The Slender Waist-Chapter 361 - 254: Beauty is a Curse

Chunyu Yan had been sitting in the tea room for a short while when Jiang Yin entered awkardly and uneasily. She stood before him, performing a deep bow.

"The lady said that the Princely Heir wished to speak with this one," Jiang Yin said.

Her delicate white face and soft, rosy lips held a feminine grace, yet there was a hint of fragile tenderness in her beauty.

Chunyu Yan lowered his gaze to drink a sip of tea and found it unbearably spicy.

It was like swallowing a firecracker, with a rage he couldn’t vent, not towards the person before him, but at Feng Twelve.

The sunlight fell on the lattice windows, making the tea room somewhat cold.

Their eyes met, and Jiang Yin quickly lowered her head, obviously terrified.

Chunyu Yan said, "Has Xiang Zhong been to see you, asking you to be with me?"

Jiang Yin’s cheeks flushed with a rosy hue, showing a trace of embarrassment and shyness. She fidgeted with her handkerchief, nodding as she looked down.

Chunyu Yan asked, "What are your thoughts on this?"

Biting her lower lip, Jiang Yin pondered for a moment, "May the Princely Heir please remove his mask..."

Chunyu Yan suddenly felt a surge of irritation and let out a cold laugh, "I cannot."

Jiang Yin, somewhat intimidated by Chunyu Yan, forced a smile, "Then forgive this one for not being able to comply with the Princely Heir’s wishes..."

She sounded aggrieved. Chunyu Yan’s lips tightened, and he abruptly stood up and walked towards her.

He was extremely tall, and as he stood before her, Jiang Yin appeared even more fragile and involuntarily took two steps back to create some distance.

Chunyu Yan looked down at her, his beautiful eyes flashing with complex and cold light.

"You want to see me?" he asked.

Jiang Yin: "Yes."

Chunyu Yan chuckled coldly, "Did Feng Twelve teach you that?"

Jiang Yin frowned slightly.

After hesitating, she lifted her head to look at him.

"If the Princely Heir and this one are acquaintances of old, why refuse to grant me even a single glance?" she asked.

Chunyu Yan asked, "When I was young, I could not swim and had panicked helplessly in the water. You, a small and frail girl, had the courage to dive in to save me... and now you’re afraid of a mask?"

Jiang Yin was slightly taken aback, staring at him with wide eyes.

The beautiful lady, with her charming face and lightly drawn brows, had eyes that held a seductive allure. Her forehead was smooth and rounded, perfect from every angle...

Chunyu Yan gazed at her intently, stepping closer, and then even closer, until Jiang Yin started to feel frightened, her body tensing up, and only then did he stop with a sudden cold laugh.

What’s so good about Feng Twelve?

Jiang Yin was also beautiful. Perhaps she was a bit less so than her, and not as gracefully charming in stature, but that wasn’t a reason for a man to be unaffected...

"Lian Ji," thinking of Feng Yun, Chunyu Yan’s lips slightly curled, "You don’t remember the events of the past. I had no intention of offending you, but now..."

His eyes brimmed with deep emotion, as if he had made a certain resolve, and he suddenly grabbed Jiang Yin’s arm, pulling her into his embrace.

Jiang Yin froze completely, a scream nearly escaping her throat...

Suddenly, Chunyu Yan let go and pushed her away.

Caught off guard, Jiang Yin stumbled backward, taking a couple of steps before she stabilized herself.

Chunyu Yan didn’t look at her but turned to sit back down, his breathing unsettled and inexplicable.

It wasn’t that he had developed any tender feelings, but he horrifically discovered that even with Lian Ji in his arms, he still felt nothing.

No.

No other woman would do.

Not even Lian Ji.

What kind of witchcraft had Feng Twelve employed?

Not only was he devoid of desire for Jiang Yin, but he also had the urge to drag Feng Twelve over and beat her right then and there.

"You can go now. I will sit here a while longer," he said, his voice hoarse with a touch of unwillingness.

Jiang Yin’s eyes widened, swallowing the words that were lodged in her throat. She was free but not at ease; the man’s refreshing scent of plum blossoms struck her heart, and that one embrace left her somewhat dazed.

"Princely Heir..."

Chunyu Yan thought she would question his behavior from just before, and without apologizing or saying anything further, he stood up, turned away, and left.

-

Feng Yun, Pei Jue, and Ao Qi were outside enjoying a sweet drink.

It was a soup made from fermented glutinous rice and rice balls, steamed together, sprinkled with dried osmanthus, and a bit of sugar added. Placed on the stove to warm, its clean, sweet fragrance was tender on the palate and returned a lingering sweetness.

Ao Qi loved it and ate with gusto, not even using a spoon.

Feng Yun laughed at the sight, "Slow down, why do you eat like a gluttonous fish?"

Ao Qi curled his lips, his eyes shone brightly.

"I got up early today and haven’t eaten yet. I’m hungry."

Upon hearing this, Feng Yun suggested, "Shall I have someone boil two eggs for you to put in? Sweet fermented rice balls with boiled eggs, a Jiangnan delicacy, they’re delicious."

As soon as eggs were mentioned, Ao Qi thought of the last time Feng Yun had drugged him.

