Sang Yao began to reexamine the necklace in her hand.

The silver chain was very thin, set with pearls and blue gems that shimmered softly under the candlelight, exuding extreme beauty.

The wooden box was large, and the object was laid out on it. If it was a necklace, it was quite complex and difficult to put on.

But if it were a piece of clothing…

Obviously, it had nothing to do with clothing at all.

Sang Yao pinched it and turned to look at Xie Yun, repeating, “What do you say this is?”

He repeated, “It’s clothing.”

Sang Yao frowned, her gaze returning to the object. She fiddled with it casually, unable to figure out how it was worn.

After looking for a while, she still couldn’t figure out where the hidden part was, just muttering, “What kind of clothes would this go with?”

“Who wears clothes like this?”

Xie Yun said, “It’s worn alone.”

Sang Yao said, “…But it doesn’t even cover a little.”

“You don’t wear anything underneath.”

Sang Yao: “…”

At this point, Sang Yao’s expression finally changed.

She froze with the item in her hand, reacting for a while.

Xie Yun was still sitting on the bed, and before Sang Yao’s gaze fell on him, he moved his arm again, placing the injured arm on the small table, making the white cloth even more obvious.

The girl looked at him incredulously, her beautiful eyes blinking.

But soon, she saw his arm.

She pursed her lips, her originally very resistant expression softened by nine points.

She held the clothing, involuntarily imagining the scene of wearing this thin chain on her body.

The more she thought about it, the redder her face became.

Although she had changed somewhat from being with Xie Yun for a long time and could gradually accept some things she couldn’t accept before, this was still somewhat beyond her understanding.

What’s the point of wearing clothes that are almost like not wearing anything?

The more she thought about it, the more embarrassed she felt.

She looked at Xie Yun’s cold face, and said with difficulty, “What’s the point of wearing this…”

She really couldn’t understand and asked again, “How did you come up with this?”

How could he bring himself to have someone make such a thing?

Xie Yun said, “I designed the pattern myself.”

He thought for a moment, then added, “I spent the morning drawing it at the Ministry of Personnel.”

“…” Was he serious? Did he know what he was talking about?

“I still have the pattern. Do you want to take a look, Yao Yao?”

Sang Yao didn’t say anything.

She had always thought she understood Xie Yun very well.

Obviously, he was shameless. And he could shamelessly remain composed.

But Sang Yao had never thought that he could even imagine such strange things. Didn’t they say Xie Yun was busy with state affairs all day? How could he have the leisure to draw this thing in the palace for a whole morning?

But she wasn’t as shameless as Xie Yun. She said, “Let’s not wear it, it feels… not right.”

Seeing that Sang Yao did not directly refuse, Xie Yun continued, “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Yao Yao, you would look very good in it.”

After saying this, he suddenly frowned, and Sang Yao hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xie Yun shook his head, pretending to be relaxed, “It’s a bit painful.”

“Why did it suddenly hurt?”

Xie Yun uttered a sound of agreement and whispered, “It’s actually been a little painful all along, but I didn’t want you to think I couldn’t bear even this bit of pain…”

“It’s okay, I’ll just shift my focus.”

Sang Yao knew that Xie Yun was very good at pretending, how could he not be in pain?

She bit her lip, feeling more and more distressed.

Together with feeling that the chain clothing that seemed worse than tattered and couldn’t cover anything was useless.

She had already slept with him, and she was no longer so concerned about revealing her body to him.

And it should be able to cover some things, right?

He was injured, so she could only take a look.

Sang Yao’s face was still flushed. Thinking about it, she still didn’t understand Xie Yun’s preferences.

She also liked Xie Yun’s body, but she had never thought about asking Xie Yun to wear other clothes for her to see.

Sang Yao was overthinking.

His injury was only on his arm, the rest of him was fine.

He could still coax her.

The candlelight in the room didn’t go out until the middle of the night.

Sang Yao lay on the bed, reflecting on what she had done today for a long time.

