouthful of sweet-and-sour pork with difficulty.
The day before yesterday, he had indeed heard Wen Shuse say that Mother wanted to buy that mansion. So, it turned out it was not being bought with her money.
Last time, he had already calculated that buying a mansion and then furnishing it would probably cost five or six hundred taels of gold. His thousand taels of gold were likely not going to survive this. He frowned. “Don’t you have any money?”
Second Madam did not answer, instead tossing the question back to him. “What do you think?”
Xie Shao said nothing more.
His wife had squandered away his mother’s fortune, so now compensating them with a mansion was only right.
Second Madam continued, “Your father and I have only just arrived in the Eastern Capital, and we have no silver on hand. The household expenses will also have to trouble you to advance for now…”
—
After one meal, he felt as if he had reached the end of the road again.
As soon as Chancellor Xie and Second Madam left, Xie Shao had Minzhang go to the Imperial Medical Bureau to invite that imperial physician over.
He could not keep lying down anymore. He had to quickly recover from his injury, attend court, earn money to support the family, and earn a titled rank for his little wife…
At night, when the two of them lay in bed, her husband suddenly held his little wife’s hand in his palm and advised her softly, “You may spend that thousand taels of gold however you like, but the things His Majesty rewarded you with, you must keep them for yourself, as something to rely on. Before I receive my salary, you must not give it to anyone. If anything unexpected happens, don’t let yourself be short.”
After a pause, he said, “I don’t want you to suffer hardship again.”
He did not want to see his little wife worrying over two meals a day again. He did not want her to see silk she liked and be unable to buy it.
He wanted to keep seeing her bright, splendid, and beautiful like this.
His little wife’s fingers were loose, and she did not know how to be frugal. Silver was easy to spend, but hard to earn. He had to make sure there would always be a share left for her.
That plate of sweet-and-sour pork today had already made Wen Shuse feel somewhat uncomfortable. Now, hearing these words from him, a warm current surged up in her heart, sour and aching.
Before this, she had racked her brains trying to make her husband taste hardship, to understand how hard silver was to come by, so that he would strive and work hard. Now, her husband had become exactly what she had hoped for in her heart, yet for some reason, instead of feeling joy, she only felt a deeper tenderness toward him.
Wen Shuse turned onto her side to face him. The covered lamp before the bed had not yet been extinguished, illuminating her husband’s brows and eyes until they looked warm and jade-like, like a stretch of sea beneath the morning sun, making one unable to resist wanting to draw close and embrace him.
What had she done in her life to deserve marrying him, Xie Shao?
A sudden sting pierced her heart, so sharp that it made her voice hoarse. Gently, she took hold of his fingers resting on the quilt. “Husband.”
Xie Shao’s heart gave a leap. Could it be that she had not even managed to keep those things? “What is it?”
But Wen Shuse looked into his eyes and said seriously, “I should not have said those words that night.”
She should not have hurt him that way.
He cared about her so deeply, could not bear to let her suffer the slightest grievance, and wished he could dig out his heart and give it to her, yet she had stabbed him until he was full of holes.
She knew that on that day, he had not slept all night, sitting in this room until dawn. One could imagine how unbearable it must have been in his heart.
Before she knew it, mist had filled her eyes. It was all because her heart ached for her husband. Sincerely, she apologized to him. “I was wrong. Husband, will you forgive me? Whether you are poor or rich, I still love you. Not as husband and wife, but the kind of love between a man and a woman by choice.”
The moment the young lady’s voice fell, even the lamplight before them seemed to freeze.
Xie Shao’s gaze shifted, fixing tightly on the young lady before him. His heart seemed to have been soaked in a dye vat, filled with every flavor at once. Joy, gratitude… and more than anything, the relief of hardship finally giving way to sweetness. The feelings he had given had received a return beyond what he had ever expected. A belated wave of joy crashed through his chest. More than happiness, it was a wild, blood-rushing exhilaration.
Looking at his little wife’s tearful eyes, redness slowly welled in his own. His voice was hoarse. “I never blamed you. How could there be any need for forgiveness?”
He did not blame her. He only hated that he had made her suffer hardship with him.
His pain had all come from the fact that, in those words of hers, there had not seemed to be even the slightest trace of sincerity toward him.
Now their eyes locked, lamplight flickering in both their gazes. From their initial mutual resistance to now becoming the very apple of each other’s eyes, every step of the journey passed scene by scene through both their minds. Everything was already perfectly clear. What more needed to be said?
People’s hearts were, after all, made of flesh.
How could there be no feeling between two people who had shared such hardships? Wen Shuse could not hold back a sob. She propped herself up, leaned closer, and kissed her husband on the lips.
Her husband, beneath her, felt his eyes tremble. He was stunned for only a moment before reacting, responding warmly to his little wife’s kiss.
Unlike the previous kisses, this one held deep affection and became even more unrestrained and intense. Her husband soon took the lead, lifting his neck to bite at her lips, his exposed Adam’s apple bobbing continuously.
Wen Shuse had only acted on impulse, merely wanting to give her husband a single kiss. She had not expected to unlock some hidden power in him, making him kiss her fiercely.
Though her mind had turned to mush and she had lost all sense of herself, she still carefully avoided his wound. But her husband had already thrown all caution to the wind. At some point, both his hands had gripped her shoulders. The tip of his tongue slipped between her lips and teeth, exploring that hidden world, while the palms holding her shoulders slid downward inch by inch.
From her shoulders to her arms, until at last they reached the slender waist his little wife had spoken of, the one measuring one chi and eight cun.
It truly was as willowy as a branch of willow.
In his mind, the image surfaced again of her standing on the street, raising her arm and tilting her head as she adjusted her tall bun, the delicate waist beneath her plum-red sash. And now, that same slender waist was in his palm.
His fingers finally picked apart the layer of silk he had failed to lift last night.
She had not lied to him.
It was indeed like cotton.
This time, he reclaimed all the advantage he had taken last night, principal and interest together. Wen Shuse’s body went taut. “Husband…”
They had been married for so long. For him to have endured until now was already the greatest respect he could have given her. Their marriage had happened too hastily. She did not understand much about what happened on the wedding night, but she could grasp the general idea.
Wen Shuse did not push him away.
But a moment later, a muffled groan suddenly sounded by her ear, and her husband’s movements slowed noticeably. Wen Shuse quickly rose and looked at his shoulder in panic. “Husband, are you bleeding again…”
Xie Shao gritted his teeth and withdrew that arm, which hurt so badly it had gone numb. The corners of his forehead throbbed again and again. There had never been a moment when he hated this hole in his body more than he did right now.