Chapter 96: Joy (End of Main Story)
Jiang Yu’s clothes were completely removed, and she lay on the bed, gasping for breath, her chest rising and falling slightly.
Shen Zhishu rolled off Jiang Yu and lay on her back on the bed, her mind hazy from lack of oxygen.
When she had recovered and realized what had just happened, there had been no sound for a long time.
She suddenly turned her head and saw Jiang Yu lying on her side, staring at her.
Their eyes met, and Jiang Yu was the first to speak, “General.”
“Hmm?” Shen Zhishu’s voice trailed off.
“Why isn’t the General speaking? Are you not going to acknowledge it after the kiss?”
Shen Zhishu narrowed her eyes, suddenly turned over, and lay face to face with Jiang Yu on her side.
“I have something I don’t understand…” She kissed Jiang Yu’s shoulder, and her moist breath sprayed on the side of that person’s neck.
Jiang Yu trembled from the heat, “What is it?”
“Your Highness… since you remembered the past so early, what were you thinking every time we met after that?”
Jiang Yu turned to her side and placed her leg on Shen Zhishu’s waist. She picked up a lock of Shen Zhishu’s black hair and played with it around her finger unhurriedly, as if she were thinking seriously, or as if she were a little careless.
After a long time, she finally said, “I was thinking about how to trick the General into coming home with me.”
“Hmm?”
“I admit that I am a bad and contradictory person,” Jiang Yu said very lightly and slowly. “I want to possess the General, but I don’t want the feelings of my previous life to affect the General’s choice in this life; I also want the General to confess to me first, so that the feelings will be more unforgettable to the General.”
Shen Zhishu gently caressed Jiang Yu’s waist, and as she listened, she felt that something was not right. She suddenly propped herself up and asked, “When did Your Highness start to like me?”
“I don’t know,” Jiang Yu tilted her head and looked at her. “It’s been too long, I can’t remember.”
“In your previous life?”
“It was in my previous life. But a high immortal cannot have feelings.”
Shen Zhishu swallowed and moved a little closer.
She said in a low voice, “So you’ve been plotting against me all along.”
“Mm,” Jiang Yu said softly. “Should I say I’m sorry?”
“No need,” Shen Zhishu said. “I’m happy to.”
As she spoke, she leaned in again and said with a light sigh, “It’s my fault for being too stupid and not seeing it,” and she lowered her head and kissed the person in front of her’s lips again.
The moonlight was like water, and the stars and moon were distant. The lost person had found her way back.
Shen Zhishu wrapped her arms around Jiang Yu’s waist, and in the boundless night, she fell into a hazy ecstasy with her.
**
Shen Zhishu got up early the next day and practiced swordsmanship in the courtyard for an hour.
Jiang Yu had gone to the Eldest Princess’s Manor early to prepare for the selection of a consort.
Actually, there was nothing to choose from, so Jiang Yu gave each of the comers a jade ruyi and a small golden Buddha, and then kept them for a simple meal.
At the dinner table, Jiang Yu and Shen Zhishu sat at the head, and everyone understood what this meant.
The hall was very large, and the people were noisy, but when you looked down from the high platform, you could see everything and everyone.
Shen Zhishu picked up a piece of winter bamboo shoot and put it in her mouth. Her peripheral vision saw Vice Minister Wen staring at her, so she put down her chopsticks and smiled at Vice Minister Wen.
Vice Minister Wen raised an eyebrow, cupped her fists, and mouthed the words: I’m impressed, I’m impressed.
Shen Zhishu waved her hand and said something to Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu was probably in a daze and did not hear clearly, so she asked, “What did the General say?”
“I said,” Shen Zhishu said. “The view from the high platform is really good. No wonder so many people want to be the Emperor.”
Jiang Yu glanced at her and replied, “That’s not difficult. Jiang Chu can pass the throne to me, and then I can give the chair to the General.”
“You want me to die,” Shen Zhishu said with a smile. “I am a Shen, and I’m sitting on your Jiang’s chair. It’s not right, and the civil and military officials will drown me with their saliva. I will go from being a great general who protects the country to a demon who brings disaster to the country.”
Jiang Yu thought for a moment and then said, “I know. You can be adopted by me now and change your surname to Jiang. I suppose the civil and military officials will not have any objections.”
