Lotus in a Bottle - Chapter 15

Section 24

As it turned out, I probably didn’t have what it took to become a seductive ghost.

I couldn’t even remember whose stomach that bowl of medicine ultimately ended up in. At first, I’d thought I had everything under control. Somehow, though, I ended up sitting on Tan Lian’s lap with his arms around me.

That familiar, delicate fragrance once again left me dizzy and dazed. It wasn’t until Tan Lian bit down hard on my lower lip that I snapped back to my senses and scrambled off the patient in a panic.

I crouched on the floor and covered my face, utterly flustered. When I cautiously peeked up, my eyes met Tan Lian’s.

The beauty’s face was flushed, but his two lips, visibly swollen from being thoroughly ravaged, were even redder.

Me: “…”

My face went up in flames. I buried it between my knees and never wanted to look up again.

This was probably the most intimate Tan Lian and I had ever been while both fully conscious.

It might not have been a big deal for a pair of newlyweds, but this was Tan Lian. No matter who it was, doing such a thing with Tan Lian would give them the guilty feeling that they’d desecrated a god.

Though Tan Lian didn’t know it, I had actually seen him long ago.

He was the greatest beauty under heaven, after all. Back then, driven partly by curiosity and partly by skepticism over whether he truly lived up to the hype, I’d snuck over to catch a glimpse of him during the procession celebrating his first-place finish in the imperial examination.

One look was all it took for me to understand that I, Xie Baoping, was merely mortal after all. A pretty face alone was enough to make me fall in love with a complete stranger.

“Radiant as the moon veiled by a wisp of cloud, drifting as snow whirled by the returning wind.”

Some pretentious scholar in the crowd had recited that verse. Looking at Tan Lian seated atop his tall horse, I had to admit it suited him perfectly. He truly was an immortal made of clear breezes and a luminous moon.

But as a competent merchant, I was also clearheaded enough.

Clearheaded enough to know, from the very moment I fell for Tan Lian, that there wasn’t the slightest possibility of anything happening between us.

In fact, that stolen glimpse might have been the closest I would ever get to him in this lifetime.

But life’s twists and turns could be stranger than fiction. No one could ever predict where Heaven would place its next piece.

Tan Lian later found himself in danger while investigating a case. A Xie Family caravan happened to be passing by and rescued him.

Afterward, Tan Lian declared, “You saved my life, so I shall repay you by offering myself in marriage,” and promptly came to our home to propose.

At first, my parents suspected he might be after our family’s fortune. But after seeing Tan Lian’s face, they agreed to the marriage without another word.

As my mother put it, “With a face like that, he could marry a princess and still be more than worthy. Why would he lower himself to scheme against our family?”

As for me, the moment I heard Tan Lian’s name, I was dumbstruck.

If not for the dream I’d had on our wedding night, I might still have been reeling from this enormous windfall. Naturally, I hadn’t resisted the marriage in the slightest.

But no matter how I looked at it, I knew Tan Lian probably didn’t harbor any romantic feelings for me.

He’d married me because he was rigidly principled, and he treated me well only because I was his “wife.”

If he’d married someone else instead, Tan Lian would have treated whoever occupied my place with the same tenderness and consideration.

That was why I’d never expected him to come save me.

…Nor had I ever imagined that one day, the two of us would become so, uh, intimate.

It finally dawned on me, rather belatedly-

Somehow, against all odds, I seemed to have successfully plucked the White Lotus who could only be admired from afar in the original novel.

I’d accomplished what Gu Nanzhou, Shen Huaihuan, and Han Ming had all failed to do.

What did they call this?

My own success was certainly a source of pride, but my enemies’ failure filled me with even greater delight.

Hee-hee.