Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Xi Yueli looked down at the hand with its palm facing upwards. He Qingshuang's fingertips were slightly cool. She placed her own hand on top of it, palm to palm.

The two exchanged a glance, and the tacit understanding and mutual appreciation they shared, despite only meeting three times, felt as strong as if they had known each other for over a decade.

"Oh, right," she glanced back at Helian Jing, "we'll start extracting the fragments tomorrow, and this room will be your new home tonight. I'll close the door for you, and no one will disturb you before dawn."

She opened the door and stepped out, pausing at the threshold before turning her head. Her voice, warmed by the glow of the red candlelight, said, "Xi Yue Li, enjoy your wedding night. Consider this the first big gift the He family has given you."

The door closed gently behind her, and the sound of her footsteps faded into the distance along the corridor, blending into the sound of the winter night wind.

The red candle flickered again, casting the shadows of the two people onto the wedding canopy behind them, merging into a seamless darkness.

Helian Jing looked down at Xi Yueli. The back of her neck was still slightly hot. Standing in this room full of bright red, her bright red wedding dress contrasted with the cinnabar between her eyebrows, and the red candlelight swirled around her eyes.

He reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair that had been blown by the wind behind her ear, his fingertips brushing against her earlobe as he said in a low voice, "Miss He is right, this marriage isn't a bad deal."

Xi Yueli's ears turned red again in the candlelight. She patted his hand and said, "Your Highness, please blow out the lamp first."

A thin frost fell before dawn.

A fine layer of white condensed on the window paper. One pair of red candles had burned out, leaving only a charred wick curled up in the bronze cup. The flames of the other pair had dimmed, casting a warm, dark gold glow on the golden tassels of the wedding tent.

Xi Yueli was awakened by a warm breath on the back of her neck.

She was curled up in Helian Jing's arms, her back pressed against his chest. His hand was on her waist, his fingertips loosely interlocked, as if he had just placed it there before she fell asleep and hadn't moved it since.

She tried to turn over, but his hand tightened around her first, and her back pressed against his chest again, the rustling of their clothes echoing softly in the morning light.

His lips pressed against her neck, his breath brushing against her skin as he spoke, like a gentle breeze slowly rubbing against silk.

"Sleep a little longer." His voice came from the crook of her neck, hoarse and languid, as if he hadn't fully woken up all night.

"It's dawn."

"They won't get up even when it's light."

She smiled slightly in his arms. The skin he was touching felt slightly warm, and she couldn't tell if it was his breath that was too hot or if she herself was getting hot.

Helian Jing sensed the change in her temperature. He moved his hand from her waist to her chin, gently turning her face slightly to the side, and then he lowered his head to kiss the tip of her ear.

When his lips touched hers, they were warm from just waking up. His tongue lightly swept across the delicate curve of her inner earlobe, then again.

Her body tensed for a moment in his arms, then slowly softened. She turned to face him, and his hand naturally wrapped around her lower back, closing the distance between them to the point where their breaths mingled.

The morning light shone through the window paper and fell on his face. His usually aloof and cold face was now much more relaxed by sleepiness. The ridges of his brow bone were still there, but the curve at the corner of his eye was slightly curved, as if the tenderness of the whole night had softened his ridges.

He looked down at her, his gaze slowly moving from her brow to her slightly swollen lips, and then back to her eyes.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked.

She didn't answer, burying her face in his chest, her forehead against his collarbone, her voice muffled inside his clothes: "...If you ask again, I won't talk to you anymore."

Looking at her bathed in the morning light and warmth, Helian Jing suddenly rolled over and sat on top of her, one elbow resting on her side of the pillow, while the other hand slowly slid down an inch along her waist.

He lowered his head and kissed her slowly, so slowly that their lips almost touched and then parted slightly.

"Let's do it again."

When his lips touched hers, Xi Yueli's breath was completely cut off by the warmth of his lips.

She reached out and clung to the back of his neck, her fingertips sinking into his hair. His kisses slid slowly from the corner of her lips to her chin, then from her chin to the side of her neck, stopping at the edge of her slightly open collar.

The sounds of sweeping outside gradually faded away, while the dripping sound of melting icicles from the eaves fell slowly and persistently onto the windowsill, mingling with the intermittent breathing of the two people inside, making it impossible to distinguish which was from outside and which was from each other.

Helian Jing looked down at the head buried in his chest, the redness on the tips of her ears had spread to her earlobes, like a small piece of warm jade heated by charcoal.

He leaned closer and lightly touched the tip of her ear with his lips, so lightly that it was like a feather falling on it and then moving away.

"You said it three times last night," his voice came down from the top of her head. "I remember it."

Xi Yueli lifted her head from his chest, the morning light illuminating the faint blush on her face. She reached out and grasped a stray lock of hair that had fallen beside his pillow, tugging at it gently: "Then Your Highness will remember this."

Sunlight streamed through the paper window, casting the intertwined silhouettes of the two people onto the wedding canopy behind them, merging into a seamless darkness that lingered quietly in the morning light.

The thin frost on the window paper was melting into fine water droplets, slowly dripping down the window frame, as if the whole room was slowly melting away in the morning light.

It wasn't until the sun was high in the sky that the He residence gradually began to fill with human voices.

The entire He residence was unusually quiet. The servants walked on tiptoe and spoke in hushed tones. Even the brooms used for sweeping were replaced with soft-bristled ones, for fear of making any noise that might disturb the newlyweds in the main courtyard.

He Qingshuang moved a rattan chair and sat under the osmanthus tree in the second courtyard. She crossed her legs, held a handful of freshly roasted sunflower seeds in her hand, cracked one open, spat out the shell, and the shells fell on the blue brick ground at her feet, already accumulating into a small pile.

She changed into a light purple casual jacket, her hair loosely tied up, and leaned back in her chair as if watching a show she had been waiting for a long time.

"Not up yet?" she asked the butler standing next to her, tilting her head.

The butler bowed, his expression a mixture of helplessness and resignation: "Reporting to Miss, the lights in the main courtyard... were just turned off."

He Qingshuang cracked open another melon seed, a smile curving her lips. "Let them sleep. Go and keep that bowl of ginseng soup warming in the kitchen. Take it over when they wake up."

In the shadow of the courtyard wall, the people from Tian Shu Pavilion and An Pavilion each occupied half of the corridor pillars.

Han Zheng squatted under the east corridor pillar, arms crossed, staring blankly towards the main courtyard. Ding Si squatted beside him, a handful of peanuts in his hand, peeling one and popping it into his mouth, his voice extremely low: "Commander, how long has the master been sleeping...?"

"Enough with the nonsense." Han Zheng's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth. "You can calculate for yourself how many hours have passed since midnight last night."

"Six and a half," Ding Si answered quickly, then paused and added, "When Master used to interrogate people in the Tian Shu Division, he could stay up all night for six and a half hours without even blinking."

"How can that be the same?" Han Zheng glared at him. "Interrogating someone is... interrogating someone is the same as this?"

Opposite the east corridor pillar, the young bodyguard of the secret chamber was leaning against a pillar, yawning. The older one took out a dry biscuit from his sleeve, broke it in half, and handed it to him, saying in a low voice, "Eat yours, stop looking."