Chapter 28: Let Me Be Your Husband

"I had such a terrifying dream..."

Jiang Li froze completely.

She was sobbing softly, like a child frightened by a nightmare, filled with such profound grievance. "I dreamt that you deceived me, kept a mistress, and were about to bring Xia Qingfei into our home..."

Jiang Li was stunned once again. Did she believe everything was just a dream, and that she had mistaken him for Meng Boji? He couldn't help but grit his teeth, his jaw muscles twitching with the effort of his restraint. How could she... mistake him for a faithless man like Meng Boji!

"I also dreamt... that my father and brothers were framed for treason, and they... they all died..."

Nan Yan buried her face in the crook of his neck, her voice breaking in a way that tugged at the heart. Every unintentional movement, even the slightest shift, brought skin against skin, making him agonizingly sensitive. Her body was burning with fever; every point of contact felt like a spark igniting his own. In the frigid waters of the Quixue Pool, where he had been shivering in the cold, his instincts hungrily craved the heat radiating from her. One cold, one hot—they were strangely well-matched.

His arms, which had been holding her steady, began to tremble slightly, his knuckles turning white from the suppression of his desires. Jiang Li took a deep breath, closing his eyes to hypnotize himself: *She is merely under the influence of the drug, lost in a hallucination.*

"Husband, why don't you speak? Why are you ignoring me? Tonight is our wedding night..."

Jiang Li gasped, snapping his eyes open and coughing violently in surprise. *Wedding night?!*

The next moment, Nan Yan climbed up his neck like a serpent, her lips pressing against his, her breath sweet as orchids. "Could it be, Husband... that you really were deceiving me, and you don't truly want to marry me?"

"..."

Jiang Li closed his eyes again and turned his face away. He was a normal, grown man! If this continued, he couldn't guarantee he would remain a model of virtue like the legendary Liu Xiahui.

"Husband!" Nan Yan whimpered like a wronged child, her eyes red as she begged for affection. "It is our wedding night, yet you treat me with such disdain..." Her whimpering turned into sobs, growing louder with every breath, each one striking his heart like a hammer. "I thought it was a dream... but it turns out, you truly do not want to marry me—"

Nan Yan finally broke down in tears, the droplets falling like broken pearls. Jiang Li surrendered completely. He drew a deep breath, steadied his heart, and bowed his head to speak softly.

"No, I am sincere..."

"Really?" She lifted her tear-streaked face, her large, deer-like eyes filled with innocence.

Jiang Li’s heart hammered against his ribs, and a vein pulsed at his temple. Yet, unaware of the danger, she pressed closer to his lips. "Then why... are you so unwilling... to be close to me? Is the wedding night... supposed to be like this?"

She was both pitiful and filled with a chaste, innocent shyness. It was true; she had been only thirteen when she married Meng Boji, at the most pure and ignorant age regarding the affairs between men and women. At thirteen, that damned Meng Boji had schemed against her and tricked her into the Meng household! Jiang Li felt as if he could crush his own teeth.

"Husband!" Nan Yan shifted coquettishly in his arms. Jiang Li gasped again, his voice rasping. "Are you certain... you know who I am?"

"You are my husband..." She smiled sweetly, tucking her cheek into the hollow of his neck.

Jiang Li was trembling from the strain, his breath hitching in his throat. "Dear, don't move..."

"I don't want to!" Another coquettish shift, and Jiang Li was nearly driven mad!

After several deep, ragged breaths, he lowered his gaze, his dark, ink-like eyes locking onto hers. "...Are you certain you want me to be your husband?"

"Of course!"

That thoughtless, instinctive answer shattered every defense Jiang Li had left. "Very well... from now on, I will be your husband!"

He leaned down and kissed those lips that had been offered to him, swallowing her soft gasp entirely. The waterfall roared against the stone walls, as if drawing a curtain over the pool.

By the time the horizon turned pale, Nan Yan was lying beside the fire on the shore, resting on a bed of dry grass. Her clothes had been dried and put back on, and Jiang Li's outer robe was draped over her. But Jiang Li was nowhere to be found.

When Danzhu arrived, it was already broad daylight. He had been well-prepared and wore extra layers, yet he still shivered violently from the lingering cold of the Quixue Pool. Looking up, he didn't see Jiang Li, only Nan Yan sleeping by the fire. A pot, found goodness knows where, was simmering over the flames, emitting a pungent medicinal scent.

Danzhu uncovered the pot, sniffed, and quickly added a few herbs and some water from the pool to continue brewing. He checked Nan Yan’s forehead; her temperature had returned to normal. He retrieved a vial from his pack and fed her two small pills. After checking her pulse for a moment, Danzhu finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood up to look around.

"Young Master! Young Master—"

"I am here."

A light cough echoed, and Jiang Li approached slowly from the distance. Since he had given his robe to Nan Yan as a blanket, he was thinly clad. Danzhu hurried over with another robe from his pack and draped it over him. Jiang Li’s cough began to deepen, growing more and more violent.

"Young Master! How could you damage your own body to save her?!" Danzhu cried. "You were already suffering from cold poison; even a touch of the chill from this Quixue Pool would worsen your condition, yet you—"

Jiang Li raised a hand, and Danzhu stopped mid-sentence. Jiang Li managed to compose himself, his coughing subsiding. He closed his eyes and said weakly, "I am fine..."

He looked up and paused. Nan Yan had woken up at some point; she was sitting up, looking in their direction. They were some distance apart, but Jiang Li could clearly see the shimmer of tears in her eyes.

He pinched his palm secretly and turned to instruct Danzhu in a low voice: "There are many precious herbs behind the waterfall. Go and gather some to keep for future use."

"But Young Master, you..."

"Go."

Danzhu looked at Nan Yan, then back at him, understanding. He silently set down his pack and walked in the direction Jiang Li had indicated.

Only when Danzhu was far away did Jiang Li walk slowly toward Nan Yan. He said nothing, simply squatting by the fire to check the medicine, carefully adding a few sticks of wood to the flame.

After a long time, Nan Yan’s trembling voice came from behind him.

"You saved me again?"

Jiang Li paused but did not turn around. "Yes."

"How did you save me?"

*Snap.* Jiang Li broke a thin twig in his hand.

After a long silence, Nan Yan turned her head, staring with red-rimmed eyes at his back as he squatted by the fire.

"I asked you how you saved me—"

She was practically shouting, her voice echoing through the mountain ravine. She was not a fool; she could feel the sensations in her own body clearly. Even if the drug had clouded her memory of the night before, she knew what had happened.