Still agonizing over this? Lou Yun felt helpless. The young man was wonderful in every way, except that he was a little too well-behaved. Asking him to do anything out of line sent him into a panic.
"Not what?" Lou Yun coaxed with considerable patience.
The young man tugged lightly at her sleeve. Lou Yun obliged, following his pull to sit on the edge of the bed as she waited for Pei Qing's answer.
Pei Qing stared at Lou Yun. "You didn't tie me up. I begged you..."
"What?" Lou Yun asked in disbelief. She took back her earlier assessment. Pei Qing only looked well-behaved; in reality, he was utterly mad.
Afraid that Lou Yun truly had not heard him, Pei Qing pulled on her arm and sat up, enunciating every word. "I begged you to sleep beside me."
He would not have her be the villain. Whether it was real or false, he could not bear even the slightest joke about it. So languid and carefree in the sunlight, she should soar beneath the boundless heavens, every action born of her own free will.
Lou Yun suddenly felt irritable. He was always like this, always like this. Every time she was about to let him off, he hit her with something enormous, making her lose control, making her unable to help herself!
Did he have any idea how badly those words made her want to pin him to the bed and lick, kiss, and bully him? She ought to bully him mercilessly, so the young man would learn that some things could not be said carelessly.
"Begged me?"
Lou Yun leaned over him. "How did the imperial preceptor beg me? Why wasn't I aware of it?"
"Like this." His eyes rimmed red, the young man pressed her hand against his cheek and nuzzled it gently, his head dipping little by little, his eyes half-lidded, openly enticing her.
Lou Yun's expression darkened. Bottomless desire filled her ink-black eyes, a single glance enough to swallow someone whole. Yet Pei Qing, the very person caught in her gaze, remained utterly oblivious.
"You need to be taught a lesson." Lou Yun pressed a red mark into his cheek with her thumb and bent to whisper beside his ear.
Pei Qing flushed red from head to toe in an instant, but Lou Yun had no intention of letting him off easily today.
"That's all?" Lou Yun scoffed, making to withdraw her hand and leave.
The young man suddenly straightened on his knees on the bed and cautiously raised his eyes. The room's scant candlelight could not illuminate Lou Yun, who had already stood up and was looking down at him.
Unease filled the young man's heart. Afraid of angering Lou Yun, he recalled the scene of her kissing his hair yesterday.
Lou Yun probably... probably liked that, didn't she?
He lowered his head and imitated the person in his memory from yesterday, taking her hand, lowering his eyes, and pressing a gentle kiss to the back of her hand.
The young man was tucked away on the wooden bed, his figure half-concealed as he half-knelt in the shadows. He bent at the waist and lowered his head, his hair spilling down from his robes. Beneath candlelight too dim for others to see clearly, he was perfectly visible to Lou Yun, the faint light casting a soft halo around him.
So beautiful...
She wanted to bend down to his level and look, but feared disturbing the divine son who was kissing her so gently.
He was always like this, she thought.
No matter how vulgar or ingratiating his actions, his bearing and those clear, sincere eyes rendered them untouched by dust, as though feeling desire for him were itself a desecration.
Turning her wrist over, Lou Yun maintained her lofty stance. Though Pei Qing had already shaken her heart to the point of collapse, she still laughably wanted to preserve that last scrap of reason.
She gripped his chin and tipped it up. "Not enough."
She truly hoped he would remember this lesson and think a little more before speaking next time. He spoke of waiting until their home and country were stable, yet kept enticing her, knowingly or otherwise. No normal woman could stand it, much less her, who liked him so very much, who was even infatuated with him.
She lowered her eyes and watched the young man grow anxious. He tugged her hand inward three times, but she did not budge an inch, as cold and unyielding as though she were not the one who had broken her rules for him again and again.
"Please..." The young man's red lips parted slightly. Clinging to that hand of hers, he actually tried to climb straight up toward her.
This time, Lou Yun truly panicked. Who knelt on a bed and leaned their entire body forward like that, their upper body supported by nothing but someone else's hand?!
"Pei Qing!"
Anger laced Lou Yun's voice. Her other, unoccupied hand finally deigned to join the first, gathering this imperial preceptor, who was fooling around with no regard for his safety, into her arms.
While she was flustered and panicking, the person she had caught in her arms let out a light laugh beside her ear.
Softly, with a hint of pleading for mercy, he said, "Your Highness, please..."
"Please what?" Lou Yun truly had no answer for him now. Giving up the struggle, she carried the young man in her arms onto the bed. Whatever Pei Qing asked for now, she would agree. However badly he needed a lesson, she would accept it.
The young man suddenly smiled, saying lightly, "I was going to beg Your Highness to come closer. Now there's no need."
"What are you up to now?" Lou Yun did not know whether to laugh or cry. The moment she finished speaking, something soft touched her cheek.
"Forgive my offense." The young man suddenly uttered those words without preamble.
Kneeling in her lap, he deliberately straightened his back, leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek.
