Chapter 90 – Liked

Sang Yao’s cheeks turned red at a visible speed, and she felt so embarrassed that she wanted to find a hole to hide with Xie Yun together.

She glanced around silently.

Jing Lian was trembling with his head lowered, whether from excitement or something else, while Huai Meng was biting her lips, obviously trying not to laugh.

There were also a few rough maids sweeping the yard under the steps.

His voice wasn’t exactly low, enough for everyone around to hear.

Sang Yao had never felt the air so suffocating.

Did Xie Yun even know what he was saying?

She withdrew her gaze, struggling to free her wrist: “What are you doing…”

Xie Yun looked at Sang Yao’s flushed cheeks, his brows furrowing slightly.

Sure enough, he guessed right.

He never expected that she would actually like that kind of talk. It was just a casual remark, was it really necessary for her to be so shy about it?

Xie Yun tightly pressed his lips together, feeling that it might be necessary to have a talk with Sang Yao.

The sentence he just said was still considered relatively standard, taken directly from that booklet.

He had only said it today to test the waters.

Did he have to say something like that every day in order to make her happy?

He let go of her hand, intending to say something more, but Sang Yao seemed to have heard enough.

She appeared very resistant and hastily interrupted him, “I got it!”

“I need to go find Second Sister-in-law first, you go about your business!”

Was she too embarrassed to even talk to him?

Impossible.

Xie Yun grabbed her again, tentatively saying, “Darling, don’t keep me waiting too long.”

Sang Yao: “…”

Xie Yun’s face really wasn’t suited for saying these things.

Her embarrassment intensified, her flushed cheeks becoming even more noticeable.

For the first time with Xie Yun, she felt ashamed.

Sang Yao struggled hard to free herself, then said, “Stop talking, just go.”

With that, she turned around and quickly walked away then started running.

Xie Yun stood still, watching the silhouette of the girl under the corridor with Jing Lian.

He stood with one hand behind his back, then said in a deep voice, “How could she like those things?”

Jing Lian didn’t say anything for a moment.

…What did he just call her?

He called her “darling”!

Jing Lian felt like his ears were about to go deaf!

His expression became somewhat twisted due to its complexity.

His face was already stiff from smiling, but he still tried to put on a natural expression.

He cleared his throat and answered, “Subordinate thinks… Madam probably doesn’t particularly like it.”

Xie Yun frowned and said discontentedly, “You useless fool, if that’s not liking, then what is it?”

Jing Lian thought to himself, what else could it be, of course, it’s embarrassing.

But he dared not.

After the exposure of the little booklet, this man became even more harsh towards him.

He decided to give him a little punishment and earnestly suggested, “Subordinate thinks Madam might hope for you to be more enthusiastic.”

“Isn’t this enthusiastic enough? I’ve already said a couple of sentences.”

Jing Lian said, “As you know, it’s the quality that matters, not the quantity.”

As the Double Ninth Festival approached, Xie Yun hadn’t rested for almost ten days.

These days he was unusually busy.

Even before he became familiar with Sang Yao, he was like this, but the difference was that back then, even if he was busy, he was calm.

But now it was different; he seemed to do things with a sense of urgency, as if he wanted to solve everything that had happened over the past few days all at once.

As the sun spread across the sky, Chen Ke looked at Xie Yun, who was constantly writing, and asked, “Sir Xie, what’s been happening these past few days?”

Xie Yun closed the newspaper, then hastily gave some orders to his subordinates before turning to Chen Ke and said, “Nothing much.”

Chen Ke asked, “Then what are you doing?”

“I remember the matter in Taizhou isn’t urgent, is it? I’ve been sitting here for half a day, how many times have you interacted with me?”

Xie Yun said, “I’m busy.”

Chen Ke choked up and said, “Still busy? What are you in a hurry for? Are you afraid your wife won’t save you any food if you go home late?”

Xie Yun glanced at him, then said naturally, “That won’t happen, it’s just that my wife is too clingy. If I come home late, I’ll be nagged at.”

He paused for a moment, then said to Chen Ke, “You won’t understand even if I tell you. It’s hard for someone like you, who’s living alone.”

Chen Ke: “…”

He and his wife didn’t marry willingly in the first place, and over the years, they could be considered an unhappy couple.

They would quarrel every three days, and every time they quarreled, his wife would go back to her parents’ house.

He had been living alone for seven or eight days now.

Xie Yun looked at the sky, then tidied up the desk a bit and stood up, saying to Chen Ke, “I’ll be resting tomorrow.”

“Why do you rest every day?”

“Because my wife wants to accompany me. If you have any matters, go directly to Right Supervisor, don’t come to me.”

With that, he left, leaving Chen Ke standing there with a gloomy face.

Right Supervisor walked out from inside, and Chen Ke asked the young man, “Were you also so impatient with your wife when you were newly married?”

“Not really.”

He said slowly, “Mr. Chen, please understand. I heard that Lord Xie has been eagerly waiting for Lady Xie for several years. He has abstained from all other women for years because of this.”

“After finally getting what he desired, it’s inevitable that he would become obsessed. Please understand.”

Xie Yun returned home to find Sang Yao still engrossed in her embroidery.

Since she had taught Yu Zhi a few times these past days, Yu Zhi had been amazed by her unique embroidery techniques and aesthetics.

She even mentioned it to Shen Miaoyi.

The Xie family had several embroidery workshops in the capital, so Shen Miaoyi discussed with Sang Yao about designing some embroidery patterns herself and then sending them to the workshops for production and sale.

Sang Yao was extremely honored and surprised.

She had always felt that with her skills, she was far from being able to reach the highest level of embroidery.

But apart from herself, it seemed that everyone else trusted her a lot.

