The Adornment of Silk, The Sustenance of Jade - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ever since I was little, I had been pampered like a priceless treasure, cherished in the palms of everyone’s hands. My skin was delicate, tender enough to bruise at a touch. How could I possibly endure such “mistreatment”? I snapped at once, “Yan Jinyu! Have you lost your mind?”

But the words came out as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, without the slightest force behind them. Every sensation had been magnified countless times-pain, itch, pleasure, numbness. Even when Yan Jinyu’s slightly calloused fingers accidentally brushed across my smooth, unmarked back, it sent endless shivers through me.

Even if I were a fool, I knew what was going on now. Weak and limp all over, I gritted my teeth and hissed, my voice soft and utterly lacking in intimidation, “You treacherous official… you dared drug This Princess…”

Yan Jinyu pressed a scattering of kisses over me, his palm burning like a furnace. He paused, his dark eyes deep and smoldering as they fixed on me. “Is Your Highness certain you want this minister to leave?”

Was I certain? On instinct, I clutched his wrist, panic rising in my heart. If he left, then I… What was I supposed to do?

“No… you… you…” I stammered “you” for ages and still failed to say anything coherent.

Yan Jinyu understood. He bit my earlobe, his scorching breath fanning against my ear as he sighed. “It was Your Highness who insisted on keeping this humble minister here. But… I will take responsibility.”

After that, he gave me no further chance to speak.

When Yan Jinyu and I were married, Imperial Father granted him three days of leave.

Yet on the very first day, he did not let me walk out of bed in one piece.

I cried until I could cry no more, my throat hoarse. The marks all over my body made my cheeks burn, and I was nearly drowned by waves of shame.

I had lived this long, and no one had ever dared mistreat me. Yet Yan Jinyu actually…

I touched my faintly aching backside, my face burning so hot I wished I could forget every last personal experience from last night.

It was already past noon, and Yan Jinyu was long gone. That culprit-could it be that after taking full advantage, he had run off? Or had his conscience finally stirred, leaving him so ashamed he had no face to see me?

The rustling I made alerted the maid outside the door. “Has Your Highness awakened? This servant will come in-”

The bed was a complete mess, and there was even a small bloodstain on the sheet. I panicked at once and hurriedly cut her off. “The Prince Consort-where has the Prince Consort gone?”

The maid outside answered timidly, “In reply to Your Highness, the Prince Consort already sent people to ask several times. He said he would come over once Your Highness woke.”

“Eh?” I stammered. “Wh-what?”

“This servant has already sent someone to fetch the Prince Consort.”

“Don’t…” I had no time to worry about anything else. In my panic, I took one step, only for my legs to go weak. A surge of soreness hit me, and I fell straight off the bed with a cry, tears spilling from the pain.

No. I could not see him.

I hunched over and crawled back, frantically searching for any clothes that might still be there. I was leaving the estate today. I was going to the palace. I… I had to hide from him. Heaven knew that marrying him in a moment of pique had turned into a matter of life and death.

The door was suddenly pushed open. I instinctively scolded, “Who allowed you to come in-”

“Me.”

That one casual word frightened me so badly I froze, then carefully turned my head.

Yan Jinyu stood there in dark robes, his expression as calm as ever. With steady steps, he crossed the threshold, then turned and composedly shut the door. This calm, unruffled manner was in stark contrast to his forceful madness last night.

I let out a whimper and desperately burrowed beneath the bedding, wrapping myself in layer after layer of quilt as I wriggled toward the inside of the bed with all my might.

“Get out.”

I was terrified his beastly nature would flare up again and he would pin me to the bed, bullying me mercilessly once more.

Yan Jinyu ignored me and walked straight to the bedside. He bent down and reached out.

I slapped his hand away. “You… What are you trying to do? This Princess won’t let you push me around anymore!”

He said, “This humble subject will take responsibility for you.”

I tugged the blanket open a crack. The marks across my exposed collarbone ran together in a glaring patch, and I shouted, my face burning, “This is what you call taking responsibility?”

As soon as I finished, I accidentally brushed against it and hissed in pain. “Were you born in the Year of the Dog or something? You gnawed on me!”

A shadow flickered through Yan Jinyu’s eyes, gone in an instant, too quick for me to catch what he was thinking. Then he returned to that unfathomable, still depth of his, as calm as an ancient well. “Princess, the wine was bestowed by His Majesty.”

I froze. Imperial Father?

Remembering his face when I was married off-that look of joy so extreme he had practically been “weeping,” one step away from throwing back his head and cackling-I felt that my Imperial Father was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

But I couldn’t admit defeat out loud. “Who knows if you didn’t use the imperial wine as an excuse and drug it yourself? You… your intentions are criminal!”

Yan Jinyu lifted his robe and sat astride the edge of the bed. Ignoring my complaints, he dragged me out from under the quilt. I screamed, struggling and dodging with all my might as I wailed for help. “Help… he’s eating people… Yan Jinyu is eating people…”

My arm knocked against the side of the bed, and a red patch quickly bloomed there.

“Zhanzhan! Hold still!” Yan Jinyu snapped coldly.

I shuddered, biting my lip as tears welled in my eyes and streamed down in beads.

This was the first time Yan Jinyu had ever called me by my childhood name. He had always been calm and restrained, calling me Princess and referring to himself as this humble subject whether in public or private. Now that I had truly angered him, the two syllables Zhanzhan had slipped out without thought, sounding… unbearably intimate.

One corner of my little undergarment poked out from beneath the quilt and landed on Yan Jinyu’s thigh, carrying a rich fragrance.

My head instantly went dizzy, and heat rushed to my face. I felt as if I had lost every scrap of dignity. Thinking of how, last night, he had stripped away my clothes without the slightest mercy, how that little red garment had been kneaded into a tiny ball in his hand, I let out a soft whimper. Under the quilt, my hand secretly groped for one corner of it, trying to pull it back.

Yan Jinyu lowered his eyes. Just as I was about to succeed, he calmly pinched it between his fingers, pulled it out from under the quilt without even looking up, and tossed it onto the floor. “Where does it hurt?”

I suspected he had done it on purpose!

With the clothing that had been within my grasp slipping away, I clutched the quilt tightly. “Nowhere hurts! I… I want to enter the palace…”

“What for?”

“To file an imperial complaint, of course!”

“Against whom?”

Yan Jinyu was asking even though he knew perfectly well, and I was so angry my tears fell nonstop.

“You! You bullied me!”

After hearing that, the corner of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly. “How does the Princess intend to explain to others that this subject bullied you-and precisely how I bullied you?”

“Of course, like this… and then like that…” My voice gradually weakened.

That was true. How was I supposed to say it to anyone? I feared that the moment such words left my mouth, I would become a laughingstock.

He had already decided I couldn’t do anything to him.

While I was distracted, his hand closed around my ankle and gave a gentle tug. Quilt and all, I slid straight onto his lap.

From somewhere, he produced a cool, colorless ointment, scooped some out, and used his fingertip to spread it inch by inch over my collarbone. “Last night, you kept crying that it hurt. Was it here? Or here?”

His hand brushed over my waist. The bruises there were shocking, as if I had been mistreated. I gasped, and some strange emotion flared to life beneath his fingers. All my bravado collapsed; utterly defeated, I buried my head beneath Yan Jinyu’s collarbone and said with far less confidence, “You… be gentle… You’re a civil official. How are you this rough?”