Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Xu Mama, Bixiao, and the others were startled by Qin Chu's sudden appearance, especially right after Pei Jun had just been bad-mouthing him. A young maid who had recently begun serving in the private quarters was so startled that her hand trembled, and she dropped the blue-and-white porcelain bowl in her hands, and it shattered.

"Clumsy girl! Clean that up right now!"

Xu Mama scolded the maid sternly, then gave a slight curtsy. "Marquis, this is a new maid, still rough around the edges. She gave you a fright."

Qin Chu's expression was unreadable. He had not yet taken off his armor. He glanced at the maid kneeling on the ground, trembling as she gathered the broken porcelain shards, then walked into the main room.

"It's fine," he said. "The Princess has always had great taste in people. Since she chose this maid to serve her, she must be trainable."

Pei Jun, who had been drinking tea to hide her embarrassment, nearly choked. This guy's got a sharp tongue.

Xu Mama muttered a quick agreement. Seeing the Marquis heading toward the daybed where the Princess was seated, she hurriedly withdrew all the serving maids from the room.

Hongliu was ushered out with the others, her face full of confusion.

"Mama, if we all leave, who will look after the Marquis and the Princess?" she said urgently. "The Marquis hasn't even changed out of his armor, and the Princess doesn't know the first thing about that stuff."

Besides, the Princess had just been bad-mouthing the Marquis, and it seemed he had heard everything. Leaving the two of them alone like this—Hongliu was really worried for her mistress.

"You won't understand now, and that's fine. Once you're married, you'll understand."

Xu Mama offered no explanation, only instructing Bixiao and Hongliu to hurry to the small kitchen and hurry up lunch. Now that the Marquis had returned, everything had to be perfect. She then turned her full attention to directing the outer courtyard's maids and servants in cleaning—the Marquis was extremely picky, and every blade of grass, every flower, every object in the courtyard had to be just so.

Inside the room, Pei Jun watched Qin Chu approach and mentally kicked herself for being careless. These past few months, only she had been living in Jinxiu Court, so she had gotten sloppy with what she said, forgetting that Qin Chu had returned today as well.

Being caught speaking ill of someone behind their back made her feel guilty.

Pei Jun sat cross-legged on the daybed by the window, watching Qin Chu approach. The two exchanged a look, and just as Pei Jun was beginning to feel things get awkward, Qin Chu spoke: "Would the Princess mind finding me a change of clothes?"

He stood closer to her now, and the armor he wore carried a faint scent of blood. Pei Jun wrinkled her nose, rose from the couch, and went behind the screen to the round-cornered cabinet of rosewood carved with magpies on plum blossoms. She rummaged for a moment, then pulled out a set of crimson robes and handed them to Qin Chu.

Though Qin Chu had departed for the northwest only a few days after their wedding, his belongings in the main chamber were still neatly organized—robes, shoes, socks, sachets, jade pendants, all his personal effects were there. Pei Jun didn't personally handle these garments, but she had a general idea of where they were kept.

Qin Chu took them with a quick thanks, then walked behind the screen to change on his own.

He didn't ask her to help him get dressed.

But though they exchanged few words, Pei Jun could tell that his attitude toward her had gotten a lot better compared to when he first returned. At least he was no longer giving her the cold shoulder, and his speech was courteous—much like the first two days after their marriage.

She was, however, totally confused as to why he had been angry earlier and why he had since softened.

She'd called it right—this man was simply unpredictable. Who could ever read his moods?

Still, the fact that he did not bring up her insult behind his back made her a little grateful to him. She thought to herself that they could call it even, and she would be generous enough not to hold his inexplicable cold shoulder against him. She would chalk it up to his having just returned to find Yue Jie fallen into the water—his worry had made him act out.

The two of them had been thrown together, bound as husband and wife by a decree from her imperial uncle. There were no real feelings between them. Before she had married into this family, she had already anticipated there would be bumps in the road.

Moreover, her father's position as the Deposed Crown Prince was really awkward. Pei Jun had not read many history books, but across both her past and present lives, she had never heard of any dynasty where a deposed crown prince ended well. Even though the current emperor was her father's own younger brother and seemed to show considerable favor, her father and her elder brother—the current Heir Apparent of Prince Ying—had titles but no real power, with no official posts whatsoever.

Pei Jun understood that her imperial uncle's intention was for their family to live rich and carefree, never touching matters of state.

That was why she thought that since she was already married, rather than being at odds with Qin Chu, it would be better to try to smooth things over. At the very least, if her family ever fell into trouble, he might be able to help—some help was better than none. Her mother had given her the same advice before she married, as Xu Mama had just reminded her.

Pei Jun thought of her father, who spent his days playing with cats and birds without a care in the world, then of her mother, who worried herself to death every day, and sighed. She rose and made her way behind the screen.

Fine, she would make the effort. Besides, she had smelled blood earlier—Qin Chu had likely returned with wounds, and changing clothes on his own would be difficult.

The pastel screen separated the inner sleeping chamber from the outer room. It was one Pei Jun had chosen according to her own taste—carved from four slabs of white jade nearly an inch thick, faintly translucent rather than fully opaque. Through it, she could vaguely make out Qin Chu's back as he undressed.

