Could someone like me accomplish great things?

"My worthy younger brother."

Chen Yuyin felt she could not let this man slip away. "You're so young, accomplished in both letters and arms, yet you're wasting your days in my household. I've always felt bad about it. I have a younger cousin, sixteen years old and most virtuous. Why not meet her?"

"Sister-in-law, don't you know how I feel?"

Meng Yuan shook his head and said firmly, "Sister-in-law, the truth is, I've admired you ever since I first laid eyes on you."

Was that something a human being would say? You call me sister-in-law in one breath, then want to sleep with me in the next?

"My cousin is a woman of manifold charms. Her looks and talents surpass mine tenfold," Chen Yuyin immediately declined tactfully. "Besides, I'm a withered flower, a broken willow, an ill-omened widow."

"Sister-in-law, I don't care. In my eyes, no one in this world can compare to you." Meng Yuan stepped forward and took Chen Yuyin's hand.

Cicadas sang ceaselessly in the summer night, and a light breeze brushed their faces.

Chen Yuyin frowned without speaking. She looked at Meng Yuan, and only after a long while did a shy smile finally appear.

Meng Yuan was staking himself on the game, and Chen Yuyin would stake herself on it too.

Chen Yuyin wanted to spend a lifetime borrowing a hen to lay her eggs, while Meng Yuan intended to spend a good few years playing this out with her.

A year later, Meng Yuan married Chen Yuyin.

That year, Meng Yuan was twenty-two, in the bloom of youth. Chen Yuyin was already an old widow, all of twenty-five.

Meng Yuan had come up in the world: he had actually married into a household with no male heir.

"Sister-in-law, between Brother Lü and me, who do you think is more..."

"Don't ask!"

"Yes, sister-in-law!"

"What should you call me?"

"Wife. Wife, I want you to change positions."

"No!"

"Then I'll change mine!"

Meng Yuan and Chen Yuyin had been married for a month.

Previously, when Meng Yuan had declared his feelings beneath the moon, Chen Yuyin had also said she had long secretly given him her heart, but had been held back by her status and so forth.

Afterward, Chen Yuyin had hesitated for more than half a year before making up her mind. Then she had tried to persuade her clansmen, but failed. Even so, she had insisted on marrying Meng Yuan.

In the end, however, the two had not held a grand celebration. They had simply hosted a feast for the family elders, and that had made it official.

At first, Chen Yuyin had not even wanted to share a bed, saying they should wait until the three-year mourning period was over.

But Meng Yuan cared nothing for that. First, he had argued lofty principles about how the world was about to change and everything should be kept simple; then he had cited the golden rule that husband and wife united in heart could muster the strength to cut through metal. When she remained impervious to persuasion, he had said he would leave. In the end, they had shared a bed after all.

Once they had reached that point, it had been simple. A little rubbing and shuffling, and it was done.

Yet Meng Yuan discovered that out of bed, Chen Yuyin was an extraordinary woman, gentle and intelligent, but in bed, she was not accommodating in the least.

She claimed it was because she was shy. Even when Meng Yuan tried to tease her with words, she either refused to answer or grew angry.

In his previous life, Lü Yinglong had said Chen Yuyin was a dead pig in bed. That had not been entirely accurate. At least Chen Yuyin could manage a grunt or two.

And so, after a month of marriage, Meng Yuan felt Chen Yuyin's aloofness all the more keenly.

In his previous life, Meng Yuan had been a subordinate and she the mistress of the household, so a sense of distance had been normal.

But in this life, they were already husband and wife. There was no distance left between them; they had even erased that distance, with him inside her and her inside him, yet the aloofness remained.

It was not that she looked down on Meng Yuan. She looked down on everyone equally.

But Meng Yuan did not care. So what if she was descended from immortals? Wasn't he still free to ride her as he pleased?

Besides, I haven't seen any immortal arts from you. You can't even make your tongue bloom with lotuses!

Two months into their marriage, Meng Yuan was reading history by candlelight one evening.

"I've prepared a late-night meal for you, husband." Chen Yuyin had made a medicinal meal and brought it over herself.

Once out of bed, she was very good at playing the virtuous wife.

