A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 62

Chapter 62: Heartbeat

Shen Zhishu stood in the sunlight, was silent for a few breaths, and turned her head to look at Jiang Yu:

“Your Highness seems to be tireless in making such jokes.”

Jiang Yu was noncommittal and said in a faint voice, “To liven up the atmosphere.”

“So this is a joke, not what Your Highness really means?”

“The difference between a joke and the truth is not that big. It all depends on whether the General is willing. I will not force others.”

Shen Zhishu gave her a deep look and turned her gaze to the intertwined branches in the courtyard.

The afternoon sunlight slid over the empty branches, leaking a few spots of light of different shades onto the snow.

…Is there not much difference?

This sentence clearly shouldn’t appear between friends. Even if it was really just a joke, it would always seem a little out of place and abrupt.

Shen Zhishu was quiet for a while and said in a deep voice, “If it’s a joke… Your Highness should be clear about what jokes can be made and what jokes can’t be made.”

“Hmm? I’m not very clear,” Jiang Yu looked directly into her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me, General, what can be said and what can’t be said?”

“For example, this kind of joke that is related to romance can’t be made,” Shen Zhishu paused and added. “At least it shouldn’t be made with me. It will give me some very absurd illusions.”

“What illusion?”

“For example… Your Highness wants to be in a relationship with me.”

Jiang Yu narrowed her eyes very lightly, and the sunlight pouring down from the clouds cast a faint warm color on the surface of her eyes.

She looked at Shen Zhishu quietly, her chest rising and falling shallowly with her breathing, but she did not speak.

After a long time, she looked away and shook her head, “The General has misunderstood.”

“It’s your words that are easy to misunderstand,” Shen Zhishu said. “So Your Highness, please think carefully before you say these words in the future. I know that Your Highness has no such intention, and you keep asking me to help you just because I can bring you a moment of pleasure. Your Highness can tell me directly that you want me to help you relieve your desire, and I will not make any more deeper interpretations. I will just treat it as mutual help between friends, but Your Highness…”

She took a breath and continued, “If Your Highness has no clear intention, it’s better not to make such jokes in the future.”

Jiang Yu lowered her head, her gaze on an unknown place. She stood silently in the snow, almost merging with the environment.

After a cup of tea’s time, Shen Zhishu heard her say, “Oh.”

Her face was half-buried in the fur collar of her cloak, so her voice was a little muffled.

This would make people start to wonder—was she unhappy?

Shen Zhishu couldn’t help but raise her hand and touch her forehead, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Jiang Yu shook her head and raised her face. “I know, I’ll be careful in the future.”

She was still as expressionless as ever, but Shen Zhishu inexplicably saw some emotion that was not very happy.

Perhaps it was because the usually straight corners of her eyebrows and eyes were slightly drooping.

Shen Zhishu looked down for a while and said with a light laugh, “What, are you unhappy?”

Jiang Yu said, “Mm.”

“Why?”

“I won’t tell you.”

Shen Zhishu raised half an eyebrow, “Let me guess… is it because I won’t let Your Highness make such jokes, so Your Highness feels a little constrained?”

Jiang Yu still said, “I won’t tell you.”

“Alright,” Shen Zhishu sighed with feigned annoyance. “Then I can’t comfort Your Highness.”

“It’s alright,” Jiang Yu said calmly. “If the General comes to my manor tonight to help me, it will be more effective than any verbal comfort.”

Shen Zhishu frowned impassively, “Is Your Highness joking again?”

“No,” Jiang Yu said. “This is the truth.”

Shen Zhishu: …

Shen Zhishu said matter-of-factly, “Your Highness has only been indulgent for a few days, and the old imperial physician has also instructed Your Highness to rest quietly. This subordinate is afraid that Your Highness will overindulge.”

“The emperors of all dynasties have entered and left the harem every day, and nothing has happened.”

Shen Zhishu shook her head, “But Your Highness is different from them.”

“Hmm? Where is the difference?”

Shen Zhishu took a step forward, her voice low and soft, “This subordinate serves Your Highness with great care, so Your Highness will reach the peak several times a night. If you linger in bed every day, I’m afraid it won’t be good.”

Jiang Yu took a deep breath, and after a moment, she said in a faint voice, “The General just told me that romance jokes are not to be made. Then what was that last sentence?”

“That’s not a joke, it’s a fact,” Shen Zhishu said seriously. “Your Highness can think back carefully, is there anything wrong with what I said? Isn’t it three or four times a night?”

Jiang Yu casually threw the snowman that she had been holding in her palm into the grass, glanced at Shen Zhishu, and her gaze slid from the corners of her eyes to the snow on the ground, “The General always has so many reasons.”

“It’s for Your Highness’s own good.”

“Then tell me, General, when will you be willing to help me again?”

“Five days,” Shen Zhishu thought for a moment and smiled. “In five days, alright? At that time, I will do whatever Your Highness says.”

“Then what should I do for these five days?”

“It’s the same as before,” Shen Zhishu said. “Eat normally and sleep normally.”

Jiang Yu nodded, “The General and I have slept together for the past few days, so I suppose sharing a bed is already normal. Then… I will come to find the General every night for these few days. The General must not turn me away.”

Shen Zhishu: …Hey, wait, how did it become normal?

Shen Zhishu said hurriedly, “Didn’t I say before? Your Highness’s scent is strong, and it’s easy for me to not be able to sleep when I share a bed with Your Highness.”

“I saw that the General slept quite soundly yesterday,” Jiang Yu said in a faint voice. “It’s alright, I’m very good at telling stories. It’s not a problem to lull the General to sleep.”

