Waiting for You for a Long Time, But You Haven't Arrived - Chapter 28

“I feel that you are truly shameless.”

“It’s nothing, just some flattery tucked inside the pastries,” Ming Yishu said calmly in front of Jiang Qionghua, leaning down to pick up the slip of paper. “Do you want to see? After all, the sender’s sycophancy isn’t directed at me.”

She picked up the note and flashed it toward Jiang Qionghua with apparent nonchalance.

Jiang Qionghua cast a downward glance but didn’t see it clearly. “It looks like ghost talismans; I won’t look.”

“Then I shall dispose of it.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ming Yishu swiftly fed the note into the flames.

“Wait—”

Jiang Qionghua realized something a beat too late. After that glance, she recalled that while the handwriting looked chaotic, it could have been deciphered with careful study. This was very wrong—what kind of flattery would be written so illegibly and inconspicuously?

…It looked more like a secret message.

Jiang Qionghua was naturally suspicious and, by right, would not have let such a detail slide so easily. However, she had come to find Ming Yishu today carrying sweets; her mind was entirely elsewhere, filled with tender sentiments. She didn’t particularly want to be as paranoid as she was on ordinary days.

“Why did you burn it so quickly?” Jiang Qionghua frowned, dissatisfied with Ming Yishu’s rapid disposal of the note. “If it was nothing else, you could have just tossed the paper aside. Burning it like this fills the room with the smell of smoke.”

“I feared you would be suspicious—suspecting that I was secretly passing letters to others again—so I had no choice but to burn it as quickly as possible.” Ming Yishu watched quietly as the flames swallowed the entire slip of paper before unhurriedly letting go. “The script was indeed strange and eccentric; it would be easy for someone to misinterpret it.”

“The items were bought by me for you; why would I suspect you?” Jiang Qionghua laughed. “You think too poorly of me. I am not that wicked.”

Ming Yishu gave a faint response: “You are.”

The relationship between the two was currently both extremely intimate and extremely distant, like a tangled knot in a rope—appearing connected in body and soul, yet not a single part of it was smooth or settled.

Jiang Qionghua did not follow up on Ming Yishu’s words. She didn’t want to get angry today; she only wanted to spend time peacefully with Ming Yishu.

She said, “I bought other things for you as well. After you finish the Bamboo Orchid Crisps, come try these other sweets. They say Shangshi Workshop makes the best in the capital; even the Imperial Kitchen in the palace cannot match this flavor.”

Those Bamboo Orchid Crisps had been delivered to Ming Yishu’s hands by fast horse, but the other pastries she had brought in person. Logically, she could have sent them all at once during the first delivery, but Jiang Qionghua didn’t want to do that. She insisted on the redundant act of carrying them herself and delivering them to Ming Yishu by hand.

It was a very strange thought. Jiang Qionghua herself didn’t know why she was doing this. Ever since that moment of tenderness with Ming Yishu, she had become unlike herself, doing many things inexplicably.

Childish, foolish, yet they made one feel very good.

Jiang Qionghua handed the pastries to Ming Yishu, insisting that she unwrap them personally.

Ming Yishu said nothing and obediently began to unwrap them. Halfway through, she couldn’t help but pinch a piece to taste. She had a sweet tooth and had loved sweet things in both of her lives; it was just that back in modern times, she couldn’t bear to buy them often. After all, exquisite pastries in a bakery were usually over twenty yuan a piece. Though she could afford them, it was still a luxury she didn’t indulge in frequently.

She hadn’t expected ancient pastries to be as exquisite as modern ones. The mere scent was enough to bring joy. Ming Yishu took a small bite, and her brows immediately smoothed out—it was delicious.

This was a pure, natural, and exquisite taste. It was soft and sweet upon entering the mouth, allowing one to taste the most authentic fragrance of the pastry. The piece she ate was a Golden Osmanthus Crisp; the filling was a clear, sweet osmanthus honey preserve. There was no startling flavor at first, but the aftertaste was endless.

