Though it was said to be just one glass, Xie Tao sneakily drank several more under Wei Yun’s watch. He saw it, but seeing her smile so brightly, he couldn’t bring himself to forbid her from drinking more.
Let it be, he thought, letting her have her way tonight.
Holding a jade-colored wine cup in his hand, Wei Yun looked up, his gaze turning to the moon hanging high outside the hall in the night sky, his expression suddenly softening.
After the night banquet ended, besides Wei Jing and Wei Bo, all the servants and guards had left the courtyard, which quickly fell silent.
At that moment, Xie Tao specially took out a hat she had brought for Wei Bo.
“Uncle Wei Bo, this hat is very warm. I heard you say a few days ago that you had a headache from the wind. Wearing this hat should help a lot.”
By then, Xie Tao was slightly drunk, her face flushed red, and her almond eyes had a hazy fog.
Wei Bo had never seen a hat of this shape before. The old man, who had been alone since his wife’s death, was touched that this girl remembered a casual remark he had made a few days ago and even prepared such a gift for him. Holding the hat in his hands, his heart was filled with warmth, his lips moved slightly, and after a long while, he said, “This old servant… thanks the miss.”
Her status as “miss” was conferred by the lord, but her actual identity was something Wei Bo had never been clear about.
And she always appeared suddenly, then disappeared just as suddenly.
Because the lord never allowed other servants to approach the inner courtyard casually, and even more so, no one but him was allowed to approach Miss’s courtyard, Wei Bo could sense something was amiss.
But his life was saved by the lord, and he had been under the lord’s grace for many years, having a place to belong without suffering hardship.
He had always been grateful.
So, when the lord called him for a talk a few days ago, even though he was curious about the miss’s affairs, he still didn’t ask anything.
Some things are not for him to inquire about.
And regarding the young lady, he has always kept his lips sealed.
At this moment, suddenly receiving such a gift, Wei Bo felt an indescribable touch of emotion towards this young lady.
When Xie Tao got drunk, she only knew to smile foolishly with her eyes half-open, “No need to thank me, Wei Bo. Happy New Year, I wish you good health in the new year too!”
“Ah…” Wei Bo felt a warmth in his eyes.
After giving Wei Bo his gift, Xie Tao took out a toy sword from Wei Yun’s room that lit up at the press of a button, looking very cool.
Under Wei Yun’s gaze, she handed the toy sword to Wei Jing.
Wei Jing was dumbfounded.
“I couldn’t buy the kind of sword you wanted, um… just play around with this one,” said Xie Tao.
Wei Jing first glanced at Wei Yun, who was sitting at the table drinking tea, before taking the inexplicably glowing sword from Xie Tao’s hand.
The sword was light, and its material was unknown, but Wei Jing knew it was not a sword capable of killing.
He held the sword, which for some reason continued to flash with multicolored lights, speechless for a long moment before finding his voice again, dry and a bit confused, “Thank you, Madam…”
This gift was magical.
So magical that he was a bit slow to react.
“But you must not take it outside to play, okay? Just play with it in your room…” Xie Tao instructed.
???
Although Wei Jing didn’t understand why, he still nodded, “…Your subordinate understands.”
Then, it was Shao Liyin’s turn to continue the task of helping the drunk master with washing up. But just after she had helped Xie Tao wash up and was supporting her back to the courtyard, when Shao Liyin was about to help her dry her hair, Xie Tao made her sit down at the table.
Then she saw Xie Tao push two celadon cups in front of her.
“For you.”
Xie Tao rested her chin on one hand, looking at her, “It’s a New Year’s gift!”
Shao Liyin was startled for a moment, and only after Xie Tao’s urging, did she open the porcelain lid.
“Try it,” Xie Tao said.
Shao Liyin looked into the cup, and her usually indifferent face showed a bit of puzzlement.
But at Xie Tao’s urging, she took a spoon, scooped up a spoonful, and fed it into her mouth.
It had a slightly cold taste, with a rich milk fragrance, sweet, and even something like black pearls, soft to bite and chewy.
She had never tasted such a thing before.
“Is it delicious?” Xie Tao asked her with a smile.
Shao Liyin nodded, her eyes revealing a look of novelty.
This girl, who always looked so cool, finally showed a hint of a young girl’s demeanor.
“This is milk tea, all for you.”
Seeing her pleasure, Xie Tao smiled even more joyfully and said, taking out a lipstick from her backpack placed beside her.
It was specially picked for Shao Liyin today.
Shao Liyin accepted it, finding the object’s surface to be metallic yet not quite like gold, a perfectly square stick that puzzled her, “What is this?”
“Lipstick.”
Xie Tao reached out to take the lipstick back from her hand, twisting it open to reveal the pinkish-red paste inside.
“It’s for applying on your lips,” she added another explanation.
Shao Liyin realized, “Lip rouge?”
Xie Tao nodded.
Shao Liyin initially wanted to say she never uses lip rouge, but looking at the girl in front of her, still slightly tipsy but constantly half-opening her eyes to look at her, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
At that moment, Wei Yun arrived at the door.
Upon seeing Wei Yun, Shao Liyin immediately stood up and hurriedly greeted him, “My lord.”
Wei Yun nodded slightly and walked in.
“I shall take my leave,” Shao Liyin said, ready to leave but then seemed to remember something. She turned around to pick up the two cups of milk tea from the table, her fingers still holding the lipstick Xie Tao had given her.
“My lord… Thank you, master.” She bowed her head and said softly.
After Shao Liyin left, Wei Yun finally sat down at the table, frowning upon seeing her still wet hair.
He then stood up, went over to a rack to get a towel, and stood behind her to dry her hair.
Xie Tao turned her head to look at him, smiling foolishly.
