Chapter 56: Sincerity
Shen Hantan and Mistress He left, looking back every three steps. As they left, they grabbed Jiang Yu’s hand and said with genuine emotion, “We’ll entrust this child to you.”
Jiang Yu nodded slightly, “Aunt, don’t worry, I will definitely supervise Youzhi well.”
Shen Zhishu: …Why do you say it as if I’m a three-year-old child?
Shen Zhishu unceremoniously “shooed” her two mothers out of the manor gate, and then planned to repay kindness with enmity and “drive away” a certain good friend who had just done her a great favor—
She seriously suspected that if Jiang Yu stayed, the two of them would end up sleeping in the same bed no matter what.
It was Jiang Yu’s first time at the General’s Manor, but she was as familiar with it as if it were her own home. She found her way to the study and ran her hand over the books on the shelf.
Shen Zhishu lifted the curtain and stood at the door, watching silently for a while, then she walked in.
She was just about to say something to politely send her guest away when she heard Jiang Yu’s indifferent voice before she could speak:
“Does the General usually read the ‘Biography of Zhou Wen’? Its language is extremely obscure. I didn’t expect the General to have the patience for it.”
“I don’t.”
“Then the one on the shelf—”
“Your sister gave it to me,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “When I returned to the capital and entered the manor, this whole shelf of books was already here. I’ve never opened this one. Your Highness can take a look, it’s brand new.”
Jiang Yu nodded slightly, took it from the shelf, lowered her head, and seriously looked at the words on it.
She did not sit on a chair, but stood tall and jade-like by the shelf, holding the thick book in one hand and lightly flipping the pages with the other.
“How is it, is it brand new?” Shen Zhishu asked.
“It is so,” Jiang Yu said. “It’s much newer than the one in my manor.”
“Does Your Highness also have this book in your manor?”
“Mm,” Jiang Yu closed the book and raised her head, “Jiang Chu also gave it to me. There are many things in the General’s Manor that I also have, all gifts from Jiang Chu. And she is always like this, the things she gives to others are all things she loves, but she never considers the other person’s preferences.”
Shen Zhishu sat down on a chair by the side, nodded, and casually said a very blunt sentence to send her guest away, “Since you’ve mentioned your manor… shouldn’t Your Highness be going back?”
“Isn’t the General’s words a little too blunt?” Jiang Yu raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. “You’ve already tidied up the bed next door, why are you still not letting me stay?”
“It was originally tidied up…” Shen Zhishu changed the subject. “But the attendant was clumsy and accidentally spilled water on the bedding. There’s only one new set of bedding in the manor, and there are no more.”
“General—” Jiang Yu narrowed her eyes. “I helped the General get rid of Minister Shen and Mistress He’s matchmaking, why are you so righteously driving me away?”
Because if I sleep in the same bed with you, I’m afraid I really won’t be able to sleep.
Thinking this, Shen Zhishu answered irrelevantly, “Then why does Your Highness insist on staying at the General’s Manor?”
Jiang Yu raised her face to look at her, then turned to look at the hazy shadow of the lamp outside the window paper.
She seemed to be thinking about this for the first time. After a full two cups of tea’s time, she finally gave a faint answer, “Being with the General will calm my mind, and sharing a bed with the General will make me sleep especially soundly. Perhaps it’s because the General is a witness to my break with the past, and from then on, I will no longer be afraid when I wake up from a nightmare. But—”
She changed the subject, “If the General is really unwilling for me to stay, I can’t force you. After all, the General has done me a great favor, and what I did for the General today is really nothing. Then General… the General should rest early. I’m going back to my manor.”
It was unclear whether it was because she was bowing her head, but her voice was a little muffled, coming through the fur collar.
The slender white fingers that were holding the book were slightly tensed, and the fingertips were tinged with a faint red.
Shen Zhishu had a real headache.
She had always been soft-hearted and not hard-hearted. The first time she had met Jiang Yu, who had been “drugged,” on the long street, this character trait had already begun to show.
After that, every time Jiang Yu showed an attitude of “although I really want it, but if you’re really unwilling, then forget it,” she would always agree to some absurd requests as if possessed.
For example, at this moment, Jiang Yu’s back was still very straight, as straight as a fearless and upright cedar tree.
But the cedar tree’s head was bowed, which made her already small body seem even thinner.
—It would make her start to blame herself: how could she bear to refuse such a small cedar tree?
Seeing that she did not answer, the cedar tree put down the book, pulled her sleeves tighter, and unhurriedly stepped out.
Shen Zhishu sighed and suddenly reached out, grabbing Jiang Yu’s arm.
Forget it, she thought.
Jiang Yu has done me such a great favor tonight. I should just go along with her and not repay kindness with enmity.
Jiang Yu slowly raised her eyes, glanced at Shen Zhishu, and her crow-black eyelashes cast a long and faint shadow under the slanting light of the candlelight.
She seemed to be puzzled, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Zhishu released her hand and smiled, “I suddenly remembered that there is another new set of bedding in the manor. I’ll have someone make the bed right away. Your Highness can rest here today, so as not to be late for sleep after returning late.”
But Jiang Yu suddenly refused.
She stared at Shen Zhishu faintly and lightly. After about a cup of tea’s time, she said in a faint voice, “I have a question for the General.”
“Hmm?”
“Since the General is unwilling for me to stay, why did you suddenly change your mind just now?”
…What did she mean by that?
Shen Zhishu frowned impassively, “It is normal for a person’s heart to change in an instant. It is common to go east one second and west the next. I don’t understand what Your Highness means by asking this question.”
