Chapter 247

Chapter 247: If We Don’t Get Up, We’ll Be Laughed At

To be fair, neither of them was the coy sort; once they settled on what they wanted, they did not hesitate.

Faced with Xin An’s initiative, Tang Mo was startled for an instant, then slowly closed his arms around her. A moment later they parted just slightly, their breaths still mingling, and he tugged the quilt up to cover them both before bending down to kiss her again.

Everything unfolded naturally and without effort. Two hearts full of cracks finally pressed close, drawing strength from each other as they knit back together and, at last, came alive anew.

No one knew when the candle had gone out. In the darkness behind the bed curtains, Tang Mo held the person in his arms and whispered, smiling with delight: “You look fierce, but you are made of water.”

Xin An could barely lift her eyelids and answered: “You look as if you cannot even truss a chicken, so how are you this strong?”

Tang Mo followed with a laugh: “Nonsense. Everyone knows I am the strongest, and besides, I have my ways.”

Xin An smiled with her eyes still closed and said: “Do not say that again. I am sleepy. Sleep now.”

“Fine,” he said, “then I will ask for half a day off tomorrow. I am tired today, so I will rest tomorrow.”

Xin An opened her eyes at that and said: “So feeble?”

Tang Mo warned, half amused, half wicked: “If you keep talking nonsense, I will have to let you feel my strength and my ways again.”

Xin An yielded. A perfectly good sentence had been turned by him into something else; she could only keep her mouth shut, lest she set fire to her own bed.

At dawn, Tang Mo really did have Lai Lai request half a day’s leave for him. It was not that he was actually weak; he simply wanted someone to be sitting by the bed when Xin An woke. If the place were empty, she might feel a pang of loss.

He drew her into his arms. He had meant to wait for her to wake on her own, but he forgot that he was a hot-blooded young man. With such beauty in his embrace, how could he possibly keep a still mind? His palm settled on the bare of her back and began to stroke slowly; her skin felt as smooth and luminous as polished jade.

A moment later, his fingertips were no longer enough. He pulled the quilt higher and slid himself lower. After a night’s sleep, the body is at its most relaxed and most easily roused at daybreak. Before she woke, her body started to respond of its own accord, and soon a soft “mm” sounded from beneath the covers.

When she opened her eyes, daylight had come. Meeting the delighted gaze before her, her reason slowly returned, and she said: “I think I just had a dream.”

Tang Mo, one arm around her waist, asked: “What did you dream?”

“I dreamed that you and I…” She stopped as the words reached her lips. Something suddenly came back to her, and the remnants of pleasure in her limbs confirmed that the dream had been real. Heat rose fast to her cheeks. In that half-asleep haze, she had been with Tang Mo. [Was she really this eager?]

Tang Mo teased with a smile: “You dreamed of you and me doing what?”

Leaning to her ear, he lowered his voice and asked: “Did your husband serve you well?”

Her answer was two light punches to his chest as she said: “Up now. If we do not get up, we will be laughed at.”

Tang Mo lay there lazily, not wanting to move, wishing he could sleep on until the end of days.

Xin An wanted to rise even less. The colder the day, the harder it was to leave the bed, but rules were rules; they could not indulge their own tempers.

They lay a while longer, then finally had to get up. Smiling, Tang Mo picked up her clothes and draped them over her shoulders, and then he just kept grinning. His grin became so silly that Xin An could not stand it and said: “You look like a fool.”

“Happy,” he said.

He snatched up his own clothes and pulled them on any which way, then swept his long arm out to press Xin An back into the warm nest of the quilt, planted a hard kiss on her, and only then got up.

The door opened and Tang Mo went next door to wash. Auntie Wang came in with Chun Yang and Chun Lv to attend her. All three wore broad smiles: one remarked that the weather was especially fine, making a person feel clear-headed and bright; another said that the magpies were chattering in the branches at dawn, a sure sign that joy was on the way.

Auntie Wang lifted the bed curtains, and with one look at Xin An she confirmed her guess and said: “Congratulations, Second Young Madam.” Chun Yang and Chun Lv stepped forward to curtsy with smiles and said: “Congratulations, Second Young Madam.”

Xin An’s face flushed. This was hardly the time to say there would be rewards; that would make her look too eager. She could only give a soft “mm,” pretending not to care.

Auntie Wang, still smiling, gave instructions: “Bring plenty of hot water. When the bird’s nest is steamed, serve it at once, and stew a squab for soup at noon.”

The two girls went off beaming to carry it out, leaving Xin An, for a moment, a little at a loss and somewhat embarrassed.

“You should eat more of this,” he said.

“And this is good too; try it,” he added.

At the table, Tang Mo kept piling treats into Xin An’s bowl, now crystal cakes, now golden-thread rolls. She said she could not eat another bite, but Tang Mo told her: “Eat more. It will nourish you.”

Chun Yang and Chun Lv, attending to the side, lowered their heads to hide their snickers. Xin An pushed all the pastries Tang Mo had given her back to him and said: “Eat yours. I will drink the bird’s nest.”

Auntie Wang had added milk curds to the bird’s nest, and the taste was odd. Xin An frowned, took two big swallows, then set the bowl aside, after which she sprawled on the beauty couch with a yawn. Sleepiness had come again.

They went nowhere the whole morning, nesting in their room, one asleep and one reading. Time slipped away without their noticing. Near midday, Tang Mo headed to the front courtyard to find his mother; he wanted her opinion on the matter of the courtyard.

“This is well in hand,” Madam Wang said. “I have already arranged it. You need not worry.” !

Tang Mo’s transformation made her grateful that she had switched courtyards back then and thereby switched to the daughter-in-law she wanted. To this day, she felt not one regret and not the least bit of guilt.

“Your grandmother appears impartial,” she said, “but in truth she is different with Tang Rong as well. Still, he is the eldest grandson, and his conduct over the years has been decent enough. Do not dwell on it. Every household is like this; there is always something different for the eldest.”

She feared his state of mind might be affected. Most of the time she was unwilling to speak ill of elders before her son, even dressing things up a little, all for the sake of easing his heart.

Tang Mo smiled and said: “By comparison, Grandmother has already been much better.”

“As for Father…” His eyes flashed with a touch of scorn as he went on: “He has spent twenty years on Tang Rong, investing more than one can count. Unless he has no choice, he will not give up.”

Seeing him like this made Madam Wang feel wretched. She could no longer soothe him with the easy lies one uses for a child. When she saw him hesitate over his words, Tang Mo gave a twisted smile and said: “I am his seed. His blood runs in me. I know what he is like. Because I am the same.”

“Tang Rong resembles me even more. We are both extremely selfish sorts who put our own interests first in all things and refuse to take a loss. Only, Tang Rong is better at pretending.”

“Do not speak of yourself that way,” Madam Wang said, walking up to him. “You are not like them. If that night it had been Tang Rong, today would be your father’s seventh day.”

She was afraid he would take a wrong turn and do the wrong thing. “Listen to Mother,” she said. “You are not alone now. Mother can see that you are very fond of Xin An. You have ties in your heart, so you must not be foolish. There are many in this world who are not loved by their own fathers. You are far from the only one.”

“With Mother here, that position can only be yours,” she added. “If you cannot win it, Mother will act personally.” [If her son could inherit the marquisate openly, so much the better; if not, how hard would it be to end Tang Rong quietly?]