The Prince Really Didn't Know How to Cherish a Woman

The candles in the room still burned brightly, and only the gauze curtains had been lowered around the bed, leaving the view hazy but bright. Su Luoqian lay with her eyes closed, tense as though awaiting the slaughter.

At last, she could not help speaking. "...Put, put out the lights..."

The man's breath was warm, his voice low and husky. "No."

"..."

The undergarment Su Luoqian wore today was peach-pink, and it now clung tightly around her delicate, snow-white breasts, trembling faintly with her nerves.

Lu Jingsi raised a hand and undid her ties. A vision of soft, luminous white met his eyes, and his gaze darkened frighteningly.

He made no effort to moderate his strength. When he lowered his head, his hot breath swept over her, and Su Luoqian's heart raced. What they were doing tonight seemed different from their wedding night.

She instinctively shrank back, but he held her down with one large hand. "Why are you hiding?"

Su Luoqian bit her lip, not daring to answer or let out the slightest sound.

Seeing her like this, Lu Jingsi seemed to find it amusing.

Before their marriage, he had investigated her and the Su Family, and knew that her temperament differed from those of the highborn young ladies of Yujing City.

After their marriage, she did not seem inclined to hide her personality or preferences, either.

He watched her: at times she was proper and demure, at times she gave him a cold look, and at others she bared her claws...

Of all her postures, none had been quite like this one.

She was alluring as a delicate flower about to bloom, yet also so helplessly at a loss that she made him want to claim her fiercely for himself.

Lu Jingsi had never considered himself a good man.

The romances and marriages that sent people rushing headlong after one another, seeking both life and death, were no necessity to him.

Thus, he had been able to request an imperial marriage decree of his own accord without hesitation.

He had married her only because he wanted to secure the Su Family's financial resources, with no other intentions.

But since they were married, they could not leave out a single thing a husband and wife ought to do.

A faint, elusive fragrance lingered around the bed. Lu Jingsi buried his face in her neck, feeling a little inclined to tease her. "What fragrance did you use?"

Su Luoqian kept her eyes closed, her voice trembling terribly. "I... I didn't use any..."

She had seen him as soon as she came out from her bath and had not had time to apply any scented balm.

The heat of his body was overwhelming. Su Luoqian's crow-feather lashes were damp, though whether with a thin sheen of sweat or droplets of tears, she did not know.

She felt Lu Jingsi's large hand travel downward and seize her waist with an imperious grip, his long fingers pressing against her side and stroking back and forth.

"Mm, ah..."

That spot was especially sensitive. At last, Su Luoqian could not suppress a moan, and her reddened almond eyes opened instinctively.

The light around her entered her eyes, and she abruptly remembered something. She pushed at his hand in a panic. "No, you can't..."

At her words, Lu Jingsi's expression suddenly darkened, and a trace of anger surfaced in his black eyes, already clouded with desire.

"It's not for you to decide."

With that, his large hand started to continue downward regardless.

This time, Su Luoqian was truly frightened. The moisture in her eyes from his teasing gave way to panic, and she twisted away from him. "No, you really can't."

"I... I'm still on my period..."

That was why she had not even dared drink the green plum wine in the waterside pavilion earlier.

As soon as she spoke, the bed fell abruptly silent.

Only the man's heavy, helpless panting remained.

Without looking, Su Luoqian knew his expression could not be pleasant. She lay beneath him with her neck stiff.

Carefully, she picked up the peach-pink undergarment that had fallen among the bedding and covered herself with it.

But as soon as she moved, a large hand yanked it away.

Before Su Luoqian could cry out at the pain of his bite, she saw him pull on his outer robe with a cold expression and storm out, slamming the door behind him.

She was a little dazed.

His scent seemed to linger on the bed, mingled with hers.

Intertwined in burning heat.

"Your Highness, are you all right?"

Zelan's voice drew nearer, accompanied by the sound of her anxious footsteps.

The prince had closed the door when he came in, and the lights in the room had never been extinguished. The maids waiting outside did not know what had happened; they had only just seen the prince leave with a livid expression.

Zelan's heart tightened. She immediately rushed inside and went around the screen into the inner room. At a glance, she saw Su Luoqian sitting on the bed with her back to her, her snowy breasts thrust forward as she tied the straps of her undergarment behind her waist.

The gauze curtains obscured her view, but Zelan had grown up with Su Luoqian and served her for a long time. No one knew better than she how lovely Su Luoqian's figure was.

She began to understand and asked, "Your Highness, shall I prepare more water?"

Su Luoqian finished tying the straps, gently lifted a corner of the gauze curtain, and blinked at her. "Bring me another inner robe."

The gauze robe had been torn and could no longer be worn.

Zelan hurriedly took a robe from the rack nearby and came to the bed to help her put it on.

With the gauze curtain raised, Su Luoqian sat on her knees in nothing but her undergarment.

Her skin was fair and tender; even the slightest pressure could leave a mark.

Now, her exposed, rounded shoulders, luminous as porcelain, and her delicate collarbones were covered in patches of red.

Her picturesque features were flushed pink, seemingly still touched by an allure that had yet to fade.

Even Zelan, who had served her since childhood, felt her face heat at the sight. Yet she also felt a little distressed and murmured, "The prince really doesn't know how to cherish a woman."

The lingering intimacy of their earlier entanglement on the bed was slowly dissipating as the gauze curtain was lifted and Zelan spoke.

Lu Jingsi had not held back his strength, and her chest still stung a little.

Su Luoqian thought that perhaps the little booklets her mother had given her that day really might come in handy.

But for now, her monthly courses protected her, so she could put off reading them.

"Is Lu Jingsi still in the main courtyard?"

Zelan shook her head. "I didn't notice just now, but I imagine he should be."

Su Luoqian decided to leave him alone for now.

The way he had looked when he left, he had seemed ready to bite through her neck. He probably would not return to the main room tonight.

If he did not come, she could get a good night's sleep.

After helping her into her inner robe, Zelan poured her a cup of water and waited on her as she drank and lay down again. Only then did she extinguish most of the lights in the room.

The moon hung high in the sky.

In the waterside pavilion, Lu Jingsi sat motionless, his outer robe thrown loosely over his shoulders.

At this hour in early summer, the night breeze carried a touch of coolness, dispelling the lingering heat in his body.

He raised a hand and pinched the space between his brows.

The heat in his body had faded, but the anger at being interrupted halfway through, with nothing he could do about it, still simmered in his heart.

His expression remained dark.

The lake lay calm and undisturbed, and all around was silent.

At the other end of the winding covered walkway, Fulin held a lantern, keeping careful watch on Lu Jingsi in the waterside pavilion while enduring Nanny Liu's incessant chatter beside him.

"Tell me, what kind of wife drives her husband out of the room in the middle of the night?"

"She has neither talent nor virtue, observes no propriety, and now she cannot even show the care and consideration a wife should."

"As expected, someone from a family of marketplace merchants has neither breeding nor manners."

"..."