"My lady!" Meng Yuan immediately slipped an arm around her waist.

"Husband, you must restrain yourself. How can you do this every day?" Chen Yuyin was utterly helpless. Before others, her new husband was a gentleman of virtue, but whenever they were alone, his hands began to wander, day and night without respite.

Even during her monthly courses, he had tricks outside the usual playbook. He was simply inhuman.

"Whenever I see you, my lady, I can't help myself." Meng Yuan grew still more unrestrained.

"Eat something first." Chen Yuyin forcibly broke free.

"I'm merely a mat weaver and sandal seller. To have won your devoted love is enough for this lifetime." Meng Yuan knew his beloved wife looked down on him, so before and after the act, he would recite his humble origins to heighten their affection.

Chen Yuyin trimmed the candlewick and suddenly sighed.

Seeing that she had begun her performance, Meng Yuan played along. "Why do you sigh, wife?"

"Today I went to take stock of the medicine storehouse and heard from Master Tian, who purchases supplies outside, that things are growing ever more chaotic out there. The White Lotus Sect and the Yellow Turban Army have become forces to be reckoned with. The roads out of our Spring Radiance Prefecture have almost all been cut off. One band of rebels is coming here to feed its troops and will arrive any day now," Chen Yuyin said.

"Then let's take shelter somewhere. I remember there's an estate in the mountains. Let our eldest sister-in-law, Huaixian, and Huaiyuan go there first." Meng Yuan knew perfectly well what she meant, but simply refused to follow her lead.

"We can hide in the mountains for a time, but can we hide there for a lifetime?" Chen Yuyin dropped the pretense. "My Chen clan has considerable wealth and property in Pear Blossom Province, as well as popular standing. We need only raise an arm and call, and followers will gather like clouds! Husband, you're accomplished in both letters and arms. Why not rise with the tide?"

Hearing this, Meng Yuan sighed. "Wife, I've never had any great ambitions. I only want to wander freely through the mountains and wilds, living with you like a pair of immortal lovers."

Then why do you spend every day either reading history or discussing the course of the world? Just to indulge your eyes? To indulge your tongue?

"Husband." Chen Yuyin's voice was soft as she took Meng Yuan's hand. "The people are scattered by turmoil. You study divine arts and carry grand designs within your breast. How can you cast your youth and talents away in the mountains? You ought to step forward, repaying imperial grace above and bringing peace to the common people below!"

You want to be emperor yourself, and you're still talking about repaying the sovereign's grace?

Meng Yuan merely remained silent.

"I believe you're no creature destined to stay in a pond!" Chen Yuyin declared with utter conviction. "Husband, when you slew the Black Serpent and ate the Purple Fruit, it was like slaying an evil dragon and bringing forth purple Qi. I believe you will surely accomplish something!"

She had actually used the very reasoning Meng Yuan had used to hoodwink Lü Yinglong in his previous life!

"Accomplish what?" Meng Yuan asked.

"When the world falls into turmoil, heroes rise with the tide." Chen Yuyin was perfectly serious. "The Yu Kingdom has lost the hearts of the people, and its sacred throne is unstable. Even if you have no ambition to subdue the world, husband, you could still seek to become a lord of one region."

Meng Yuan watched the flickering candlelight, withdrew the hand Chen Yuyin was holding tightly, and stood. He paced the room with his hands behind his back, then said after a long while, "Could someone like me accomplish great things?"

"Husband, you are a heaven-born genius, blessed by Heaven above, and you have compassion for all living people. How could you fail?" Chen Yuyin walked up to Meng Yuan, her tone utterly certain.

Meng Yuan drew her into his arms. "I will still need your help, my lady!"

"If you are the green mountain, I shall be its pines and cypresses." Chen Yuyin smiled gracefully.

"My lady." Meng Yuan scooped her up. "I learned a move from a medical book today. Please try it with me."

"..." Chen Yuyin found that her new husband was good in every respect, except that he never rested at night and was exceptionally skilled at protracted battles, leaving her not a moment's peace.

"Having you, my lady, truly makes me a fish that has found water!" Meng Yuan sighed afterward.