“So does the General want me to stay?”
“This… didn’t I just have someone tidy up the bed for Your Highness? If I didn’t like Your Highness staying, I would never have done this.”
“So the General is not forcing yourself?”
Shen Zhishu said firmly, “Of course not.”
Jiang Yu blinked very lightly in the candlelight, suddenly lowered her head, and sighed.
“Shen Zhishu,” she called out with a blank expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“The General knows that I have already been completely open with you,” Jiang Yu said. “But the General always loves to tell me some lies, and you call them white lies.”
Before Shen Zhishu could answer, she said very quickly, “For example, the General actually doesn’t want me to stay. I know that the General is afraid that if I end up sharing a bed with you, you won’t be able to sleep—although I don’t know why the General won’t be able to sleep—so I don’t want to force the General. But the General suddenly agreed. Since you can agree now, why couldn’t you agree before? So the General is clearly forcing yourself because you don’t want me to be sad.”
“It doesn’t matter if the General refuses me. Even if we are close friends, we don’t have to help each other in everything. But the General always keeps your thoughts to yourself. You are clearly unwilling, but you pretend to be indifferent. I was thinking that the General actually doesn’t treat me as a real friend.”
This string of words flowed out of Jiang Yu’s mouth like a spring, and Shen Zhishu couldn’t get a word in at all. By the time she had desperately searched for words in her mind to reply, Jiang Yu had already spoken again:
“Take General Xie for example. When General Xie invited you to her manor for tea, you directly said no. When I invited you to my manor, you had to find some grand reasons.”
Shen Zhishu narrowed her eyes and walked to the side of the candlelight, “There is no reason in the world to be clear about everything. I say whatever I want to Xie Jin because she will not be sad because of my refusal. But what about Your Highness? If I directly refuse Your Highness…”
“It’s better than refusing me in a roundabout way,” Jiang Yu interrupted her in a faint voice.
Shen Zhishu suddenly smiled, it was unclear whether it was out of anger or because she found it absurd, “So I’m wrong for caring about your feelings?”
Jiang Yu’s voice was still without a ripple, “If the General is not wrong, then I am wrong. Shouldn’t friends be honest with each other?”
“What a ‘be honest with each other’,” Shen Zhishu said. “Then I’ll tell you the truth. I just don’t want you to stay. I can’t sleep with you. Because we are not that familiar. At least I am not completely familiar with Your Highness. Your Highness’s presence is still too strong for me, and I can’t get rid of it in a short time.”
After the last word fell, the room was a little too quiet. The sound of the wind came in from outside, and the sparrows, which would occasionally chirp three or five times on a normal day, were nowhere to be seen.
It was so quiet that it made Shen Zhishu stop thinking. So it was not until a cup of tea’s time later that she suddenly came back to her senses and realized that she had said something wrong.
Shen Zhishu was stunned for a moment and said in a flustered voice, “Your Highness, that’s not what I meant…”
“It’s alright,” Jiang Yu said. “Only now do I know that in the General’s heart, we are not familiar, and the General has never treated me as a friend from beginning to end. These past few days of harmonious getting along were all my wishful thinking.”
“That’s not it…”
“Then please explain, General, what do you mean by ‘not that familiar’?”
…If she didn’t explain clearly, she would probably lose this friend.
Shen Zhishu closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and said harshly, “Does Your Highness know that you have a strange fragrance on you?”
“Hmm?” Jiang Yu was surprised. “I don’t know, no one has ever mentioned it to me.”
“I was originally thinking of asking Your Highness what kind of purse you use, but then I found that this fragrance is not from the purse,” Shen Zhishu took a breath. “To make a long story short, it reminds me of the cedar forest in the northwest.”
“Is that so?”
“It is so. So… Your Highness, what I mean by ‘not familiar’ is that I am not used to the scent of cedar. When I sleep in the same bed with Your Highness, smelling this other scent in the bedding that does not belong to me, I can’t sleep.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely true,” Shen Zhishu said. “I am now completely open with Your Highness. If Your Highness doesn’t believe me, I have no other way.”
She lowered her eyes and looked at Jiang Yu. The flickering flame dyed her pupils a chestnut color, and the emotions contained in them were open and honest, laid bare in front of the other person.
This was the first time she had spoken so honestly, she thought.
And the feeling of telling the truth was not as bad as she had originally thought.
When the words came out, her body felt significantly lighter, and along with it came an indescribable sense of relief, as if the thin ice that was on the verge of cracking had finally melted, and a spring stream was sliding down from the top of the mountain.
Shen Zhishu blinked and watched as Jiang Yu picked up the brush on the table and then put it down.
…Was this Eldest Princess at a loss?
It couldn’t be. She had always been calm, and she had never seen her flustered.
Jiang Yu slowly exhaled, “So the General does not have a rift with me, but is resistant to the scent on my body.”
“It’s not resistance, it’s just…” Shen Zhishu paused and said, “I’m not used to it.”
“If you’re not used to it, you can just get used to it,” Jiang Yu said. “That’s not difficult. I have a way here. Does the General want to hear it?”
“Oh? What way?”
“Let me confirm first…” Jiang Yu asked in a faint voice. “The General does treat me as a friend and is willing to become a close friend with me, right?”
Shen Zhishu’s internal alarm bells went off, and she nodded mechanically. She then saw Jiang Yu’s cherry lips part slightly and she gently uttered a few words:
“The General can just experience it more, and it will be fine.”