Jiang Qionghua watched her intently for a long time, looking at her long, slender fingers, and then at her eyes which gradually filled with a smile.

It seemed she had bought something the other liked. Looking at Ming Yishu, Jiang Qionghua’s mood improved significantly, and her own expression softened unconsciously in response.

She asked, “Is it sweet?”

Only then did Ming Yishu notice that Jiang Qionghua hadn’t spoken for a long while. After swallowing a small mouthful, she replied, “It is sweet, and yet not sweet.”

This was a contradictory critique, but Jiang Qionghua understood Ming Yishu’s meaning.

“You once told me that the best sweets are not the sweetest ones, but those that are ‘not sweet’ yet delicious.” Jiang Qionghua stood beside her with the joy of someone seeking a small bit of credit. “I specifically asked the people at Shangshi Workshop to pick ones that weren’t too sweet. They are all delicious.”

Ming Yishu nodded, finished unwrapping the rest, and asked her, “Do you want to try?”

Jiang Qionghua frowned and pulled back half a step. “I detest sweets the most. You just eat them.”

“Are you really not going to taste it? It’s very good.” Ming Yishu pinched the Golden Osmanthus Crisp she had first tasted and held it to her lips. “It’s not cloying at all.”

Jiang Qionghua pursed her lips in a cold, silent standoff for a moment. Seeing that Ming Yishu had no intention of withdrawing her hand, she finally condescended to lean down and take a bite. She reflexively knit her brows, and even though she had eaten it, she still resisted it as if it were poison…

Gradually, her brow relaxed.

It seemed… it really was delicious.

With a glimmer in her eyes, Ming Yishu asked, “See? It’s very good.”

Jiang Qionghua gave a vague hum and stubbornly said, “It’s just so-so. It’s alright.”

Ming Yishu didn’t expose the woman’s awkwardness, but she knew it must be delicious. After all, for a food to earn the evaluation of “alright” from Jiang Qionghua’s mouth meant it was already in the “delicious” category.

Jiang Qionghua asked again, “Which do you love most? I’ll bring more for you when I return from court in the future.”

“The Golden Osmanthus Crisp I just fed you is my favorite,” Ming Yishu said.

“If it’s your favorite, why didn’t you keep it for yourself? The rest was tasted by me.” Jiang Qionghua’s gaze swept over the remaining pastries and said, “Try the others. I see you haven’t eaten the Bamboo Orchid Crisps yet. If they sit too long, they won’t taste good.”

Upon hearing this, Ming Yishu took a small bite but soon put it down.

She shook her head, saying she still preferred the Golden Osmanthus Crisp she had eaten first.

“It’s not that you love that Golden Osmanthus Crisp the most; you’ve simply fallen in love with the feeling of that first bite,” Jiang Qionghua analyzed. “This is an illusion, making you mistakenly believe the Golden Osmanthus Crisp is your favorite. If you were willing to put more heart into tasting the others, perhaps it wouldn’t be your favorite anymore.”

However, Ming Yishu was already using a handkerchief to wipe her hands. “Then I won’t try them.”

Jiang Qionghua was stunned. She really hadn’t expected Ming Yishu could resist eating the rest. “Truly not going to try anymore?”

“The others should be delicious too, but I love the Golden Osmanthus Crisp most, so there is no need to try.” Ming Yishu said, “Even if the varieties and flavors later on are more numerous, it won’t change anything.”

Jiang Qionghua pressed her hand to her forehead. “You… truly are…”

But Ming Yishu was exactly such a stubborn person. Whatever brought her wonder at the very beginning would remain in her memory for the longest time; nothing else would shake the status of that “first thing.”

“It is late. Why are you taking out that jade hairpin?” Seeing Ming Yishu take out a jade carving knife, Jiang Qionghua couldn’t help but ask, “You asked me to accompany you tonight, and yet you are doing this? My birthday isn’t that close; there’s no need to work so hard on a jade hairpin.”