Warm breath brushed her face, his lips carrying a slight chill. The faint medicinal fragrance from his body lingered around her nose. If she looked just a little lower, she could see glimpses of the skin hidden beneath his collar.
Lou Yun's eyes abruptly widened. Before she could even register what had happened, the young man had already drawn back.
He knelt obediently before her, looking at him with eyes full of anticipation as he asked, "Was that enough?"
This man-
Lou Yun drew a breath, ready to be annoyed, then abruptly let it out. Forget it.
The little ingrate. Every time he did something wicked and left someone else burning all over, he went right back to looking like a good child who had done nothing at all.
"Then I shall grant the imperial preceptor's plea and deign to sleep beside him for one night." Lou Yun knew that after tonight, she might never again be able to harden her heart against Pei Qing. A little unwilling to concede, she deliberately teased him.
Who knew the young man would answer so earnestly? He briskly shifted farther inside and nodded. "Mm. I begged for this."
For a moment, Lou Yun had nothing to say. She lay beside the young man and quietly waited for Pei Qing to fall sound asleep.
For no apparent reason, Pei Qing's actions today reminded her of an old incident. It must have happened a few years ago, on one of the rare occasions when she had stayed in the palace herself. A
cat from who knew where had jumped onto her couch.
Back then, Lou Ze'an seemed to have brought a masked child to ask her for the cat back. She had been in a good mood that day and teased him a little. She had thought he was a pedantic bookworm, but instead he had said, "Forgive my offense," and reached into her arms to take it. Before leaving, he had even said something about repaying her kindness, yet she had not seen so much as his shadow since.
She looked closely at Pei Qing again. The young man slept very obediently, taking up little space, curled up in the corner by the wall.
Lou Yun raised herself slightly and watched Pei Qing for a long time, finally stroking the young man's cheek.
Silently, she said, "Sweet dreams."
Chapter 30
Early the next morning, sunlight filtered through the gauze window, draping the room in a hazy veil.
Lou Yun opened her eyes before Pei Qing. As she registered another person beside her, she also felt an unfamiliar weight on her shoulder.
Who knew how the young man had slept during the night? He had actually turned toward Lou Yun, pillowing his forehead on her shoulder, both hands clutching her sleeve, one above the other.
Lou Yun shifted her head toward him. Perhaps sensing her movement, Pei Qing first frowned uneasily. Then, catching the familiar scent, he nuzzled up and down and went back to sleep, showing no intention of waking whatsoever.
Lou Yun had no intention of waking him either. She simply lay quietly in bed until the young man opened his bewildered eyes.
"Mm?" His newly awakened mind was not yet quite clear. Pei Qing stared blankly for a good while before realizing that he had been lying against someone all this time. Looking to the side, he found her eyes clear, as though she had been waiting for him for a long time.
Without thinking, he said, "S-sorry. I'll call someone in."
The young man hurriedly got up and climbed over Lou Yun to get down. But he moved too hastily, too urgently; his heel barely grazed the edge of the bed before his lower leg began sliding off.
Lou Yun saw the figure above her drop and felt a weight on her legs. Pei Qing was about to slide right off.
!?
Quick as a flash, she caught the young man around the waist and pulled hard, sending Pei Qing tumbling onto her.
"What's the hurry?" Lou Yun held him securely and chided, "Be steadier."
The servants outside must have heard the movement within. Wanting to help their master rise, one pushed the door open and entered.
Seeing Pei Qing straddling Lou Yun, she immediately misunderstood and hastily backed away, apologizing, "This servant saw nothing. Please continue, young master."
"Wait!" Pei Qing called the maid back, but did not know how to explain. At last, he said stiffly, "Have someone bring water in."
The maid lowered her head even farther. Only then did Pei Qing realize that this made it even easier to misunderstand, and he hurriedly added, "I need to wash."
"Yes."
The imperial preceptor, who had been in utter chaos since waking, lowered his head and saw the playful smile on Lou Yun's face. Startled again, he climbed off her.
"Be careful. Don't fall again," Lou Yun kindly reminded him.
The imperial preceptor successfully got out of bed, saying, "I know."
In her boundless mercy, Lou Yun did not expose the young man's embarrassment. She let him off and allowed him to go wash.
Just then, an attendant serving Lin Shuo came in from outside and reported, "Young master, our young master said today's lessons are canceled. He is going with the master to sign a contract today."
Sign a contract?
Lou Yun and Pei Qing swiftly exchanged a glance. Both knew: their opportunity had come.
"Understood," Pei Qing replied.
Estimating that Lin Bian and his son would leave sometime after noon, the two timed their departure and climbed out through the window, avoiding the household guards as they circled around to the residence of the prefect's late wife.
Lou Yun pulled Pei Qing behind a wall to hide. Seeing the noticeably increased number of guards around the residence, she thought, We've found the right place.
The two slipped inside without trouble. Unexpectedly, the room had been cleaned until it was immaculate and orderly. Many of its former occupant's belongings were even still arranged on the dressing table. The woman's rouge and powder sat among them, not covered in dust, but as clean and fresh as when their owner had been there.