She didn’t actually resist sleeping with Xie Yun. Besides, as Xie Yun’s skills became more proficient, she could derive pleasure from it.

It was also because she always felt it was a kind of possession, and she liked the feeling of possessing him.

So if she wasn’t tired, she would mostly cooperate.

But today she was very tired.

She didn’t quite understand, because she really felt that Xie Yun was seriously injured. In her eyes, the wound was as long as her forearm, messy with flesh and blood, and had bled a lot.

If she were injured like that, she would have to rest in bed for at least half a month. But how could Xie Yun still be so energetic?

It wasn’t until before the bath that the sticky “clothing” on her body was completely taken off.

There was a moment of silence between the two, and neither spoke.

In the dark night, there was a faint smell of blood in the room.

It was from Xie Yun’s wound, which had split open.

At first, he coaxed Sang Yao to do it herself, but later he lost his rationality and probably didn’t care whether it hurt or not.

The doctor had bandaged it well and persisted for a long time.

Until the end, Xie Yun wanted to carry Sang Yao to bathe, and at that moment of lifting her, the wound split open.

The fresh blood instantly soaked the gauze.

The two looked at each other.

In Xie Yun’s firm refusal, Sang Yao eventually did not call for the doctor. Fortunately, it was nothing serious and was re-bandaged with medicine.

Everything returned to silence.

Obviously, it was a very pleasant night.

It’s just that he couldn’t hold her with both hands tonight, which made Xie Yun a little annoyed.

Sang Yao’s voice was hoarse as she asked him, “Are you still in pain?”

Xie Yun said, “No.”

He then asked, “What about you?”

“…Why do you ask?”

She also said, “I have nothing to hurt.”

Although she had taken the lead tonight, embarrassed as it was, she felt no pain at all.

Satisfied, Xie Yun made a sound of agreement and then said, “That’s good.”

Sang Yao didn’t want to talk to this shameless person anymore. She turned and said, “Don’t do this next time, or I won’t sleep in the same room with you tomorrow.”

“Calling the doctor in the middle of the night and saying it split because of that, do you think it’s embarrassing?”

Xie Yun said, “It won’t split.”

“And do you think I’m afraid of this?”

Sang Yao fell silent for a moment, then said, “Then let the doctor come now and say you insisted on hugging me, and hugging caused it to split.”

Xie Yun didn’t speak.

He hugged Sang Yao tighter with one hand, his long legs overlapping hers, and then in a low voice, he said, “I don’t have to attend court these days.”

Sang Yao responded with an “Oh.”

After becoming familiar with the Xie family, she no longer relied on Xie Yun as she did when she first arrived. She learned a lot from Yu Zhi and Shen Miaoyi. The two shops her father left her were making more money than before.

She was quite clever. Before, at the Sang family, Sang Yin would just ask her to look at this or that, but no one seriously taught her, so how could she learn?

But now it was different. The more she was exposed to, the more she was forced to learn, so she was busy too.

Besides, whether Xie Yun bathed or not, he was always busy.

Xie Yun’s voice lazily carried a hint of dissatisfaction as he pinched the soft flesh on her belly and said, “Why are you unhappy?”

Sang Yao, brewing drowsiness with her eyes closed, moved his hand away and replied indifferently, “I’m happy.”

“Then why did you name your kitten Bai Bai?”

Xie Yun asked, “Did you like me from back then?”

Sang Yao didn’t know what he was talking about.

She answered truthfully, “Because Bai Bai is a white kitten.”

If it were black, it would be named Hei Hei.

Xie Yun seemed somewhat incredulous. He made a sound of agreement and then said, “If you say so, then it is.”

Because she was a little sleepy, Sang Yao didn’t want to argue with him.

Xie Yun said a few more words to Sang Yao that didn’t seem to have much relevance, and she just responded to him.

Their bodies were close, talking in the deep night without much substance.

Sang Yao hadn’t noticed.

