Recklessly Breaking a Delicate Branch - Chapter 57

“Shh. Someone’s coming, don’t speak!” A soft, large hand covered his lips. The cotton-soft sensation, like being adrift in the clouds, forced Zhou Yan to fall silent. He simply stayed there, quietly gazing at her.

“Her Majesty the Empress has commanded that those inside remain silent so as not to disturb her enjoyment of the play. There is no need to come out and pay respects.”

With that, the maidservant departed. Only when the sound of footsteps faded did Jiang Wanshu let her Guard down. Just as she intended to pull her hand away from Zhou Yan’s lips, the man’s large hand suddenly clamped firmly around her wrist.

In the brightly lit room, Jiang Wanshu could clearly see a hint of a smile brimming in his eyes. His hand held her wrist tight, refusing to let her end the gesture of covering his mouth.

Even so, Zhou Yan could still make himself heard, though this time, he kept his volume low.

As the girl’s soft hand felt the breath escaping the man’s lips, her heart fluttered. “Wanwan, don’t you think we look like we’re having an affair?”

The man’s voice was low and hoarse. His handsome face stared straight at her, appearing exceptionally bewitching in the silence of the room.

Instantly, Jiang Wanshu’s throat tightened.

She stared at him, and suddenly, a wave of heat surged across her face.

The heat transferred to her skin, and Zhou Yan could clearly sense the shift in her demeanor.

This realization satisfied him immensely—not just because of her reaction, but because of the words “having an affair.” Such a phrase only applied to two people in love who could not let the world know. Because of this, Zhou Yan temporarily forgot his previous displeasure and turned to teasing the delicate beauty before him.

He saw her startled into raising her other hand to push him away. In the next moment, he struck first, his other arm wrapping around her waist. With a simple turn, he maneuvered her into a different position.

Now, his chest was pressed firmly against her back.

Realizing their position, Jiang Wanshu’s face flushed crimson. She tried to struggle, but was held tight in his embrace.

“Zhou Yan, let me go! If Mother finds us here, there will be hell to pay!” Her voice was small, yet firm.

Zhou Yan chuckled softly. Noticing a cat hiding in the corner of the wing, a playful streak rose within him. “Wanwan, your father and mother will find out about us sooner or later. Knowing a bit early wouldn’t be so bad.”

Fury rose within Jiang Wanshu, her tone hardening. “Zhou Yan, I’m warning you, if you let Mother discover us now, I—”

With a muffled “mmph,” Jiang Wanshu’s thin lips were captured by Zhou Yan. In an instant, she was caught off guard by his sudden movement; her leg collided with the table in front of them. The teacup on the table was struck by the force and shattered on the floor with a sharp bang.

Hearing the sound of breaking porcelain, Jiang Wanshu shook her head frantically. A few strands of her hair, styled in a “Flying Immortal” bun, shook loose and fell over her shoulders.

No, this can’t be happening.

Would this commotion provoke her mother into sending a maid back again?

At that moment, Zhou Yan reached out and grabbed another teacup from the table that hadn’t broken yet.

Meanwhile, things outside unfolded exactly as Jiang Wanshu feared. This time, however, the maid was no longer polite. She burst through the door in a fit of pique.

“How bold! To dare make such a racket while Her Majesty the Empress is present!” The door to the wing near the stage was thrown wide open, revealing a mess on the floor.

The maid stepped inside but found no one. Suddenly, a cat let out a startled cry and bolted out of the room. As it fled, it accidentally knocked over other items on the table; a moment later, a vase shattered on the ground.

Right then, a play on the stage concluded. After the cat jumped out of the window, several steady footsteps could be heard approaching the room.

Empress Xi, dressed in magnificent robes and followed by the concubines who had joined her for the play, frowned as she looked inside.

Seeing the wreckage on the floor, the Empress’s brow twitched. “What on earth happened here?”

The maid lowered her eyes. “To answer Your Majesty, it was a mischievous cat. I just saw it jump out of the window.”

“The palace staff are so careless. If the Princesses or Princes who come to the Pear Garden to watch plays were afraid of cats, what would happen if they were frightened?”

Since such an incident had occurred, the manager of the Pear Garden could not escape blame. The manager came scurrying to the Empress’s side, listening intently with head bowed. “Yes, yes… this old servant will surely keep Your Majesty’s words in mind.”

Empress Xi was not a cruel woman. After saying her piece, she walked away with long strides.

Afterward, the manager entered the room, cursing while cleaning up the shards on the floor.

In another corner of the wing, if the manager had been alert enough to look, she would have noticed a piece of expensive fabric peeking out from between the closed doors of the wardrobe.

Inside, because the space was so cramped, the two occupants were pressed tightly against each other.

Jiang Wanshu was struggling to control her breathing after the narrow escape, while the man held her slender waist tight, looking at the girl—who was a head shorter than him—with a half-smile.

Only after the manager had finished cleaning the debris, turned the key to lock the main door, and departed, did Jiang Wanshu push the man out of the wardrobe, her hair still somewhat disheveled.

Due to the lack of oxygen in the small space, her face, which had just regained its composure, was flushed red again. She pushed against the man’s chest with her hands, causing him to stumble back out of the wardrobe.

