I Won't Leave You, Jinchao - Chapter 3

Something woke me in the middle of the night.

There was rustling in the courtyard.

“Young lady, if the minister finds out you’ve brought me home, she’ll never forgive you.”

“Relax. My mother can’t control me. You’ve already come home with me, pretty thing. This isn’t the time to worry about that.”

A man and a woman were talking.

Xie Xinyue! So this courtyard was hers.

I hadn’t expected the minister to give up her darling daughter’s courtyard.

Xie Xinyue loved beautiful men and often spent the night at Nanfeng House. Presumably, the minister hadn’t expected her home tonight.

Much less expected her to be brazen enough to bring one of the male prostitutes back with her.

“You don’t know how to be gentle with a man, young lady,” he complained coyly.

“You smell so good, beautiful.”

Xie Xinyue was clearly ravenous for sex. Lewd words kept tumbling from her mouth in a breathless rush.

Seriously. I knew this was a smut novel, but did I have to run into this every single time?

This was… really awkward.

And Xie Jinchao was right beside me.

Neither of us moved, but I knew he was awake.

With them making such a racket outside, how could he not be?

After a while, I almost got used to the sounds. I was nearly ready to fall asleep to them.

At last, everything outside died down.

Apparently exhausted, the pair picked the nearest side room and went to bed.

I slowly let out a breath. Thank goodness they hadn’t come into the main bedroom.

But with the courtyard quiet, I could hear the breathing of the person beside me.

Xie Jinchao’s breath was distinctly uneven. He suppressed a muffled sound.

Puzzled, I called, “A-Chao?”

“I’m fine.” His voice was a little hoarse.

That voice, combined with the way he’d been breathing, finally made it click.

I’d been an idiot.

He wasn’t quite nineteen yet, after all. A young man in the full flush of youth, and with all that going on outside…

Well. These things happened.

I stayed quiet and pretended not to know, waiting for him to calm down on his own.

A long while later, dawn began to break.

Half asleep, I felt him get up and leave.

But I was too tired. I fell into a dead sleep.

By the time I woke, the sun was high.

Xie Jinchao had gone somewhere and still hadn’t returned.

I called a maid to put up my hair and asked where he’d gone.

Only then did I learn that Xie Yu had sent for him early that morning. He hadn’t come back since.

I sprang to my feet. Was she bullying him?

“Your Highness, your hairpins aren’t in yet,” the maid reminded me hastily.

With me here, Xie Yu probably wouldn’t dare do anything to him.

At that thought, I slowly sat down. “Use the gold hairpin. Make me look a little more imperious.”

Let that old woman see who was royal and who served the crown.

Once dressed, I went to the front hall to find Xie Jinchao.

I wandered around for ages without seeing him.

I did, however, run into Xie Yu.

“Greetings, Your Highness. Did you sleep well?” she asked respectfully.

I smiled. “Well enough.”

“Good, good.”

She looked as if she’d received a pardon. Just as a smile appeared on her face, I changed tack.

“Only…”

I touched my forehead, looking as though I was holding back my displeasure. “Last night, someone who may have been your daughter suddenly came into the courtyard with a strange man. They gave A-Chao and me quite a fright.”

Her smile froze.

I kept feeding the fire. “I heard him call her Xinyue, so I assume it was your daughter. Getting drunk and making a scene in our courtyard in the middle of the night! Minister, does your daughter harbor some resentment toward me?”

Her face went dark, then red, and now white.

I’d never seen anyone change colors so fast.

Cold sweat poured down her chalk-white face. “Your Highness! My daughter has behaved outrageously! I’ll have the wretch bound and punished according to our household rules at once. Please forgive us!”

As though afraid that wasn’t enough, she bowed to the ground several more times.

I looked down at her. In the book, she seemed blindly loyal on the surface, but who knew how vicious she was underneath? Come to think of it, that useless daughter did take after her in certain ways.

I paused before arranging my features into a gracious smile. “Come now, Mother-in-law. Since you’ve said as much, naturally I have no reason to pursue the matter. I merely hope that no more strange people turn up in A-Chao’s courtyard.”

Xie Yu nodded hastily. “Rest assured, Your Highness. I’ll give the orders immediately. Nothing like this will ever happen again.”

I nodded. That settled it. The courtyard belonged to Xie Jinchao now.

I turned to leave, then remembered something.

Xie Yu was still on the floor. I stepped toward her, making a polite gesture as though to help her up. “Please rise, Minister. Isn’t A-Chao here?”

She slowly pushed herself upright and lightly dusted off her sleeves. “I hadn’t seen Chao’er for some time. We had a private chat, and then I sent him back.”

So she didn’t know where he was either.

“I have matters to attend to. If a young woman behaves so recklessly, Minister, you really ought to discipline her more carefully.”

Without waiting for an answer, I strode away.

I didn’t know how she reacted, but she must have been furious.

She knew exactly what her daughter was like. But my own reckless behavior was notorious too.

Now I was the one lecturing them. The minister would probably be lying awake seething in the middle of the night.