Scholar Zhao had said that when men and women spend time together, atmosphere is very important. Since ancient times, there had been the saying about “flowers before moon,” which could create a sweet atmosphere and make men easily pledge eternal love to women.

Xin Mei returned to Xinxie Manor and picked two baskets of fresh flowers, then changed into her most beautiful clothes. The next day, she excitedly rode Qiuyue toward the Imperial Tomb again. Who knew that Lu Qianqiao wasn’t in his room, and Si Lan kept a stern face and ignored her, so Xin Mei had no choice but to wander around the Imperial Tomb carrying her two baskets of fresh flowers.

In the southeast corner of the Imperial Tomb was a broken sacrificial altar. It was said that not far away was a huge burial pit where at most over four thousand people had been buried alive in sacrifice. The area was always filled with lingering resentment. The demons in the Imperial Tomb had planted an apricot forest over the pit. The apricot blossoms here bloomed better than anywhere else and had never withered. Although it was ghostly and eerie, at this moment as evening approached with the setting sun like molten gold, the endless sea of snow-white apricot blossoms was still very beautiful.

Lu Qianqiao stood on the high platform wielding a long whip. Having just recovered from serious injury, his movements were still somewhat stiff, and the long whip occasionally struck the blue bricks, making sharp cracking sounds.

Was he exercising his muscles and joints?

Xin Mei stood below the platform looking up at him. For some reason, she felt that his figure wielding the long whip in the sunset was very moving. Wind shuttled past his underarms, lifting the blue shirt draped over his shoulders, along with that head of glossy black hair floating and swaying—no matter how she looked at it, he was dazzling. More dazzling than the endless sea of apricot blossoms below the platform.

For the first time, she felt that silently watching like this without speaking brought more joy than doing anything else.

Lu Qianqiao, who was stretching his muscles, always felt a strange gaze staring at him from behind. When he turned around, he saw Xin Mei holding two large baskets of wilted fresh flowers standing below the platform, smiling as if… she had seen something delicious. Unable to maintain his composure, his hand trembled, and the long whip flew out of his grip, landing far away.

Xin Mei bounded up to the high platform and walked to him with a beaming smile: “Lu Qianqiao, your whip dancing looks quite good.”

He looked at the two baskets of fresh flowers in her hands, somewhat hesitant: “What are these?”

“Oh,” she shoved both baskets of flowers at him, “For you, newly bloomed flowers from my home.”

…What did giving him two baskets of wilted fresh flowers mean? But it seemed inappropriate not to accept them, so he slowly took them. Unexpectedly, she followed up with a question: “Do you like them?”

He felt he really couldn’t say he liked these two baskets of listless flowers against his conscience, so he coughed quietly and changed the subject: “Have you eaten?”

“No, I’ll go eat in the town outside.” Xin Mei smiled sweetly and turned to leave. “When the moon rises tonight, I’ll come see you again! Lu Qianqiao, don’t throw the flowers away.”

He grabbed her sleeve and gently brushed his hand through her hair, which was dampened with moisture from the mountain forest, cool and refreshing.

“Don’t run back and forth like this next time.” Without allowing any argument, he grasped her hand and led her down from the high platform. “Stay for dinner. You’re not allowed to travel at night tonight.”

Xin Mei’s eyes lit up: “Alright! Lu Qianqiao, should we have some wine?”

With flowers, wine, and moonlight—that would create atmosphere.

He thought of how the bear demon had been beaten until foam came from his mouth last time, and firmly shook his head: “No drinking.”

“Not even a little bit?” She frowned, somewhat disappointed.

He hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded: “Don’t drink too much.”

She smiled so brightly her eyes crinkled, hugging his arm: “Lu Qianqiao, you really are a good person.”

A good person… Lu Qianqiao gazed wistfully at the small moon just rising at the horizon. At a time like this, what should he say?

When they returned to the room, the small moon had become even brighter. The two baskets of flowers she had brought were placed below the windowsill. Reflecting the silvery-white ghostly moonlight, even from those listless drooping petals, one could still make out some flavor of “flowers before moon.”

Xin Mei poured a cup of wine and racked her brains thinking about how to create the so-called atmosphere. Scholar Zhao hadn’t taught her this, so she scratched her head and ears thinking but still couldn’t come up with anything.

Lu Qianqiao picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs and placed it in her bowl: “Eat some meat.”

Only then did Xin Mei feel her stomach rumbling. These past two days she had been focused on winning him over and had no mind for eating. She immediately put down her wine cup and picked up a chopstick of eggplant for him: “Eat some vegetables.”

One could tell at a glance that she came from wealth and had never suffered hardship. Of the four dishes on the small table, she only picked at the pork ribs and bamboo shoots, not touching the eggplant and radish at all.

He silently moved the two dishes she didn’t like eating to his own bowl, when suddenly he heard her ask: “Lu Qianqiao, what do you most like to do normally?”

He said coolly: “Why ask this?”

“Just tell me.”

He simply wouldn’t answer. Xin Mei took out a stack of papers from her bosom, covered with questions ranging from “what’s your favorite color” to “what’s your favorite food”—all sorts of miscellaneous questions.

He was both amused and exasperated: “Childish.”

Xin Mei pouted: “I want to understand you!”