Shen Zhishu: …

“If the General doesn’t speak, then it’s agreed,” Jiang Yu pulled her cloak tighter and gracefully started to walk out of the garden. “Then it’s settled, I’ll come to the General’s Manor at night. I’ll go home first now. I have some things to deal with at home, so I can’t accompany you.”

Shen Zhishu opened her mouth, and her mind was thinking of struggling a little more, but what came out was, “What is it?”

“What? Is the General reluctant to let me go?” Jiang Yu’s voice had no fluctuation. “I heard that Lord Wen Zhizhong sent a letter of introduction a few days ago, saying that he wanted to come to my manor for a look, and I accepted. It should be about time for her to arrive.”

“Vice Minister Wen?”

“Yes.”

“What is she here for?”

“I don’t know. I’ll know when she comes,” Jiang Yu said. “It’s getting late, so I won’t chat anymore. The General can rest first, there’s no need to see me off.”

Shen Zhishu raised an eyebrow, smiled and waved at Jiang Yu, and said, “See you tonight.”

Watching that person’s receding back, she paused, stretched out her arm, and pulled over an attendant, frowning and asking, “Is Wen Zhizhong the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works?”

“Yes,” the attendant replied respectfully. “Is she here to report on the progress of the Martial Hall’s renovation?”

“Hiss, it doesn’t matter what she’s here for… I haven’t heard of her having any dealings with Huai’an before.”

“There should have been no dealings before,” that attendant said. “Your Highness just said that Vice Minister Wen ‘sent a letter of introduction,’ so I suppose it’s her first time at Her Highness Huai’an’s manor.”

Shen Zhishu nodded thoughtfully and changed the subject, “But I remember… Vice Minister Wen is young and promising, and she is also in her early twenties this year?”

“Yes,” the attendant said. “And she is handsome and graceful, but she has not yet been married. The matchmakers have almost broken the threshold of the Wen Residence.”

“…” Shen Zhishu was choked by her saliva and coughed until her face was red. After being patted on the back by the attendant for several times, she finally caught her breath and turned to ask, “Why are you saying this? I didn’t ask.”

“I thought the General would want to hear it,” the attendant said with a hehe smile. “But don’t worry, General. In my eyes, no matter how good Vice Minister Wen is, she is not as good as the General. I suppose it’s the same in Her Highness Huai’an’s heart.”

Shen Zhishu: …?

Shen Zhishu asked her with some amusement, “Why are you comparing me with Vice Minister Wen? She is a civil official and I am a military officer, what’s there to compare? Besides, I can’t control what Huai’an thinks in her heart. It’s enough for me to have a clear conscience.”

That attendant nodded like a garlic pounder, “The General is right!”

So the clear-conscienced Shen Zhishu practiced swordsmanship in the courtyard for the whole afternoon, had dinner and took a bath, and sat in her room until the first watch, but she did not see a certain person who had said “I will share a bed with the General tonight” come to knock on the door.

Shen Zhishu thought to herself that something must have happened to Jiang Yu. She was startled and hurriedly sent an attendant to the Eldest Princess’s Manor to inquire and pick her up.

But she did not pick her up, but brought back a message—

Jiang Yu and Wen Zhizhong were having a great chat, and she would be over in half an hour.

Shen Zhishu: ???

Shen Zhishu was a little unhappy.

The one who had said “I only have one friend, the General” and “I want to share a bed with the General” was Jiang Yu, and now the one who was too happy chatting with others and had forgotten her was also Jiang Yu.

The possessiveness between friends is nothing more than this, she thought. She had learned it from Xie Jin before, and now she couldn’t escape it with Jiang Yu.

She had probably really treated Jiang Yu—this person she had only known for half a month—as a close friend.

But this possessiveness was actually quite unreasonable: she already had two friends, Xie Jin and Jiang Yu, so on what grounds could she ask Jiang Yu to only be close to her?

Shen Zhishu paced back and forth in her room, not knowing whether to go to Jiang Yu’s manor. By the time she had finally made up her mind and grabbed her outer robe, preparing to go out, the sound of knocking on the door had already sounded.

Shen Zhishu frowned and turned to ask her attendant, “What time is it now?”

“It’s a quarter past the Hour of the Dog,” the attendant said. “It’s not late. There’s still almost an hour before Her Highness Huai’an usually goes to sleep.”

…I know it’s not late, Shen Zhishu thought.

What I care about is that I actually hesitated for half an hour over “whether to go to the Princess’s Mansion myself to pick up Jiang Yu.”

Her own shadow was reflected on the wooden door beside her. Shen Zhishu turned her head to look and suddenly let out a low sneer.

Shen Zhishu, oh Shen Zhishu, this is not your character, she said to herself.

Having grown up surrounded by the love of her parents and aunts, you have always done whatever you wanted, and you have always acted first and thought later. When did you become so timid?

So what are you conflicted about? Are you afraid that it would be too abrupt to go to her door in a hurry? Are you afraid that you will be unhappy to see your good friend chatting happily with someone else who is irrelevant? Are you afraid that you will be too enthusiastic and lose a little face? Or is it something else?

Shen Zhishu stood under the eaves. Looking up, she saw Jiang Yu, supported by a maid’s hand, making her way around the long corridor over the pond. The tassels on her white jade hairpin shimmered faintly in the lantern light.

Suddenly, as if she had a feeling, that person turned her head slightly and suddenly met her gaze.

Their gazes met from afar in the lights.

On the frozen pond, Jiang Yu’s face was outlined in a warm circle by the candlelight, bright and lively, like a wild cat chasing its tail under a tree in summer.

Shen Zhishu’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.

It’s probably a telepathic connection between friends, she thought.

Because she saw that the moment her heartbeat went out of order, that person also really paused.