Recklessly Breaking a Delicate Branch - Chapter 61

The young lady was fuming, her eyebrows arched in a cold glare. This caused Zhou Yan, who had been waiting expectantly for praise, to let his face fall in disappointment.

He pondered for a long while, still unable to fathom what had made Jiang Wanshu so angry. Stepping closer, he asked, “Why?” Didn’t she always love this kind of poetry the most?

Little did he know that his question would leave Jiang Wanshu speechless and exasperated. Her delicate, pale hand pushed firmly against the man’s chest. “I said no, and I mean no!”

His physique was solid; Jiang Wanshu’s push didn’t budge him an inch. Though Zhou Yan remained puzzled, seeing her expression, he finally realized that she was dissatisfied with his current “style” of speaking.

Having spent so much heart and soul learning something only to have it rejected, Zhou Yan felt a twinge of unhappiness. However, seeing the earnest look on the girl before him, his frustration strangely ebbed into a sense of calm.

The young lady before him had delicate brows and a face as radiant as white jade. She looked like a painting filled with the essence of spring—truly breathtaking.

Gazing at her, Zhou Yan was momentarily dazed. In the next second, his large hand caught her right hand just as she tried to pull away from his chest, and he pulled her directly into his arms.

Jiang Wanshu was light. Drawn by Zhou Yan’s strength, she was pulled onto her feet, only for his other hand to wrap around her waist, lifting her to sit in his lap.

With his hand thus constraining her waist, his left hand reached out to caress her cheek, but Jiang Wanshu tilted her head to dodge him.

The man’s body was scorching hot, the heat seeping through her clothes and onto her skin. Recalling Zhou Yan’s recent actions combined with the words he had just spoken, Jiang Wanshu began to tremble with fear.

“What… what are you trying to do?!” Her voice was wavering.

Zhou Yan’s eyes darkened. His hand reached for her cheek again, and this time, Jiang Wanshu could not avoid him.

He stared at her intently, a hint of a smile hidden within his sharp, eagle-like eyes. “Wanwan, have you noticed? Ever since you returned to the palace, your attitude toward me has changed.”

Jiang Wanshu’s expression was now laced with a touch of frailty. She wasn’t entirely inexperienced, yet she still felt uncomfortable being enveloped by the intense, burning masculine aura of the man. Even her speech became stuttered.

She blinked her watery, wide eyes, watching Zhou Yan’s encroaching movements. Her words came in fits and starts. “Wha… what?”

“Wanwan, you don’t seem afraid of me anymore. You even dare to set conditions with me. These are things I never discovered back when we were on the grasslands.” As he spoke, Zhou Yan’s face broke into a radiant smile.

Did this mean her opinion of him had changed for the better?

This slight shift made him feel wonderful. After all, he knew she had always harbored a grudge over the fact that he had kidnapped her to be his wife immediately after saving her.

Blinking, Jiang Wanshu looked at the handsome man before her. Following his words, she couldn’t help but reminisce about the past.

Actually, he was slightly mistaken.

If she had to say when her attitude toward Zhou Yan stopped being one of pure fear, it was the day he confessed his feelings to her.

She had been raised in luxury since childhood and possessed such a face; although she rarely attended the banquets held by the high-ranking concubines in the capital, she had seen many people in the palace.

Take Brother Zhou, for example. She still remembered that after their engagement, the first time he held her hand, he admitted he had been trembling in his heart for days. He was terrified that a single mistake would make her unhappy.

At that time, she could truly feel Brother Zhou’s love for her. But now, it was the same with the man before her.

Zhou Shu’an’s actions had taught her that when a man loves someone, he is timid and hesitant to reveal it. Therefore, she felt secure and emboldened—though perhaps there were other, more complicated feelings mixed in.

She could also sense that while Zhou Yan’s overall demeanor remained much the same as that day, she was observant enough to notice the respect he had shown her since then. After she had shouted those words at him, he had indeed changed his ways in various small aspects.

“What, lost your tongue?”

The man’s voice timely interrupted Jiang Wanshu’s thoughts. Her face flushed red. “That’s because… because…”

She scratched her head, truly at a loss for an explanation.

At this, Zhou Yan tapped her forehead with his thumb. He looked down and said, “It’s because you’ve started to pay attention to me. You’ve started to see me as a real human being, rather than the man you share a deep grudge with for kidnapping you after saving your life.”

As these words fell, Jiang Wanshu felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Her heart began to thud wildly.

She felt her heartbeat racing out of control. What Zhou Yan said should have been a very normal realization, but once the words were spoken aloud, they made her heart race uncontrollably.

She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to soothe her heart back to a normal rhythm, but to no avail.

She looked up again, her eyes meeting Zhou Yan’s, her gaze filled with inner conflict. It seemed she really had changed her view of him because of this. At that moment, she finally understood: the reason she acted so boldly toward him was not just because she felt secure in his feelings, but also because she had begun to view him as her true savior.

After all, disregarding that first time, he really had saved her life several times afterward.

But before she could fully recover her senses, Zhou Yan suddenly lifted her up. The abrupt change in height caused her to instinctively wrap her arms around his neck.

Noticing this, Zhou Yan chuckled softly. “Save that strength for later.”

Before Jiang Wanshu could react, he had already carried her to the bed. In one motion, she was dropped onto the soft brocade quilt.

The moment her body touched the quilt, memories flooded back. Her face, as bright as an autumn moon, was instantly draped in a layer of bashfulness. Under Zhou Yan’s intense gaze, she propped one hand behind her on the bed, looking for an opportunity to escape.

But the man was too quick. Before she could even move her feet, he leaned down, his large palm sweeping toward her waist to pull her back.

The muscles on his arms were firm and taut. He easily gathered her into his embrace.

