A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 36

Chapter 36: Implication

Shen Zhishu thought to herself that this competitive mentality seemed a little skewed.

So she subconsciously refused, “I’m sick, has Your Highness forgotten? It wouldn’t be good to pass the illness to Your Highness.”

Jiang Yu sat quietly on the bed, and after a moment, she suddenly reached out and lowered the bed curtains.

Perhaps because of her insufficient qi and blood, that hand was so white it was almost transparent, without a single trace of dust.

So her body was blocked by the semi-transparent bed curtains, and only a faint outline could be seen.

…Why did she suddenly lower the bed curtains for no reason?

Thinking this, just as she was about to go up and ask, she saw the outline in the bed curtains gracefully… lie down.

Shen Zhishu: ???

Shen Zhishu hurriedly strode to the side of the bed and called out, “Your Highness?”

Her Highness was deaf.

“Jiang Yu?”

Jiang Yu was also deaf.

“…Huai’an?”

Huai’an finally reacted, frowning and looking over, meeting Shen Zhishu’s eyes through the bed curtains.

Shen Zhishu hurriedly asked, “Is Your Highness going to sleep now?”

“I’m sleepy,” Jiang Yu’s voice came through the bed curtains, sounding a little muffled. “The General should also rest early.”

“Your Highness can’t sleep now.”

“Why?”

“Your hair is not completely dry yet, be careful of a headache in the morning,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “You seemed quite energetic just now, why are you so sleepy now?”

Jiang Yu lay there straight and blinked, then suddenly answered irrelevantly:

“Did the General refuse me just now because you were really afraid of passing the illness to me, or because you didn’t want to share a bed with me, so you made an excuse?”

Shen Zhishu opened her mouth, about to answer, but the Eldest Princess continued on her own, “The General doesn’t need to say anything, I already know.”

“?” Shen Zhishu was completely bewildered and couldn’t help but lift the bed curtains and stick her head in, “How does Your Highness know? And what do you know?”

“The General has always been like this,” Jiang Yu said in a faint voice. “No matter what, there are always some grand reasons on your lips. For example, when we met at the Banquet Again Pavilion, you clearly came at Little Seven’s invitation, but you said you had an appointment for after-dinner tea with General Xie; on Chang Le Street, in order to avoid General Xie, you pulled me into a restaurant, and even though you had already had dinner, you opened your mouth and said you were hungry. Now, you clearly don’t want to agree to me, but you’re making the excuse of ‘afraid of passing the illness to me’.”

She paused and said softly, “I have already been honest with the General in everything. Is it so hard for the General to also tell me the truth?”

Shen Zhishu opened her mouth and was about to say, “What I said is indeed the truth,” but after meeting the Eldest Princess’s emotionally complex eyes, she swallowed her words back.

She lowered the bed curtains and watched as the outline of the person on the bed became blurry again, “But sometimes the truth hurts.”

“That’s still better than a sugar-coated bullet.”

“It’s not a sugar-coated bullet,” Shen Zhishu said. “Then let me ask Your Highness a question—why is Your Highness competing with Xie Jin?”

“When did I compete with her?”

“I said I would give her two punches, and Your Highness asked me to give you two punches as well; I said I had slept with her, and Your Highness asked me to sleep with you. If this isn’t competing, what is it?”

The Eldest Princess’s voice was indifferent, “It’s not competing. I just don’t want to be treated differently as your friend.”

Shen Zhishu said, “I’m not treating you differently. It’s just that I have to use different methods for different friends.”

“What’s the difference between her and me?”

“Then I’ll tell you the truth,” Shen Zhishu took a deep breath. “I once had a wonderful night with you, but not with her.”

Jiang Yu narrowed her eyes.

“So?” she asked.

“So…” Shen Zhishu said, “I will be a little more careful with you.”

Jiang Yu raised her eyebrows slightly, “How so?”

“I… will consider what can be said and what can’t be said, what can be done and what can’t be done.”

“Then what can be said, and what can be done?”

“Your Highness,” Shen Zhishu was choked for a moment, then smiled, “Do you have to get to the bottom of everything? I was thinking that the meaning of what I just said could be understood without being explicitly stated.”

Jiang Yu sat there with the blanket wrapped around her and suddenly stretched out a hand, lifting the bed curtains.

Half of her face became clear, while the other half was still hidden behind the silk bed curtains, looming.

Her gaze came over with the candlelight, and after a moment, she came to a conclusion in a faint voice, “So I am different from Xie Jin.”

Shen Zhishu said with clear enunciation, “Of course.”

“The things that the General has done with her, you may not necessarily do with me.”

“Mm.”

“Then…” Jiang Yu nodded slightly, “If General Xie invited you to share a bed with her at her manor, what would you do?”

Shen Zhishu thought to herself that she would naturally just lie down on the bed.

But then she thought again, it would be best to use Xie Jin as an example for Jiang Yu, so her lips touched, “Of course I would refuse.”

“Why?”

“To avoid suspicion,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “I’m afraid Xie Jin’s late wife would not be happy. Besides, there are so many empty rooms in her manor, why would I want to squeeze in with her?”

Jiang Yu said, “Oh.”

Shen Zhishu: “So does Your Highness understand?”

Jiang Yu nodded, “I understand.”

“Hmm? Why don’t you tell me?”

“The General does not sleep with General Xie, and in the General’s heart, I am different from General Xie—” Jiang Yu said with a blank expression, “So the General has to sleep with me.”

Shen Zhishu: …

I’m doomed, how can the logic be so impeccable?!

