Chapter 14

Chapter 14

After returning from Ba Commandery, I lay in my room and burned with fever for two full days, until the heat had all but melted a whole circle off me.

Before the fever had even gone down, I begged Xiao Luzi to take me to the Wang Family Villa.

But Xiao Luzi had learned his lesson in Ba Commandery. This time, no matter what I said, he refused to go. In the end, I had no choice but to walk there on my own two feet.

And that walk took me from daybreak all the way to dusk.

When the Wang Clan armored guards heard I had come to request an audience with Wang Yu, they still treated me with perfect courtesy and escorted me all the way into the depths of the villa. I was so grateful I nearly wept.

Only this time, they did not take me to the little pavilion, but to another courtyard of exquisite elegance. Fine white sand covered the ground. Beneath the eaves, bamboo chimes rang softly, water dripped with a crystalline sound, and in the center of the courtyard stood a magnolia tree lush with branches and leaves, its faint fragrance drifting on the wind.

An armored guard stopped before a tightly shut chamber door, lowered his head, and knocked to announce me.

“Master, the Miss of the Nan Family has come to visit.”

There was no response from within. Only the splashing sound of water.

Could it be that Wang Yu was bathing?!

Just as I was growing more and more uneasy, the chamber door suddenly swung wide open. Two Lady Attendants came out carrying empty buckets, trays, and other things, then waited outside. The armored guard turned back to me and saluted with clasped hands.

“Miss, please.”

Please? What did he mean, please?

I lingered at the doorway for a while, long enough that the sound of water inside finally stopped, before I steeled myself and walked in.

Who would have thought that the moment I had taken two steps inside, the door behind me would be pulled shut!

I looked around the room. On the left stood a six-panel gauze screen that reached the floor, a figure faintly visible behind it. On the right were two rows of chicken-wing wood clothing racks, hung with inner garments, outer robes, sashes, and the like.

Wang Yu’s gentle voice came from behind the gauze screen.

“Come here. Dress me.”

The blurred figure slowly moved outward. Water droplets scattered, leaving speckled marks on the gray gauze screen.

I hurriedly took an inner robe from the rack and held it out to him. To my surprise, Wang Yu did not take it. Instead, he walked out from behind the screen with perfect composure, leaving a trail of damp, shadowy footprints on the wooden floor behind him.

I only glanced once before immediately looking elsewhere, then draped the smooth, light inner robe over his shoulders.

In response to my perfunctory effort, Wang Yu gave a soft snort. “Since you have a favor to ask of me, you should not be using this attitude.”

I hesitated for a good while longer before biting the bullet and stepping forward to straighten his clothes.

Wang Yu was very tall, almost half a foot taller than me. His shoulders were broad and solid, his body pale and firm as marble. As I helped him dress, my fingers inevitably brushed against his scorching skin, and all at once, I had a realization.

To me, he was absolutely not just some big, sturdy thigh to cling to.

He was also a man. A tall, vigorous, powerful young man.

A man like this had sent away his attendants, stayed alone with me in a sealed room, and even made me dress him at such close range. What exactly was he getting at?

I did not dare flatter myself, so I only asked in a small voice, “How did Young Master Wang know I had a favor to ask?”

Wang Yu spread his arms and let me tie his sash, his reaction as calm as an ancient well without a ripple. “If you did not have a favor to ask of me, why would you come looking for me?”

At this merciless exposure, I gave two awkward laughs.

“Haha… as if.”

After the inner robe came the lower garments and layered vest. Fortunately, I kept my eyes half-squinted the entire way and somehow managed to serve him through the dressing of his lower half. Next came the wide-sleeved outer robe…

However, though Wang Yu had put it on, he was far from satisfied.

“There is no fragrance on the clothes.”

I saw an incense burner shaped like a mountain beneath the clothing rack, so I carried it over to him, letting the curling smoke cling to his body. First the left side, then the right, first above, then below…

At some point, the posture became rather subtle. He was standing, while I was kneeling perfectly upright in front of him, both hands still holding the incense burner.

Hiss. This felt strange…

Wang Yu clearly felt the same. At this moment, he was looking down at me as well, faint threads of red visible in his eyes, emotions I could not understand moving within them. “From now on, do not call me Young Master Wang. Call me Chu Qing.”

As he spoke, his pair of cold, pale hands cupped my cheeks. His gaze studied me, his lashes lowered. “What a pitiful little thing…”

“How have you grown so thin and sharp-faced after only a few days apart?”