Shen Guiyan’s heart jumped, and she instinctively looked at Gu Chaobei. Gu Chaobei was already grimacing as he leaned against the bed, undressing to examine his wound.
“What are you doing?” Shen Guiyan lowered her voice, urgently pressing down on his hand.
Gu Chaobei’s lips had gone pale. He glanced at her and pointed to his wound.
The red had already seeped through, soaking a patch of fine snow brocade. Couldn’t he open his clothes to look at the wound?
Shen Guiyan shook her head. Having a man appear in her room at midnight was bad enough—if his clothes were also disheveled, even jumping into the Yellow River wouldn’t wash her clean.
The window was knocked again. Shen Guiyan hurriedly got up, draped on a cloak, and went over to ask softly: “Who is it?”
No need to ask—she knew. Last time Gu Chaodong had also come like this. But tonight of all nights was his wedding night—how could he come here?
“Yan’er.” The voice outside was still panting heavily, looking like someone who had rushed here without catching his breath. Hearing his voice made Shen Guiyan’s nose tingle with emotion. She glanced back at Gu Chaobei, who had already sensibly hidden himself out of sight.
She reached out to open the window. Gu Chaodong’s figure appeared outside, standing on the first-floor rain eave, looking at her with sweat covering his head: “Yan’er, I didn’t know that the one I married today was actually…”
So Shen Guiya had been discovered? Shen Guiyan laughed quietly and looked at him: “Have you consummated the marriage?”
Gu Chaodong’s throat tightened. His eyes filled with deep affection as he looked at her: “Yan’er, I was forced into it. In that situation, I couldn’t let both families lose face. I could only marry Ya’er…”
“I’m asking, have you already consummated the marriage?” Shen Guiyan took a step back and looked at the hourglass in the room. It was exactly midnight—they should have finished by now, right?
Gu Chaodong hesitated for a moment, lowering his eyes: “No, I heard Fourth Brother came to make trouble here, so I rushed over.”
Shen Guiyan breathed a slight sigh of relief and said: “Since you haven’t consummated the marriage, then the marriage isn’t complete. If you truly still have feelings for me in your heart, go explain things clearly to Father, send Ya’er back, and bring me back instead.”
“This…” Gu Chaodong looked somewhat flustered. Looking at the usually gentle and understanding Shen Guiyan, he pressed his lips together: “The wedding has already been completed. If we send Ya’er back now, how can she face people? Moreover, she’s already carrying my child…”
Marrying Shen Guiya as the legitimate wife meant the child would be legitimate-born, naturally more prestigious than the one in Gu Chaonan’s household.
Shen Guiyan’s eyes widened slightly. She looked over Gu Chaodong again with some shock: “Since you’ve already decided to keep Fifth Sister, then what are you doing here?”
Hoping to have his cake and eat it too?
Gu Chaodong felt somewhat embarrassed. He hadn’t expected Shen Guiyan to say this. He’d thought that having just experienced a series of upheavals, she would want to depend on him very much when they met, and after some coaxing would agree to humble herself a bit—after all, she was the one he loved most.
Weren’t women supposed to be easy to coax like this? Why had Yan’er become so difficult?
“Yan’er, you and I have known each other for many years. Just because of this misunderstanding, you no longer wish to grow old together with me?” Gu Chaodong took a deep breath and said somewhat painfully: “Who was it that wrote in the poem, ‘You shall be as steadfast as a boulder, I shall be as constant as a reed’?”
Shen Guiyan shook her head: “If you remain unchanged, so shall I. But your heart has already changed—why should my heart remain the same?”
Gu Chaodong was shaken. He wanted to say more, but Shen Guiyan had already closed the window: “Young Master Gu should go back. Any later and dawn will break—you’ll miss serving the first cup of filial tea.”
“Yan’er!” Gu Chaodong’s voice grew slightly louder, but Shen Guiyan simply bolted the window shut. Returning to the bed, her eyes had already reddened.
She had been wondering whether Gu Chaodong would come to tell her this marriage didn’t count, that he only wanted to marry her. Then perhaps he would help her investigate the truth of Concubine Qin’s death and take her away from the Shen residence.
But he came only after he had already married Shen Guiya.
Shen Guiyan wasn’t a fool. What did it mean that he had her in his heart? If he truly did, would he marry Shen Guiya without regard for her feelings?
Throwing herself onto the bed in a huff, she heard a muffled grunt—she seemed to have pressed down on someone.
Gu Chaobei lifted the quilt with a somewhat strange expression on his face, covering his shoulder as he looked at her.
