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    Lady, escort the emperor! 22

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    Chapter 22: Midnight Shadows

    After the banquet, Song Jia Ren led Li Nuo to a room in the Song Estate.

    Da Xia had a curfew, though it started relatively late, around ten o’clock at night. Without a valid reason, one couldn’t wander the streets after that time. Violating curfew, if caught by patrolling guards, could result in a severe beating at best, or imprisonment at worst.

    Although it wasn’t curfew yet, some guests lived far away, and others were too drunk to travel, so they had to stay overnight at the Song Estate. This caused a shortage of guest rooms, forcing Li Nuo and Song Jia Ren to share a room.

    Even if there hadn’t been a room shortage, they would have still shared a room. After all, they were officially married, and sleeping in separate rooms would have implied marital discord.

    That would have been a misunderstanding. Li Nuo and his wife weren’t unhappy; they were simply unfamiliar with each other.

    This room seemed to belong to Song Jia Ren; she was very familiar with it. She pulled out a new set of bedding from a cupboard and laid it on the floor beside the bed. Li Nuo didn’t say anything. While he missed the large, soft bed in his own room at home, he’d often slept on cramped, uncomfortable folding beds, so sleeping on the floor with bedding felt luxurious.

    As they were a marriage in name only, Li Nuo didn’t mind.

    His most important priority was simply survival.

    As for a normal marital relationship…

    It was up to fate.

    Li Nuo certainly wasn’t averse to his strikingly beautiful and equally formidable wife. If they developed feelings for each other over time, living together wouldn’t be out of the question. If they didn’t click, they could peacefully separate without regrets.

    However, those were future concerns. For now, as a newcomer, he had no say and couldn’t change anything.

    It was getting late, so Li Nuo took off his shoes, socks, and outer robe, preparing to read before bed.

    He had just lain down on the bedding when Song Jia Ren glanced at him, pointed to the bed, and said, “You sleep on top.”

    Li Nuo paused. As a man, he should have let a weak woman sleep on the bed, but considering their relationship, “weak” was more applicable to himself. He didn’t object and obediently climbed onto the bed. Although he had only known her for two days, he knew her decisions were generally difficult to change.

    Lying in bed, he was enveloped by a faint fragrance – his wife’s scent. This truly was her room.

    He sat cross-legged and pulled out a thin book from his bosom. He had brought a book on Legalism to read before sleep.

    Time was precious and couldn’t be wasted.

    However, he hadn’t read two pages when he heard moans coming from the next room. He’d seen Song Qian and her husband enter earlier. He hadn’t expected Song Jia Ren’s cousin, who appeared composed and refined, to be so different in private. The sounds made Li Nuo blush…

    Fortunately, it lasted less than three minutes. Silence returned to Li Nuo’s ears.

    Song Jia Ren lay on the floor, her pretty face flushed, her usual coolness replaced by a touch of charm, though Li Nuo in bed didn’t see it.

    To ease the awkwardness, Li Nuo asked, “Wife, do you and Song Qian have some conflict…?”

    Song Jia Ren remained silent for a moment before saying calmly, “She’s disliked me since childhood…”

    Li Nuo understood. Both being Song family women of similar ages, one accomplished, the other not, comparisons were inevitable. It was no wonder Song Qian disliked her.

    After their brief exchange, silence returned to the room.

    Soon, a head popped up from the bed. Li Nuo pointed to a character in his book and asked, “Wife, what character is this?”

    His copy of the *Shuowen Jiezi* (Explaining the Characters) was too thick to carry, and he didn’t know a few characters. Without context, he couldn’t continue reading and had to ask his wife.

    Song Jia Ren glanced at it and said indifferently, “I don’t know.”

    “What about this one?”

    “I don’t know.”

    “This one?”

    “I don’t know.”

    “This…”

    “…”

    Silence. A long silence.

    Li Nuo didn’t think she would deliberately hide her literacy from him.

    Leaning over the bed, looking at her delicate face, he exclaimed in surprise, “No way, you can’t read?”

    Song Jia Ren looked at him calmly.

