Chapter 7

Chapter Seven Qu Qing Ju: He He

The news that wang ye was coming to zhengyuan was enough to make the servants cheerful. Everybody started the preparations needed, wanting to renovate the entire yard if possible.

Qu Qing Ju actually became one of the calmest in the houyuan. Her hair hanging wet and loose, she allowed Jin Zhan to gently dry her hair, Yin Liu to manage her hands, Yu Zan her feet and Mu Jin to pick her clothes and accessories.

“Wang fei‘s feet are very beautiful,” Yu Zan sighed in admiration. Wang fei‘s feet were pale, the toes round and tender to the touch. Half a beat later, she sighed again, “The last time Ban Xia was performing an exotic dance, wang ye had praised her feet too. Nubi thinks that she can’t compare to wang fei at all.”

“What thing is she, that you compare her to wang fei?” Mu Jin picked a red jade hairpin from a box. Hearing what Yu Zan said, she snorted: “She’s just a lowly person, she doesn’t deserve to be mentioned.”

Yu Zan finally remembered that Ban Xia had originally been one of wang fei‘s servants. She had seduced wang ye to become a tongfang and quickly added: “Mu Jin jiejie,[1] don’t be angry. I was just struck by how beautiful wang fei‘s feet were and my mind just didn’t work.”

Hearing the protectiveness of the two yahuan from their words, Qu Qing Ju couldn’t resist laughing: “From what you have said, if others could hear, they’ll think your wang fei is a goddess. You can keep hearing it, I can’t bear it. Finish and help me up, I can’t hear any more.”

When this came out, all the servant girls laughed and felt relief inside. Evidently wang fei hadn’t kept what happened with Ban Xia on her mind.

Qu Qing Ju had a preference for wide-sleeved dresses and in the end, still picked a red wide-sleeve dress. The color of fire contrasted with the snowiness of her skin. Casually allowing Mu Jin to style her hair and use the red jade hairpin to secure it, she leaned back against her chair and flipped open a story about a scholar and a beauty.

It wasn’t that she had much interest in this type of story, it was just there wasn’t many amusements in this time. After two pages, she couldn’t muster the interest to read how the poor men in this time fantasized about rich ladies. Seeing the sky darkening, she let them present dinner.

“Wang fei, wang ye hasn’t arrived. If wang ye hadn’t eaten when he arrives and you have … …” Mu Jin opened worriedly, “If you are hungry, why don’t I let the kitchen send over some porridge.”

“It’s already this late, wang ye wouldn’t come here to eat dinner,” Qu Qing Ju waved her hand, “Just send my orders, that’s all.” There was nothing exciting about that tasteless porridge. She didn’t like waters and soups.

When He Heng entered the zhengyuan, he saw a stream of yahuan come out with empty meal boxes. Waving away their greetings, He Heng felt a bit complicated, a feeling of disappointment similar to “wang fei didn’t wait for me to eat, my status doesn’t seem to be very high”.

Entering the room, at first glance He Heng saw wang fei sitting at the round table washing her hands in preparation of eating. It was that the red of the wide-sleeved dress that was too eye catching, that he had to pay his attention immediately. He couldn’t move his eyes away after a glance, this crimson-clad beautiful woman lazily wiping jade-like hands was his wang fei?

“Wang ye‘s arrived?” Qu Qing Ju set down the silk she had been wiping with and stood with a smile, “Have you eaten? if not, let’s eat together.”

Even though he had eaten, but feeling like he could still eat more, He Heng complied and sat. His gaze landed on the swaying strands beside Qu Qing Ju’s face. It was only when Qu Qing Ju personally place a bowl of pearl chicken soup in front of him that he spoke: “Why is wang feieating at this time?”

Qu Qing Ju jerked the corners of her lips: “Wasn’t hungry earlier so this is a bit late.”

He Heng nodded and felt his heart heal. Even though wang fei was explaining it this way, but he still felt that wang fei was waiting for him to eat together. Feeling his ego was satisfied, wang ye took a drink of the soup, suddenly feeling that he was a bit too thirsty.

After the meal, Qu Qing Ju proceeded as normal to wash her hands and drink tea to rinse. She found that the taste of tea today was much stronger than usual. Looking at He Heng who was sitting opposite her, she realized the work of Jin Zan who was crouched in front of her.

After the table was clean, Hen Heng and Qu Qing Ju moved to the more comfortable armchairs and let somebody light the lamps.

“Other than the wedding night, I had never seen wang fei wear a red dress,” He Heng smiled as he looked at Qu Qing Ju from head to toe, “but this color suits wang fei.”

Qu Qing Ju smiled and saw Mu Jin and the others light the candles in the room. She used one hand to smooth the hair beside her face, “They say that women use their appearance to please others, it must be that qie is trying to please wang ye.”

He Heng’s brow moved slightly. Standing and moving in front of Qu Qing Ju, he gently took that lock of hair: “Wang fei has definitely pleased me. Wang fei has given me a great surprise these past two days.”

Qu Qing Ju raised her chin and smiled widely at He Heng: “He he.”

The servants in the surrounding saw the situation. Ming He and Mu Jin exchanged looks and the two waved their hands. Everybody else in the room quickly retreated.

