Chapter 5
My thoughts churned the entire way back to the princely estate.
Xiao Ye and I had often played together as children because I was his study companion.
A study companion was, in theory, a servant to his princely master.
But I was Qiao Yuling, the dignified heir to a duke. Wherever I went, people gathered around me like stars around the moon.
When I stood beside Xiao Ye, however, everyone saw and praised only him. As the years passed, I began to feel stifled.
I no longer wanted to play with him, listen to him teach me, or trail after him like a little tail.
The year I resigned my palace post, he came to my house, eyes red, and flung down a letter severing our friendship. He said we were through forever.
Screw him!
Remembering that florid letter—and all the characters in it I could not even read—I angrily poked Xiao Ye’s cheek. “Hmph. You were the one who ended our friendship. Were you also the one waiting all this time to make up?”
Xiao Ye promptly leaned over and rested his head on my shoulder.
I sat bolt upright and did not dare move for the rest of the ride.
When we finally reached the estate, I supported him by the arm as he climbed down. His eyes suddenly opened. “What time is it?”
“Almost midnight.”
“Midnight… I am only coming home at midnight. My wife will be angry.”
He dropped my arm and sprinted toward the bridal chamber.
I nearly cursed aloud.
“Wait! Sister isn’t angry! She isn’t waiting for you! She’s long asleep, so please sleep in the study tonight. Your Highness, you needn’t guard your masculine virtue so fiercely!”
Drunk though he was, he ran too fast to stop. I took a shortcut, slipped through the rear door, and dove in through the window.
At that very moment, he pushed open the front door.
My disguise was finished!
Then I spotted a steaming bath barrel within reach. As Xiao Ye’s silhouette appeared on the screen, I sprang like a carp and plunged into the water.
By the time he entered, I had let down my hair and was draped against the rim like a beauty fresh from her bath.
“Oh! What are you doing? How can you peep at me bathing? Have you no shame?” I cried weakly while stripping off my clothes beneath the water. I was still wearing men’s attire.
Xiao Ye rushed over and dropped to one knee beside the barrel. “Little Qiao, I went drinking tonight. Someone nearly violated me.”
“What?”
His eyes turned damp. “So many… so many women from the pleasure house surrounded me. I barely made it home.”
Had I not attended the same banquet, I might have believed him.
He reached out, slowly hooked an arm around my neck, and buried his face in my hair.
“The perfume from that place is overpowering. My wife smells much better.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Little Qiao, can you smell another woman on me?”
I sniffed him with care. “Maybe a little.”
“Can you wash it away for me?”
“How am I supposed to do that? This barrel is only big enough for—mmph!”
Before I could finish, Xiao Ye crushed his lips to mine.
His mouth was hotter than the bathwater and softer than white jade. I forgot how to breathe.
When we finally parted, a shining thread stretched between us in the steam.
He stroked my face and murmured, “Now I carry a little of your scent.”
My mind had gone completely blank.
Xiao. Ye. Had. Kissed. Me.
“But it is not enough.” With unbearable tenderness, he brushed aside my wet hair and kissed me again.
This time neither of us stayed clearheaded. In a storm of desperate kisses, he lifted me from the water and carried me to the bed.
Only then did I learn that losing all sense of heaven and earth was no empty phrase.
Kisses and caresses alone left me trembling beyond reason. My last shred of sense surfaced only when he reached for my inner robe. I caught his wrist.
“I frightened you.” Xiao Ye lingered to bite my lip, breathing softly against my neck. “I will sleep on the floor. Good night.”
With that, he toppled onto the floor and fell deeply asleep.
“Hey!” I clutched the edge of the bed and called to him.
No response.
“Xiao Ye, are you even a man?” I glanced down at poor Little Qiao Junior, snatched up a pillow, and hurled it at him. “My flag is flying! How am I supposed to sleep like this?”
Bastard! He wound me up and left me hanging. Rotten, stinking man!
The next morning, I decided I would not speak to him.
Then Xiao Ye produced my favorite yam-and-walnut pastry. “Want some?”
I looked once. Then again.
He held it out.
I was starving. The moment I leaned forward, he caught me and kissed me thoroughly.
Face burning, I pushed him away. “What kind of villain tricks someone into kisses first thing in the morning?”
Xiao Ye raised a lock of my hair and waved it. “Thank you for the second lock.”
“When did I say you could have it?”
With perfect nonchalance, he kissed my cheek and stuffed the pastry into my open mouth before I could protest.
“If someone refuses to admit his smile has reached his ears, I may have to kiss him again.”
I hurriedly touched my ears.
I had no idea whether my smile reached them.
But they were certainly hot.
Xiao Ye tucked my hair into a pouch against his chest.
“We are visiting a temple today. It is your first formal outing as my princess consort. Think carefully about your third question on the way.”
After he patted my head twice, I found I could no longer remember what third question Father had told me to ask.