Chapter 218: He Really Likes Cheng Zhao

With Zhou Yuanshen at home, Cheng Zhao felt very safe living in Chengming Hall.

Even when the wind rose at night, she was not afraid.

However, Chengming Hall was surrounded on both sides by Mu Jiang’s Lijing Court and Huan Qingtang’s Cuiyun Court, as though it had fallen into an encirclement.

Cheng Zhao was not busy today and had time to sit beneath the lamplight, embroidering the upper of a shoe.

Zhou Yuanshen sat beside her, reading a formation manual. He moved the lamp closer to Cheng Zhao and said, “Have the maids do the embroidery. You can make a few stitches to show your sincerity. I’ll appreciate the thought.”

Cheng Zhao said, “How can I be so perfunctory?”

She had always been thorough in everything she did. Once she agreed to something, she would carry it out properly and never cut corners.

“I’m afraid you’ll tire yourself.”

“I’m not tired.” Cheng Zhao raised her eyes and gave him a faint smile. “Don’t worry. I take good care of myself. If I become tired, I won’t force myself to keep going.”

Her smile was beautiful. Her teeth were white and even, and her dimples were more alluring than flowers.

Zhou Yuanshen’s heart stirred.

He came over, took the needle and thread from her hands, and gently drew her into his arms. “I don’t need to observe mourning for Eldest Aunt.”

Cheng Zhao: “...”

He looked steadily at her. “Cheng Zhao, are you really not tired?”

Cheng Zhao lifted her face and lightly kissed his chin. Smiling, she said nothing, merely gazing at him with bright, shining eyes.

Zhou Yuanshen lowered his head and sealed her lips with his own.

Holding her, he carried her around the screen and laid her on the bed.

The curtains fell, and the inner bed curtain slipped from its golden hooks, blocking out the light. In the darkness, their breathing became clearer.

Cheng Zhao could feel the heat of his breath, while the fine sheen of sweat on her body brushed against his palm.

“Cheng Zhao,” he murmured.

Cheng Zhao answered him.

At that moment, she felt that her name sounded beautiful. Coming from his lips, it was especially moving, making her ears tingle and grow weak.

Amid the tenderness and passion, she suddenly understood.

So he really did love her.

What about her?

Did she have the same clinging affection for him in her heart?

For a moment, Cheng Zhao felt flustered. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly, their bodies pressed closely together.

Zhou Yuanshen smiled and tightened his embrace. The brocade quilt enveloped them in that small space, leaving only the two of them.

Cheng Zhao once again experienced an intense, exquisite pleasure.

On that chilly early-winter night.

After bathing, neither husband nor wife felt much like sleeping. Both were in an excellent mood.

A small palace lamp sat inside the bed curtains, mostly covered so that only a thin, dim glow remained. The soft yellow light made the space feel exceptionally warm.

Zhou Yuanshen held Cheng Zhao in his arms, while she rested against his chest.

“...Mu Jiang has been very quiet these past few days,” Cheng Zhao suddenly said.

The last time she had seen Mu Jiang was before the fire at Nonghua Court.

In that short span of time, Cheng Zhao had moved from Nonghua Court to Chengming Hall; Eldest Madam Song had been sent away for setting the fire, and then, after something happened to her maternal family, she had “hanged herself.”

Now Eldest Madam Song’s funeral was over.

So many things had happened, and everything had been so chaotic and busy that the Mid-Autumn Festival seemed to have taken place a very long time ago.

In truth, less than two months had passed.

During the Zhou family’s funeral, Mu Jiang could have taken the opportunity to cause trouble, but she had not.

More precisely, she had been unable to.

“Do I need to go see her?” Cheng Zhao asked, raising her eyes to Zhou Yuanshen.

“No need,” Zhou Yuanshen replied.

“You and her...”

The question seemed to have been in Cheng Zhao’s heart for a long time.

Although she had learned many secrets, she had never personally heard Zhou Yuanshen speak of his past with Mu Jiang.

After all, the two of them had grown up in the same household.

“We aren’t close,” Zhou Yuanshen said.

He seemed unwilling to elaborate, but he noticed Cheng Zhao’s hesitation and continued, “I was never favored by Grandmother. When we were living on the frontier, we stayed in separate courtyards.”

He had not lived with the Grand Duchess, the main branch, or the Emperor and Empress. He had lived with his parents in the residence of the Fan family.

“We had heard that an orphan girl had been taken in. Grandmother and the others returned to the capital first, while we did not come back until the second year after the Emperor ascended the throne.

