The Night Before the Wedding, My Fiance Asked Me to Comfort His White Moonlight - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A year later, I saw Shen Jiaojiao in Jiangnan.

She had put on a little weight, and her complexion was much better.

The apothecary owner’s wife had a booming voice. From half a street away, she shouted for her.

“Ah Jiao, are you done with the accounts yet?”

Shen Jiaojiao didn’t even turn her head.

“I’m done! Stop rushing me!”

Standing in the doorway, I nearly failed to recognize her.

When she saw me, she froze for a long while.

Then she smiled.

It was the first time I had ever seen her smile from the heart.

Not the pale smile she had worn in Lizhao Courtyard, nor the forced one she had put on in front of Lu Jingci.

She ran over and hugged me.

“Song Zhining, what are you doing here?”

Her hug made me stumble back a step.

Pei Shu reached out from behind to steady me.

When Shen Jiaojiao saw him, she immediately let go.

“Vice Minister Pei came too?”

Pei Shu nodded.

“We were passing by.”

I exposed him on the spot.

“He specifically took leave to come with me.”

Shen Jiaojiao clicked her tongue.

“I can tell.”

We drank tea in the apothecary’s back courtyard.

Shen Jiaojiao asked about the capital.

I told her what I could.

She did not ask about Lu Jingci.

And I did not mention him.

Before we left, she suddenly pulled me aside.

“He came by.”

I knew who she meant by he.

“When?”

“Two months ago.”

Shen Jiaojiao lowered her head and nudged a pebble with her toe.

“He stood across the street and watched for a long time, but he never came in.”

I asked, “Did you want to see him?”

Shen Jiaojiao thought for a moment.

“No.”

She looked up at me.

“In the past, I always felt that as long as he believed me just once, then all those years I suffered wouldn’t have been for nothing.”

“Only later did I realize-why did I have to use his belief to settle my own accounts?”

She said it very calmly.

I gave a soft hum of acknowledgment.

Shen Jiaojiao smiled.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m doing quite well now.”

She took a packet of medicinal candies from her sleeve.

“Here. Jiangnan sweets taste better than the ones in the capital.”

I accepted it.

“You still remember I’m afraid of bitter medicine?”

“Pei Shu told me.”

I turned to look at Pei Shu.

He was standing outside the shop, picking up a fallen paper kite for a child.

He did it with the same serious focus as if he were reviewing a case file.

Following my gaze, Shen Jiaojiao looked over and sighed.

“Song Zhining, you’ve got a pretty good life.”

I said, “I chose it myself.”

She paused, then broke into a smile.

“True.”

On the road back to the capital, Pei Shu asked me, “What did Miss Shen say to you?”

I leaned against the carriage wall.

“She said you’re quite good.”

Pei Shu’s ears turned red again.

A whole year had passed, and he still hadn’t corrected this habit.

I leaned closer to look at him.

“Vice Minister Pei, why are you blushing?”

He looked away.

“It’s hot in the carriage.”

I touched the area by the window.

“It’s autumn. What’s hot?”

He did not answer.

I leaned over and deliberately stuffed a medicinal candy into his mouth.

“Is it sweet?”

Pei Shu looked at me.

“Sweet.”

“Then why are you still wearing that stern face?”

He lowered his head and bit away the remaining half of the candy in my hand as well.

His lips brushed my fingertip.

I jerked my hand back.

Pei Shu slowly smiled.

“I’m not stern now.”

I realized this man had learned to be wicked.

And he was learning fast.

The carriage headed north all the way.

I lifted the curtain and looked outside.

The waterways of Jiangnan gradually receded into the distance, and even the wind in the capital no longer felt as cold as it once had.

All at once, I thought of the night before my wedding.

Lu Jingci had stood beneath the corridor, the hem of his robe carrying the scent of pear blossoms, and told me Ah Jiao was ill.

Back then, I had been clutching my wedding dress in my hands, so angry I wanted to pick out the gold thread stitch by stitch.

Thinking of it now, I was still angry.

But after the anger passed, I found it a little funny too.

Fortunately, I had gone to Lizhao Courtyard that night.

Fortunately, Shen Jiaojiao had not drunk that bowl of medicine.

And fortunately, Pei Shu had not arrived too late.

Pei Shu held my hand.

“What are you thinking about?”

I lowered the curtain.

“I’m thinking about which shop’s sweet steamed milk custard we should eat first after we get back to the capital.”

He considered it very seriously.

“The one in the south of the city.”

I raised a brow.

“Why?”

“You like it.”

I laughed.

“And you know that too?”

Pei Shu gave a quiet hum.

“This time, I can go with you.”

I leaned against his shoulder and said no more.

There was still half a packet of medicinal candies left in the carriage.

I took one and popped it into my mouth. It was so sweet it stuck a little to my teeth.

The End