…It’s all Xie Jin’s fault!

**

In the end, Shen Zhishu still lay down on Jiang Yu’s bed.

She actually understood Jiang Yu quite well. After all, most people are a little more vulnerable when they are sick and need someone to accompany them.

Jiang Yu should belong to this “most people.”

Jiang Yu also lay there straight when she was lying down. To put it nicely, it was like a cedar tree. To put it not so nicely, it was like lying on a coffin board.

But Shen Zhishu slept with her limbs spread out. First, she turned from lying on her back to lying on her side, and then she rolled under the pillow.

The candlelight was not extinguished, and Jiang Yu’s long eyelashes were tinged with a faded color.

Generally speaking, once eyelashes are long, they tend to curl. But Jiang Yu’s didn’t.

Her eyelashes were as straight as newly grown pine needles.

Jiang Yu’s whole person was very straight and upright. On others, it would seem too rigid, but on her, it was just right.

It complemented that cool scent of cedar, and when she glanced over indifferently, it would make people feel that she would never be involved in any amorous feelings in her life.

Shen Zhishu’s gaze shifted from the pine needles down to Jiang Yu’s cherry-red lips. After a while, she asked softly, “Aren’t you tired?”

“Hmm?”

“Lying so straight, aren’t you tired?”

Shen Zhishu had originally thought she would hear the three words “I’m used to it” again, but unexpectedly, after a moment, the person beside her said, “I’m not tired. It’s very comfortable to lie like this.”

“It’s actually comfortable?” Shen Zhishu was a little surprised. “If I had to lie motionless like this for a whole night, my bones would be stiff.”

“Everyone’s habits are different,” Jiang Yu said. “The General is strong and has thick muscles. If you lie straight, your waist will be suspended, so you naturally won’t be able to fully relax. But my frame is small, so I like to lie on my back.”

Shen Zhishu said, “Oh.”

She seemed to have just realized that the Eldest Princess was really thin.

Jiang Yu’s bed, she was almost “touching the sky and the ground” when she lay on it. One person could take up more than half the space.

And Jiang Yu’s face was probably smaller than her palm…?

Thinking this, she suddenly stretched out her hand, opened her five fingers, and waved it in front of Jiang Yu.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Yu turned her head and asked.

“Let’s compare,” Shen Zhishu said. “Let’s see if my hand is bigger than your face.”

When Jiang Yu turned her head, her body was still lying flat and motionless, so that head rotated at a certain angle very smoothly, as if it were separated from her body.

This made Shen Zhishu feel a little amused.

So much so that she hadn’t even finished her sentence before she laughed out loud, her shoulders trembling, and the whole bed shook along with it.

And when you laugh too hard, it’s easy to cough, especially when the person in question is not yet recovered from a cold—

Shen Zhishu withdrew her hand, which was sticking out of the bedding, and suddenly sat up, turning her face away and coughing twice.

Once she started coughing, she couldn’t stop. She hurriedly turned over and got out of bed, but her wrist, with its blue veins, was grabbed.

“Where are you going?” Jiang Yu asked.

Shen Zhishu finally stopped coughing, her face as red as a tomato. She let out a breath, “Look at me coughing like this, what if I pass the illness to you? I’d better go to another room to sleep.”

Jiang Yu said nothing, and did not let go.

This Eldest Princess seemed to be inexplicably persistent in some aspects.

In the dim candlelight, they were in a silent and motionless stalemate.

—This made Shen Zhishu suddenly think of that snowy night again.

She was sitting on horseback, also looking down from a high place, at the person below’s pursed lips and straight corners of her eyes and brows.

But her state of mind at that time was completely different from now.

Shen Zhishu softened her tone a little, “Your Highness won’t let me go?”

Jiang Yu was silent for a moment and did not say it explicitly, but said tactfully, “I’m not afraid of you passing the illness to me.”

“You’re joking,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “You say you’re not afraid now, but if you really catch a cold in the morning, I’ll be a great sinner.”

Jiang Yu sat there for a while, let go of her hand, and said, “Then you can sleep far away from me, with your back to me.”

Shen Zhishu shook her head, “No, there’s still a risk of passing the illness. Let me ask you again, why do you have to have me sleep with you? Just because Xie Jin once shared a bed with me?”

Jiang Yu’s gaze shifted to Shen Zhishu’s shadow, which was cast on the bed curtains, and then to the flickering flame.

Shen Zhishu stood there quietly. After a long time, she heard the person on the bed say, “I have also fainted before.”

“Mm. And then?”

“And then when I woke up, I found that there was another person beside me.”

“Who?”

“It was Jiang Chu,” Jiang Yu said. “Her eyes were dark, I don’t know if she had just come over after marking memorials, or if she had been watching over me all night.”

Shen Zhishu listened and suddenly had a “so that’s how it is” feeling.

Jiang Yu continued in a faint voice, “I wanted to get out of bed lightly, but my movements woke her up. Jiang Chu turned her head and glanced at me, then raised her hand and pulled me into her arms.”

“So from then on, every time I go to sleep, I worry that there will be another person in the bed when I open my eyes.”

“Especially today, when I also fainted, the scene overlapped with the old days, and it seemed as if time had gone back to that day.”

Another red candle in the flickering light went out.

Jiang Yu tucked the stray hair from the side of her face behind her ear, raised her face, and her clear and light voice sounded along with the sound of the candle wick bursting:

“The General can rest here for one night and let me have a peaceful sleep, alright?”