He stared at Feng Yun, a hint of red in his eyes.

"Jiangnan cuisine is indeed delicate, unlike our Pingcheng..."

His slow speech was heavy with emotion, a complexity of feelings left unsaid.

Feng Yun showed no reaction, teenagers are always sensitive.

Pei Jue’s expression tightened slightly, he was about to speak when he saw Chunyu Yan hurry out from the tea room, his gaze landing on the food spread in front of them. He snorted and left without looking back.

The interruption snapped Ao Qi back to reality. He glanced at the icy look in Pei Jue’s eyes and said to Feng Yun, "Aunt, no trouble is needed. It’s almost time for me to head to the council hall."

"What trouble?" Feng Yun laughed as she stood up. "I’m just giving an order, you wait."

She instructed the kitchen staff briefly, dug out some pickled goose and duck, asked them to slice it up, then washed her hands and turned to walk back.

Just as she lifted the curtain to leave, she saw a man enter, around thirty years of age, tall, with a lean face, deep-set eyes, and prominent nose, emanating a coldness that made one uneasy at a glance...

Feng Yun’s body stiffened slightly, her footsteps halted.

Watching the man approach Pei Jue, bowing respectfully, she felt as if her blood had turned cold.

It was as if she were back in her last life.

She first encountered Tang Shaogong in Li Sangruo’s separate residence.

A brief encounter, just a fleeting glance, without a word exchanged. But Feng Yun had a good memory, recognizing him instantly the second time they met.

That event was a nightmare Feng Yun couldn’t forget.

After Xiaoman was beaten to death by Li Sangruo in Jiafu Hall, she was sullen and tearful every day, often waking from a panic-stricken sleep, then silently weeping into her blanket. She didn’t dare to cry out loud, afraid to wake Pei Jue, and so those cold, long nights spent with tears soaking the corners of her blanket dragged on interminably...

At first, Pei Jue pretended nothing was wrong, acting unaware, but he varied the food, clothing, and items he sent to her room daily. Later, seeing that her melancholy did not lift and she cried until dawn, he perhaps grew exasperated with her. One night, he got up, threw on clothes, eyes red, and asked her.

"What do you really want?"

She still remembered how fierce Pei Jue looked then.

But what could she have wanted at that time?

Burdened with sorrow, unable to quell her emotions, she was despondent and hopeless, unable to sleep at night. As soon as she closed her eyes, she thought of her family’s abandonment, Xiaoman’s death, Li Sangruo’s hatred, Pei Jue’s indifference, and Xiao Cheng’s betrayal.

Back then, she had lost interest in anything in life. She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to eat, just lay there day after day, wondering how death might bring her some peace.

Looking back, she realized that she had been in an abnormal state, her mind seemingly dull.

A person who no longer wanted to live, how could she take an interest in the things around her? From where would she find the energy to attend to Pei Jue?

During that period, whenever Pei Jue desired her, she would be listless, dealing with him hastily, and inevitably ending in tears.

Pei Jue said nothing, simply more morose than usual.

Later on, he stopped touching her, and she didn’t initiate either. They lay in the same bed every day, for a long time without intimacy, like strangers, until that night when he got up, lit the lamp, sat beside the bed, grabbed her face, and asked her fiercely what she really wanted.

She was at her breaking point, crying out that she wanted peace, to be left alone, undisturbed by anyone.

That night, Pei Jue tormented her fiercely, flipping her over and over. The next day, he removed several of the female servants from Feng Yun’s courtyard, leaving only Daman and four maids responsible for daily chores.

Pei Jue left in the middle of the night after it was over, getting dressed without a glance back.

He never returned after that.

Feng Yun knew she had angered him, after all, he was the Great General with immense power, and there were no other women in his household to tolerate her coldness in his stead. Anyone would find it unbearable.

At that time, Feng Yun did not blame him, she even felt guilty for not satisfying him, but she was so downcast that even talking felt laborious, drowning in her own pain, unable to extricate herself.

With Pei Jue not coming by, Feng Yun’s courtyard finally fell completely silent.

The servants, likely following orders, said not a word besides attending to her basic needs. And after Xiaoman’s death, Daman also became silent and weepy, often spending the whole day with Feng Yun, both wordless.

It was Tang Shaogong who changed everything.

"Feng Twelve Young Lady," he called her by her name in a very cold voice.

It had been more than two years since their last encounter, when Feng Yun had been sealed in a large vat with only her head exposed, unable to straighten her body, in a state more miserable than that of dogs and pigs...

She had been kidnapped in her sleep, unaware of the reason or her whereabouts, only to see various instruments of torture in that sealed room.

Tang Shaogong asked her if she had heard the story of Lady Qi.

The Lady Qi who was mutilated by Empress Lü, her limbs cut off, hair shaven, turned into a human swine, was a page in the history books Feng Yun had read that was too horrific to look upon. How could she not know?

Seeing her fear, a smile actually appeared on Tang Shaogong’s face.

"Truly a beauty brings disaster," he said calmly, his words chilled to the bone.

"Without hair, limbs, eyes, tongue, nose, I wonder if the Great General would still recognize his lovely wife, and if he would still embrace her every night, love and cherish her at will?"