His eyes were very deep. Someone had once said that those who carry all things in their hearts have the cosmos in their eyes. Shen Guiyan stared blankly for a moment, then came to her senses and got up to move aside.
The shoulder wound hadn’t been bandaged, and the blood flowed more and more, staining her bed everywhere. Shen Guiyan had no heart to say much more to him, only lowering her voice: “Once he’s gone, you should leave too.”
Gu Chaobei hummed lightly and crossed his legs: “I haven’t seen enough of the show yet. Who was it just now who said anyone coming at midnight must be a bad person? Why didn’t you stab him?”
Shen Guiyan couldn’t help but roll her eyes: “Can he and you be the same?”
She had at least known Gu Chaodong for so many years, whereas this was her first time seeing Gu Chaobei.
Lowering his eyes to think, Gu Chaobei nodded: “Indeed not quite the same. He’s much more of a beast than I am.”
Glaring at him, Shen Guiyan unceremoniously pulled out her own quilt: “Get down.”
Gu Chaobei grunted dully, covering his shoulder as he slowly sat up: “You injured me after all. Can’t you be a little gentler?”
“You were the one who trespassed first.” Shen Guiyan glanced at his shoulder. In the end she couldn’t bear it and turned to get him wound medicine.
“Yan’er, who are you talking to?” Outside the window, Gu Chaodong heard some movement and couldn’t help asking.
He still hadn’t left? Gu Chaobei raised his eyebrows. Hanging outside on the second floor wasn’t easy either.
Shen Guiyan was startled, opening her mouth not knowing how to answer, but the person on the bed suddenly sprang up and walked straight toward the window.
“What are you doing?” Shen Guiyan hurriedly blocked him.
Gu Chaobei clicked his tongue and pulled her hand over, opening the window to face his elder brother directly. Smiling slightly at him, Gu Chaobei took a deep breath and shouted loudly out the window:
“Catch—the—thief—”
Seeing him emerge, Gu Chaodong’s expression had already changed. Hearing this shout, he nearly fell off the rain eave: “Fourth Brother?!”
The rain outside had stopped. Gu Chaobei’s voice carried very far, startling people from all courtyards. Baoshan hurriedly dressed and came out to look, only to see Fourth Young Master Gu in her Miss’s chamber, gripping someone outside the window, refusing to let go, and leisurely continuing to shout: “Come quickly and catch the thief—”
The person outside the window struggled fiercely but didn’t dare use too much force. If Gu Chaobei let go, he would definitely fall from the second floor.
The crowd who had just fallen asleep were awakened again and all came to Swallow Tower to see what was happening. As soon as Steward Shen saw the person standing outside the window, he couldn’t help but shout: “Young Master Gu?”
The Prime Minister residence’s young masters were destined to have issues with Third Miss Shen—first Eldest Young Master Gu, then Fourth Young Master Gu, and finally both came together.
Master Shen hadn’t had peaceful sleep either. He came over with Madam Shen, wearing his outer robe.
The moment Shen Guiyan heard Gu Chaobei’s shout, she knew she was finished. Two men, one inside the room and one outside the window, both stuck here with neither able to run. Who was implicated? Wasn’t it still her?
This scoundrel Gu Chaobei hadn’t considered a young lady’s reputation at all, just dragging her through the mud like this!
Could Shen Guiyan sit and await her doom? No. If she let them act recklessly again this time, she feared she would be killed.
Might as well go all in. Shen Guiyan decisively tousled her own hair, pulled open her nightclothes, rolled onto the bed, clutched the quilt and began crying miserably.
Both Gu brothers were stunned. Gu Chaobei looked back at Shen Guiyan and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Gu Chaodong’s expression was very ugly: “Yan’er…”
The Shen family troops arrived. Upon entering, they saw this chaotic scene.
“What is going on here?” Master Shen looked at Shen Guiyan on the bed, unable to care whose young master was over there. At midnight in his own daughter’s chamber—how could he give them a pleasant face?
Madam Shen had sharp eyes. Seeing the bloodstains on the bed, she hurried over to ask: “Yan’er, this… who did this?”
Gu Chaobei released Gu Chaodong’s lapel, reached out to pull his cloak inside to wear himself, then looked skyward feigning innocence.
Shen Guiyan cried while tremblingly pointing at Gu Chaobei: “Fourth Young Master Gu, he…”
Good, no need to say more. Just this hesitant half-sentence was enough. The Shen family’s gazes instantly all turned toward the window.
Gu Chaobei sighed and said: “Yan’er will marry me sooner or later anyway. I was just a bit impatient—young and hot-blooded, you know. But what about Eldest Brother—not spending his wedding night, what are you doing at midnight in my wife’s chamber?”