Chapter 5

When Wang Xi came, I shut him out.

As I dressed before the mirror that evening, his handsome, gloomy face appeared in it.

“What’s the matter now?”

The small window was open. So this upright gentleman had climbed through it.

Watching him in the mirror, I twined a lock of hair around my finger. “Why come to me, Brother? Why not go to Sister Zhao?”

“Yaoyao.” He came over, lifted a handful of my hair, and combed it smooth. “Zhao Qingyi was a guest. I was being polite.”

“And what am I to you?”

I smiled carelessly. “Starting today, stop coming to bother me. I’m only your sister. What we’re doing is improper.”

His gaze darkened. “What nonsense is this?”

When those cool, phoenix-shaped eyes did not smile, his thin lids drooped slightly. He looked stern enough to intimidate anyone.

I stared straight at him. “It isn’t nonsense.”

“I’d like you to look for a suitable young man and arrange a marriage for me, so I can stop being an eyesore.”

“What do you mean?” His eyes grew darker.

Ignoring the chill in them, I said, “I want to marry and leave this house.”

“Impossible.”

I gave a cold laugh. “So you don’t want me to marry? You want me to stay your sister forever while you carry on in secret?

“Brother, you’re a scoundrel in a scholar’s robes.”

His fingers curled into a loose fist.

He lowered his gaze to me. “Is that what you think of me?”

What else?

“I don’t want to argue anymore. Please keep an eye out for me. Of course, a ruined woman like me will need someone who’s been married before, so I don’t cheat an unsuspecting man.”

He was so angry that he laughed. “Yaoyao, is that what I taught you? Every word you say stabs at the heart.”

I looked back at him.

“And are you fit to teach me? You teach me honor and propriety, then throw them away in everything you do with me.”

His face fell. He stared at me for a long time, then asked very calmly, “Do you regret it?”

Suddenly, I came to my senses.

Regret? What was there to regret? I had planned each step with ulterior motives from the start.

If I truly angered him and he broke things off, then I would regret it, wouldn’t I?

I ought to yield, but just then I did not want to.

I lowered my head and toyed with the hairpin on the table, saying nothing.

Silence filled the room. Only the night wind stirred quietly against the patterned window.

Wang Xi was giving me the cold shoulder. He stopped visiting.

He really could let go as easily as he took hold.

I did not go to him either. But I noticed carriages arriving at the Wang residence late at night. Chest after chest was unloaded and carried into Wang Yun’s study.

I had entered his study on the pretext of bringing soup, but it was sparsely furnished. There were no chests at all.

Where had they gone?

Wang Yun was deeply suspicious. I could not stay long enough to do more than glance around.

I could not enter his study freely. Wang Xi could.

I had no choice but to coax him back.

An afternoon thunderstorm came at just the right moment and gave me a perfectly reasonable excuse.

As I reached the foot of the bridge, I saw him standing on it.

He had no umbrella. His crimson official’s robe was soaked darker, making his face look paler and his eyes exceptionally clear.

I approached slowly, spinning my umbrella. “If I hadn’t come to find you, would you never have come to me again?”

Drops flew from the umbrella. A few landed on his brows and lashes.

He simply watched me in silence. Mist veiled his eyes; I could not tell whether it was tenderness or indifference.

The rain grew heavier. We were alone on the bridge.

“Then don’t ever come to me again!” I threw the umbrella to the ground.

My face was wet. I could not tell the false tears from the real rain.

Wang Xi sighed and bent to retrieve the umbrella. Drawing me into his arms, he said, “It was my fault.”

“What was?” I tried to pull away, but he would not let me.

“I shouldn’t have sulked.”

“And you made me come and coax you.” The more I thought about it, the more aggrieved I felt. My voice actually caught with tears.

“I’ll coax you now.”

He lowered his head.

The umbrella tilted down.

He kissed me with wind and rain clinging to him, now cold, now hot, until my limbs tingled.

Thunder rolled. His chest covered one of my ears, and he freed a hand to cover the other.

I could not hear the thunder, only his heart, beating just as loudly and fast.

“Don’t think this means I’ll forgi—”

The rest was drowned in his kiss.

A kiss more alarming than the crashing thunder.