That cry was at once coy and alluring, at once a gasp of pain and a soft moan.
Especially that “husband”—the ending trembled several times, carrying a hook that went straight to the depths of the heart.
Outside the room, Li Ying, who had been in the middle of attacking, suddenly stopped. He turned his eyes toward the room.
Li Heng glanced at him, curled his lips into a smile, and said, “What is it, wife?”
Though she could not see what was happening outside, the two brothers’ temperaments were worlds apart. Coupled with Liu Xuan’s hearing, she could tell at once whose mouth that “wife” had come from.
She did not even need to think to know that, at this moment, her Iron Egg’s handsome face must have darkened like the bottom of a pot.
Liu Xuan, ever eager to watch the commotion grow, parted her delicate lips and raised her voice a little. “Husband, were you calling me just now?”
After saying that, she pretended to get up. The plank bed gave a creak, and the wooden stool by the bedside was pushed so that it wobbled.
Two urgent voices rang out in unison from outside the room. “Don’t move!”
Liu Xuan was almost beside herself with amusement, but her voice sounded blank and innocent. “My hearing really is getting worse. For a moment, it sounded as though two husbands were speaking, even with an echo.”
Li Ying’s heart jumped. He hurriedly called out, “Don’t move. I’ll be back at once.”
Having had enough fun, Liu Xuan lay on the bed and leisurely swung her calves, obediently answering, “All right.”
Li Heng lifted his brows slightly. He looked at Li Ying, then at the tightly shut door, his expression unreadable.
Li Ying withdrew his gaze, turned to him, and said in a low voice, “Go back first and tell Mother Empress that I will return the day after tomorrow.”
“Imperial Brother, aren’t you a little too infatuated with feminine charms?”
Li Heng leaned against the tree in the corner of the courtyard and gave a soft laugh. “Don’t deny it. You and I share sensations. Earlier, she merely let out a soft hum, and you reacted.”
“Li Heng!”
Li Ying’s brows and eyes turned cold. Lowering his voice, he said angrily, “This has nothing to do with you. She is blind, and her hearing is not very good either. I will not take issue with you over what happened today, but from now on, you are not allowed to appear before her!”
Hearing this, Li Heng laughed. “Eldest Brother is afraid that if she learns the person intimate with her today was not you, she will be so ashamed and furious that she throws herself into the river?”
Asking what he already knew!
If he had come back earlier today and Xuan’er had not been taken liberties with by Li Heng, he could have told her about the impersonation.
But he shared sensations with Li Heng. What the situation had been earlier, and to what extent things had gone, he knew perfectly well.
His Xuan’er had grown up in these mountains since childhood, innocent and ignorant. If she were to learn that another man had been so intimate with her, she would surely be unable to accept it.
Li Ying looked at this twin brother who had become his shadow, irritation rising in his heart. “As for her affairs, I have my own plans. Just do as I say!”
Hearing this, Li Heng put away the smile that had been hanging at the corners of his lips. Sweeping aside his previous careless manner, he straightened and said seriously, “She is the daughter of a hunter, yet there isn’t even a thin callus on her hands. When her father was still alive, that could be explained. But that hunter has been dead for a year already, and she has been living alone in this mountain stream. Her nearest neighbors are all a li away.”
“Fine, even if she had neighbors helping her, after such a long time, a blind and hard-of-hearing woman like her not only shows no sign of hardship, but even has skin as smooth as congealed fat, better maintained than those noble ladies in the capital. Imperial Brother truly doesn’t find that strange at all?”
He really did make sense.
Liu Xuan stopped swinging her calves and gave a bored yawn.
What a pity. Iron Egg had already investigated this question long ago. Silver Egg had asked too late.
“It is not strange.”
Li Ying said, “She is beautiful and understands propriety. Not only the men in the village, even the women take great care of her. Even after the hunter died, she never had to worry about her livelihood. There are even women who come every few days to clean the house for her. She is blind and seldom goes out, nor has she ever done any work. Coupled with her natural beauty, her current state is well within reason.”