Shen Zhishu raised an eyebrow and said, “Then I will become your daughter. How can there be a reason for a daughter to marry her mother in the world?”
Jiang Yu sighed, “This is not okay, and that is not okay. You are so hard to serve.”
Shen Zhishu: …
Shen Zhishu snorted, “It’s your birthday today, so I won’t argue with you. You just wait until after the Hour of the Rat.”
Jiang Yu was eager to try, “What will happen after the Hour of the Rat?”
Shen Zhishu: …Why do you look so expectant?
The matter of “what will happen after the Hour of the Rat” was acted out by Shen Zhishu herself. The battle was fierce, and in short, when Jiang Yu got up the next day, her face was even more wooden than usual.
Shen Zhishu was a little annoyed, “I didn’t hold back in the heat of the moment yesterday, I was a little too harsh.”
Jiang Yu did not answer, got out of bed with a blank expression, and suddenly staggered.
Shen Zhishu asked nervously, “How is it?”
“I’m alright,” Jiang Yu moved her muscles and bones and then casually formed a seal. “Alright.”
Shen Zhishu smiled, “This immortal technique is quite good.”
Jiang Yu was noncommittal and suddenly said, “It is good. Why don’t you also experience it tonight, General?”
Shen Zhishu: ??? Wait, what?
In the end, Jiang Yu did not get her wish, because the Emperor’s edict was sent to the manor that afternoon: tomorrow was an auspicious day, and Shen Zhishu and Jiang Yu were to be married, and the Ministry of Rites would handle it. The auspicious clothes were already prepared, and everything was ready. The two of them did not have to worry about a thing.
So the two of them were pulled up at the fifth watch to get dressed up. Shen Zhishu was yawning, and when she was washing her face, she almost fell into the basin.
Hongli teased, “Are you that sleepy? What did you do yesterday that you didn’t sleep?”
“I chatted with Her Highness all night,” Shen Zhishu waved her hand. “Don’t mention it. Where are Mother Shen and Mother He? Why haven’t I seen them?”
“I say the General is sleepy and confused,” Hongli smiled. “Madam Shen is the Minister of Rites, so she is naturally outside handling the ceremony at this moment. Of course she can’t come.”
“Then what about Mother He?”
Hongli blinked and stammered, “Mistress He is not yet up…”
“No one went to call her?”
“They did, I went to invite her personally,” Hongli’s voice became softer and softer. “Mistress He said, it’s not her who is getting married, why get up so early? Just call her when you are about to set off. Oh, but the aunts are waiting outside to see you. Shall I call them in?”
Shen Zhishu, who could hear eight hundred ducks quacking from afar: …
I really hope it’s my illusion.
**
Shen Zhishu and Jiang Yu had an equal marriage, so both the General’s Manor and the Eldest Princess’s Manor were decorated in a fiery red.
In an equal marriage, there was no saying who would move into whose house. Shen Zhishu and Jiang Yu had discussed and decided that they would sleep at the Eldest Princess’s Manor on their wedding night and then go back to the General’s Manor for a short stay the next day.
Shen Zhishu was wearing a bright red robe. She stepped over the red cloth-covered threshold of the Eldest Princess’s Manor, walked up the familiar covered walkway, and strode into the main hall.
Jiang Yu stood on the high platform, supported by Jiang Chu’s hand, and walked towards her step by step.
The gongs and drums outside were deafening, and the mirrors in the hall were hanging high.
This scene had only been seen in her dreams, and she had not expected it to become a reality today.
Shen Zhishu grabbed the hand that she had been thinking of for tens of thousands of years, paused, and said in a low voice, “I’ve got you.”
“Mm.”
“If Your Highness regrets it, this is your last chance. I will not let go in the future, and you will never be able to escape.”
What responded to her was Jiang Yu squeezing her hand in return, and their ten fingers were intertwined.
They watched as Shen Hantan and Jiang Chu sat at the head, and then they bowed to heaven and earth, and then to their elders.
New buds grew on the branches outside the window, and the north wind brought in a new breath of life.
They turned to face each other and bowed deeply—from then on, they would be fearless, and their years would be long.
-End of Main Story-