She didn’t know when it started, but in her impression, the once arrogant and taciturn Xie Yun gradually became the one who talked more between the two of them.

As sleepiness enveloped her.

But just as she was about to drift off, she remembered something.

She opened her eyes, her chin resting on his chest, and said in a slightly aggrieved tone, “Do you really think it’s not pretty?”

Xie Yun asked, “What?”

She whispered, “The little butterfly cake, I kneaded it for a long time.”

Sang Yao had never asked Xie Yun how he dealt with Mingrong.

She knew Xie Yun could definitely handle it, so she didn’t need to worry. She also didn’t care much about what would happen to Mingrong in the end.

However, she still didn’t know if Mingrong had actually caught Sang Yinyue.

She didn’t have any particular feelings for her cousin.

But she didn’t particularly dislike her either.

Although Sang Yinyue used to push her and made her fall and hit her head because she was slow to react, and called her a fool, always snatching her things to play with, and sometimes borrowing clothes because she thought they looked good on her but never returning them…the more she thought about it, the more she disliked her.

But there were also times when Sang Yao didn’t dislike her.

Sang Yao had a bright and delicate face since she was a child, which was very eye-catching.

When she was around ten years old, when her body hadn’t fully recovered and she wasn’t a strong child, she was deliberately teased by some boys her age or slightly older when she went out.

They would intentionally pull her hair, laugh at her, and even push her.

When Sang Yinyue saw this, she ran over and fought with them, not only did she not win, she was also punched several times.

Later, Sang Yinyue was angry and secretly mixed a few pieces of dog poop into the sesame cakes they loved to eat, then said it was a peace offering and gave it to them.

After they happily finished eating, she told them that what they had just eaten was sesame with poop.

Not just once, Sang Yinyue actually fought for her against those annoying boys several times.

She also told her that if she was ever bullied, she could come to her for help.

But later, as the official position of the eldest uncle rose, she couldn’t be as willful as she was when she was young.

Sang Yinyue had too many people she couldn’t afford to offend, so she could only be kept at home every day.

So when she grew up, Sang Yao only intermittently disliked her.

Just as she was about to go and ask Xie Yun, someone came to report that Sang Yinyue wanted to see her.

To prevent Sang Yinyue from talking nonsense, she had someone take Sang Yinyue to a side room.

Seeing her again, Sang Yao looked at her face and was somewhat surprised.

Thin, haggard, with red marks on her neck.

None of her former arrogance remained.

Sang Yao’s heart tightened, just as she was about to speak, Sang Yinyue started crying.

She raised her head and sobbed, “Wuu wuu wuu, little fool!”

Hearing this nickname, Sang Yao began to dislike her again.

“Don’t call me a little fool!”

Sang Yinyue walked slowly towards her, then hugged her arm and said, “I can’t stay in this house anymore! I want to run away from home!”

“My parents keep urging me to get married, and they want me to marry a fifty-year-old man! That old man is so ugly!”

Sang Yao saw the red mark on her neck and frowned, “They won’t let you…!”

Sang Yinyue nodded, tears in her eyes, “They want me to marry, but I won’t!”

“Even if I want to play with men, I don’t want to play with someone that old!”

Sang Yao asked, “Then what happened?”

Sang Yinyue wiped away her tears and said, “So I ran away from home. I brought a lot of money with me and planned to go to Xiangguan to find a handsome official to experience it.”

Sang Yao’s face was blank, “…Huh?”

Sang Yinyue continued, “I hadn’t gone far when I met someone who suited my tastes. I was going to discuss it with him.”

“But he actually refused me!”

“So I tried to knock him out and tie him up, but he woke up before I could play with him, and he started retaliating with me. He even took away my money!”

“…”

“He left me with only three copper coins.”

“Little fool, ask your husband to help me find him, and lend me some silver. I really can’t go back to the mansion. Last time I wanted to write to you, my mother intercepted it and didn’t let me give it to you.”