Lu Zhuo accompanied Wei Rao to stroll in the back garden without bringing any maids, and there were no servants on duty in the garden at the time. After confirming Wei Rao wasn’t injured, Lu Zhuo grasped her hands and didn’t hurry to get up, instead kissing her even more lingeringly.

Wei Rao’s anger from the fall was kissed away bit by bit by him.

Beside the swing frame, the new bride’s gorgeous skirt was firmly pressed down by the new groom’s dark red robe. A white butterfly flew past, and the new bride’s embroidered shoes suddenly kicked at the ground twice, startling the butterfly to immediately fly in another direction.

Sensing Lu Zhuo’s intentions, Wei Rao mercilessly bit him.

Lu Zhuo cried out in pain and finally released her, sitting up beside her. He reached one hand to pull Wei Rao up while touching his lips with the other – they were bleeding.

“Serves you right,” Wei Rao said angrily, also seeing the blood on his lips. He deserved it for suddenly going mad, first pushing her so high on the swing, then pressing her to the ground and acting recklessly.

Lu Zhuo knew he was in the wrong and accepted his punishment. Seeing her lowering her head to brush dust off her skirt, Lu Zhuo changed to a squatting position, letting her brush the upper part while he helped tidy her skirt hem.

Wei Rao was stunned, looking at Lu Zhuo’s figure squatting before her, his gaze focused as he brushed away the dust for her. For no reason, she stopped being angry about his recent foolishness.

There was more dirt on Wei Rao’s back that she couldn’t see. Lu Zhuo stood behind her and carefully, gently brushed her from head to toe.

“Is my hair messed up?” Wei Rao lowered her head for him to check.

Lu Zhuo straightened the hairpin that had been knocked askew and adjusted the silk flower petals that had been flattened. Looking again, except for her flushed face, everything else was normal.

“Flying so high just now – were you frightened?” Lu Zhuo asked with guilt.

Wei Rao glared at him: “If you had given me warning, I wouldn’t have been scared. Suddenly doing that – who could bear it?”

Lu Zhuo looked at her eyes that grew more beautiful the angrier she became, explaining in a low voice: “I was thinking about how you’re unwilling to follow me to an outside posting, and became angry for a moment.”

At this mention, Wei Rao became the guilty one. She sat back on the swing, gently swaying herself: “Of course I’m unwilling. I’ve heard the borderlands are bitter and cold – forget about the capital, they’re not even as good as Jin City. You’re used to living at the border and think it’s nothing, but I find even traveling to Jin City arduous. How could I be happy about going to the borderlands?”

Lu Zhuo continued pushing her swing, looking at her profile: “If your mother were at the borderlands, would you be willing to go?”

Wei Rao understood his meaning and said nothing.

Lu Zhuo smiled bitterly: “You see, you still don’t have me in your heart.”

Wei Rao thought for a moment and said: “My mother gave birth to me and raised me for ten years – of course, I have her in my heart. What has the young master done for me that moved me deeply? Everything you did before marriage was just compensation.”

Lu Zhuo: “Then why did you marry me?”

Wei Rao married him naturally because his other qualities were good enough. After all, his face was too handsome. After all, marrying him would bring tremendous face, because his sincerity in seeking marriage was sufficient, and he was willing to accept all her unconventional behavior. Of course, Wei Rao didn’t deny that Lu Zhuo’s passionate pursuit had also touched her heart, just not deeply enough to make her willing to follow him to the borderlands.

Now that Lu Zhuo asked why she married him, Wei Rao hummed softly: “Why I married – doesn’t the young master understand? What you did in the poplar grove, have you forgotten so quickly?”

Lu Zhuo hadn’t forgotten. From the moment she rode out of the poplar grove, Lu Zhuo had begun recalling the wonderful feeling of pressing her down and kissing her.

“If I treat you better, will you be willing to follow me to the borderlands?”

When the swing came back, Lu Zhuo again stepped inside the ropes, blocking the swing with his body, supporting Wei Rao’s shoulders with his hands, and looking down to ask.

Wei Rao collided hard with his legs as the swing returned, and what made her face red and her heart chaotic was that her face was directly facing Lu Zhuo’s waist.

She used her toes to push against the ground, wanting to retreat, but Lu Zhuo pulled the ropes, and she collided back again.

When Wei Rao tried to stand up, Lu Zhuo pressed her back onto the swing.

“You’re shameless!” Wei Rao turned her head away, closing her eyes and scolding.

The beauty’s face was flushed and enchanting, her voice soft and gentle, making Lu Zhuo want to be even more shameless.

Constrained by broad daylight, Lu Zhuo suppressed that absurd thought. Supporting the ropes, he half-squatted down, looking into Wei Rao’s eyes and asking again: “If I treat you well, will you follow me to the borderlands?”

Wei Rao glanced at him and, seeing he seemed very concerned about this matter, nodded randomly.

They would see – if Lu Zhuo truly performed well enough, Wei Rao would be willing to follow him to an outside posting, to go anywhere with him.

Lu Zhuo smiled, leaning forward to kiss her lips.

Wei Rao looked around guiltily and kicked his leg with her toe: “Quickly go push the swing. No more misbehaving this time.”

The red sun set in the west, and the young couple returned to their room.

The kitchen was familiar with both masters’ tastes. Tonight’s dishes were excellent in color, aroma, and flavor, with two additional bowls of tonic soup that Duchess Ying had ordered the kitchen to stew – one bowl for Wei Rao and one for Lu Zhuo. Men’s and women’s bodies were different, so naturally, the areas needing nourishment differed too.