She looked at him, smoothing her messy clothes, and grumbled breathlessly, “Zhou Yan, I am truly going to be angry now!”

Though she was genuinely dissatisfied with his actions, her face—as bright and beautiful as the autumn moon—hardly made her look intimidating.

Zhou Yan, finding her reaction amusing, leaned in to smooth the stray hairs on her head, only to be pushed away once more.

Looking at the girl’s disheveled dark hair and her fuming expression, the frustration in Zhou Yan’s heart dissipated significantly.

At the very least, Zhou Shu’an currently lacked the privilege of being this intimate with Jiang Wanshu. Why should he be so narrow-minded as to be jealous of him?

As this thought took hold, the smile in Zhou Yan’s eyes deepened.

He remained standing where he was, casting a downward glance at the girl as she walked toward the door of the wing.

Jiang Wanshu placed her hand on the door handle and pulled back, but the door wouldn’t budge. Without a doubt, it had been locked from the outside.

She turned to shoot Zhou Yan a resentful look, her voice laced with blame. “The door is locked, Zhou Yan.”

It wasn’t too late yet; the light filtering in through the window was still enough for her to see the expression on his face.

Seeing him approach her, Jiang Wanshu instinctively tried to step aside, but she ultimately failed as Zhou Yan caught her hand. His thumb lightly brushed against her palm. “We can climb out the window.”

The moment these words left his mouth, Jiang Wanshu—who had lived a life of pampered nobility in the palace for over a decade—not only widened her eyes in shock but also flushed crimson with embarrassment.

She looked at him in utter disbelief. She was a dignified princess. Usually, when she saw him jumping through windows, she didn’t feel much of anything, but now that it was her turn, she was extremely reluctant.

“I won’t. If you want to jump, jump by yourself.” Since this whole mess was Zhou Yan’s fault anyway, she didn’t care.

Zhou Yan let go of her hand and teased her. “Then I guess you’ll just have to stay here alone. Don’t worry, I’ll come back tonight to bring you food so you won’t starve.”

“You wouldn’t dare?!” Her temper flared instantly. But she was well aware of their current situation; she could never bring herself to do something so undignified, so right now, no one but Zhou Yan could help her leave this place.

Just as Jiang Wanshu’s round eyes were darting about as she tried to think of a plan, Zhou Yan’s hand reached out once more toward her silken hair.

This time, he truly smoothed down the stray hairs on her forehead. In the light streaming into the room, he saw her graceful, elegant face clearly.

Jiang Wanshu didn’t struggle this time; she was simply confused.

After staring at her for a long moment, Zhou Yan suddenly leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Then, before she could react, he leaped out the window.

Just as Jiang Wanshu thought he had actually abandoned her and was anxiously trying to find a way out, the main door of the wing was suddenly kicked open.

It turned out Zhou Yan had run around to the outside so she could walk out with her dignity intact.

Seeing the door wide open, Jiang Wanshu couldn’t help but feel a flicker of joy, but then she remembered that this man was the culprit behind the whole ordeal, and her face soured again.

She walked out slowly. Night had fallen, and the performers in the Pear Garden were making a racket while eating dinner in another room, so they couldn’t hear the two of them.

Walking up to Zhou Yan, she gave a performative huff and fixed her gaze on the door the man had just damaged. “Zhou Yan, if you keep acting like this, people will suspect us sooner or later.”

“It’s fine. I’ll come back later tonight and fix it,” Zhou Yan replied nonchalantly, looking at the broken wooden door while calculating how to make it look new again.

Having formed a plan, he reached for her hand to lead her out.

However, Jiang Wanshu swatted his hand away and looked at him with a cold gaze. “Right now, in front of others, you are my guard. You cannot be so rude.”

With that, she took the lead and walked away. Her voice drifted back to him: “If you don’t fix that door, I’m not finished with you!”

She didn’t want the things she and Zhou Yan did to cause trouble for others.

The girl’s silhouette looked slender and graceful in the night as Zhou Yan quickly followed her.

It wasn’t until they entered the Lanyue Palace and Jiang Wanshu dismissed her attendants, Yun Jie and Feng Shu, that Zhou Yan followed her into the inner hall.

With only Yu Lu remaining in the hall, Zhou Yan grew bold again.

He stepped quickly in front of Jiang Wanshu, blocking her view. “Is Wanwan truly angry?”

“What do you think?” She gave him a sharp look. He had nearly scared her to death in front of her mother; shouldn’t she be angry?

Furthermore, this man clearly hadn’t taken her words to heart. “Didn’t I say to give me a month to let my father and mother know your identity? I never said I wouldn’t tell them, so was it necessary to scare me like that?”

She complained resentfully. When she realized that she had internally accepted this once-difficult thought, her brow twitched violently.

At the mention of this, Zhou Yan thought of Zhou Shu’an again. He took her hand. “I just can’t stand seeing you so close to Zhou Shu’an.”

“Are you afraid that he and I still have lingering feelings for each other?” Even though she felt she didn’t need to explain such things to him, for the sake of his future behavior, Jiang Wanshu looked at the man with a burgeoning headache.

Support