Chun Tao, who had remained by the entrance, saw how respectfully Chen Xuan treated Qiu Yue while treating her alone as thin air. Her cheeks puffed with anger, and she snorted. "Why pretend to be so honest! Once you enter the inner room, with the Third Young Miss's explosive temper, she might just reward you with ten lashes first to establish the rules!"
Chen Xuan kept his eyes on his nose and his nose pointed toward his heart, not even bothering to lift his eyelids.
Only moments later, Qiu Yue's light footsteps sounded from inside the courtyard gate. "Chen Xuan, the Third Young Miss is awake. She wants you to go straight to the inner courtyard's pavilion to see her. Follow me."
"Yes. Thank you, Sister Qiu Yue."
Chen Xuan stepped over the threshold without so much as pausing as he passed Chun Tao, following Qiu Yue deeper into the courtyard along a bluestone path through the bamboo grove.
The afternoon breeze brushed the green bamboo on either side with a soft rustle. Several plump red carp swam in the pool of flowing water beneath the rockery. Passing through a moon gate covered in wisteria blossoms, he caught sight of a small two-story pavilion with upturned eaves, carved beams, and painted rafters.
At the foot of the pavilion's white marble steps, Qiu Yue stopped, turned around, and lowered her voice to caution him:
"Chen Xuan, before you enter, I need to tell you a few ironclad rules of the Listening to Rain Pavilion. This two-story building is the Third Young Miss's private quarters. Normally, apart from personal maids like Chun Tao and me, the male guards from the outer courtyard aren't allowed even to approach within thirty feet of the moon gate, let alone set foot on these steps, or their legs will be broken with a flurry of club blows!"
"I understand. The boundaries between men and women must be strictly observed. I would never dare take half a step across the forbidden line!" Chen Xuan hastily lowered his head and answered.
"Good. The Third Young Miss made an exception in promoting you to personal guard, so naturally you're different from the others. But remember-only when the Third Young Miss personally summons you may you cross the threshold of this pavilion. Without her word, even if the sky collapses outside, you can only stand guard beneath the veranda and wait! Also, once you're inside, keep your eyes in line. Don't look at what you shouldn't look at, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask. Understood?"
"Rest assured, Sister Qiu Yue. I've carved every word of your advice into my bones. I absolutely won't cause you any trouble!"
Seeing how well Chen Xuan understood things, a trace of satisfaction flashed through Qiu Yue's eyes. She turned and gently pushed open the pavilion's carved wooden door, which gave off a faint scent of nanmu wood.
Hum-
The instant the wooden door opened, an exceptionally delicate, sweet fragrance washed over him through the gap.
It was not the vulgar, pungent scent of heavy powder found in brothels, but fine storax and sandalwood incense mingled with a young woman's orchid-like bodily fragrance after bathing. With a single breath, Chen Xuan felt even the hot, restless blood and Qi from his recent breakthrough stir.
A thick, soft, snow-white wool carpet covered the floor of the pavilion's outer room, silencing every footstep. The display shelves around it were filled with precious jade pieces and antiques, while the large rosewood desk held a full set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. At the boundary between the outer room and inner chamber stood a translucent cicada-wing gauze screen depicting a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix. Behind it, he could vaguely make out a graceful, slender figure sitting before a bronze mirror.
"Young Miss, I've brought Chen Xuan." Standing outside the screen, Qiu Yue gathered her skirts and quietly reported.
"Mm... tell him to get in here."
Xiao Ling'er's voice came from behind the screen. Without its usual arrogant pitch from the training grounds, her voice now carried the slight huskiness and languor of someone who had not long awakened, soft as a little feather lightly brushing his eardrum.
Chen Xuan took a deep breath and followed Qiu Yue around the cicada-wing gauze screen.
With just his first upward glance, Chen Xuan's breathing involuntarily stopped for half a beat!
Behind the screen was an exceptionally spacious, elegant young woman's boudoir. Pale pink gauze curtains hung around the alcove bed in the center, its bedding half rolled back. Before the red sandalwood dressing table by the window, Xiao Ling'er sat languidly with her back to the entrance.
She had long since changed out of the moon-white, fox-fur ruqun she had worn in the main hall that morning. Now, she had only casually slipped on a thin, pale blue-green house dress of soft mist gauze!
Because she was inside her most private bedchamber, the neckline of that thin mist-gauze dress was tied extremely loosely. Her long black hair, freshly washed and still somewhat damp, spilled like a waterfall to her waist, revealing a broad expanse of creamy skin across her nape and shoulders, whiter than frost and snow.
Afternoon sunlight slanted through the propped-open window with its madder-red gauze, falling across her delicately rounded shoulders. It illuminated skin so fine that not a single pore was visible, making it resemble the finest mutton-fat white jade. He could even faintly make out the tiny, pale blue-green veins beneath that jade-like skin!
Hiss... no wonder the ancients all wanted to be guests behind the curtains. This personal guard's workplace injury compensation was seriously top-tier!
Chen Xuan's Adam's apple bobbed hard, and a flash of wolfish heat passed through the depths of his eyes. But his powerful reason forced his gaze away within half a breath. With a thump, he dropped to one knee on the thick wool carpet and bowed his head deeply:
"Your subordinate, Chen Xuan, pays his respects to the Third Young Miss! Greetings, Third Young Miss!"
Before the dressing table, Xiao Ling'er could clearly see Chen Xuan kneeling properly behind her in the brightly polished, diamond-flower bronze mirror.
For some reason, the moment she saw this fellow, who looked rather straight-backed and leanly powerful in his clean clothes, the image of him holding her tightly in his arms beside the stone bridge yesterday afternoon sprang into her mind without warning. The patch of skin at her waist where his rough palm had rested seemed to begin faintly burning again.
"Hmph, at least you're punctual. Had you dared arrive even half a quarter-hour late, I would have rewarded you with twenty lashes today to whet your appetite!"
Xiao Ling'er forcibly suppressed that inexplicable flutter of panic and deliberately set her pretty face into a stern expression, snorting coldly. "Enough. Stop kneeling on the floor. Stand up and answer me! Did Qiu Yue teach you all the rules for going from the outer courtyard to the inner courtyard just now outside?"
"In answer to the Third Young Miss, Sister Qiu Yue has already given your subordinate thorough instructions! Even with ten times the courage, I would never dare defy the rules of the Listening to Rain Pavilion!" Chen Xuan obediently stood, his hands lowered at his sides three paces away, his gaze dutifully fixed on the tips of his shoes.
"Good, as long as you remember!"
Xiao Ling'er slapped the mutton-fat white jade comb in her hand down onto the dressing table, slowly turned around, and leaned against the chair back as she looked Chen Xuan up and down. "Hey, let me ask you. Have you taken that Blood-Gathering Pill Mother rewarded you with in the main hall this morning?"
Only upon hearing her question did Chen Xuan take the opportunity to raise his head and meet Xiao Ling'er's gaze.
That upward glance delivered a visual impact ten times more lethal than the sight of her back!
Fresh from bathing and grooming, Xiao Ling'er wore no makeup. Her exquisite, palm-sized face was rosy beneath its fairness, like a honey peach freshly picked in the morning. And the neckline of her thin, pale blue-green mist-gauze dress plunged more than three inches lower than the formal outfit she had worn that morning!
As she turned and leaned back in her seat, her two delicate, swanlike, snow-white collarbones were exposed completely to the air. Beneath them were astonishing curves tightly wrapped in a rose-red bandeau, a deep, snow-white cleft faintly visible beneath the blue-green gauze as thin as cicada wings, gently rising and falling with the young woman's breathing.