Ming He personally shut the door. Seeing wang fei‘s personal yahuan was still standing to one side, he walked a few steps and she followed. He then lowered his voice to say: “Later we’ll have to pay attention to see if the zhuzi still have anything they need.” This wang fei named her useful yahuan using flowers. He remembered the most able of them was Mu Jin.

Mu Jin nodded and replied in a low voice: “Ming He gonggong, don’t worry.” Who wasn’t important in front of their zhuzi. How to serve, Ming He wasn’t the only one that understood.

Ming He saw that she wasn’t one for words and didn’t speak further. Thinking back to how wang fei acted today, he wondered, this wang feimight not be anything when she doesn’t move, but when she moves, it’s a shock. Clearly, it was just a simple red dress and dark hair, but why did it have some inexplicable attraction?

Rubbing strongly at his chin, Ming He stood quietly in the corner, paying attention to the movement inside the room, afraid that if he didn’t catch his master’s orders, somebody would steal his present position.

Inside the room, He Heng and Qu Qing Ju’s struggle had moved to the bed. Both were untidily attired now. One with strong vigor, one with bewitching eyes. There was only the last step.

“Wang fei is so delicious,” He Heng exhaled gently by Qu Qing Ju’s ear, his voice becoming rougher. The tip of his tongue slid across the fine neck and was well satisfied to find the person below lightly shudder.

Qu Qing Ju responded by winding around He Heng’s neck with an arm, her foot lightly sliding over the top of He Heng’s foot: “Wang ye is a feast for the eyes.” Oh god, this man was very skilled at flirting.

“Ben wang does want to let wang fei know who really is a feast.” He Heng, whose appetite had been wheted by wang fei to a gaping hunger pulled away the only covering over Qu Qing Ju’s chest. Seeing that slightly moving chest, he felt that fire burning inside had never been as bright. He wanted to bite at this woman’s chest, to leave behind on that pale skin a mark that belonged to him.

At the moment, it was impossible to know who lit who’s fire but two mouths touched and that fire couldn’t be suppressed any longer. It was a wildfire on the prairies, a sea of red waves, whipped higher by the spring winds to a peak.

He Heng felt a never-experienced sense of rejuvenation. After the last tremors, he enclosed the soft woman in his embrace and laughed roughly: “Wang fei is my treasure.”

Even though it was said you couldn’t believe anything a man said after, but this didn’t affect Qu Qing Ju’s good mood after being satisfied. She allowed this somewhat-best-quality man to hold her and yawned.

Seeing that the woman was drowsy, He Heng raised his voice: “Come, prepare water.”

Ming He, who had been waiting outside, waved his hand to others who had prepared a bathtub full of hot water to carry it in. He calculated the time. It had almost been two hours. He could see that wang ye and wang fei were full of emotions for each other.

Lazily finishing her bath, Qu Qing Ju didn’t care to dress and only wrapped a thin layer of silk around before walking to the bed.

He Heng looked at that bare jade-like feet, and that snowy legs and arms and his eyes changed. He bent down to lift the person up and threw onto the bed. Then he covered her with a blanket and growled: “Wang fei is trying to tempt ben wang.”

Qu Qing Ju laughed and one hand came out of the blanket. She curled her index finger: “This is tempting wang ye.”

Seeing her move like she was motioning for a pet, He Heng couldn’t resist. He pulled the blankets down and covered the other with his body again.

Outside the door, Ming He heard the sounds inside the room and stopped the servants that had been going in to carry out the bathtub. He couldn’t help gazing at the moon. Didn’t spring already pass?

On the morning of the second day, wang ye left the door full of energy. The servants that served wang fei were still standing in their original spots. Hearing wang ye order the servants not to disturb wang fei‘s rest, Ming He, who was following behind wang ye, wang ye was worthy of his position.

Inside the room, Qu Qing Ju slept for another hour before calling for servants. Mu Jin and Yin Liu, who had been waiting with a cadre of little yahuan, silently moved in.

“Wang fei,” Mu Jin saw the marks that had appeared on wang fei‘s collarbone and moved her eyes away slightly. She quickly helped put on the under robe and picked a trailing bird and flowers dress for Qu Qing Ju to wear.

After Qu Qing Ju washed and sat in front of the mirror, Mu Jin finally spoke: “Wang fei, today, wang ye had a good expression when he left this morning.”

Qu Qing Ju handed her a pair of tassels she picked and tried to let her face reveal an embarrassed blush: “You are talking nonsense. Go look to see the kitchen has delivered the meal.”

Mu Jin, seeing wang fei was embarrassed, smiled and said: “Alright, alright. Nubi will go look. Jin Zhan, Yu Zan, serve carefully, Yin Liu and I will go.” Yu Zan was the best hairdresser so she usually did wang fei‘s hair.

Coming of the room, Mu Jin and Yin Liu exchanged happy looks. Now wang fei finally managed to establish herself in this wang fu.

Yin Liu smiled and said: “Next month is the Duke of Chang De’s birthday, when wang fei goes, let’s see who dare overstep.”

Mu Jin, thinking about the unhappy mess of events and people in Chang De Gong Fu, lost some of the cheerfulness on her face and sighed: “As long as wang ye will always treat wang fei like he did in these last two days, nobody in Chang De Gong Fu will dare not respect wang fei.”

As noble as Chang De Gong Fu was, could it be as noble as the wang fu? Hopefully at that time, wang fei wouldn’t go back to her dull personally and let the people in the fu disrespect her.

[1] 姐姐: older siste