Recklessly Breaking a Delicate Branch - Chapter 2

Jiang Wanshu had a premonition that her stomach was about to rumble. She looked up at Zhou Yan, knitting her brows in embarrassment, wanting to silence the “grumble” that was getting louder in her belly. As a dignified princess, with the nation’s honor at stake, she represented the upbringing of a noble central plains lady. How could she be ridiculed by a foreigner from the grasslands over such a trivial matter?

Just as she was trying desperately to hold it in, Jiang Wanshu failed. A sudden, loud “grumble” came from her stomach, and instantly, it amused the man before her.

Hearing the man’s laughter and sensing her own loss of composure, Jiang Wanshu’s eyes suddenly reddened. Her bright, apricot-shaped eyes were shimmering with tears, wetting her lashes.

Zhou Yan watched the girl’s pitiful state and decided not to tease her further. He knew she hadn’t eaten for several days and must be hungry now. He turned, walked to the table, picked up the white rice he had just finished cooking, and returned to Jiang Wanshu’s side.

“Freshly cooked white rice. Would Wanwan like a bite to tide you over?”

Jiang Wanshu, famished, looked at the bowl of pristine white rice before her. In her heart, she insisted on keeping her distance, but her eyes betrayed her.

Zhou Yan found it amusing. He pulled away the hand that was not holding the bowl, fanning the rice to release its steaming aroma. He asked openly, “Are you really sure? If you don’t want it, I’ll eat it. This rice was originally cooked for myself.”

With that, Zhou Yan both teased Jiang Wanshu and subtly reassured her that the food wasn’t poisoned, since a person wouldn’t harm themselves.

At that moment, Jiang Wanshu, whose stomach was rumbling and who was kneeling on the bed, finally couldn’t bear the hunger any longer. She straightened up and leaned toward the porcelain bowl in the man’s hand.

She had only recently woken up and truly hadn’t eaten for several days. Now, seeing a bowl of glistening white rice before her, she was like a little rabbit who hadn’t eaten meat in days, her eyes full of bright anticipation.

There were a few small side dishes placed on top of the fragrant white rice. Although it was simple compared to the meals she used to eat, in her current situation, this bowl of white rice was clearly her last lifeline against starvation.

Jiang Wanshu was so dizzy with hunger that she no longer cared about the man’s overly familiar way of addressing her moments ago. Her dark, apricot eyes were fixed on the rice in the bowl. She swallowed softly, “Can I… really?”

She wasn’t afraid of the rice being a trap, as it was what the man had cooked for himself.

Zhou Yan suddenly let out a hearty laugh upon hearing her.

This woman is truly adaptable, he thought to himself.

When she didn’t need him, she was like an arrogant peacock; when she needed him, she spoke softly and kindly.

He lowered his gaze to Jiang Wanshu’s wound, which was still not completely healed, and slightly shifted the bowl. Speaking in fluent Central Plains dialect, he said, “As long as Wanwan doesn’t think about escaping, of course, you can.”

Jiang Wanshu, starving to the extreme, wasn’t meticulous enough to listen to everything he said. Before Zhou Yan had finished his sentence, she had already taken the bowl and started eating with chopsticks on the bed.

Even in her impoverished circumstances, Jiang Wanshu, having been taught palace etiquette for years, couldn’t forget her table manners. She sat up straight, holding the bowl with her right hand and picking up rice with her left. The food was placed in her mouth in small, neat bites—small portions picked up, and then placed down frequently.

Zhou Yan observed the beautiful person before him, feeling increasingly certain that his trip had been worthwhile. He knew that the famous Jin-yang Princess, renowned across the various regions, indeed held infinite appeal for all men.

Thinking back to that hateful old Khan, a chill erupted in Zhou Yan’s eyes. The fist placed by his waist clenched tightly, his face full of anger.

One day, he would take that old Khan’s life!