    Li Nuo retreated to the bed, smiling, “It’s alright, it’s no big deal. Not being able to read is fine. We can have a good life, one of us skilled in writing, the other in martial arts, which is better than anything…”

    In the Song Estate.

    While Li Nuo diligently read, in the adjacent room…

    Song Qian sat at the head of her bed, glaring resentfully at her husband sprawled on the bed. A fire burned within her, a mix of lust and frustration.

    Song Jia Ren’s husband not being a fool had already frustrated her; now, she was completely outmatched. Not only was he no longer foolish, but the couple had also stolen the limelight at the matriarch’s birthday feast, receiving two rewards from her. She and her husband had been completely overshadowed.

    That should have been the end of it, but her father had spoken to her earlier, hinting at suspicions she had stolen the gift Song Jia Ren had prepared for the matriarch.

    This made Song Qian both resentful and angry. Even if she disliked Song Jia Ren, she wouldn’t have done such a thing at the matriarch’s birthday feast. Her earlier grumbling was only expressing her frustration.

    Her father mentioned that Song Jia Ren’s gift had been replaced with stones. Therefore, her husband had composed two poems on the spot, saving face and ensuring the banquet’s success.

    That Li Nuo was not only clever, but also handsome!

    Thinking of his handsome face and then looking at her incompetent husband, Song Qian grew even angrier!

    *Why is my life so hard…*

    Unable to release her inner turmoil, she took a jade silkworm from under her pillow.

    In the next room, Li Nuo had just turned a page when his body trembled slightly. He turned his head to look, sighing helplessly, “It’s started again…”

    Meanwhile, at the Song Estate…

    The matriarch’s sixtieth birthday celebration had concluded successfully. It had been a joyous occasion for all the guests, but the Song household’s maids and servants were still cleaning up the mess.

    Several maids were called away by the Second Master for lengthy questioning, leading to a staff shortage. They didn’t finish cleaning until midnight, finally collapsing into exhausted sleep.

    In Song Lian’s room…

    He sat at his desk, his brows furrowed, muttering, “Who was it?”

    He had questioned all the maids who had access to the gift, and servants had searched their rooms, but to no avail. His intuition told him it wasn’t a household maid.

    They lacked the courage and ability. The room where the gift was kept was heavily guarded; even the most skilled thief wouldn’t be able to get in. Even a martial arts master would find it difficult to infiltrate unless they were a Fourth Realm expert or above, capable of telekinesis to silently steal it.

    But someone at the Fourth Realm wouldn’t lack money, and there were many more valuable gifts than the pair of jade *ruyi* (a type of scepter). The fact that they chose something not particularly valuable clearly targeted Jia Ren.

    While Song Qian was highly suspicious, she was an ordinary person with neither the time nor the ability to do it. But who else could it have been?

    After a moment, Song Lian shook his head. Since there were no leads, he wouldn’t think about it anymore. Losing a pair of *ruyi* was insignificant; the matriarch’s successful birthday feast was the most important thing.

    In fact, Li Nuo had saved the day.

    He had watched Jia Ren grow up and had always been dissatisfied with her marrying a fool, even if her father was a powerful official.

    But tonight, his impression of Li Nuo had completely changed. Whether his previous foolishness was intentional or a sudden change didn’t matter. What mattered was that the couple could live happily.

    With this matter settled, Song Lian extinguished the lights and lay in bed. He had spent countless hours preparing for the matriarch’s birthday banquet and hadn’t slept properly for many days. Now that it was finally over, he lay in bed, without even removing his clothes. His head barely touched the pillow before he fell asleep…

    As time passed, the lights in the various rooms of the Song Estate gradually went out. Only the lanterns hanging along the estate’s paths still emitted a faint glow.

    The banquet hall, bustling just two hours ago, was now empty and dark.

    On the roof of the banquet hall, a figure knelt near the eaves, putting away two jade *ruyi* placed beside them. Looking at the darkened Song Estate, they curled their lips into a charming smile and whispered, “So, he wasn’t a fool after all. Interesting, truly interesting…”

    (End of Chapter)

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