Wei Yun poked her cheek, “Sit properly.”
Xie Tao touched her own cheek, sitting upright like a primary school student, not looking back at him again. However, she yawned as if she had remembered something and suddenly took her backpack from the stool next to her, rummaging through it.
Eventually, she pulled out a bag.
Inside was a neatly folded set of clothes.
It was a shirt paired with black trousers she had seen on a mannequin in a shop window while browsing a mall.
Although it was a bit pricey, Xie Tao had bought it.
She was curious to see what Wei Yun would look like in these clothes.
“Wei Yun, this is your New Year gift!” She took the clothes out of the bag and then turned around to hand them to him.
Wei Yun was not unfamiliar with such clothes, which seemed to be worn by many men in her time and space.
Then Xie Tao pushed him, “Go change into it, I want to see how you look!”
Her hair was still damp, and Wei Yun was initially reluctant, but seeing her persistently urging him to change, he eventually took the clothes behind the screen in the inner room.
“Don’t worry! I washed them!” Xie Tao shouted from outside.
Xie Tao lay on the table waiting, her eyes nearly closing, until she finally heard Wei Yun’s footsteps approaching.
As she turned around, seemingly wanting to say something, she was left speechless at the sight of him, her mouth slightly open.
The man in front of her was dressed in a well-tailored white mandarin collar shirt, which was neatly tucked into his black dress pants, accentuating his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs.
At this moment, he was barefoot, standing there without shoes. His hair crown had been removed, and his hair bun had come loose, letting his thick, black hair down, which made his fair skin look even more like flawless jade.
Dressed in such clothes and with his hair loose, he seemed to exude an even more abstinent charm.
Xie Tao could hear her own heartbeat quickening by the moment.
He was just too handsome…
For a while, she couldn’t bring herself to look away from him.
Wei Yun saw her looking dazed and, usually distant, his eyes softened with a hint of a smile.
He came over and picked up the towel he had set aside earlier to dry her hair.
Xie Tao couldn’t help but turn to look at him several times, but each time she did, she got a gentle nudge on her face, reminding her to sit properly.
Eventually, Xie Tao simply threw herself into his arms.
Wei Yun didn’t know what to do with her, his ears turning slightly red, but he didn’t have the heart to push her away and continued to gently dry her hair.
Later, when she was dozing off, her eyes kept closing and then snapping open again, repeating this several times, which made Wei Yun barely hold back his laughter.
So, he said, “If you’re sleepy, then sleep.”
Xie Tao’s voice was already a bit groggy, “But I wanted to stay up with you…”
“But you’re sleepy,” he said, his fingers with distinct joints softly stroking her hair.
“I’m not sleepy…” she said, yawning again.
She lay in his arms and suddenly said, “Happy New Year, Wei Yun…”
Her voice was soft, like the gentlest breeze in spring brushing past his ear.
“This is the happiest New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had… because I spent it with you.”
Then she started giggling again.
Looking up at him, she asked, “Are you happy, Wei Yun?”
At that moment, upon hearing her words, Wei Yun’s eyes softened even more, as if the moonlight reflected in the ripples of water, turning and shimmering in the depths of his eyes, as gentle as the light of stars soaking the gentle waves.
“Mm.”
After a long while, he gently responded.
This moment of this year might be the only relaxed and joyful moment in his life so far.
And all this was given by her.
Xie Tao mumbled words, and Wei Yun always responded with a gentle, bowed head.
At this moment, he appeared especially patient and gentle.
Later, he gently stroked her hair and said, “Go to sleep.”
But Xie Tao stubbornly kept her eyes half-open, “But I still want, still want…”
She hesitated for a long time.
“Still want what?” Wei Yun asked her.
Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she tilted her head and asked him, “Do you not like me getting close to you?”
This question was somewhat sudden, causing Wei Yun to be momentarily stunned.
After a moment, he said, “Why would you ask that?”
“Could it be that you really see me as your little cousin?” Xie Tao started pouting, looking somewhat aggrieved, “I didn’t want to be your little cousin…”
“In our place, you know you can’t marry your little cousin?”
She became more and more aggrieved.
Wei Yun was somewhat caught between laughter and tears.
“This is just a nominal identity, to protect you,” he explained patiently.
“Then why don’t you like to kiss me?”
Perhaps because the drunkenness was still lingering, she dared to ask such a bold question.
But upon hearing her words, Wei Yun’s face instantly turned a shade redder.
Xie Tao kept staring at him with her almond-shaped eyes, as if she would keep looking at him until he answered.
At that time, the room fell into a deep silence.
The flickering light made the blush on his face deepen, his eyelashes trembled, and after what seemed like a long time, he finally spoke with difficulty:
“It’s not that I don’t like it…”
Opening up about his feelings to her was really hard for him.
But he ended up losing to her persistence at this moment.
“But it’s because of you,”
In such a deep night, his fingers gently caressed her cheek, a soft sigh was crushed into the night wind blowing outside the window:
“You are precious.”
Because she was precious, he was even more cautious to abide by the proprieties, adhering to the way of the gentleman, unwilling to slight her, let alone overstep.
He was waiting, waiting for her to become his wife.
But this night, at this moment,
When he looked into her misty eyes, a surge of emotion suddenly rose in his heart.
“Tao Tao,”
He suddenly called her softly, his voice a bit husky.
“Hmm?” Xie Tao looked at him foolishly.
“Should I also give you a New Year’s gift?” he asked.
His pupils at this moment turned dark, gradually deepening.
Then, before Xie Tao could react, he suddenly bowed his head, and his thin lips, as red as dawn, pressed against her soft lips.
It still carried a bit of restrained forbearance, but also added a few touches of tender affection.