After dinner, the sky had darkened. Lu Zhuo told Wei Rao to rest first while he went to the front.

Wei Rao breathed a sigh of relief.

She was somewhat afraid of nightfall – not in the ordinary sense of fear. Nighttime, Lu Zhuo was forceful and domineering. If it were like last night again, Wei Rao couldn’t bear it.

Bitao and Liu Ya served her bath. When Wei Rao sat on the bed, Lu Zhuo returned.

He had already washed in the front and directly told the maids to withdraw.

“Extinguish the lamps,” Wei Rao hid inside the curtains. Seeing Lu Zhuo approaching the bed, she quickly made this demand.

Lu Zhuo argued confidently: “If we put them out now, the maids will think we’ve gone to sleep.”

The implication was that he wasn’t planning to obediently sleep right away.

Wei Rao had a fierce temper, but her face wasn’t as thick as his. In this aspect, Wei Rao admitted defeat. Since Lu Zhuo wouldn’t listen, she took advantage of Lu Zhuo undressing to slip on her soft-soled embroidered shoes and run over to extinguish the two lamps on the table. There were two more, and Wei Rao was about to go to them when Lu Zhuo beat her there, blocking the lamps.

He didn’t even need to speak – his phoenix eyes looked over with burning heat, and Wei Rao ran back to the bed in angry embarrassment.

Lu Zhuo hung his robe on the clothes rack and walked over wearing only his inner garment.

Wei Rao lay facing inside with her back to him, clearly nervous but pretending fearlessness.

Suddenly, a green willow branch hung down before her, trailing a string of slender, tender leaves.

Wei Rao’s eyes widened.

“Did you tell grandmother that I’m as thin and soft as this willow branch?” Lu Zhuo leaned over, asking in her ear.

Only then did Wei Rao realize that Lu Zhuo had been remembering her mocking retaliation from this morning all along. So why had he brought a willow branch here now? What did he want to do?

“I didn’t say that. Who would tell grandmother such things?” Wei Rao wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, her face burning as if being roasted by flames.

Lu Zhuo smiled: “You didn’t say it, but that’s what you thought in your heart, which is why you mocked me with the willow branch this morning.”

Wei Rao directly covered her face and ears with the quilt – she didn’t want to listen.

She gripped the quilt tightly above, but the quilt at her side was loose. Lu Zhuo burrowed into the quilt from one side. Wei Rao sensed this and frantically tried to block and push him, but her strength was no match for Lu Zhuo’s. In the blink of an eye, she was tightly embraced in Lu Zhuo’s arms, and her right hand was grasped by him to measure the difference between him and the willow branch.

“Now, does Raorao know her mistake?” She curled up in his embrace, so embarrassed she wished she could burrow into his heart forever. Lu Zhuo’s gaze was pleased as he asked hoarsely in her ear.

Wei Rao’s mind was full of fire – she pretended not to hear.

Lu Zhuo placed the willow branch in her palm again, making her compare the differences more clearly.

Wei Rao angrily bit his shoulder.

…

In the side room, only Bitao was keeping night watch today.

Having slept poorly last night and been busy all day, Bitao dozed sitting in the chair, only hoping the young master and princess would sleep early tonight and not make her wait until the third watch again.

The sounds from the inner room gradually grew louder. Even as drowsy as Bitao was, she couldn’t continue listening. She quickly ran to the courtyard, covering her ears and sitting on the steps, eyes watching the windows of the main room. Tonight, no more candles were lit inside, and it seemed two fewer lamps were lit as well, creating a dim and ambiguous atmosphere.

Covering her ears continuously made her arms tired. When Bitao lowered them and listened carefully, the princess’s broken, intermittent voice seemed to strike directly at her heart.

But Bitao didn’t dare cover her ears again – she was afraid that if the masters called for her and she didn’t hear, that would be bad.

At the second watch, Lu Zhuo finally released Wei Rao. Tomorrow morning, they still had to enter the palace to pay respects to Consort De – he had to preserve Wei Rao’s strength.

The quilt had been thrown in a corner all along, and the mattress needed changing. Lu Zhuo wrapped Wei Rao in the quilt, carried her to the couch in the side room, and then called for Bitao to come in.

Bitao entered with a lowered head and saw the young master holding a tea bowl, feeding water to the princess who was leaning in his arms. Bitao immediately averted her gaze and quickly entered the inner room.

There wasn’t much to clean up on the floor. Bitao came to the bedside and immediately saw a circle of dark, wet stains on the mattress, as if tea had been spilled there. Bitao instinctively felt it wasn’t tea, but if not tea, what could it be? Sweating or crying wouldn’t flow like that.

Confused, Bitao changed to a fresh mattress and also took away the willow branch that had lost its leaves and somehow appeared there.

A young maid waited outside with a copper basin. Bitao took it and brought it to the inner room. After a while, the young master told her to take it away. At this point, tonight’s duties were finally finished.

Lying in her bedding, Bitao instantly fell asleep.

Wei Rao also fell asleep, but in the middle of the night, half-asleep and half-awake, Lu Zhuo approached her again.

“You…”

“Paying respects to the consort is different from serving tea to elders. Arriving a bit late should be fine,” Lu Zhuo said, grasping her small hand.

Wei Rao avoided his lips, frowning: “I’m sleepy. Tomorrow night.”

Though she complained, her long eyelashes were tightly closed, and after complaining, she fell asleep again, as if she believed Lu Zhuo would obey.

Lu Zhuo hesitated for a moment, then still lowered down.

Wei Rao’s grumbling protests soon changed in nature again.