With the heavy armor removed, the man's broad shoulders and back appeared even more striking—wide shoulders, narrow waist, long legs.

Qin Chu was not only handsome in the face but also well-built. Pei Jun had already experienced that firsthand.

She pressed her lips together, her heart stirring slightly, and quietly slipped around from the side.

Qin Chu had spent years on the battlefield; changing his own clothes was a trivial matter he had long mastered. Even at home, he rarely had servants attend to him, and he certainly would not have expected his delicate, pampered princess of a wife to do such things. So when he heard the soft rustling sounds from behind—the swish of a skirt sweeping across the velvet-carpeted floor, someone creeping up on him—he had already efficiently stripped off most of his garments, leaving only his snow-white underrobe.

His hand, which had been reaching for the sash at his waist, paused. He turned to the right and, sure enough, saw Princess Zhaoyang standing there. She was biting her lip, and on her fair face, those beautiful peach-blossom eyes were staring at him with unabashed appreciation.

"Let me help you," she said with a smile.

Qin Chu looked at her for a moment, then silently turned to face her and raised his arms.

Pei Jun stepped forward, her mood already considerably improved. After all, her convenient husband's face and figure were the real deal—not only could she look at him, she could touch him too. She was quite pleased.

She was beginning to understand why so many people enjoyed keeping a beauty at home. What a delight to behold—just looking at him lifted her spirits.

Pei Jun was not skilled at helping others change clothes, especially men's garments, which she was entirely unfamiliar with. Fortunately, Qin Chu had already removed the troublesome armor and outer robes himself, leaving only the inner layer, which was much simpler.

Qin Chu looked down at Pei Jun. She seemed to have gained a bit of flesh over these three months. At their wedding, her face had been thin and gaunt; now it was slightly rounder, and her complexion had improved as well. He wondered if the decade or more of house arrest had been truly harsh—Pei Jun had been too thin before. Now with a little more flesh, she was even more beautiful.

His gaze drifted downward and paused briefly at the rise of her chest.

That seemed to have grown a bit as well.

Neither of them knew that the other had already set aside their earlier anger and was beginning to covet each other's body. Pei Jun untied the sash, moved behind Qin Chu, and was about to help him remove the garment when she froze.

Two inches below his right shoulder, a patch of blood the size of a fist was seeping through, trickling out further with the subtle movement of his shoulder muscles.

"You're wounded?"

Qin Chu snapped back to attention at her exclamation and said flatly, "Blades and arrows have no eyes. It's a common occurrence."

Qin Chu bore many scars on his body, some old, some new. Pei Jun knew this well. In those days, the slaughter of battle had been unavoidable—but was Qin Chu not merely a titular general now?

And this was only a bandit suppression.

"Don't generals command from the rear? Why were you on the front lines?"

Pei Jun carefully removed his underrobe and saw a fresh scar on his back, where the muscle definition was clearly visible. Though it had already been bandaged, the crimson blood had soaked through the dressing, and the wound appeared far from small.

She reached out a finger and touched the slightly swollen muscle beside the wound, asking softly, "Does it hurt?"

She felt his back suddenly tense beneath her touch.

"A minor wound, nothing to worry about," Qin Chu said in a calm voice, then turned his head slightly to look at her. "Help me dress."

"..."

The faint romantic stirrings in Pei Jun's heart vanished instantly. A block of wood, utterly dull.

Pei Jun pulled a face as she helped him into his underrobe. Just as she was tying the sash, Qin Chu suddenly spoke: "Thank you for defending Yue Jie before Princess Qinghe today."

Pei Jun was taken aback.

She had genuinely thought his anger was as Xu Mama had suggested—that he disapproved of her confronting Princess Qinghe and making a scene without restraint. But from what Qin Chu was saying now, that was not what bothered him at all.

So what was he angry about, then?

It didn't take long for Pei Yun to figure out why Qin Chu had given her the cold shoulder when he returned.

"Yu Ge and Yue Jie are still young and can't be left alone. Though they're not your biological children, they call you 'Mother,' so I'll ask you to be more attentive. Don't let them go out on their own without you there again," Qin Chu said in a low voice. "If you had been at the Peony Terrace today, things wouldn't have come to this. Yue Jie is young, and falling into the water like that—she's been through so much."

"Are you blaming me for not keeping a better eye on Yue Jie?" Pei Yun was stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant and laughed in anger. "I'd already turned down the eldest young lady's birthday banquet and wasn't planning to go today. Yue Jie is her own person with her own two legs—if she wanted to sneak off and play, how is that on me?"

Qin Chu frowned, his head throbbing at her sharp tongue. He'd only married Pei Yun because he couldn't defy the imperial decree; her arrogant, headstrong nature was a far cry from the gentle, virtuous wife he'd imagined.

Moreover, she was the daughter of the Deposed Crown Prince.

But since they were already married, Qin Chu forced himself to reason with Pei Yun patiently—they couldn't keep getting into a fight every time they said more than two words to each other.