Ming Yishu gave her a look. “I have already bathed. While you are bathing, I can just do something else.”

Jiang Qionghua understood.

“Then wait for me. I will be back soon.”

It was rare for Jiang Qionghua to have such a peaceful sleep. When she woke again, the sky outside was already fully bright.

Jiang Qionghua:

Fine then, she wouldn’t go to court.

Memories of last night gradually surged into her heart, and Jiang Qionghua felt it was utterly absurd. She didn’t know what had happened to her, as if she were possessed, agreeing to everything Ming Yishu said.

Truly, beauty is distracting. Even a person as cold and heartless as her couldn’t withstand Ming Yishu’s soulful eyes. When she was looked at with that misty, seductive gaze, she felt she could pluck the moon from the sky for her.

Ming Yishu’s voice on the couch was very reserved and restrained. When teased to the point of desperation, she would only hold back airy breaths, sighing softly in short gasps, or bury her head in Jiang Qionghua’s shoulder, clutching her clothes and weeping. Her behavior was flirtatious to the extreme, yet she refused to let out that kind of sound.

Jiang Qionghua really had no way with her. Even at such a time, she insisted on maintaining her dignity. What would it matter if she made a sound? Was she, Jiang Qionghua, going to say something bad about her?

“Are you afraid someone will hear?” Jiang Qionghua asked with a laugh, her tone carrying a hint of interrogation. “Who? That little maid? Or…”

Ming Yishu interrupted her: “No, it’s not that.”

Jiang Qionghua pinched her chin. “Then why hold it back?”

Ming Yishu didn’t answer. She let out a muffled cough, steadied her breathing, and then used her snowy-white foot to lightly press against Jiang Qionghua’s chest, calling to her: “Qionghua, I want…”

Jiang Qionghua naturally grasped that white heel, as if holding the other person against her heart. “Speak. What do you want?”

Ming Yishu lifted her slightly damp eyes and finished her sentence: “…you to go down on me.”

Jiang Qionghua:

Was she crazy, or was Ming Yishu crazy?

Was this something Ming Yishu could say? With a personality usually so reserved and demure, how could she be so bold and wanton now?

Jiang Qionghua remarked: “Yishu, you are truly shameless.”

“Yes.” Ming Yishu seemed drunk, carrying a bit of tipsy madness. She applied pressure with her foot again and asked, “So, do you agree?”

Jiang Qionghua hesitated, looking down at her. “What if I agree?”

Ming Yishu beckoned her over, signaling for her to listen.

Jiang Qionghua leaned closer and heard the other whisper into her ear: “I… can moan for you to hear.”

As if scorched by a tongue of flame, something in Jiang Qionghua’s heart suddenly exploded. Her gaze shook, shocked to the extreme.

“Alright?”

Jiang Qionghua’s throat moved, and she answered hoarsely: “Alright.”

Then came the awakening of the second day.

Jiang Qionghua was stunned for a full hour before she regained her composure. She thought back several times and couldn’t figure out what kind of “soul-bewitching pill” she had taken last night to actually… for Ming Yishu…

Just to hear the other’s moans, she had lowered her status to serve her.

That wasn’t the hardest part to understand. What was most incomprehensible was that she remembered not feeling it was absurd at the time—she had even enjoyed it because the atmosphere was just right.

Jiang Qionghua:

Ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

Jiang Qionghua habitually rubbed her brow, then awkwardly lowered her hand because she discovered her headache hadn’t flared up; she had actually rested quite well.

Regardless, for the sake of Ming Yishu keeping her word, she wouldn’t pursue the matter further.

Jiang Qionghua rose to rinse her mouth and heard a report from a secret guard saying they had found a pure white wolf cub in the mountains.

“Good, give it to me.” Jiang Qionghua picked up the wolf cub and went to bring it to Ming Yishu.

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