This was the first time in her life that she had been trusted like this, so she took the matter very seriously after agreeing to it.

Originally, she had only done it for fun, but now suddenly there was pressure. These past few nights, she had been drawing patterns, and after finishing them, she had to check them to see if they turned out well.

Even the plan to seduce Xie Yun was temporarily put on hold.

So when Xie Yun returned home these past two days, she didn’t greet him with a kiss as usual.

For example, at this moment.

Sang Yao seemed unaware that he had returned.

The warm yellow candlelight flickered in the room, and Sang Yao, focused on the embroidery thread in her hand, furrowed her brows in concentration.

Her snow-white and plump cheeks puffed up slightly, tempting one to pinch them.

After staring for a while, Xie Yun felt there was no need for him to endure.

He walked over, grabbed her small face with his big hand, forced Sang Yao to tilt her head up, and in the almost non-existent struggle of the young girl, he fiercely kissed her rosy lips.

Sang Yao frowned, pushed him away, and wiped her mouth, saying, “I’m busy.”

Xie Yun looked at her actions, his face turning dark. “What are you doing?”

Sang Yao lowered her head, feeling that the yellow thread was better for this.

She compared it, then began threading the needle.

Xie Yun: “…”

He felt displeased.

He had originally planned to ignore her for a while, but after a while, she was still focused on her work.

Xie Yun had to take the initiative and said, “Did you notice that I came back later than usual today?”

Sang Yao responded with a casual “Mm.”

“Yao Yao.”

Ignoring him.

“Then do you miss me?”

“No.”

He had only left in the afternoon, it hadn’t even been three hours.

What was there to miss?

“Why don’t you miss me? Then what are you thinking about?”

“Mm, don’t talk for now.”

…

Obviously, he was being ignored.

Xie Yun’s expression was extremely poor.

Now, he was nowhere in Sang Yao’s thoughts.

If Sang Yao was willing to, in the future, she could manage more people and things.

Would she still have room for him then?

Xie Yun’s face darkened, and he stared at her for a while before leaving on his own and going to the study.

She didn’t even stop him.

Jing Lian followed closely behind Xie Yun.

Xie Yun walked quickly, silent all the way. He pushed open the door of the study with a bang.

Jing Lian’s heart was hanging in the air, quietly lighting the lamp for him, and then silently stood beside him.

Xie Yun sat on the round-backed chair, flipped open a dossier, and after a while, he threw it aside with a bang.

He picked up another one, and again, with a bang.

As a qualified servant, Jing Lian withstood the pressure and asked, “…Master, do you have something on your mind?”

Xie Yun slowly raised his eyes, looking at Jing Lian, who was dressed brightly. In just this short time, he had even changed into a new set of clothes.

Jing Lian noticed Xie Yun’s gaze and smiled, explaining happily, “Master, this is the first batch of clothes made from Madam’s embroidery patterns. Madam chose one and gave it to me as a gift.”

“Just delivered, so I thought I’d try it on.”

The sky was completely dark now.

With the candlelight flickering, Jing Lian couldn’t see Xie Yun’s expression clearly, but his intuition, honed over many years, told him that the man in front of him was even more unhappy.

He took a deep breath and said, struggling, “Master… Madam must have prepared something better for you.”

But she hadn’t.

Xie Yun didn’t even know that these embroidered patterns would eventually be directly applied to clothes.

His subordinate had even put on the first batch of new clothes made from Sang Yao’s embroidered patterns before him.

And she didn’t even acknowledge him today.

“Take it off.”

“Take it off now.”

“…”

Why should he take it off? Was he supposed to let Xie Yun wear it?

Jing Lian stabilized his mind, looking at the obviously irritated man in front of him.

He addressed the issue directly, “Master, Madam likes you so much. She will definitely prepare something for you.”

This seemed to hit a nerve with Xie Yun, and he didn’t ask him to take it off anymore.

Seeing that the situation had eased a bit, Jing Lian continued, “I heard from Ran Dong that when Madam gave you the sachet back when you got married, she embroidered it more than twenty times before finally choosing the one for you.”

“Is that so?”

“Absolutely!”

Xie Yun leaned back slowly in his chair.

He had never been one to passively accept things, nor would he allow Sang Yao’s affection for other things to surpass her affection for him.

Now that he had calmed down a bit, he felt that he had to do something.

“Bring your other two books over tomorrow.”

He lacked experience, so he had to study hard.

From what he had seen these past few days, that old book seemed to be somewhat useful.

Jing Lian had been embarrassed lately because of this book, but he had to grit his teeth and agree.

The situation had become somewhat strange.

Jing Lian stood for a long time, looking at Xie Yun, who was clearly holding a pen but hadn’t written a word. Perhaps it was because of the night, or perhaps it was because Xie Yun, who was in a bad mood, seemed too preoccupied to bother with him.

He became a little bolder after hesitating for a long time and said, “Master, there’s been something bothering me for a long time.”

Perhaps thinking that Jing Lian still had some use, Xie Yun said, “Go on.”

Jing Lian asked, “When did you start liking Madam?”

He had been puzzled for a long time. Xie Yun was by her side every day, yet he didn’t know when these two had become so close and ended up getting married for no apparent reason.

“Who said I liked her.”

The word “like” was too unfamiliar to him.

Xie Yun had never used such words to define his feelings for Sang Yao.

So Xie Yun initially didn’t intend to respond.

The night wind swept through the bamboo forest, the sound of bamboo leaves rustling, making the room even quieter.

After a while, the open window let in the cool breeze of the summer night, and the man’s voice melted into the wind.

He didn’t continue to deny it, but impatiently said:

“How should I know.”