chapter 3

That night, Zhao Yuanxiu shoved open the bedroom door.

“I hear a few words from my lady nearly made the Marchioness and her friends pull one another bald today?”

I calmly spat out a peach pit. “Yup. What about it? Planning to write me a commendation?”

“You… you truly are!”

He spun in three circles, then slid to his knees before me.

“Truly incredible! Your husband ought to kowtow to you!”

I nearly sprayed out my tea.

“Could you stop leaving half your sentence hanging? You scared me.”

He sidled closer and began massaging my shoulders.

“Today, I finally witnessed my lady’s lethal tongue. The Marchioness’s little clique is notoriously difficult.”

“I never imagined you could dissolve it with only a few sentences.”

I crossed my legs smugly. “That was nothing. Barely a splash.”

As he kneaded my shoulders, his hands began to slip beneath my collar.

In the hazy candlelight, he leaned down and murmured against my ear, “My lady…”

I had just braced myself for the next round of bedsheet warfare when someone knocked outside.

Zhao Xinran’s soft, childish voice drifted through the door.

“Father… M-Mother… may I sleep with you?”

I shoved Zhao Yuanxiu away and frantically straightened my clothes.

When I opened the door, my dumpling stood there clutching an old blanket. The tip of his nose was red from the cold.

I hurriedly pulled him inside.

“Where is your nursemaid? How could she let you get so cold?”

Xinran lowered his head and scuffed his toes uneasily.

“I snuck out by myself. There was thunder outside, and I… I was scared.”

Zhao Yuanxiu’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

“You slept alone before. Why were you never afraid of thunder then?”

The dumpling stole a glance at me and muttered, “Mama wasn’t here before…”

Warmth filled my heart. The boy knew who truly cared for him.

Zhao Yuanxiu had no reply. He could only watch as the dumpling occupied our bed.

I tried to cover him with a thick quilt, but he clung tightly to the old blanket.

“I only want this one…”

After the child fell asleep, Zhao Yuanxiu whispered, “His birth mother left that blanket behind. If you dislike it, I’ll throw it away tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes. “Did a door crush your brain?”

“That was his real mother. If you throw away his blanket, won’t all my devotion these past few days have been wasted?”

Zhao Yuanxiu chuckled and wrapped an arm around me.

“Yes, yes. My lady is truly magnanimous.”

Zhao Xinran knocked on our door at the same time for five nights straight.

On the fifth night, Zhao Yuanxiu finally snapped.

“Zhao Xinran, you are already a six-year-old man. You must learn to sleep by yourself.”

“When you marry, do you plan to keep squeezing into our bed?”

The boy blinked his large eyes, utterly serious.

“Father, let’s make a deal.”

“After I marry, I’ll let Father sleep in the middle too.”

I nearly stopped breathing. Zhao Yuanxiu, however, grinned from ear to ear.

“Good son! Your father did not love you in vain!”

I grabbed a feather duster and smacked Zhao Yuanxiu across the backside.

“You’re the second-highest official in the Ministry of Rites, and this is the nonsense you teach a child?”

“My lady, I’m innocent!”

Zhao Yuanxiu grabbed his son and ran around the room.

“He understood it all by himself!”