The Night Before the Wedding, My Fiance Asked Me to Comfort His White Moonlight - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Half a month later, the Lu Family Case was settled.

Madam Lu had colluded with outside officials, sold military grain in secret, and hired assassins to commit murder. With all her crimes combined, she was punished accordingly.

Since Lu Jingci had been unaware of it all, he was spared the death penalty, but he was stripped of his office and title and forced to move out of the Lu Mansion.

On the day he left, I did not go to see him off.

Shen Jiaojiao, however, sent me a letter.

It came from Jiangnan.

She said she was working as an accountant at an apothecary.

The shopkeeper’s wife had a fierce temper, but she paid generously.

She also said Jiangnan was truly warm, and that she coughed much less now.

At the very end, she wrote: If Pei Shu and I ever quarreled, I shouldn’t endure it. Men couldn’t be spoiled.

After reading it, I laughed for ages.

Pei Shu was sitting beside me reviewing case files. My laughter made him look up.

“What did she write?”

I read the last line aloud to him.

Pei Shu nodded.

“She’s right.”

I choked.

“Can’t you at least argue against it?”

He set down his brush.

“I’m afraid of being spoiled.”

I stared at him and suddenly realized that Pei Shu could catch a person off guard with a retort too.

Life gradually settled into peace.

The Pei family made up for the three letters and six rites.

Pei Shu and I were properly married all over again.

This time, there was no poisoned wine, no assassins, and no white moonlight from some other family needing me to coax her.

There was only Pei Shu, who picked up the nuptial wine and sniffed it first.

Watching him, I wanted to laugh.

“Vice Minister Pei, have you gone mad from investigating cases?”

He handed me the cup.

“Habit.”

I accepted it.

“Then what did you smell?”

Pei Shu said seriously, “Osmanthus wine.”

“It’s sweet.”

I drank the wine with him.

Once the alcohol warmed me, I grew a little bolder.

I asked him, “That day, you said you would propose too.”

Pei Shu looked at me.

“Mm.”

“Then are you still proposing now?”

He set down his wine cup and walked over to me.

The red candles softened his features, making him look far gentler than usual.

“I am.”

I deliberately asked, “With what?”

Pei Shu took a small box from his sleeve.

I opened it.

Inside was not a gold hairpin or jade bracelet.

It was a new scented sachet.

The stitching was very neat, and inside were herbs that dispelled the cold.

I picked it up and examined it.

“You sewed this?”

Pei Shu’s ears turned faintly red.

“Mm.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

“Vice Minister Pei, does Dali Temple teach this too?”

He said, “I asked the Old Madam for guidance.”

That made me laugh even harder.

Pei Shu waited until I had finished laughing before saying softly, “The scented sachet you gave me when we were fourteen-I kept it all this time.”

“Now I’m giving one back to you.”

I held the sachet in my hand, my heart aching with a tender softness.

This man was not very good at saying pretty words.

But all the things he had failed to say over the years, he had slowly stitched into every seam.

I looked up at him.

“Pei Shu.”

“Mm.”

“Come a little lower.”

He bent down slightly.

I leaned in and kissed the corner of his lips.

Pei Shu went completely rigid.

I drew back and forced myself to stay calm.

“A return gift.”

He looked at me, his gaze darkening little by little.

“Song Zhining.”

“What?”

“This gift is too light.”

Before I could argue, he had already lowered his head and kissed me.

His kiss was not quite like him.

At first, it was very restrained, as though he was afraid of startling me.

Later, when I clutched at his lapels, he was not so restrained anymore.

The red candles burned until midnight.

The wind outside the window was very gentle.

Before I drifted off in a daze, I heard Pei Shu say beside my ear, “Zhining, thank you for staying.”

I was terribly sleepy.

I only mumbled back, “Then remember to keep behaving well.”

He laughed softly.

“As you command.”