Lu Qianqiao lowered his head to drink soup, a trace of amusement seeming to pass across his face as he said softly: “What nonsense has Scholar Zhao been telling you again?”

“Huh? How do you know he taught me this?”

“Only he could think up such boring things.”

Xin Mei could only bury her head and drink wine. Unexpectedly, he took that stack of papers, flipping through them one by one, seeming to suppress laughter as he flipped. After finishing, he set them aside and asked her: “After you understand, what do you plan to do?”

“Know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never be defeated in a hundred battles.” She answered very smoothly.

“Are you going to war?”

“What happens after understanding…” She paused, then drank another cup of wine. “What happens next can be discussed later. We need to take it step by step.”

Lu Qianqiao saw her face was flushed red and her breath smelled of alcohol when she spoke. He unobtrusively picked up the wine pot and gently shook it—it was already empty. Just as he was secretly startled, Xin Mei suddenly grabbed his sleeve, moved close to him, pointed at the thin crescent moon outside that was mostly obscured by dark clouds, and said: “That… oh right, Lu Qianqiao, the moon represents my heart.”

He pressed one hand against her burning forehead, his voice very calm: “You’re drunk.”

She kept trying to scratch away his bothersome hand but couldn’t manage it, so she continued pointing at the moon: “Look, my heart is hanging in the sky.”

He remained calm: “It’s too small, I can’t see it.”

Xin Mei became anxious and struggled to get up and walk to the window to point it out clearly. Afraid she would lose her footing and fall while drunk, he had to hold her waist again and press her to sit beside him. Her arms wound around his neck like soft vines as she stared at him seriously, motionless.

“Lu Qianqiao, what kind of woman would you marry?” she asked very earnestly.

Lu Qianqiao kept one hand on her to prevent her from sliding off, and hearing this question, only smiled: “Do you think I would tell you?”

“Don’t be so stingy. At worst, we can trade. I’ll tell you—I like men who are good-looking and useful.”

This… good-looking he could understand, but useful… what kind of useful? Useful in what way? He felt somewhat conflicted, his ears turning slightly red.

“I think you’re quite good-looking and useful.”

Another thunderbolt-like statement that nearly made him drop her. Alright, this “useful” definitely didn’t mean what he thought it meant, right? Right?

“This time I’m not joking—well, be my husband? Name your price, don’t be polite at all.”

He didn’t answer anything, only touched her forehead: “You’re drunk. I’ll take you to the guest room to sleep.”

Actually, she wasn’t very drunk—much better than last time at the bear demon’s place. It was just that he himself didn’t know how to answer this question and wanted to escape.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll take that as agreement.”

Xin Mei held onto him tightly. This was the precious husband she had finally taken a fancy to—she couldn’t let him get away. That face before her eyes was truly pleasing no matter how she looked at it. Although he still had some facial paralysis aftereffects that flared up from time to time, when it came to husbands, your own was always best. She didn’t mind.

“Come here.” She crooked her finger at him.

He ignored her, pressing one hand on her forehead and circling her waist with the other, about to pull her up and toss her into the guest room.

Xin Mei struggled free from his hand covering her eyes, aimed at his straight nose bridge, and took a bite.

…

That night she had many strange dreams. She couldn’t breathe, and for a long time it felt like someone was holding her tightly in their arms. Her lips were hot and painful, almost breaking the skin. When she got up the next morning and looked, indeed her mouth had swollen up red, and there were several red marks on her neck too.

She went to find Lu Qianqiao with a bitter face, complaining: “There are bugs in the guest room! Look at my mouth and neck!”

Lu Qianqiao’s expression at that time was so ethereally calm that he silently cut off a section of medicinal ointment and tossed it to her, then silently watched her ride away on Qiuyue’s back, avoiding her eyes from beginning to end.

“Lu Qianqiao, I’m leaving.” She turned back to wave at him. “Tomorrow night when the moon climbs to the top of the sky, I’ll come see you again.”

She was truly having a wonderful time keeping busy.

He knew what she wanted, what her bright and sparkling eyes were looking at, what was contained in those soft “Lu Qianqiao” three words.

He had known all along.

But he could only pretend not to know.

Lu Qianqiao turned his head away from her, didn’t answer, and made to close the window.

Unexpectedly, she brought her face close and glared at him: “Why are you ignoring me?”

Truly a spoiled and unreasonable girl.

His gaze involuntarily moved downward, landing on her slightly red and swollen lips, his eyes suddenly becoming burning hot.

He seemed to be in a daze. Xin Mei’s unreliable maiden heart began thumping rapidly. She looked around—very good, no one was there. She raised her hands to cup his head, and taking advantage of his astonishment, planted a kiss on his very handsome face. In broad daylight—this way he couldn’t deny it.

She smiled sweetly and jumped away, bounding onto Qiuyue’s back like a rabbit.

“I’m leaving, remember to miss me!”

Xin Mei walked especially quickly and happily all the way. She felt this husband was just a little bit away from being captured.

But she hadn’t expected that he would fall into her net so quickly… well, it really was a bit too fast.

That day was the thirteenth of May. Emperor Rongzheng of Qiong Kingdom sent an imperial decree to Xinxie Manor, bestowing Xin Mei in marriage to General Lu Qianqiao, to be wed within two months.