"You know how awkward a spot Yu Ge and Yue Jie are in in this household. Our eldest brother and his wife died young, leaving just the two of them behind. Mother isn't their real grandmother, and she doesn't exactly treat them with warmth."

Qin Chu fastened his own sash and draped on his outer robe, his dark eyes fixed on Pei Yun, who was glaring at him with fury.

"Too many people in this Duke Su manor don't like them. So it's up to the two of us—the ones they call 'Father' and 'Mother'—to put in the extra effort."

The family dynamics in the Duke Su mansion's eldest branch were indeed a tangled mess. Pei Yun hadn't known much about them while living in Qiulan Palace; it was only after her engagement that she got a crash course in the mansion's convoluted family ties.

Her current mother-in-law, Madam Tang, wasn't the old duke's first wife. The eldest branch's original wife, Madam Meng, hailed from the Duanrui Marquis household and was also the granddaughter of Prince Rong—a very prestigious background. She had married Qin Ruixi, who was then the heir to the Duke Su title. But Qin Ruixi wasn't keen on the match; he was already in love with Tang Shi, the daughter of the Tongzhou prefect.

However, Old Madam Ming and the old duke had placed great weight on family background and character when choosing their eldest daughter-in-law, since she'd one day be the matriarch of the Duke Su mansion and had to be outstanding in every way. So the couple overruled their son's wishes and made Madam Meng his first wife.

After marriage, Qin Ruixi's relationship with his well-born wife remained cold. They had only one son, the eldest legitimate son Qin Mu, and Madam Meng's health was damaged after childbirth, making it hard for her to conceive again. With her marriage ice-cold and the household suffocating, she finally gave in and allowed Tang Shi to be brought in as a wife of equal status.

As for her mother-in-law Tang Shi and the late duke—they genuinely loved each other. Even after Qin Ruixi had married a legitimate wife and fathered a son, Tang Shi stubbornly refused to marry anyone else for his sake, holding out until she was twenty. Word was her family had given her an ultimatum: marry soon, or they'd have her shave her head and become a nun. But she held out until Madam Meng gave in, and only then did she marry into the Duke Su mansion.

Later, Madam Meng's health never recovered. Not long after seeing her son Qin Mu named the Duke Su heir, she passed away. Unfortunately, Qin Mu and his wife also died young, leaving behind just their son Qin Yu and daughter Qin Yue.

That was why Qin Chu said the siblings were in an awkward position in the household.

The current eldest branch matriarch, Madam Tang, was not their biological grandmother and deeply disliked the bloodline left by Madam Meng.

Tang Shi had borne the old duke two sons and a daughter. Qin Chu was her second son, but for reasons unknown, he had been raised for a time under Madam Meng's care as a child and had been very close to his eldest brother Qin Mu—which was why he had adopted Qin Yu and Qin Yue.

"What you're saying, I know well enough. I can honestly say that since marrying you, I've treated Yu Ge and Yue Jie as my own and done my utmost. It's just that you've been away from home since our wedding, so you haven't seen it," Pei Yun said coldly. "I won't claim I did everything for Yue Jie today, but I did my best to shield her from any grievance."

"You don't know anything—how can you say I haven't been diligent?"

"It's just that today was unlucky—Yue Jie got into trouble right when you came back."

Pei Yun could honestly swear she had done her utmost for those two siblings, caring for them with all her heart. But Qin Yue had sneaked off to the Peony Terrace today and met with an accident—that couldn't all be blamed on her. And to accuse her from on high of not taking the siblings seriously?

It made Pei Yun both furious and hurt.

Qin Chu had intended to speak with Pei Yun calmly, but her flippant words, combined with the thought of Qin Yue still unconscious, stoked his anger.

"What do you mean, 'Yue Jie got into trouble right when I came back'?"

"If I hadn't returned today, would you have just brushed it off?" Qin Chu suppressed his rising fury and said coldly, "Let's stick to one matter at a time and not dodge the issue. Today we're only talking about Yue Jie falling into the water—you were indeed negligent in your care. Just be more attentive in the future; there's no need to make excuses."

"Or does the Princess think pushing someone into the water is just ordinary amusement, hardly worth concern?"

Pei Yun's eyes went wide, and she shouted at him, "Qin Chu, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

Nanny Xu and Hongliu had just seen off the servants sent from the second master's courtyard when they heard the argument from the main hall—both were stunned.

A moment later, the door was flung open. Qin Chu, now in a dark red robe, stormed out with a cold face, sweeping his sleeves as he left the main courtyard.

They say a brief separation makes the heart grow fonder—so why did the Marquis and the Princess start fighting the moment they met?

Author's note:

Pei Yun and Qin Chu are exactly that kind of couple—lustful one second, cold-shouldering and bickering the next. Also, just to clarify in case any readers missed the previous chapter: I've adjusted the ranking of the younger generation in the Qin family. Originally I planned to rank boys and girls separately, but worried the ages might confuse people, so I changed it to a unified ranking. Thus, our youngest in the family, Yue Jie, is now the Eighth Miss.