“By then, the Zhou family had been granted a title and given a dukedom. The main branch guarded against us as though we were thieves, and Grandmother also disliked my frequent visits to Shou’an Court,” Zhou Yuanshen said.

Cheng Zhao said, “...That was her prejudice against you.”

“I didn’t spend many years at the clan academy either. Because they were so wary of me, Zhou Yuancheng picked fights with me every day. My mother suffered a great deal because of me, so I ran back to the frontier and stayed by my maternal grandfather’s side,” Zhou Yuanshen said.

Thus, he and the orphan girl raised by the Grand Duchess could hardly be called childhood sweethearts.

They had barely seen each other a handful of times.

“I only returned to the capital after I was appointed General of the Pacifying West. Not long after I came back, I inherited the title and was granted a marriage,” he said.

It was all very simple.

His relationship with Mu Jiang was straightforward and unambiguous, without the slightest entanglement.

“...Taking her as a concubine was the Emperor’s hint and Grandmother’s wish,” Zhou Yuanshen continued. “I have never once stayed at Lijing Court.

“However, I agreed to let her put on a show of influence and helped her boast by sending her gifts. She also needed to give the others an explanation and was afraid of being mocked by the servants, so she was willing to cooperate with me.”

At this, Cheng Zhao remembered the time Qiubai had been poisoned by a snake and she had gone to Lijing Court to find him.

Mu Jiang had cursed her terribly then.

But Zhou Yuanshen had not come out of Lijing Court. He had arrived by the small path from Chenhui Court.

Nanfeng was very sharp. Cheng Zhao’s shouting at the entrance of Lijing Court might not have been heard inside Chenhui Court, but Nanfeng must have known about it.

He would have told Zhou Yuanshen, who had been resting in Chenhui Court.

Zhou Yuanshen finished speaking and gently lifted her chin. “Do you believe me?”

Cheng Zhao said, “I do.”

Why would he lie about something like this?

Zhou Yuanshen kissed her lips. “Cheng Zhao, you’re truly a straightforward person. You’re different from what I imagined.”

“You imagined me?”

“I thought you would be delicate and timid,” he said.

Cheng Zhao: “...”

He asked her again, “When you were given this marriage, were you afraid? Did you ever wonder what kind of person I was?”

“Why would I wonder? Once the marriage was arranged, my family thoroughly investigated you and the Duke of Chen’s family. My second brother even took me to a teahouse to watch you,” Cheng Zhao replied.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

Wasn’t that a military strategy too?

He read military texts all day long. What exactly had he learned from them?

Zhou Yuanshen: “...”

He understood the disdain in Cheng Zhao’s eyes and kissed her firmly again.

When Cheng Zhao pushed him away and rolled into his arms, she said, “If you keep this up, I won’t talk to you anymore.”

He obediently lay still.

The couple had previously cleared up the misunderstanding involving Huan Qingtang. Now that they had also clarified the matter of Mu Jiang, Cheng Zhao felt that they had become one entity as husband and wife—the two closest people in the world.

“Don’t concern yourself with Mu Jiang. Grandmother will deal with her,” Zhou Yuanshen said. “This is a dispute between them. No matter what you and I do, we’ll end up blamed from both sides.”

Cheng Zhao understood.

“It’s just that you suggested rebuilding the inner study, and I’m afraid Grandmother will use Mu Jiang,” Cheng Zhao said.

“An old fox who has become desperate will be the one to fall into the trap,” Zhou Yuanshen replied.

Cheng Zhao nodded.

The couple talked for a long time.

The next day, news came that something had happened at Lijing Court.

Mu Jiang had been coughing for many days, and the previous night she had coughed up blood.

The physician said that the weather was growing colder by the day and was unsuitable for her recovery. She should be moved to the hot-spring estate, where the climate was warm and humid.

“Once the weather warms after spring arrives, she can be brought back,” the physician said.

The Grand Duchess immediately sent people to make the arrangements.

However, the Zhou family’s hot-spring estate was very close to the estate of Grand Princess Fukang, who also intended to escape the winter cold there.

“Having a patient living next door is most inauspicious, and she may disturb the princess. Why not move her to one of the estates in the south? She can recuperate there for a year or two,” Nanny Sun suggested.

The Grand Dowager Lady summoned Zhou Yuanshen and Cheng Zhao to discuss the matter.

Zhou Yuanshen said, “I will abide by Grandmother’s decision in all things.”

Cheng Zhao then said, “As for Madam Ru, naturally the decision rests with Grandmother and the Duke of State.”

She knew that once Mu Jiang left, she would probably never return.

The Grand Dowager Lady was not giving her up because she had found a better choice. It was because the burden had become too heavy, and she had to cast it off.