He dared to try and forcibly abduct his elder sister into the royal court. If it hadn’t been for the Third Prince’s mediation, and if he hadn’t, a while ago, brought ten thousand soldiers to exert pressure before the old Khan’s tent, his sister would likely have been completely defiled by that hateful old Khan.

To assist the Third Prince and save his sister, he didn’t hesitate to privately use the military power he controlled within the Western Rong royal court. This angered the old Khan, but due to Zhou Yan’s prestige on the grasslands, the Khan was forced to endure it, thus scaling down the conflict and merely banishing him to this impoverished place.

He had thought that this time, stripped of his military power and demoted, he would be bored, waiting for word from the Third Prince and the shifting loyalties within the royal court to invite him back. But he never expected that on his way back to his room from a hunting trip, he would save this seemingly impoverished yet noble Central Plains princess.

Hearing her reveal her identity before losing consciousness and asking him for protection, he saved her and inquired about her background.

She was the legitimate princess born to the Central Plains Empress, raised in the palace since childhood, educated in graceful and magnanimous etiquette. She was meant to be married to a handsome, high-ranking, and well-educated young man in the capital, but an elaborate scheme by the people of the grasslands forced her to leave her homeland and become a bride in the grasslands.

Zhou Yan watched her quietly swallowing small bites of food from the bowl, occasionally glancing around the room. She was truly like a frightened little rabbit, and a faint flicker of desire stirred within him.

It was a pity that this was his first time cooking, and he didn’t quite know how to properly season the vegetables. When the little princess took a bite of a green vegetable, a splash of oil suddenly splattered out just before she bit into the leaf, sticking viscously to her delicate, reddish lips.

Just as Jiang Wanshu felt the oiliness on her lips and looked around for something to wipe it clean, Zhou Yan pulled out a piece of coarse cloth he had traded for with hunted cattle and sheep a few days ago at the market. Grasping the coarse cloth with one large hand, he used slight force to wipe it across her lips.

Jiang Wanshu just stared at him blankly, her face flushing.

Although the coarse cloth was rough, the force he used was enough for his thumb, pressing against the cloth, to indirectly feel the delicate softness of the girl’s lips.

For some reason, this indirect touch of the girl’s lips—a soft warm touch separated by the coarse cloth—made Zhou Yan instinctively reluctant to stop.

Inadvertently, his greedy grip tightened with greater force, and for a moment, he hurt her.

“Hiss.”

Forced to look up by the pressure of the man wiping her lips, Jiang Wanshu’s face burned as she realized the man was currently tending to her.

She was just about to reprimand the man before her, but then, realizing his rough nature, she lowered her gaze again.

She was trapped here, and poor treatment was normal. In the middle of the night, alone in a room with a man, at least he wasn’t touching her inappropriately.

She had thought clearly while eating: how could a girl who couldn’t fight possibly stand up to this seemingly large, rugged man?

If she wanted to leave, she couldn’t rely on force.

Since force wouldn’t work, she would have to rely on wits.

In any case, she needed to escape. Because of the tragedy of that day, she had vanished without a trace. She didn’t know if her parents and the Western Rong royal court would be frantic when the news reached them, or if it would affect the harmony between the two regions.

If her father and mother learned she was missing halfway, they would surely task her brother, A-li, with posting missing person notices across the city and the mission of bringing her back to the palace.

And on that notice, the person who found her would surely be incentivized with a reward of ten thousand taels of gold to stimulate the brave souls who specialized in finding lost people like her.

Thinking this, Jiang Wanshu took another bite of rice and looked at the man with a hint of accusation. “Brave warrior, how about you send me back to the palace? Ten thousand taels of gold or whatever is negotiable.”

This statement made Zhou Yan laugh with anger. He stared at the girl before him, recalling what his older sister once told him, and spoke ruthlessly, “Don’t even think about it.”

Jiang Wanshu silently sneered. He really doesn’t know what’s good for him. In her father and mother’s eyes, she was worth ten thousand taels in reward money. If she were him, she would send her back no matter what.