Li Heng gave a smile that was not quite a smile. “I never imagined that my wise, mighty, pure-hearted Imperial Brother would also have a day when lust clouds his judgment. If she can coax an entire village into helping her, how could she possibly be some innocent, ignorant person? Moreover, the people of Liu Family Village are of the same clan and origin; their appearances all share some degree of resemblance. But look at her—does she bear even the slightest resemblance to those villagers?”
“She was originally an abandoned infant picked up by the hunter, so naturally she is different from the people of Liu Family Village.”
Li Ying frowned deeply, lowered his voice, and said coldly, “What exactly are you trying to say? Do you think she was deliberately sent to my side by someone with ulterior motives? Don’t forget, she has always lived here. It was I who came to Liu Family Village!”
Yes, it was Li Ying who had come here.
Unless someone could foresee the future and lay this trap more than ten years in advance, no one could have anticipated that the dignified Crown Prince would personally lead men to hunt down a court official all the way into a mountain ravine!
Seeing that he no longer spoke, Li Ying’s expression eased slightly. He slowly said, “Do you think I never considered the things you are considering? I even suspected whether she was truly blind. Otherwise, I would not have feigned amnesia and stayed here. Those tests of yours were completely unnecessary.”
Hearing this, Li Heng smiled faintly. “It seems this younger brother of yours was overthinking things.”
Li Ying ignored his sarcasm and said, “In short, I have already arranged everything. Before dawn the day after tomorrow, I will return to the palace. Rather than test her, you would do better to continue searching for a way to resolve this shared sensation.”
“Imperial Brother may rest assured. This matter makes me even more anxious than it does you. After all…”
Li Heng turned his eyes toward the room, his tone indifferent. “I, too, am unwilling to find it difficult to sleep every night.”
A trace of discomfort flashed across Li Ying’s handsome face. He gave a light cough and said, “Then go do what you ought to do.”
“Imperial Brother is right.”
Li Heng withdrew his gaze and casually bowed to him. “Then this younger brother will take his leave.”
Li Ying nodded slightly. Only after watching him walk completely into the distance did he turn and head into the room.
Liu Xuan sat obediently on the edge of the bed. Hearing the sound of the door opening, she immediately turned her head to “look” over and called tentatively, “Husband?”
Looking at her gorgeous, tender little face, Li Ying could not help recalling what had happened in the room earlier. With complicated feelings, he answered in a low voice.
Hearing his voice, that beautiful little face immediately brightened, like a hundred flowers blooming under the warm sun of spring. Even those empty, unfocused, watery eyes seemed to gain a bit of light.
“Husband…”
She smiled and stood, opening her arms slightly toward him. Her joy was so obvious, her whole being filled with wholehearted reliance.
All of this was only because of his arrival. Only because she had heard his voice.
That hidden awkwardness in Li Ying’s heart, something he could not speak of to anyone, instantly turned into guilt and heartache. He strode forward, pulled her into his arms, lowered his head, and kissed her deeply.
His kiss was fierce and urgent, as though he wanted to completely cover over the breath Li Heng had left behind. He sucked hard at her tender lips, causing Liu Xuan to be unable to hold back a soft cry.
Yet her cry was like a spark, completely igniting his jealousy and the desire buried in his body, burning away his reason.
Li Ying lifted her in his arms and placed her on the bed. Carrying a measure of anger toward himself, he leaned down and roughly tore open her collar and dudou.
In an instant, snow-white skin and proud, snowy peaks half concealed and half revealed entered his sight.
Li Heng, who had already quietly left the village and was sitting in a carriage bound for the capital, suddenly let out a muffled groan.
Xun Yi, outside, immediately asked in a low voice, “My lord, are you feeling unwell?”
Inside the carriage, the veins on Li Heng’s forehead throbbed, his eyes filled with forbearance.
Unable to bear it, Li Heng tugged at his collar, drew in a deep breath, and said hoarsely, “It’s nothing.”
Since he said so, Xun Yi did not dare ask further and focused on driving.
After a moment, Li Heng’s dark, husky voice came from within. “Xun Yi.”
“This subordinate is here.”
“If you had a younger brother by blood, and after you went out, he was only one final step away from doing with your wife the most intimate thing between a man and a woman in this world, what would you do?”
Xun Yi: …