Feeling the heat of his chest against her back, Jiang Wanshu was struck with panic. She immediately tried to flee, a delicate fragrance wafting from her sleeves as she moved, only to be hauled back into his arms once more.

A smile of triumph flickered in Zhou Yan’s eyes as he rested his jaw against Jiang Wanshu’s dark tresses. “Wanwan, don’t forget what I just said. A person as kind-hearted as you wouldn’t want to let a hard-won opportunity slip away, would you?”

That single sentence instantly dragged Jiang Wanshu’s memory back to the middle of their meeting earlier today. She turned to stare at the man before her, her heart hardening with resolve.

It was merely taking the initiative for one night. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t shared the joys of the flesh before. For the sake of herself, her sisters, and her descendants, she would endure!

Yet, her heart remained restless. Would this man truly keep his word as promised?

But the arrow was already on the string; there was no turning back.

Jiang Wanshu closed her eyes tight. To please Zhou Yan, under the dim, flickering candlelight, she reached out her slender, delicate hands and wrapped them around his neck.

“Zhou Yan, do you truly swear to help me quell this impending war?”

Beneath the starlit shadows of the room, the man’s handsome face loomed close. He pulled her into his arms, his cool, thin lips pressing heavily against her tender cheek. He lightly pinched her elegant neck and exhaled a few low words:

“As long as Wanwan is willing, let alone quelling this war—if you wanted the life of the Khan of the Western Rong, I would fetch it for you myself.”

As the words fell, Zhou Yan’s kiss suddenly invaded her lips, plunging deep into the girl’s soft mouth. In the brief intervals between breaths, he murmured in a low, husky voice, “Be good… curl your tongue.”

Jiang Wanshu flushed at the man’s practiced intensity. Knowing she had to please him tonight, she shed her shyness, steeled her heart, and tentatively wrapped her tongue around his.

The sudden contact made her mind feel as though it were collapsing under a bolt of lightning. They had touched like this before, but never had it felt so vivid—the contrast of this hard-muscled man possessing such a hidden softness made her feel as if she were falling through the clouds.

Realizing this, a flash of panic crossed her dark eyes, and her heart began to race like an ant on a hot griddle.

Zhou Yan noticed her expression, but he took it merely as a pure physiological reaction to his touch. Satisfied, he reached out to tug at the front of her gown. The embroidered lotus-patterned dress was torn apart by his movements, and in an instant, Jiang Wanshu was pressed down onto the bed.

The precious gold-threaded red brocade quilt billowed and settled under their combined weight. The girl’s face burned with heat. Under the flickering candlelight, the man’s handsome face and eagle-like aura were thick with desire, burning her until she could hardly contain herself.

Unwilling to face the handsome man any longer, Jiang Wanshu turned her head and buried her small face into the quilt.

Zhou Yan let out a deep, delighted laugh. He reached out to brush the dark hair away from her neck and kissed her there.

Throughout the night, the red waves of the quilts tossed and turned, filled with the thick warmth of spring. It wasn’t until Jiang Wanshu was utterly exhausted and on the verge of fainting into sleep that Zhou Yan finally prepared to let her go.

Gazing at the delicate beauty who was now limp with fatigue, his heart finally softened.

He pulled her sweaty, sated body into his scorching embrace. Fearing she might catch a chill from the dampness of her sweat, he held her contentedly, waiting for her body temperature to return to normal before calling for water to wash her.

Having stayed in the Lanyue Hall for so long, Zhou Yan was naturally familiar with the night-shift arrangements. Tonight, the maid on duty was Yu Lu, who had followed Jiang Wanshu since their time on the grasslands and was well aware of their relationship.

Without hesitation, he called out toward the exterior, “Yu Lu, bring water. Your Princess needs to bathe.”

Since Yu Lu had seen Zhou Yan and Jiang Wanshu together earlier that day, she wasn’t surprised when he called for water late at night, though her face turned a deep shade of crimson.

She had heard many noises from outside; the Princess’s voice had been melodious but broken by gasps that made one’s heart race. Moreover, the Princess had occasionally let out fragmented cries that were truly embarrassing to hear.

To say nothing of Zhou Yan—he was likely quite sturdy and used a great deal of force, for she could hear the bells on the canopy bed shaking rhythmically through the gauze curtains even from outside.

Fortunately, only one person usually stood guard near the Princess’s bedroom. Hearing Zhou Yan’s command, Yu Lu immediately hurried off to order the servants to bring water.

Before long, several servants moved a large bathtub into the spacious bedroom. The windows were opened wide to dissipate the scent of the night’s passion as the attendants filed in and out.

The commotion inevitably woke the girl from her dreams. She let out a soft moan, drawing the attention of those outside the screen.

Alas, the room was dark, and the maids could not see the scene within. Otherwise, they would have witnessed a breathtaking and forbidden sight on the exquisite bed: two bodies, one soft and one hard, intertwined in a naked embrace.

Finally, after the maids had arranged everything, Yu Lu cautiously ushered everyone out.

Yu Lu touched the door and called out softly, “Princess, the water is ready. We shall withdraw now.”

While these words were addressed to Jiang Wanshu, Yu Lu was actually signaling to Zhou Yan. Sure enough, once the sound of the door closing echoed through the silent air, the man behind the screen braced his powerful legs and stood up.

Standing on the sturdy footstool, Zhou Yan looked down at the girl who was still as limp as mud, and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

It seemed that the extra meals he had fed her before entering the palace to build up her stamina had been for naught.

Helplessly, he looked at the drowsy girl. He leaned down, bracing his hands on the bedding on either side of her, and while she was still in a daze, he slid his arms around her waist to lift her toward the bathtub.

Support