With those ten thousand taels of gold, would he still worry about not being able to find a wife later?

But she dared not say this aloud. After all, until he let his guard down and she escaped the tiger’s den, she absolutely could not provoke the man before her.

The man before her seemed rendered speechless by her expression of contempt. He quickly pulled his hand away from her pink lips, saying crudely, “Fussy!”

Hearing this, Jiang Wanshu hastily lowered her head.

In the sunlight, Jiang Wanshu’s profile was illuminated. Zhou Yan’s gaze traveled downward. The girl’s long, densely curled eyelashes were as pure black and elegant as a raven’s feathers, occasionally blinking gently, fluttering like fans.

Zhou Yan scrutinized this delicate, noble little princess. The state of being able to look but not touch inexplicably made him curse softly.

Before Jiang Wanshu could recover, he turned and headed for the door.

The door of the thatched hut creaked as the wind blew. Just as the man’s leg was about to step out the door, he was suddenly stopped by Jiang Wanshu’s sweet, charming voice.

“Hey, where are you going?” Jiang Wanshu looked around the shabby hut, which was bare of possessions, and called out, feeling a bit awkward.

He disliked her calling him without a title, but he was also concerned that his name from the grasslands would be hard for a Central Plains person like her to pronounce. Looking at the rice she had cooked from the stove, his deep voice spoke a standard Central Plains phrase in reply, “My name is Zhou Yan.”

“Where are you going?” Jiang Wanshu asked urgently when he turned back.

Hearing this, Zhou Yan seemed to know what the little princess was afraid of and smirked with satisfaction. “Don’t worry, I’ve already greeted the hunters around here. They all know you’re my woman and won’t come to provoke you.”

Jiang Wanshu couldn’t trust what he claimed to have said to the other hunters without her present. Listening to the gusts of wind outside, her face turned pale, and she continued, “Then, will you be back tonight?”

Even though the man before her still harbored designs on her, he was better than the ferocious dangers outside. At the very least, this man had saved her life.

Unexpectedly, these words seemed to give the man an opening to tease her. Zhou Yan strode closer to her, picked up the empty rice bowl she had finished, and with his other long, free hand, he pinched her lean chin, forcing Jiang Wanshu to look up at him.

Zhou Yan raised an eyebrow, a spark flashing in his eyes. “What, you miss me after I’m gone for just a moment?”

Jiang Wanshu’s face flushed crimson from his rude words, her eyebrows and eyes filled with bashfulness.

He had already planned to return before nightfall. Glancing at the woman’s noble appearance, his eyes darkened.

Seeing her distressed look, Zhou Yan cursed inwardly and decided not to tease her anymore. “Relax, I’ll definitely be back before dark.”

With Zhou Yan saying this, Jiang Wanshu looked at the man—this exotic-looking young man, with his impressive figure and six-pack abs like a typical man of the grasslands—and finally felt at ease.

Jiang Wanshu had no reason to detain him further, but as the man turned to walk out and was about to close the door again, Zhou Yan spoke.

He shut the door tightly, his voice carrying clearly from the outside, his tone absolutely earnest.

“Wanwan, don’t think about escaping. If you were kidnapped by someone or eaten by a wild beast in these deep mountains and old forests, that would be terrible.”

“Also, if you feel like going out for a walk, you can look in the clothes chest. You Central Plains people value being properly dressed when going out to see people. Though I’ve taken you as my woman, I won’t make you uncomfortable. I just borrowed a set of clothes from Maigulaji yesterday. If you want to go out, go look there and put them on.”

With that, without waiting for Jiang Wanshu’s reply, he walked towards the small kitchen to prepare a bowl of noodles to fill his own stomach. Afterward, he would go up the mountain to hunt, hoping to catch a wild boar to nourish the frail woman tonight.

Otherwise, he couldn’t guarantee she would survive the night.

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